With a guardian angel in Gord Downie, some God-given talent and only a little sinful guitar fuzz, Toronto rockers By Divine Right are heaven bound.
The group is currently within grasp of its elusive golden ring, an opportunity provided by a record deal with Vancouver-based Nettwerk and an opening slot on the Tragically Hip tour -- which hits Ottawa Sunday and Monday and will introduce them to nearly half a million fellow Canadians.
After hearing their first album, 1997's All Hail Discordia (a reference to the '70s conspiratorial cult classic The Illuminatus Trilogy), Hip leader Gord Downie invited the band to open for them at a club gig in Kingston.
"Any other band like us would just get eaten alive because we're not a big heavy band. But we play real songs, you know," says BDR singer Jose Contreras. "For some crazy reason, the audience got really into it which is pretty cool for a totally way-out rock band."
The combo worked so well Downie invited them on tour for the Hip's biggest cross-Canada adventure ever. And for some crazy reason, the notoriously rowdy Hip crowds continue to get into it.
"For sure these are audiences that are pumped to see the Hip. But we're blessed. At first they react tentatively because they don't know who we are, but it always ends up being a really good vibe because that's what we put out. You get what you give."
But Downie has helped in other ways too. He offered BDR their Bathhouse studio to record a follow-up album, Bless This Mess.
The album was recorded in five weeks at the Bathhouse, as well as in Contreras' basement, his dad's house in the Toronto suburb Thornhill and at his mom's cottage.
Due out in a couple weeks, Bless This Mess features yet another new lineup for the band. But then again, BDR are not entirely sure what you mean by "band".
"My band is, um, I don't really have a band. I have lots of friends and we have a little mutant family. We seem to always find people to play with. Then they move on and work on their own thing and sometimes come back," Contreras explains.
"Before we had a lineup and that wasn't so good. I feel like this way we keep focus on exactly what we're doing. Before I couldn't get my vision across, there were too many ego battles going on."
Currently, the touring version of By Divine Right is made up of original drummer Mark Goldstein (the only one other then Contreras who can rightly claim member status), Brendan Canning (also with hHead and Hayden) and Leslie Fiest (also with Placebo and Noah's Arkweld).
The album also featured Brenndan McGuire of Superfriendz and Jale fame. In other words, BDR is a rotating Can-rock supergroup.
"If the band doesn't really exist then the process becomes the band and the process changes all the time," says Contreras somewhat mystically. "As long as the circle is complete and the vibe is complete, then it's still By Divine Right."
