By Divine Right is dead. Long live By Divine Right.
That's about the most fitting proclamation one can make for a band which has been reborn as many times as Jose Contreras' loftily named Toronto combo has been.
By Divine Right's new album, Good Morning Beautiful, finds the band -- or Contreras, at least -- back from the brink of break-up.
But listening to the 31-year-old singer-guitarist talk about it over sushi recently, there's a sense that, as the group's principal songwriter and only constant member since its inception over a decade ago, he feels BDR has a life of its own.
"There isn't a song that sums up By Divine Right," muses Contreras, whose group launches Good Morning Beautiful at the Church at Berkeley tonight.
"And, it's a horrible thing to say and I don't want to do a disservice to the people who've played in this band, but it's never been about who's in the band."
Those may be cutting words for BDR's numerous alumni, particularly co-founding drummer Mark Goldstein, who left the fold amid the upheaval that followed the band's 1999 album, Bless This Mess. But it's in keeping with Contreras' contention that there are bigger forces at work.
Starting as an after-school laugh in 1989, BDR were a flickering presence on the local live scene by the mid-'90s, morphing into a gloriously bright-eyed and original power-pop trio in time for 1997's indie breakthrough album, All Hail Discordia.
A subsequent deal with Vancouver's Nettwerk Records wasn't exactly a match made in heaven for the wayfaring BDR -- who around the time had picked up a fourth member, guitarist Leslie Feist. Despite a MuchMusic mini-hit with the video for Come For A Ride and a high-profile tour opening for The Tragically Hip, Contreras dismisses the album as lacklustre.
"The band really eroded," he says. "Our personal lives fell apart on that tour. We were in a fortunate position because we were being driven to shows and had people carrying our gear and all that stuff we'd never had before. But that can also be a very confusing time for a band."
Even as BDR collapsed around him, the singer sensed a new album emerging in the discord.
"I had to really embrace the flake, y'know?" says Contreras, never at a loss for offbeat self-expression. "What would become Good Morning Beautiful was writing itself. I poured myself into the music."
He gradually assembled a new band and spent most of 2000 recording at the London, Ont., home of producer Andy Magoffin.
"Two weeks turned into months and months where I lived on his sofa," Contreras says, laughing. "I think Andy got a little sick of it after a while. But he helped me save that record."
The final results traverse '97-era BDR, slick radio-ready rock, whacked-out boogie and pop psychedelia.
Following a limited independent release last spring, he reached a deal with Toronto label Linus Entertainment.
"The structure of the songs is pretty straight forward. But the truth is, the record's pretty experimental."
He adds: "It's just another step. I always feel like I'm getting closer. Most of these songs happened by mistake. They're all ... channeled."
