Interview with Bend Sinister: ‘It’s really a mélange of four personalities and tastes, singing, creating, and sprinkling all of our different spices into a song’

Vancouver-based rock band Bend Sinister will release their next two singles ‘What It Takes’ and ‘Leave The Light On’ on 8 September, with a new album due out next year.

The band comprises Dan Moxon (keys/lead vocals), Matt Rhode (bass /back up vocals), Joseph Blood (guitar /back up vocals) and Dicky Neptune (drums /back up vocals): ‘Dan has had this band since college but it was a whole different line up,’ Rhode said. ‘Joseph has been our guitar player since 2009, I’ve been in the band since 2011 and our drummer Nick since 2015.’ Their band name was taken from the Nabokov novel of the same name: ‘A former guitar player was a novelist, it was his idea,’ Rhode said. ‘When people hear it, they think we’re a metal band, it’s the “sinister”!’

Last month (July), they released two singles ‘Price You Pay’ and ‘Hot City’. ‘Price You Pay’ is a huge rollercoaster of a song, with echoes of Elton John, Queen and Billy Joel, with so many layers and different parts in it that it’s hard to unpick and you have no idea where it’s going next. It’s got an incredibly anthemic, uplifting piano line that underpins the whole track: ‘It’s rock ‘n’ roll, pure and simple,’ Rhode said. ‘It’s a highway song. The highway is our home, we wanna cruise to our songs! It’s a song about us going on tour, a song about the life we lead. Being on the stage is the best, it’s our life blood, we don’t phone it in. You always get our best. It’s our homage to The Doobie Brothers’ ‘China Groove’. Dan, our singer, brought in the piano part, with the lyrics “time stands still”, but I said Rush might sue us! The “da da da’s” in the middle section is the influence of bands like Yes and the prog world. It’s really a mélange of four personalities and tastes, singing, creating, and sprinkling all of our different spices into a song.’

As ‘Price You Pay’ kicks off: “Pack up the shit and get into the van. It’s time that we get out on the road again. The gas ain’t cheap but the drinks are free. Pull over for a burger in grand prairie.”

And they like to surprise us along the way: ‘We’re from Vancouver – well, I’m from Saskatchewan originally – so when it comes to the lyrics, I always try to put Easter Eggs in the song,’ Rhode said. ‘Here, there are references to lots of places in it, including Golden, which we’ve played more than anywhere else. We sneak the word “golden” into some of our other songs. From Golden to Toronto, we’ve done that drive. We mention Chicago – I love a deep crust pizza (laughs), and El Paso. We had to giggle driving in Europe, in three and a half hours, you can be in a different country, that’s the easiest drive for us. The longest drive I did in the van was 75 hours from Florida to Vancouver!’

‘You know those guys wearing cowboy boots and playing banjos but they’ve never been on a farm or milked a cow’

Of the upcoming album, Rhode says: ‘You’ll hear everything on it from Wings to Cars, ‘Jessie’s Girl’ and The Doobie Brothers.’ Their upcoming singles ‘What It Takes’ and ‘Leave The Light On’ sound equally eclectic: ”Leave The Light On’ is a summery, fun song. It has one of my favourite bass lines, it’s very Paul McCartney. I love the tone I got out of a ’67 Höfner bass, the bounciness, note selection and cadence. ‘Leave The Lights On’, is about leaving the light on, to show your loved one you are home. It’s more lighthearted, like Chilliwhack (a Canadian rock band), it’s dancey and bouncy.’

He describes ‘What It Takes’ as ‘a badass song’: ‘It has more of a flavour of 70’s rock ‘n’ roll, riffy Deep Purple vibes, with a modern twist.,’ he said. ‘It’s about posers. It has the line: “So you wanna be a cowboy, make your momma proud”, which is about hipsters, you know, those guys wearing cowboy boots and playing banjos but they’ve never been on a farm or milked a cow (laughs). I mean, I get the joke, I didn’t kill this racoon hat I’m wearing (he’s joking, it’s faux fur, it’s the same hat he’s wearing in the photo). We’re saying in the song that we knew it all along.’

Their recent single ‘Hot City’ is the ultimate party song, with a similar kind of energy and driving piano line to ‘Price You Pay’, making you want to go out on the town: ”Hot City’ is a song about going out, getting your pals, having some drinks, and living like there’s no tomorrow out on the town,’ he said.

‘Rock ‘n’ roll and fun always show up in our songs, whatever the era‘

He says that being in a band has changed massively over the past 20 years: ‘I’ve been on tour since I was 15,’ he said. ‘What’s changed is that I’m allowed to drink in the bar now! Back then, I was only allowed in to play, then they kicked me out (laughs). Cell phones now make it so much easier, I used to tour when you’d use a paper map and get lost. This last tour was really easy, I plugged in my headphones and watched three romcoms in a row, giggling to myself in the back (laughs).’

His own introduction to music has a sweet backstory: ‘My mom will tell you a story: we had a hippo crappy keyboard and I would request La Bamba on the radio. My dad had an old Yamaha guitar, he played in a band. He loves country. I played the trumpet in school but I was like “I wish this was a guitar” (laughs), so my dad got me a righty but I’m a lefty, I learned it right handed, I didn’t want him to return the guitar, so I figured it out! I couldn’t play the guitar in the band in school but I could play bass, so I bought a red Yamaha from my paper route. As a kid, I jammed at Buds on Broadway, there was a house band but an open mic where anyone could play. I met a lot of good music friends that I still have to this day.’

Despite their rock ‘n’ roll leanings, they delve into other styles as well. Some tracks have more of an old school feel, notably ‘Got You On My Mind’, which opens with a soul beat and Moxon channeling his best Motown spirit. It’s tappy and infectious and shows what else Moxon is capable of: ‘It’s in our set right now,’ Rhode said enthusiastically. ‘It’s our homage to Hall & Oates. We listen to everything, that song was also driven by Supertramp. Rock ‘n’ roll and fun always show up in our songs, whatever the era.’ I ask what the cool guitar pedal is around two minutes in: ‘It just sounds like a doubled guitar with a bit of grit on it,’ he said. ‘You’ll hear Deep Purple on our old stuff. For us, it’s about being in the moment. Whatever floats our boat, we write it. We’re still the guys loading the vans and driving the miles, we want to enjoy what we play.’

However, he admits that songwriting with four very different personalities brings its own challenges: ‘Writing with four people with very different influences is always a challenge, with some tension added, but that’s what makes it great, we all want what’s best for the song and thrive to push ourselves to get there,’ he said. ‘I listen to hip hop and it bled into a track or two but Dan listens to this or Joseph listens to this and that etc., and it bleeds into the songs. That’s what’s beautiful about being inspired by music in general. You collect your influences as you go, don’t you?’

‘We come in guns blazing, we want to push each other for the songs’

You do and, in their case, those influences are sizeable. Rhode cites Queen, ELO, Hall & Oates and Supertramp as being some of their biggest collective influences: ‘We listen to so much music, our guitar player is at a record company,’ he said. ‘I listen to what 13 year old girls listen to (laughs). Each other are our biggest influences, we come in guns blazing, we want to push each other for the songs.’

His own eclectic influences are very clear and he says that if he was doing a mix tape today, he might include Phil Collins, Annie Lennox/Eurythmics, Beabadoobee, Oscar Lang, Djo, Francis and The Lights, Wet Leg, Hawksley Workman, Furtrade, Zeph, Men I Trust, The Arcs, Dr Dre, The Streets, Temples, Abba, Madonna, The Hives, Weezer, Styx, Herbie Hancock and Daft Punk: ‘You name it, I’ll probably listen to it!’

If Rhode could go for a pint with anyone, he mulls Paul McCartney: ‘For his British sarcasm and taking the piss! Or Huey Lewis, I bet he has the best road stories. If I had to listen to any band on a beach for the rest of my life, I’d pick them, no question. I’d ask them to do a record with us (laughs), it’d be so friggin’ cool! They have some of the best music videos.’

Entertainingly, some of their funniest moments along the way aren’t even related to the music, as Rhode recounts: ‘Something that comes to mind was in Toronto. Nick, Dan and myself were watching a Blue Jays baseball game, and when we went in, it was sunny, when we left, it was pissing rain, like, cats and dogs. We caught a cab and the cab stalled, the driver asked us if we could give him a push. So, there we are, with raindrops the size of cantaloupes falling on us, as we are pushing this cab. We eventually bailed and just caught another cab, but I remember laughing quite hard at this ridiculous moment!’

(Top photo from left to right: Matt, Dan, Dicky and Joseph. Photo credit:  Dominic Polubinski @mellodomatello on IG)