French Letters make waves on the Vancouver scene thanks to CiTR, Tom Harrison, and lotsa macaroni

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 13, 1983

By Steve Newton

“Alll three of us have worked in factories,” says French Letters vocalist Jay Homenchuk, referring to himself, bassist Kelly Cook, and guitarist Ben Louie. The three of them sit gathered in the lounge outside the heavy soundproofed door that leads into Gastown’s Water Street Sound studio. Behind them bandmates Glen Reely and Matt Johnson are laying down guitar and drum tracks for a masterable tape, which the group hopes to make into either an EP or a full-length LP, depending on record company response.

“And at the factory you just wish you could take some time out,” he goes on. “You have nothing to do but think. Your body’s doing all this and you’re thinking ‘Could I just stop and write [this song] down?’ You know you’re going to forget it.”

Before he did forget it, Homenchuk took a break from stacking boxes at his tedious job one day and wrote the song “Factory”, which, when recorded on the group’s first demo tape, quickly shot to Number One on UBC’s CiTR radio chart. The song, a snappy, bopping rocker, is typical of the band’s streamlined, modern British sound. Ringing guitars, throbbing bass lines, and precise percussion abound.

Not long after the success of “Factory”, in January of 1982, French Letters got their second big boost in winning that year’s Battle of the Bands competition. Not only did the group prosper from the recording time they won at a top notch Vancouver studio, but even more significant was the ensuing acclaim they received from the local music press.

“It helped us a lot with publicity,” admits Cook. “Tom Harrison of The Province has been one of our biggest helps. And Ellie O’Day of the [Georgia] Straight. We owe a lot to both of them.

“But I think we’ve come quit a ways from there. The Battle of the Bands was just one of our first public performances ever. It was French Letters as raw as they can get. Our songwriting has come a long way because the more you write, the better you get.”

There’s no doubt about that. And considering the songwriting talents displayed in their first compositions, the future looks bright for the young members of the band. Homenchuk and Cook are only 20, Louie is 22, Johnson 21, and Reely is the youngest at just 18.

All of the French Letters–with the exception of Cook who is from Richmond–grew up in the East End and attended Vancouver Tech high school.

“We were sort of an alternative at Tech,” says Homenchuk, recalling his not-too-distant schooldays. “We did a Gong Show-type thing at noon -hour once and I was nervous as hell the first time. Right then what I liked was the Pistols and things like that–anything anti-metal or anti-disco–so we did some Jam songs in front of the school. And some liked it, and some didn’t, but we didn’t care.”

While it may seem they’re a little bit brash, French Letters’ determination to play their kind of music and not let negative responses faze them is what’s helped get them to where they are today–at the forefront of Vancouver’s original music scene. But it seems their successes in concert and with the Battle of the Bands are not without their own ill effects. Though the band’s early popularity was due in a large part to the coverage their songs received with CiTR’s alternative programming, the radio station has, says Cook,”kind of turned against us now.”

“That’s CiTR policy,” adds Homenchuk. “If it goes past a certain point of popularity they drop it. It’s almost like they hold it against you for having a number-one single on their station. It’s a weird way to look at life. But we still do owe them a lot. They may not think we appreciate it, but we do.”

While CiTR may have lost interest in the French Letters, the band members themselves have never been more involved. With the help of their booking agency P.E.C.–the same company that manages the Villains and Jerry Doucette–the group has acquired the production talents of Braun Farnon, an engineer of vast experience who does production work out of England and L.A. His father is the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

So with Farnon at the controls and the youthful, exuberant French Letters at the instruments, the result should be a master tape of excellent quality and spirited musicianship. The band members really do believe in themselves; already Homenchuk is talking about another album’s worth of material.

“This is only for a start, “he says. “You never know what’s going to happen come second record. You want to grow, you want to change, you want to try new things. And even if those don’t work, you go back to square one and try again. You never quit.”

Cook echoes Homenchuk’s devotion to the band’s cause. “Not one of us is working outside of the band,” he says.

The typical starving musician? Just about. “We’re eating a lot of macaroni,” says Cook.

French Letters will be opening for the Shakin’ Pyramids at the Town Pump May 16 and 17, and they’ll be at Good Times in the Century Plaza Hotel June 1 to 4.

To read over 100 of my interviews with local Vancouver musicians since 1983, go here.