ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 18, 1983
By Steve Newton
Darkroom are an Edmonton-based new-wave band comprised of singer Jim Gray, bassist Jeff Schmidt, drummer Tim Palmar, guitarist Alan Marks, and keyboardist/guitarist Wolf Radke.
Early last summer the group was signed to WEA Music of Canada, and engineer Howard Steele was brought in from Los Angeles to work on their debut album, San Paku.
I spoke to Gray, the band’s main songwriter, over the phone in Edmonton last week, and asked him about the new LP, the signing with WEA, and the Edmonton music scene in general.
What do the words San Paku mean?
It’s just a Japanese myth. It’s supposed to be a warning sign whereby one or two days before something very very bad happens to you–even maybe death–you get a warning by finding a white speck in the iris of your eye.
Where did you pick that up?
I read it in a newspaper article, actually. It was interesting enough to inspire me to write a song about it.
I understand that last summer, when the band was doing a lot of writing, you did a gig on an Edmonton bank roof?
[Laughs] Yeah, it was quite the event. There was a whole bunch of things going on that day–it was right downtown Edmonton. There were people crawling up the sides of buildings and hot-air balloons in the streets, all kinds of things.
And there’s a big copper building downtown called the Scotiabank Building, and on one corner of it there’s three levels. We set up our equipment and played on the third floor roof, and the P.A. system was on the second roof down, and then there was a huge macrame thing with all these dancers crawling up it. And there was a 100-voice choir that played right before us. We were all part of this whole big spectacle.
Sounds like they should have had the video machines rolling that day.
Really. It costs lots of money to set something like that up. They had a crane down there, and they’d take equipment up a piece at a time.
In your WEA bio you’re quoted as saying “there were a lot of talented people in Edmonton who were wasting their talent for fear of local rejection.”
Yes, because up until lately it seemed that the Edmonton crowds wouldn’t really accept local bands with original material unless they’d gone out and become a hit elsewhere. It seemed all the people, when they went to the clubs here, just wanted to hear songs they recognized.
That’s a problem in Vancouver too.
Is it? Well that was a real big problem here. And there were a lot of people who had songs but wouldn’t come out and play them because they wouldn’t get hired. In some clubs, they’d even ask you for a set list.
Was that the case for Darkroom too?
No. We came out with about 50 percent original and 50 percent cover. But then again, some of the cover tunes that we were doing at that time, a lot of people didn’t recognize either.
What is the music scene like in Edmonton in general?
It’s not too bad. There’s quite a few local bands. It’s just that nobody really hears of them. Now that we’ve established ourselves to a certain point, anytime we play we always get a local band that has original material and have them go on as a support act. And that way they get exposure in some of the top clubs in Edmonton, whereas they wouldn’t normally get hired. And this helps them get jobs by themselves after.
Were you surprised about being signed by WEA Canada?
It happened so fast that I’m still surprised [laughs]. You think about what it will be like when you finally talk to somebody, but then when you do, and they’re as interested as these people were, it happens very quickly.
And we feel a little more secure now. It gives you a feeling of release knowing that you don’t have to spend as much of your time shopping around. Now you can devote a little more time to your work itself.
Darkroom will be appearing at the Boo Pub this weekend and the Town Pump starting Monday.