Where/Who: Grand Bend Motorplex. Age of Daze, wsg Inward Eye & Thornley, rock on Sunday, May 17, 7:00 p.m. as part of the Racin’& Rockin’ Weekend May 15 - 17. Call (519) 238-7223.
Fredericton’s Ugly Ducklings Sitting Pretty
LONDON, ON. -- Listening to Age of Daze lead singer and guitarist Jim Morrison speak is quite shocking. The Fredericton, New Brunswick native still calls the east coast his home and he’s spent all of his life there. Yet listening to him speak is still rather jarring.
Simply put, how can an east-coast born and raised guy come from the same neck of the woods as any number of his Celtic musician brethrens and yet – and this is crucial – not have a trace of an east coast accent?
“I’ve been told that I sound American,” Morrison laughs amiably. “I guess I’m lucky. Our guitar player Jamie has a serious east coast accent, so much so that he’s been referred to as being from Newfoundland or something. We always make fun of him for it.”
It may be a coincidence that Morrison sounds not a bit like his east coast musician contemporaries when he speaks but it’s probably not. Age of Daze doesn’t sound like any number of the Celtic-tinged bands that they’ve shared stages with over the past seven years. An unabashedly commercial band, Morrison says it’s not so much about having hits as simply following his muse.
“The way I look at it is that it’s not that we’re trying to get a hit,” he explains. “It’s just that I listen to what people call commercial radio. I write songs that I like to hear. It’s not that we set out to try to do it. It’s a product of what I listen to and I listen to commercial rock. We enjoy east coast rock and roll. It’s just not what we prefer to write. It’s not what we’re into at all.”
Being an overtly commercial rock band in a music scene characterized by maritime influences made Age of Daze distinctly out of step.
“We were a very ‘un-east coast’ band,” Morrison laughs. “From the music right down to the image. I think I liked being the ugly duckling out here. It draws more attention to us. I certainly think it helped us in the beginning.”
Knowing that they stood apart from their fellow east coast musicians, Age of Daze started off like an independent band, Morrison says. To be certain, before the band formed, it was just Morrison and Matt McLaughlin, the bass player. They carefully pulled in other musicians who shared their taste and vision for the band. Doing live dates, they did covers of favorites and worked in their originals to see how they went over.
“If they went well,” Morrison says, “we could see that we were onto something pretty decent.”
Encouraged by their live response, the ever resourceful Morrison spotted a news tidbit in a music biz magazine noting that Mike Turner of Our Lady Peace was opening his own recording studio in Toronto.
“So I thought I’ll send off some demos,” he says. “What can happen? We’ll see if he's interested.”
A week later, Morrison’s phone rang with Turner on the other end. He went from being “a super huge fan of Our Lady Peace” to a colleague. Age of Daze headed for Toronto to meet with Turner and talk about recording.
Since then, the band has had two top-20singles, ‘Afflicted’ and ‘Overrated,’ and two albums, the most recent of which Hollywood Ending has made a serious dent on the Canadian charts. And despite being on Universal/Fontana North, and having proper management and agents, Morrison says they still keep most of the band’s work a very hands-on affair.
“Myself and Matt always took care of the business sort of things,” he says. “We took the bull by the horns and started radio tracking Afflicted by ourselves. When the single made top 50 we hired a friend of ours to do it and it went top 20.
“We still promote our band hard,” says Morrison proudly. “We pour all our own money into it and we believe in it. Factor has been kind to us with some marketing and video support but for the most part we’re totally self-funded. Anything that’s generated is pure profit for us and we just funnel it back into marketing. And so far, so good.”
Hits aside, Age of Daze' summer agenda includes touring Canada and the U.S. with one of those dates at the Grand Bend Motorplex.
“I hear the motorplex thing is going to be great,” he says. “A long weekend with a lot of people. I can’t wait.”
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