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North Humberland: The Sadies and Canada’s Nashville
By Adam M. Anklewicz

Their website bills them as “not your average surf, garage, country, rock band,” but I’d have to disagree.  The Sadies are the average because no one else melds those genres together quite like they do. The Sadies are the bar to be measured against.

The Sadies are Mike Belitsky (drums, guitar and vocals), Sean Dean (bass), Dallas Good (vocals and guitar) and Travis Good (vocals, guitar and fiddle). Dallas and Travis Good are the sons of Bruce Good, one of the members of The Good Brothers.  A country trio, The Good Brothers feature Bruce, Brian and Larry Good, who have been recording and touring for the past 35 years.  Travis and Dallas Good, along with their other bandmates have been touring and recording as The Sadies for about seven years. Music is in their blood.

When The Sadies come up in conversation, most responses seem to be, “Oh, I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never heard their music.” Their name tends to pop up in conversation since they have been backing Neko Case for years and serve as her band on her current tour and recent live album, The Tigers Have Spoken (released in Mint in Canada, and Anti-/Epitaph elsewhere). 

Having released five of their own albums since 1998, The Sadies seem to never stop. Along with their own albums, The Sadies have also released an album with Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo) and Rick White (Eric’s Trip, Elevator) as The Unintended, collaborating on an album with Andre Williams, appearing on many Neko Case albums, and appearing on many albums as guest musicians.

Mike Belitsky, the drummer for The Sadies, was kind enough to take some time and chat with us about their latest record, previous work, collaborations and much more.

 

The Sadies and their Favourite Colours

I had to start off the interview with the most obvious and simplest of questions, but they asked for it.

Being There: What are your favourite colours?

Mike Belitsky: Mine has always been maroon.

BT: Why did you decide to name your latest album Favourite Colours?

MB: I don’t know; we just liked that name. Colours are cool things. It’s one of the names of our records that I like the best. And I like all the titles of all of our records. It’s also a play on the cross-border spellings. Canada vs. the U.S.

BT: And you used the Canadian spelling even on the American release?

MB: Well you can’t change the name of an album just to appease 250 some odd million people. (Ed- Though the American publishers of Harry Potter would probably disagree.)

BT: On Favourite Colours you have a trilogy of songs and it’s an epic apocalyptic story. Is this a direction you’re planning on going?

MB: Well certainly in focus. I don’t know if we’ll always have a trilogy. The direction we’re going in is evident in each record we do. There was some pretty epic numbers on the last record [Stories Often Told] too. If you want to call it epic, then by all means; it’s left to the listener. I think that we’re getting better and more focused.

BT: It’s a story of an apocalypse but the destruction leads to a simpler and happier life. Is this a personal reflection of optimism within the band?

MB: Absolutely. We’re all into creating and being as productive as we can. We’re not using anything as an excuse. I think it’s reflective.

BT: Since your beginning you have been slowly moving away from mainly instrumental tracks and now with Favourite Colours you primarily have vocal tracks. Why are you focusing more towards vocal tracks?

MB: I think that comes with a certain amount of confidence. We all take a stab at singing, me less than anyone else.  And I think Dallas and Travis have really started finding their voices. Collaborating, as well, in different projects, that’s opened the doors to us trying different types of songs. I know that we try to keep a narrative that’s both challenging and fun. [The narratives] tend to get a bit abstract.

BT: “Coming Back” is the most punkish song off the new album.  Are you consciously trying to stay away from the older sounds?

MB: No, I think our older sound is still present in everything we’ve done over the past couple of records. It’s now more refined and now it’s our own sound.

BT: There’s “Only You And Your Eyes” and “Why Would Anybody Live Here?”, the same song, one in an instrumental version and one with vocals. Why did you decide to release both versions of it?

MB: It’s neat. It’s actually two different versions of the song. First, the instrumental version we recorded in Toronto, and the other version we recorded out at Greg Keelor’s farm. At first we didn’t know if we’d put the vocal version on, we didn’t know what Robyn [Hitchcock] would come up with.

We knew that he’d be in Arizona at the same studio that we’d recorded parts of Favourite Colours, so we sent that instrumental version to that studio. He went in the next day and cranked that sucker out of the park, so we had to put it on. We didn’t know if he was going to like it or if we would like what he came up with but it worked so well.

BT: The lyrics, are they Robyn’s?

MB: Yeah, those are Robyn’s lyrics.

 

Not what was intended

The Unintended is a Canadian supergroup featuring Rick White (Eric’s Trip & Elevator), Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo) and all four members of The Sadies. Their self-titled album was released in 2003 and recorded at Greg Keelor’s farm, north of Toronto. Mike Belitsky played drums on the entire record in his slippers.

BT: You guys have been collaborating with Rick White and Greg Keelor for a while. So when you performed together as The Unintended was it a natural progression?

MB: Absolutely, I don’t even remember when it stopped being in-between recording Sadies records and became it’s own entity. I know when we recorded that record. But I don’t know if we thought, “Let’s record a record and put it out”. We were like, “Rick’s in town and he’s got a bunch of demos.”

Dallas and Rick have been close friends for quite some time and live close to each other in Toronto. They get together, write songs and edit each other’s work and they just wanted to put them on tape without any pretence. It captured a weekend at the farm.

BT: Do you expect that The Unintended band will go beyond this first album?

MB: Yes I do, I sure hope so. It’s something that’s really enjoyable and playing live is something that’s really great too. Having the six of us on stage together is thoroughly enjoyable.

BT: I knew that Rick White had co-written a song on Favourite Colours.  “A Good Flying Day” reminds me of an Elevator song, and I was surprised when reading the liner notes that it wasn’t the track that Rick White had helped out with.

MB: I wrote that one. That’s my number on that album. Maybe I’m under the influence of Rick White because I think he’s the most underrated and over-talented person I’ve ever met in all aspects of art. He’s the phenomenal visual artist and he’s got this quiet confidence that is often mistaken as being shy. I just find him to be really on point. I’m totally under the influence of Rick.

BT: One thing I found really odd about The Unintended is that it didn’t sound anything like a Sadies record. It sounded like Rick had taken over the band and made it into an Elevator record. Even so much that “A Quiet Getaway” sounds like Elevator’s Mark Gaudet is playing drums and not you.

MB: His ideas blow my mind so I have been very conscious of his playing. Mark and I have our own relationship as the two drummers. Whenever I’m in Moncton, I always make a special trip out to where he works.  We hang out and talk about, not drums, but bands and music. We actually share a very strange history. When I was in high school I was in Nova Scotia. His band came down from Moncton and it was probably one of the first rock shows I ever played. We opened up for his band called The Robins. When I was just learning how to play drums and he was a cool rocker, we met and then here our paths cross again. He is fantastic so I take that as a compliment bigger than any other

BT: Was the record more of a collaboration or was it led by Rick?

MB: A little bit of both. Rick would have a lot of suggestions; he demoed a lot of the stuff with him playing the drums. There were some things that I thought I shouldn’t change since it sounded so good on the demos. Then there were other places where I’d think that it would sound better another way. When making that record I realized how in control Rick is, and I don’t mean that in a control freak way, I just think he has a vision and knows how he wants things to sound.  I think that is really important when making a record.

One of the greatest shows on Earth

I was blown away the first time I saw The Sadies live. I had seem them previously backing Neko Case. But it is not until you see them as headliners of their own show that you will witness how incredible The Sadies are as musicians.

BT: Your albums are very different from your live shows.  I don’t think you can capture that atmosphere. Do you purposely go into the studio with a different mindset than a live show?

MB: Not until recently. Always before we’d go in wondering what we’d have to do to get the same energy on record as we have at our live shows. That was always the criticism that we’d hear over and over again. The CDs don’t live up to the live shows.  I always found that funny because no one was reviewing our live shows, but everyone was reviewing our CDs.  It just spread through the grapevine that the Sadies put on a good live show. I think we just started making better records. I think the turning point was halfway through making our second record, Pure Diamond Gold, and then the next record. The first record we just set up and played.

BT: Do you find the attitude changes on stage between when you’re playing as The Sadies and when you’re a backing band such as Neko Case’s Boyfriends?

MB: We really want to sound good all the time. When we’re playing a Sadies show I can get a little more lost in what I’m doing. I’m more familiar and I’m not as conscious of playing other people’s songs. I think the Sadies is a really cool collaborative group of guys and I don’t feel particularly self-conscious when I’m playing a Sadies show. At a Neko show we don’t play a couple hundred shows a year with her. So there’s more necessity to keep out of the way and not bust loose as much. I would say we approach all projects we’re in with the same level of professional care.

BT:  Is there an album or song that you’re most proud of?

MB:  I really like the new record. I really, really like the new record. From a drumming point of view, I really liked playing on that “Loved On Look” song from Tremendous Efforts. I also really loved playing on “Translucent Sparrow” (Favourite Colours), that backwards hi-hat part at the end was very challenging and felt like a great accomplishment. As far as songwriting goes I’ve always really liked my contribution to Tremendous Efforts which was “120 Miles Per Hour.”

The Sadies will be playing with Neko Case on her small tour in Montreal, Baltimore, Atlanta and Louisville during February. However, be sure to check out http://www.thesadies.net for news about upcoming shows. They’ll blow you away.

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