Tony Cummings spoke to Jeremy Michaelis of the Canadian rock band RED UMBRELLA

Red Umbrella

A couple of the brightest new pop rock tracks to appear on the Cross Rhythms Radio playlist in recent times are "Forest Fire" and "Prison Side" from a band called Red Umbrella. I went in search of these thought provoking Canadian rockers and began by asking frontman Jeremy Michaelis to describe the band's sound and who have been their musical influences. Responded Jeremy, "When people ask us what we sound like we say we have an indie Brit rock kind of sound, so we're kind of borrowing from you guys. We definitely like a lot of classic rock and there are a lot of cool new bands out there nowadays but we don't really listen to too much modern music because if you like it you try to emulate it and that's not really what we're about. We want to make our own, at least, to our standards, make something that's original."

Growing up together in Parry Sound, Ontario, lead singer/guitarist Jeremy Michaelis, his brother Dennis Michaelis (keyboards and guitar) and drummer Jason Rosewell honed their skills together early on. Eventually, the guys recruited another Parry Sound native, bassist Kevin Swartwood, and Red Umbrella was born.

In 2005 Red Umbrella relocated to the USA and now live in Valparaiso, close to Chicago. Jeremy explained the move, "Canada has 30 million people roughly and the States has, what is it? Like half a billion or something? It just multiplied the opportunities. So, the more people you have to play to. . . Having said that, we consider ourselves 100 per cent Canadian!"

It was in Canada, in a small loft studio they had built above the Michaelis family garage, that the band recorded their first album, 'Wishing For Boardwalk'. Jeremy explained the origins of the song which gave their debut such an unusual title, "We had finished the music for the track and the lyrics just kind of came about and we figured the title just kind of fitted the album as an entity, I guess. Just kind of wishing for something a little more solid. It could be interpreted in different ways but when I look back on it I was wishing for something more solid than a wishy-washy type spirituality - or even like a world philosophy that I just wasn't that excited about."

The album got rave reviews particularly in their homeland, one journo swooning over "the quirky alt-rock arrangements that have a post-Smiths Morrissey feel" while another reviewer suggested that Jeremy's voice fell "somewhere vaguely between Paul McCartney and Roy Orbison in tone." On its release Kevin Swartwood said, "We wanted this project to encourage people in all stages of life's journey, hoping that our lyrics would cause them to ask questions about their own path. So there was a conscious effort to make our lyrics accessible to the listener rather than just saying things in a way that people would expect."

After touring in Canada and the US playing in such places as CBGB's in New York the band were picked up by Indiana-based Christian label 7 Spin Music and 'Wishing For Boardwalk' was distributed across the US by Sony/BMG. After playing over 400 dates the band went into hibernation from touring to focus on their second album, 'Living And Surviving'. This time recorded in the US it is sonically more ambitious than its predecessor, incorporating synths and sampling in the majority of its songs and even bringing in guest rapper Playdough for the urban-flavoured "Boompop".

Jeremy spoke about the Cross Rhythms Radio choice "Forest Fire". "I wrote that one. My brother wrote the music. That's one that a lot of the hipper radio stations were grabbing. We weren't actually marketing that as a single but that's the one that a couple of stations in New York were playing. . . and you guys now! The song actually caused me a lot of grief in the studio when I was writing the lyrics. It was one of the last songs that we wrote and I had basically exhausted myself, lyrically and this one was just stumping me. I was talking to my sister about some things she was going through and that's one of the lines 'hey you sister' in the chorus. It's just talking about the daily grind that we go through."

Another CR turntable hit is "Prison Side". Said Jeremy, "That was kind of just a play on some words. Basically these people are chasing this one group and then it switches in the end and it turns out the chasers become the chased. It turns out everyone is guilty of their own types of sins and faults and just to be a little more cautious of that when judging and living your life."

The band are now working on songs for their next album. Jeremy commented, "Our next album we definitely want to make a little more raw. The last album we made sure all the beats were on beat and all that kind of stuff and one dude who used to play for a bunch of really cool rock bands in the late '80s/early '90s and got hold of our stuff and he said, 'You know what? It's good music but you're trying to spit and polish it too much'. We were kind of hurt hearing that but also we realised that it was true. It's not fully representative of our live show especially when you take everything and make it exactly as it should be. There's something true about an artist that isn't afraid to leave a bit of a mistake on there because that's just the best he could play. And it also makes the music a little more true. That's kind of what we were hoping to do with this album. More live takes, straight off the floor. Less producer tricks more musicians."

Recording of the new project has already begun with drum tracks laid and the band will be squeezing in more sessions in between their live commitments. Said Jeremy, "We're heading out right after this interview up to northern Michigan. Then we've got some tours set up for the fall. We usually play three or four shows a month on average. When we're not touring we're just doing one off shows."