Kristina Mameli

By Kristina Mameli, the Skinny.

With the release of its shredding debut self-titled, the young rockers of New Westminster’s Black Wizard have already managed to cast some sort of dark spell on the concert going public that will inevitably poise the seven track gem as a strong contender for the top of any year end list.

The quartet released the impressive DIY effort at a packed Railway Club near the end of January. If it wasn’t a sold out room, it was certainly damn close, the line steadily spilling onto the street well into the band’s ferocious set.

The Skinny caught up with lead guitarist and vocalist John De Courcy and bassist Kyle Fee in the somewhat secret storage room behind the bustling bar just before the show.

In a surreal coincidence, it turns out that we went to the same middle school. Indeed, Glenbrook was the breeding ground for many things, but never would anyone have suspected rock and roll.

“It’s kind of cool though,” laughed De Courcy of the testament to the small world that is New Westminster. “I like it.”

“That’s where we all started our first bands too,” said Fee, sitting on a coffee can. “Nothing too serious in Glenbrook; everything got rolling in high school.”

As De Courcy explained, Black Wizard has been in existence on and off for the last two years. The band, which also includes drummer Eugene Parkemenko and lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Grant, embraced him into the fold after he moved back to Vancouver from Toronto about a year ago.

“They were thinking about starting up Black Wizard again and they were like, ‘do you want to come and jam?’ And I was like, ‘yeah for sure,’” De Courcy recalled. “I mean, I’ve been playing with these guys since we were 14, so it’s just really, really tight. We just went for it. We just started writing and then recorded and here we are.”

Though the members of Black Wizard have been close friends for years, they are truly diverse, ranging significantly in both influences and musical backgrounds. De Courcy, Parkemenko and Fee’s first band, Onslaught, was a metal band along similar lines as the UK thrashers of the same name.

“That was the first band where we actually started playing shows,” said Fee, shifting from coffee can to amp. “We got our shit together there.”

Hilariously, Onslaught’s infamous first show at Queen’s Park Annex, presented by the City of New Westminster as part of Youth Week, also happened to be Second Nature (my best friend’s now mercifully defunct high school band)’s first gig. “That was the show that they got really pissed off,” said De Courcy, fondly recalling the event. “Our singer brought an axe on stage and then we smashed a computer screen...”

Aside from the brief flirtation with metal, De Courcy also did a stint with Skull Fist out east, and with Parkemenko in the Vancouver based Whyte Hott. Parkemenko later moved on to play with SpreadEagle and Fee did time with the Dead Lees and the Prescription Aviators.

But De Courcy is happy to be where he is now with Black Wizard. “We’re just having a good time writing songs now that people can hopefully relate to and listen to and have a good time.”

As far as influences go, Fee does admit to having more than just a passing fondness for Clutch. “I know these guys aren’t the biggest fans, but I love them.”

Whereas De Courcy veers off into a completely different direction, pledging allegiance to the song writing of Neil Young and Elliot Smith.

Over the last few years, naming trends amongst bands have gone in cycles from ‘animal’ inspired monikers such as Lions In the Street and No Horses to shock seeking titles like Fucked Up and Fuck the Facts; so, along with bands like White Wizard and Electric Wizard, could Black Wizard be the next in a new trend?

Almost serendipitously, the members of Black Wizard found a sticker amongst the assortment on the wall which read: “Sun Wizard.” Enough said.

Sound wise, the Sabbath-esque overtones of Black Wizard’s music mingles with duelling guitars and a heavy stoner rock vibe to create a sound reminiscent of an equally catchy, but less jazz inspired Pride Tiger.

The band’s self titled debut features seven blistering, instantly memorable and decidedly heavy tracks with a slower track designed to show diversity sandwiched right in the middle. The album was painstakingly recorded at Bully’s in New West where Parkemenko built his own recording studio.

“It was fucking three or four months of hell,” De Courcy said bluntly, then backtracking slightly. “Well it wasn’t that bad…but the whole process of recording and mastering from when we started tracking…it was pretty bad.”

It was produced by budding producer/engineer Michael Kraushaar.

“He really made that album what it is,” said De Courcy. “So I think such an amazing amount of credit has to go to him because he really put in the fucking time and he put in the energy and he just made it turn out really good.”

Mixed at Fadermaster Studios by Paul Boechlor and mastered by Stuart McKillope at the Hive, the whole process took from June until the day before the gig when the band picked up the finished CDs which feature artwork courtesy of Toronto artist Louis Durand of Broken Social Scene notoriety.

“Everything seemed to work out because everyone that worked on it seemed to really like it,” remarked Fee. “So it seemed like that definitely made the final product what it is.”

Despite the lengthy recording process, writing itself remains a very collective effort, all members contributing equally to the mix, something De Courcy attributes to strong personalities, passion and a healthy dose of creativity.

“We all love to write; we all have a good ear. When we write and we practise, nobody’s submissive, nobody just stands there. It’s really a group effort, so what you’re hearing is Black Wizard. It’s not like Kyle Fee and Black Wizard. It’s the band.”

“Though that was actually the first name for the band…” remarked Fee.

On stage is where the band feels most comfortable De Courcy explained. “You just transfer all your energy, because we’ve got a lot of fucking energy, and you just put it into the audience and you know make them feel. That’s what our point is when we play live.”

“You play a song and you hit a riff and it sends that chill up your spine,” said Fee.

Black Wizard continues to gain momentum, already writing new songs and gearing up for their first tour of Vancouver Island in the spring.

“We want to fucking drive and put all our gear in the back and never ever come back,” proclaimed De Courcy. “Any promoters, any bands that need an opening act—fuck, we’ll play; we’ll do it anywhere. We just want to play.”

The band’s giant yellow van, affectionately known as the “Wizard Wagon,” was recently stolen from outside of Bully’s while Parkemenko was recording locals Grass City. Though the vehicle, which could never be mistaken for safe or reliable—featuring a cage in the back instead of seatbelts—it holds sincere sentimental value. It was found the next day on a reserve in Langley completely vandalized.

“The whole dashboard was ripped out,” said De Courcy. “The grill was fucking ripped off there was like bloody Kleenex in it, broken wheelchairs in the back, children’s car seats…”

“It sounded like a hell of a party,” giggled Fee.

Keep an eye out for Black Wizard’s limited edition trading cards designed by De Courcy. They feature photos of band members with statistics and fun facts on the back.

“I really want to do a new line and instead of trading cards, do organ donor cards, so you can sign up. Right now we’re short of livers; we could use a couple of livers…”

Black Wizard’s debut album is available at local record stores.

A haunting cello filled the chilly room at Great Northern Way Campus last night (Feb. 18) with a melancholic lament supplemented by psychedelic synth and harpsichord-like keys coupled with a drum machine precision backbone, the combination of which seemed to instantly drop the temperature by several degrees. Vancouver quartet Certain Breeds brought a decidedly creepy element to Code Live 1 as they opened the Cultural Olympiad showcase leaving its audience feeling a little uneasy, yet somehow mesmerized by the gloomy, almost tortured songs from the band’s debut self-titled. A description on the band’s Myspace page describes the sound perfectly: “Bauhaus” meets “Siouxsie and the Banshees.” Read: the Organ, but much moodier.

For the rest of the review and more pictures, visit Guttersnipe.