"People depend on us to rock our faces off"

Gordie Johnson asks Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?; is told yes.

By Dave Johnston, Vue Weekly (July 12, 2001)

Gordie Johnson is what you might call an entertainer. Without a hint of irony, the frontman for Big Sugar takes particular delight in playing the part.

"It's like inviting some friends to your house after being at the bar all night," he laughs, "and you put on some records because you feel like they've gotta check them out. It's fun to be the host and blow everyone's mind with your cool record collection."

Ever since he first strolled out on a stage wearing one of his immaculate wool suits and carrying his guitar, Johnson and his group — harmonica player Kelly Hoppe, drummer Al Cross, bassist Garry Lowe and new guitarist Mojah — have embodied the spirit of party music, where the crowd wrings every drop of sweat from your brow while the supernatural force of the groove takes over the stage.

"People depend on us to rock our faces off," Johnson chuckles. "It's fun to be able to go out and do acoustic shows or remix stuff in a reggae style, but it's all just to keep us interested in what we do. If Big Sugar were to put out a country record, though, people would probably shake their heads. I want them to put our records on in the car and crank it. I want it to kick the party into high gear — that's our job description."

For that reason, the latest disc from Big Sugar sounds more like a dare than an invitation to dance. Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready? is probably the finest party the band has ever thrown. The sweet blues of their 1993 debut, Five Hundred Pounds, is still there in the mix, but the influence of Johnson's dub reggae project AlKaline has morphed the band into more of a raucous groove machine than ever before. Imagine a wild 1970s rock band recording in Jamaica while rolling around in a souped-up Charger, and you can figure out where Johnson and his merry band are coming from. "Things have to constantly evolve," he says. "If we got stuck in a hairstyle and that was our whole identity, and we didn't live up to it on every album, then people would stop checking us out. Luckily we've set ourselves up in a way that our fans expect us to change it up a little bit from album to album."

As the Crowes fly

The album took a year and a half to record, allowing Johnson to work with the likes of Wide Mouth Mason and Double Trouble on their respective albums. He also did some remix work for fellow groove rockers The Black Crowes, who recruited Johnson after hearing his Alkaline album, Extra Long Life. "They just asked me if I'd do some Alkaline-style stuff on their music," explains Johnson, "and of course I said yes."

While in the studio, Johnson applied a unique litmus test to his material, which smoothly shifts from buzzed-out assaults to funky jams. "It had to make me feel like a 17-year-old who had stolen the car for the weekend," he explains jovially.

In keeping with the band's aim to create the ultimate Canadian house party, the album closes with a Hendrix-esque version of "O Canada". Perhaps even more importantly, the band chose to repeat the success of their 1999 EP Chauffé À Bloc by simultaneously releasing a French version of the disc entitled Brothers and Sisters, Etes Vous Ready? "As an entertainer, you can't really entertain people if they can't understand what you're singing," Johnson postulates. "Music does transcend language barriers, but at the end of the day you sing along with songs where you can identify with the lyrics. What's interesting is that a song in a different language can take on a completely different viewpoint. I had to rewrite the songs — I couldn't just translate them. When we perform these songs in French, I have a different story in my head and a different emotion to convey."

King Louis

The retro vibe of the disc reflects Johnson's appreciation of the '70s rock aesthetic. "I love the grandeur of it," he says. "There's a sense that everything is an event. We came through the 1990s watching punk rock become big corporate business — selling scrappy little bands in messy clothes, where all you need is attitude. In my world, you need more than that. You need skill and you have to entertain people with more than just your attitude. Louis Armstrong had a lot of attitude, but he had a great deal of skill and finesse as well."

The desire to be an entertainer is what keeps Johnson on the road. "I love playing — that's it," he says. "I'll suffer through all the other indignities of being an entertainer just for the two hours we get to stand on stage, playing for people. I'll sit in a tour bus for 17 hours to get to Fort McMurray, or eat at truckstops for a month. The payoff is when I get to strap on a doubleneck guitar, stroll out on a stage and we get to have a great time."

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