Pointed Sticks: Three Lefts Make A Right

Interview With Pointed Sticks Bassist Tony Bardach
By Nathan Stafford


One of Vancouver’s most original, peppiest powerpop/punk bands has just released a new record after a hiatus that lasted far too long. The group was a local staple of the ’78-81 heyday, and the first Canadian act signed to U.K. label, Stiff Records. Sadly, Pointed Sticks disbanded in ’81, and a reunion looked to be out of the question.

Fast-forward to 2006, and a Sudden Death re-issue of Perfect Youth is suddenly selling like hotcakes in Japan! The band is invited by their distributor all expenses paid, for a 3-show reunion tour in Japan. Well, the response was so good, that the guys caught the recording bug again. Here they are, in the flesh, with an entire album of new material and a 2-show CD Release Party Dec 19th at The Rio. Are you ready, Vancouver?

I caught up Tony Bardach prior to the show:

“We’re like a bunch of debs planning the junior prom here,” laughs Tony.

NS: Are you sure this isn’t a lost tape from 1980 or something?

TB: It turned out even better than I’d hoped, really. It sounds so clean and perfect to me. We knew we had good songs, but even good songs can sound kinda crappy if it’s all muddy. I really have to credit Gord (Nicholl) a lot, with engineering and producing the thing, and Nick as well. Also, we were lucky enough to get Mike Fraser to mix it at The Warehouse, so it sounds as good as anything he’s ever done.

NS: How did you hook up with Mike Fraser?

TB: He ran into us at a gig we were playing at The Commodore and he told us he’d mix our record for a case of beer if we made one, so I think that’s about when we decided to actually be serious about making a record.

NS: Your singer, Nick Jones called this album a ‘Natural Progression’. Do you know what he meant by that?

TB: For me, it helps prove that time is not really all that linear, because we were able to pick up right where we left off without any sort of preconception or planning. Being together in the early days of starting a band is really fun, and I guess it really remained like that. We never really made our second album. We packed it in before we had that chance, but maybe that was in us. I think that those particular tunes that might have existed back then are long-since forgotten. I think the new album is more of a reflection of our current experiences and maybe some reflection on the past and how it affects the now.

NS: 3 years ago, the idea of doing this album was inconceivable, but was it playing onstage together again that started the album talks?

TB: Initially, we were kind of shocked that we could actually do it, but then seeing the people in Japan and realizing how aware they were of the music, you know they knew all the lyrics. There were hundreds of people singing the words to our songs that we couldn’t even remember as well as they could! That was really inspiring. After that, Ian had an idea to make a song as a Thank You called ‘My Japanese Fan’, and we made the single. I think Gord had started to write a little bit. He had written ‘Any Time’ and Nick was starting to get interested in writing things again, and I came along with a song, and it just fell together the same way it normally does.

NS: I heard some of these songs were written by mail?

TB: Oh yeah, email was involved, especially in the demos. It took maybe 18 months from when we started writing songs to when we thought about actually releasing a record and probably a year from when we thought about releasing the record to actually getting it out.

NS: Back in the day, you guys were turning out the songs pretty quick though, right?

TB: Yeah, I think so, but we were all together. We weren’t working in different countries and stuff. We probably could have done this much faster if we just sat down and made it, but it might be better for the amount of retrospect we’ve had with the songs before actually recording them.

NS: So is there no real sense of urgency now? Can you guys just go with the flow?

TB: (laughs) Yeah, we have a little bit of luxury that it just doesn’t really matter that much. We don’t have any agenda anymore, whereas in the past, there was an agenda, whether it was implied or inherent. There was some expectation about us being Canada’s Great Hope, and that probably hurt us more than helped us, but it got us a lot of attention and it really put the pressure on. I don’t think any of us liked that. It wasn’t where we were coming from, and it wasn’t why we had started the group.

NS: The pressure got to you eventually.

TB: It started to feel like music business. It started to feel middle of the road. You know, sometimes things just start to feel like the point has been missed, or at least it’s not funny anymore.

NS: How do the new sessions differ from the old? You still managed to get that great live sound. How was it recorded?

TB: Well, we decided how much money we had to spend, and then we looked around to see where we could get the best sounds. We decided we would definitely get the best drum sound at Mushroom, and that was affordable for us. We went in and recorded the thing live, used their drums and their piano, and we took as much from that session as we could/ We then took the stuff over to Gord’s studio Paramount, and did all the overdubs there.

So yeah, it is live. You can definitely hear the room, and some of the bass is even saved from that original track. It’s not really all that different from before, except there’s the luxury of the email happening, and more studios are around. Definitely having the studio has been one of the reasons we’ve been able to do anything, otherwise we’d be sitting around in my living room with Garageband.

NS: On the earlier recordings, was it harder to come up with a decent

TB: I think it really depended on the equipment and the place. We were lucky enough to record at Little Mountain. We had a really early 24-track Neve board, and top of the line stuff. When we were making demos, we’d be on somebody’s 8-track in the basement somewhere. That was the best you could hope for, for most of the bands.

NS: Northern Electric is your label now, the Collective.

TB: We’ve been friends with Richard for some time. Ian and Richard are fairly close, and he’s helping produce some of the stuff for Northern Electric, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in Richard Chapman, and some of my old friends are on that label. Richard’s something of a genius, too.

NS: Did you see the early punk scene as a collective?

TB: It was kind of like a club that had no criteria for joining and no membership fees. That didn’t exist forever, but that was the initial thing, because everybody was trying everything, and everybody was accepting of everybody’s attempt at whatever.

NS: Do you, or did you consider yourselves a punk band?

TB: It really depends on whether you think of punk in terms of the sound of music, or the attitude that initiates the music. As far as I’m concerned, definitely a punk band. We all came from the same large group of people, and we’re exposed to the same stuff, and really what we were doing at first was trying to be the antithesis of where the scene was apparently heading. It was getting quite tough and heavy, the rude boy thing was becoming interesting, and some of the fun, some of the glam & glitz and foolin’ around was really disappearing. We set up this pop band to be teen idols and really, it was just a piss-take on what became the hardcore scene. We dressed up in seersucker suits and gave ourselves funny names.

NS: Your new song, ‘Scrambled Eggs’. What’s the story behind that song?

TB: Scrambled Eggs, to be honest, was not the intended line. It was just a word that fit by meter in the space, and I think that it was chosen as kind of a joke, because I’ve heard that Lennon & McCartney, when they were writing Yesterday, they didn’t have the line, ‘yesterday’. All they had was ‘scrambled eggs’. They weren’t sure how to fill it in, so they just said ‘scrambled eggs’. I came in, having never heard this story or anything and just heard this demo, and the line was ‘scrambled eggs’ and it was supposed to be changed, but that was my favourite thing about the song. I said,

“Yeah! We gotta keep that! Scrambled Eggs!”and they’re going:

“No, that’s not supposed to be the line.”

But I don’t think it matters. It’s just a beautiful image.

NS: Is the image the message?

TB: Yeah, it’s highly visual and suggestive. It’s great. It’s lovely that everybody can have a different take on music, where you can get the lyrics wrong in your mind, and it may mean something entirely different to you than anybody else in the world.

NS: You wrote the song ‘Igor Said’ about a doorman in the downtown east side, right? At the Smilin’ Buddah?

TB: That was really a special place for all of us, because that was our bar. There were other places where the punk bands could play, like hall gigs and things like that, so it wasn’t like it was the only thing around, but it was a small bar, and it was only punk. Pointed Sticks never played there in Pointed Sticks, but we all played there in fuck bands, and it was just always fun.

Before you’d get in there, you’d meet Igor, and in those days, a lot of places would have the little cage, where you pay the cashier, so Igor would stand behind this window, and really all you could see was his chest and some of his gut. He was an enormous guy, and his head would disappear at the top, and all you would hear is, “You got I.D.?” He would hassle people for I.D. and take the money. He’s still around. He works at the Carnegie. He’s a pretty neat guy.

In some ways, that song contains the nod to him, and it’s a nod to the atmosphere and the events of that time. I got The Dishrags to sing on that song, and also Johnny Ferrerria, who played sax with the band does some honkin’ on the baritone.

NS: Did you have any songs left in the can when you guys broke up?

TB: No, not really. We recorded ‘Found Another Boy’. There was a live recording of that, and we did it as a flipside to Japanese Fan, and at that time, we didn’t have any plans for any kind of album. It was just the one little single we were gonna do to say, “Hello. Here’s a single.”

NS: What’s your favourite song?

TB: They change so often. I probably have about 7 or 8 favourites.

NS: Was it hard to get the band back into live-show form?

TB: Working out the old songs was really easy, actually. Other than getting a little bit mixed up about the evolving changes, like when we would flip a verse around and turn it into a chorus, or flip the chords in the verse to use for the solo, shit like that we might forget, but for the most part, we had all the feel and all that together. We were certainly rusty, but it didn’t take long to get the WD out.

NS: You said you don’t consider yourselves a touring band anymore, but will you be hitting the road to promote this new record?

TB: Only if we’re just standing on the corner, trying to sell them. We don’t have any plans to go on a tour. Generally, we just wait for the phone to ring, and if it’s an interesting enough offer, and we’re able to do it time-wise, then we try to do it.

NS: So no 40-date tour?

TB: No, but what a movie that would make! Out there in Japan with our attendants.

NS: Any Spinal Tap moments over in Japan?

TB: Hmmmmm. Not really so much. There was quite a lot of drinking involved. Their system is a bit different over there. The gig ends relatively early and then many people form the gig will then go out to a large restaurant and eat and drink together until 4 o’clock in the morning.

NS: If the expenses were paid, you’d be back in Japan in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?

TB: Oh definitely! We’d figure out a way to make that happen.

NS: Do you know who shot the Youtube videos of you guys in Japan?

TB: Some of those videos are actually shot by a guy from Toronto named Mike Ramone, who actually flew from Toronto to Tokyo to see us. He figured they would be our only shows. We never could find him to hang out much, we just talked to him a little bit after the show, and then he was off doing his other things.

NS: Expecting a lot of old friends out for your 2 shows on the 19th?

TB: Oh, I hope so. As far as the Rio goes, my big message is: Get to a record store and buy tickets! That’s just about the only way to get tickets, is to buy them at the record store. I’m sure they’ll have them at the door, but it doesn’t hold that many people, but they’re pulling out some more chairs to make some more room up front.

NS: Any Special Guests making appearances at the shows? Will there be saxophone?

TB: Yeah, we are having some visitors. Johnny is definitely making an appearance. We wanted to have a show that was just good bands, a good old fashioned hall gig, where it wasn’t all about the main bands. It was about all of the bands, because everybody has fans, you know? We may get ourselves blown off the stage, but you know, we’re much older than them.

NS: Are you already in talks about the Next record?

TB: Oh yeah! In fact, we’ve already recorded the next 3 records. We’ve got them in the can, and they’re going to be released post-humously. (laughs) No, we were all so excited about this record, that we started joking about our next one, and writing more songs for it, so the jokes will turn into reality, I’m sure. We all like writing songs, and we have a good time playing them with each other.

**The Pointed Sticks: Three Lefts Make A Right Release Party takes place with TWO shows at the Rio Theatre (Broadway & Commercial) on Saturday, Dec 19th. All Ages Show at 2PM with The Evaporators and Pretty Vanilla! Licensed 19+ Show at 8PM with The TVees and Strange Magic!

**Three Lefts Make A Right is now available on CD, vinyl and digital download. Visit your local retailers or www.thepointedsticks.com to get a copy!