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Tribe 11
Genres: Rock, Indie
Hometown: Bobcaygeon
Country: Canada
Formed: 2005
Label: Unsigned
Featured: Nov 25, 2008
 
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Bio
Tribe 11 exploded on the scene in 2006 with their indie debut, "Six Degrees of Desperation." The album offers an intoxicating, and often haunting mix of sound and lyric, penned by the band's front man, Steven Webster. "Six Degrees of Desperation" is receiving rave reviews and radio airplay around the globe, fuelled in part by the reach of the Internet.
Production and engineering on "Six Degrees of Desperation" is by Everett Ravestein (Canada's Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Chantal Kreviazuk). Fans compare the music to classic acts like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd mixed with later influences like Jane's Addiction, the Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead and Queens of the Stone Age. Yet,
Tribe 11 is no re-hashed imitation. Fans and critics agree that
Tribe 11's impressive debut forges a path all its own.
While the songs and sounds on "Six Degrees of Desperation" are varied, nothing seems out of place or at odds with each other. According to Webster, "My goal with this album was to conjure a real and metaphoric 'line' or link between the music and the listener. Lyrically, there's a strong sense of lineage, of threads, that gets woven into the music and in a larger sense between the tracks to create an 'album.' That is important. It seems like no one in the mainstream makes albums anymore – it's all about the single, and that's a shame."
Tribe 11 also features the talents of Toronto-area musicians Tom Lewis on bass, John Collin on drums, and Russell Gray on guitar. "What's interesting is that instead of a band writing and rehearsing a set of songs, Tribe 11 began as a set of songs and the band evolved around them with the addition of players over time," notes Webster. "There was a very fluid sense of possibility in everything coming together, with the focus being on the quality of the music. Today we're a pretty close-knit group, but as we're rehearsing new material for the follow up album it still feels like we're evolving the sound and coming together around the songs all over again."
There is a constant tension in Tribe 11's music that pushes and pulls between a bubbling simmer and an explosive boiling over. "Both elements are always there," according to Webster. "Even when the guitars are screaming and the band is at full throttle, there are still the simmering subtleties that can be heard in the background. This is essential to me because it connects the music to the lyrics, both of which should be a journey toward clarity – not something that is appealing only at a surface level and then quickly becomes tiring, forgotten."
In this vein, Webster cites his approach to music as his same philosophical approach to life generally. "I am inspired by the writings of Simone Weil. They instilled in me the idea that only in the quiet absence of everything is it possible to perceive anything, while, in the noisy abundance of everything there is an overwhelming perception of absence. Tribe 11 is an attempt to bridge the gulf between both those worlds."
Tribe 11 is currently back in the studio in pre-production for their upcoming album, tentatively called "Suspended Animation." |
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