The Organ Grinder

Photography by: Chris Frey

From left to right: Debora Cohen (guitar), Jenny Smyth (organ), Shelby Stocks (drums), Ashley Webber (bass) and Katie Sketch (Vocals)

The Organ would like to clear up some misconceptions about themselves.

First and foremost being the band's much vaunted deal with 604 Records, the label co-founded by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. The Organ's melancholy pop is the antithesis of Nickelback. A recent tour with New York's City's Interpol was a perfect fit and lead vocalist Katie Sketch has identified them as contemporaries.

The audience at the band's Canadian Music Week (CMW) gig at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto was a collection of indie rock hipsters who wouldn't piss on a Nickelback CD to put it out if it was on fire.

"Mostly it's just sort of been confusing for people. It hasn't been negative so much as it's been people wanting to understand how that happened, why we decided to go with them and how that came about," vocalist Katie Sketch clarified. "I think they have some romanticized version of Chad seeing us and being like 'Wow! This is changing my life!' and then signing us when that's really not the case."

"The moment anyone says 604 it's instantly...forget about all the tons of other people that are involved with 604 and Mint, which isn't that many but it's a lot more than Chad Kroeger," piped in Jenny Smyth, the lady behind the instrument the band takes its namesake from.

Another press-created misconception about The Organ is that Sketch was a music teacher of sorts to bassist Ashley Webber and drummer Shelby Stocks. Again this isn't the case. Well, sort of. While Webber and Stocks couldn't really play their instruments, they were more self-taught.

"They seem to think they had a lot of help or something but mostly it's just the drive to be able to learn the instruments and play them," Sketch said. "[My teaching them] was maybe a half-an-hour, hour process."

Listening to their 2002 EP Sinking Hearts, one might be excused for thinking that the ladies are sombre, black-clad depressives who spend hours locked in their rooms listening to The Cure, Joy Division and Smiths albums.

So how is it a group of fairly happy woman can create music that provides the perfect soundtrack to a grey rainy day?

"You're the first person who's asked that! I've been waiting for that question!" Sketch laughed. "Generally when we're writing we're in the basement of a pretty sketchy hotel and it's raining and it's cold and that's where we write. We don't write our songs in Hawaii, on the beach. We've had some crying at practices before. We don't have a bundle of laughs all the time."

Currently, The Organ are in the studio working on the follow-up to Sinking Hearts. While nothing is written in stone, a full length CD should hit the shelves in late August. New Pornographer and one-third of the Mark Klein Power Trio, Kurt Dahle is helming.

Sketch described Dahle as being "the kind of guy you feel like you've known for years after spending five minutes with him." He lives a block away from Smyth and she has know him since she was "yay tall". They also know each other from around the Vancouver music scene.

The band unveiled a new song at their CMW gig. According to Sketch, 'Brother' was inspired by current world events. A series of arresting - albeit distracting at times - visuals were projected onto a screen set up on the Horseshoe's stage. Webber's brother Ryan created the images that featured everything from clips from a 1930's horror movie to cityscapes and pictures of the band.

During 'Brother', images from 1950's Duck and Cover films, nuclear explosions and other images flashed on to the screen. Those, combined with Sketch's commanding presence, made for the highlight of an already impressive set.

"Ryan's visuals were great and obviously he's never heard the song before," Sketch said. "I had definitely had current events [in mind] when I wrote ['Brother']."