On their seminal hit "When The Night Feels My Song" and coming full circle with the new album We Will Meet In A Hurricane.

Bedouin Soundclash: Eon Sinclair (L) and Jay Malinowski (R)

Greg Prato (Songfacts): Let's start by discussing the new album, We Will Meet In A Hurricane.

Jay Malinowski: Compared to how we started, this album is closest to our beginnings of the band, back when we were 18. Just because I was writing with Eon, I was on an acoustic guitar. If the songs fit in that sort of setting and sounded good, then we took them to the studio - that's really how we used to do things, back in 2001/2002, pre-GarageBand.

And that's sort of what the feeling of this album is for us - full-circle, almost coming back to the beginning of the way we started. Compared, though, to the last album, Mass, which was with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band down in New Orleans, very different.

Because that was done almost completely… I was mainly writing on keys, but also there was no guitar. And it was 15-18 players sometimes on a track. And this is really stripped down, back to our three-piece folk/punk roots kinda vibe.

Songfacts: You just mentioned the band's "folk/punk roots." What do you think is the best description of Bedouin Soundclash's musical style?

Malinowski: It's so tough, because I see the word "reggae" all the time, and of course, we love reggae music. But it has such an impact on the entire landscape if you mention that with the band. There's a lot of meanings attached to that.

I kind of consider us like folk/world/punk music. When I think of bands like Black Grape, obviously The Clash was a massive influence, but if I think of a band that we're even more like, it would be Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. That aspect of where he was more playing folk music, but it had a world/ambient vibe to it.

Songfacts: Let's discuss a few Bedouin Soundclash tracks, starting with "Shine On," which features The Skints.

Malinowski: "Shine On" was the first song that I wrote for this album. I had the piano line, and it felt like a '90s, almost post-ska/UK vibe to me.

And I thought of Marcia [Richards] from The Skints immediately - because of the space that she occupies. I thought that her voice would sound really good on it. I think it's kind of the outlier on the album, because it's a dance track.

Songfacts: "Birds Of A Feather," featuring Ashleigh Ball.

Malinowski: I had the chorus for "Birds Of A Feather" for three years, and it started to haunt me. I can open up demos from the last three years, and then always find that chorus somehow tagged on to the end of like, five different songs. I just kept searching for a home for it.

And eventually, I had to be like, "I have to put this song to rest." So, recording it was the best way to do it, because it meant that it was done. It had a bit of an "Electric Avenue" vibe to me. And then we asked Ashleigh to sing on it - we love her, she's a friend of ours.

That was about how Eon and I have gone through close to 20 years of friendship now. Each of us have gone through our ups and downs, and I think we always have the ability to know how the other person is doing - whether we say anything or not. So, the song was about that - "birds of a feather stick by each other."

Songfacts: "Walk Through Fire," featuring Aimee Allen from The Interrupters.

Malinowski: Similar. In terms of what I was thinking - especially with the verses - at this point right now when I talk to my friends and you see society at large, two people can witness the same thing and be on completely different sides of an issue.

But, if they talk about it in just adjectives, they think that they're talking about the exact same thing. Although they're falling on the totally different ends of the spectrum. It's like we're having a similar experience, but hanging on totally different polarities of an issue.

And also, just in terms of us coming to this album, like, going back to the "Birds Of A Feather" idea, we've gone through quite a few things to get to this point of still making records together. So, "Walk Through Fire" was kind of like the same thing.

Songfacts: And how about some earlier tunes, beginning with "Brutal Hearts."

Malinowski: "Brutal Hearts" is directly what it seems to be about. I'm doing a duet with Beatrice [Martin], and at the time she was my girlfriend, as well. I think it's basically about two people who are very much leaning on each other, and probably not in their best state. That song is definitely very real.

Songfacts: "Walls Fall Down."

Malinowski: There are many elements to "Walls Fall Down." In a very direct way, "When the walls fall down on your hometown," I think holding on to things really tightly that we have grown accustomed to, when we take all those things away, then we can actually begin to start something new again - as opposed to holding on to past ideas.

At the time I wrote that, George W. Bush was still the president of the United States, so the references in the verse may not make as much sense anymore. But that's generally what the song is about.

Songfacts: "St. Andrews."

Malinowski: "St. Andrews" was about living in Kensington Market in Toronto at a time in my life when I was at the end of a relationship. I had the idea generally of it being a celebratory… almost "New Orleans second line vibe" to it. And the video has that involved in it - a celebratory aspect to the passing of an era in my life.

Songfacts: You just mentioned the song's video. What are some of your favorite videos that the band has done?

Malinowski: "Until We Burn In The Sun" I think was one of the best videos we've ever done. We were out in the sand dunes close to the Salton Sea. That was with the director Michael Maxxis.

In terms of the actual content of a video, we shot a live off the floor video in Preservation Hall in the French Quarter in New Orleans with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, for a song called "Edges Of The Night." And that was in terms of actually being involved in the video was so cool - to be playing with those guys in such an historic building that was the cradle of so much amazing music in the world.

And also, I have to say the video we just put out - "Walk Through Fire." Matt Leaf, who directed it, is a friend of mine. I had a really awesome time doing that video. We were just rolling around in a convertible in the interior of BC.



Songfacts: Which of the songs you've written is the most meaningful to you?

Malinowski: "When The Night Feels My Song" - and it's one of the biggest songs we have - but meaningful because I remember writing it and thinking it was going to be the last song that I ever was probably going to write for the band, because I thought we were moving on.

I remember that moment in time really well and it's meaningful in that sense. It says something to me about how you can think one thing in reality of how things are, and then that can drastically change at any time.

But I was going to say it was hard to pin down one song, because they're all like a diary of events of my life.

Songfacts: Who would you say is your most surprising musical influence? And can you give an example within one of your own songs?

Malinowski: One of my favorite singers of all time is Mohammed Rafi. That might be surprising because he doesn't sing in English - he was a Bollywood singer. An amazing singer. He had a song called "Aaj Mausam Bada Beimaan Hai" and he has this way of singing and this delivery that I kind of use on "Edges Of The Night."

October 18, 2022

For more, visit bedouinsoundclash.com.

Further reading:

Songs with a reggae influence
The Ska Episode of the Songfacts Podcast
The Clash Songfacts
David Hinds of Steel Pulse
Eric Wilson of Sublime
Angelo Moore of Fishbone

Photos: Steph Montani

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