Women of Britain play the Chillex
From left, Jaydee Bateman, Alex Smith, Brian Smith and Evan Duncan make up the band Women of Britain.
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Updated: August 07, 2009 10:40 AM
Singer/songwriter Alex Smith is stoked that his band, Women of Britain, will be rocking the performance stage at the Chilliwack Exhibition Friday night.
"We're pretty excited," says the 18-year-old musician. "It's going to be a different crowd at the Chillex than the one we usually play for in clubs. Most people will dig it, anyway."
The recently formed Women of Britain grew out of their former heavy-rock project, Annthronein, which kept them in gigs the past few years, headlining Garage Bands Unite in town, and the Yale, the Red Room, and lots more around Vancouver.
With Smith on vocals and guitar for Women of Britain, he's joined by his childhood buddy, Evan Duncan on bass, drummer Jaydee Bateman and his brother Brian Smith on keyboards.
The band is one of several GBU acts set to entertain fair crowds starting at 7 p.m. tonight at Heritage Park.
Women of Britain "definitely offers a more danceable, pop sound," with strong punk and psychedelic elements, but "it's still offbeat," Smith says.
Out of high school for a year, he's been working a day job and focusing intently on the new band's trajectory. But he's also got a solo act brewing, and is doing some home recording with his brother for other bands on their indie label, Yellow Hat Records.
"We're trying to get a manager and get signed," he says. "I know we're good enough to make it happen."
Commercial appeal is their strength, Smith figures.
"The hooks are there. The songs are solid, catchy and fun, with nothing too extreme to turn off the masses."
Check out tunes like Stir Crazy Baby at www.myspace.com/womenofbritainband. Their sound is described as "white urban jungle punk" and "a flurry to the solar plexis" and even the overly-ambitious handle as "the greatest thing to have ever come out of a backwater bible-belt town."
But making it in the music biz has been the over-arching goal for Smith ever since he got his first taste at 14.
"After the first time I played a half-assed show — our bassist's dad was playing a show and had let us get up and play two songs — it was the greatest feeling in the world."
He thinks he's found his calling, in fact.
"It totally feels like this is what I was born to do when I'm up there on stage," says Smith.
He's a self-taught guitarist who admits to taking a few lessons in high school.
Early musical influences like Nirvana and later The Pixies fed him a steady diet of melodic and crunchy riffs.
"I was also influenced by lots of really eclectic bands from the '60s, you know some unknown and experimental bands, like the Seeds and the Renegades."
Where did the band name come from? There are no women in the band. Yet.
"I know it's crazy, eh?" he admits. "Women of Britain was the name of a tune that Abbotsford band, the WCB, used to play. We just thought it made a good band name."
Not just the name has been transformed. The members had been stagnating a little musically; drifting off.
"So this is really a rebirth," Smith offers. "We had a band meeting and decided to go at it in a different direction."
Women of Britain have seven new songs down, waiting to be recorded.
"We'll have a four-song demo ready soon," he says.
They've been practising hard for a month, so they should be tight at the fair.
"Like everybody, were looking for exposure and that big break," Smith adds.
Women of Britain can be heard at the Red Room in Vancouver the night before they play the Chillex on Aug. 7, along with The Four Suits and other GBU acts.
jfeinberg@theprogress.com
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