Meet The D'Urbervilles...

I guarantee you that you'll want to skip the Cole's Notes for this band, and opt for the unabridged listen... these kids are your new breath of fresh air from the oft haughtily chastising overtones of meaningful indie rock.


The D'Urbervilles are Guelph, Ontario, based four piece who take their name from a Victorian tragedy by Thomas Hardy that challenged modernism and sexual mores of the era.

While the world may seemingly have moved on from some of Hardy's themes, the band could not pay more fitting tribute to their namesake through their socially motivated and thought provoking self-titled debut EP that mashes together pointed lyrics about poverty and class disparity with a brand of sophisticated, upbeat musicianship.

I sat down with guitarist Tim Bruton and singer/guitarist John O'Regan, one half of the band, in their home base of Guelph, Ontario; a sleepy suburban town about an hour outside of Toronto. It's not typically known as a musical mecca, but has had a profound impact on the band. It's a small scene, the kind they say that affords them musical latitudes that have help shape them.

"There is really a big variety of music here I think which sometimes you don't get in other cities," says O'Regan. "Like in Toronto, or at least where there is so many people where you can kind of afford to get lost in your own scene playing your own type of music with your own kind of people. But Guelph is so small by comparison that all the bands kind of have to help each other so it's not weird for there to be a rock band, a folk band and a hip hop band or anything all on the same bill at the same time and all those people to know each other and help each other out."

Both Bruton and O'Regan along with bassist Kyle Donnelly and new drummer Steve Hesselink are fond of their suburban lives, the same which many fledgling bands such as theirs would be jumping the gun to leave. Whereas others feel the need to expand beyond their surroundings, The D'Urbervilles draw a great deal of lyrical inspiration from their suburban setting and the social issues it raises in their eyes.

"We were in class the other day and we were talking just about the world and our professor kind of saying he was feeling really not optimistic about the future of things and he used the word 'shit pickle' to kind of coin what he thought the world was becoming, a big 'shit pickle" explains O'Regan. "It's kind of hard not to feel that way I guess, and for me it is taking those influences of living in a suburban community having that kind of lifestyle and realizing how crazy things have gotten."

"Things like that that seem so out reach and impossible to even really change or do anything about, and boiling those feelings down to kind of make sense of some of that is what we really try to do."

Listening to songs such as We're Blowing Up, People Helping People, and W.O.T.P resonate with educated condemnation of social injustices, shining a glaring light on themes of poverty.

Even O'Regan admits though, newer material, while still maintaining a social conscience has ultimately shifted lyrically to focus more on the parts, rather than the sum of the problem. "I think moreso the lyrics are starting to scale down a little in terms of these big grand visions for an awesome world to more like what can we do that is small and reasonable and meaningful with out friends in our own community that is going to make people feel better for themselves. Whether that is making posters, or putting on a show or taking out the garbage."

The band's social stances go beyond their lyrics, and into even their choices to support and play at venues they believe in. "There's this club called The Velvet Elvis, and it's the most queer-positive place in that whole fucking town," says Tim of the Oshawa venue. "When I discovered it was there, that there was this community in Oshawa, I was like holy shit! That's the only place that we'll play because the people that work there and the people that go there are part of this wonderful community that is so isolated. It creates a space where people who might not be so like minded might come together."

But don't let the serious overtones of the band fool you, they maintain a balance of humor at all times. Just take a look at their CBC Radio 3 profile where they list their influences as bears, Oshawa, Guelph, strip malls and unrequited love. Curious choices, non? Well for band that used to play shows in giant Care Bear suits (black market purchases from a store where Tim used to work), I suppose they're more than appropriate.

And perhaps that is one of the best parts of The D'Urbervilles, watching them play live, or talking to them, they convey a newness that is both refreshing and exciting .They typify what is essentially the best part of music, the thought that it is both a social motivator, and a way to just make the most out of a moment. For The D'Urbervilles, heading on a tour of Eastern Canada shortly, and about to record new material this moment is filled with contentment with the goals they have set out for the band in 2007, "I want to make sure the album we put out is the best we can make it," says Bruton.

Similarly O'Regan echoes, "To be able to get paid to do music and to eat peanut butter sandwiches for a year, while not having to work a crappy job would be amazing but at the same time, just playing a show in Guelph and having your friends come and see you. To know that everyone is having a good time is a total success. And whether it's in the activist community or the music community, you really have to measure your so called victories every step of the way."

We're Blowing Up
People Helping People
W.O.T.P.
+ Myspace

Want to know what the D'Urbervilles are listening to these days? Email me at cristifraser@whoneedsradio.com for their playlist... including music from The Germans, Ohbijou, and Cuff The Duke.

Yours Independently,
CA