There’s a calibre of grit and hauntedness that comes from recording late into the night at the home of the murdered “Godfather of Seymour Street.” Once the home of nightclub kingpin Joe Philliponi, 1033 Seymour housed such revered musicians as Sammy Davis Jr. and Etta James after they performed the adjacent Penthouse nightclub. The site is now the birthplace of Eagle Time Records, where Eric Campbell & the Dirt are laying down an upcoming album.
Such grime, mystery, and the possibility of hauntings makes the space the perfect atmosphere for the self-described cinematic outlaw quintet.
“That’s where the Philliponis used to live,” singer Eric Campbell describes, chipping at his turquoise nail polish with a fistful of rings. Surviving family members who still run the Penthouse go by the spelling Filippone. “[They’re] the Italian family that ran the Penthouse back in the ‘30s, and the house is still there. This awesome, eager, and crazy-in-all-the-right-ways guy named Wade had been living there for the past few years and he started turning it into a music studio.”
Operated by Wade Jenner, Eagle Time Records – a nod to the Filippones’ Eagle Time Athletic Club which ran out of the building in the late 1940s – offered to record the band after seeing them perform at Vancouver’s Railway Club.
“[Jenner] worked at The Railway Club, so it all just came together while we had all these new songs and this newfound energy.”
The record label owner offered the band to come in and record an album live off the floor. And so they did.
“So, all of our instruments were just there. We would show up just a few times a week, we’d go in around seven or eight when everyone was off work and basically do a song a night. We’d have to be there until like three or four in the morning when everyone was in a desolate headspace. We would always get the best stuff at that time,” Campbell says.
The latest incarnation of the band features Campbell as frontman, Erik Mulder on guitar, Emily Haine on bass, Emily Bach on violin and Colby Morgan on drums. The five-piece hopes to see their as-of-yet unnamed album hit shelves in early 2016.
Judging from the band’s previous album, Kill Your Love, listeners can expect more grunge-influenced rock and roll with Campbell’s evocative lyricism.
A combination of his love of songwriting and audacious showmanship is what led to re-establishing the Dirt after his earlier departure from local blues-rock outfit, No Sinner.
“I went on two or three pretty long tours with them,” Campbell explains, noting he was “exhausted” from tripping around Europe and the US with a band he didn’t fully connect with anymore.
“I started to hate guitar so when I quit and I reformed the Dirt, I just wanted to make it more of a songwriting affair. I was helping write the songs [in No Sinner] but, as a presentation factor, I was just the guitar player and I wasn’t comfortable with that. I just didn’t feel like doing any more guitar solos.”
Fronting his own troupe, Campbell now has the freedom to direct his performance in any way he likes. And he likes to keep it energetic.
“I guess I do have some kind of persona,” he admits.
“I have some slightly outrageous performances. In Montreal, my friend was dancing in the front row and he dropped his beer glass and it shattered everywhere. I was shirtless and I jumped down and drank the beer off the ground with him, but I ended up just tackling him and writhing around in the glass and got up and kept playing the song. Someone tapped me on the shoulder and was like, ‘You’re bleeding… a lot,’” the frontman reminisces.
What was a feat one night became a challenge the next, as Campbell and his band aspired to outdo themselves during each show.
“I like that aspect of tour, that everyone was wondering if you had another trick up your sleeve and that kind of energy,” he reveals.
At home, Eric Campbell & the Dirt are aiming to keep things weird while recording at the site of what was once known as a hub for things that were – let’s say – not entirely legal.
Kind of perfect for pulling off that whole outlaw thing.
• Eric Campbell & the Dirt perform at LanaLou’s Rock and Roll Eatery on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 9 pm.
