For a band that never originally intended to make a career of music, Toronto based reggae influenced pop band Bedouin Soundclash has done all right for themselves.

The Juno award winning trio, who broke into the mainstream shortly after forming in 2001 with the hit “When the Night Feels My Song,” play the Blarney Stone, Aug. 10.

They just completed a  tour with No Doubt which was even more special because No Doubt brought the opening acts including bedouin Soundclash lead singer/ guitarist Jay Malinowski back on stage to sing with them during the encore of “Stand and Deliver” every night of the three-and-a- half week tour.

“One night  (No Doubt  vocalist ) Gwen Stefani was standing right behind me and I didn’t see her. I turned around too fast and accidentally shoulder checked her. I felt really bad about it, luckily they let me back on stage,”  Malinowski chuckled over the phone from Toronto, adding  No Doubt was a lot of fun to work with.

 “They’re  the nicest people. They’re great to tour with. She’s got quite a stage presence,” he observed.

“We feel really blessed,”  Malinowski continued, adding making music is all about communicating with the audience.

“That’s all we every really wanted to do is make music. I studied art in university and only a few people may see a painting, but when you make music and it becomes popular, a lot of people are touched by it,” he said, adding he doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to painting anymore.  

 

 

He’s designed the previous CDs covers based on his interpretations of the music, but won’t design the next one.

“ I’m want to see how someone else interprets the music through their art. I’d rather just write the record,” he said adding their music is difficult to categorize. 

“We have a reggae base. I listened to a lot of Clash and ’70s punk,” he continued adding Toronto has a strong scene of music influenced by reggae, as rap/hip hop acts like K’os  and Kardinal Offishall are incorporating reggae sounds into their music.

“It (punk and reggae) is very honest. We wanted to put our own  twist onto it, though I think success is very hard to define. So on each record we strive to  make it close to our vision,” he said adding the band will go to San Francisco later this year to write the music for their next CD, which they hope will be out in spring 2010.

“We just love the vibe of that city. It’s where we want to go for the music,” he continued adding he is looking forward to playing a lot of new music at the Blarney Stone. The band is bringing a horn section to accompany Malinowski, bassist Eon Sinclair and drummer Pat Pengelly.

“We’re looking forward to coming back. We’re going to play a lot of new music. The last show (at the university last September) was really good,” he said.

DJ Booda Promotions, the Lethbridge Fire department, the Blarney Stone and B93 are bringing Bedouin Soundclash to Lethbridge.  Five dollars from each of the $25 tickets  will be donated to the Alberta Firefighters Burn Camp for Children. Opening acts will be Vince Vaccaro & Ben Stevenson. Tickets are available at Infamous, Boarderline, Blueprint Music and the Blarney Stone. Door open at 9 p.n with the music starting at 10 p.m.