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‘"‘Industrial was really something that existed in the early 80s, and was a very electronic thing â€" almost angry,"" Newkirk Not bad for a couple of nonâ€"musicians. ‘"‘We‘re not really musicians. I‘m an artistic technician,‘‘ Newkirk (the techno guy) clarifies. ‘‘And I‘m a technical artist," Keevill (the more lyrically creative of the two) chimes in. "And we both cross each other‘s boundaries a little bit â€" that‘s why we get along so well."‘ So together â€" well, it just works. Because of its techno sound, listeners have dubbed DigiT as industrialâ€"alternative (a genre soâ€"named for its machineryâ€"like rhythms). But Newkirk and Keevill think their music, more accurately, was born of industrial music. Neither of them is really a musician â€" not in the classical sense, anyway. And they don‘t claim to be. But the music created by Chris Newkirk and Bojan (Beau) Keevill, of the Kâ€"W electronicâ€"alternative duo DigiT, is, well, electronic and alternative. It‘s also imaginative and inspired. And it‘s heavyâ€"techno sound is making its way into area alternative dance clubs via live performance, and will soon make its way onto the disc players of thousands via a CFNY Modern Music Search compilation Featuring April 29 to May 4 DigiT: New meaning to ‘industrial‘ music By Deborah Crandall "ANGELICA® Grand Master of Dance _ Miss Nude Europe _ _But what isn‘t missing from the Bourbon music is variety. "Our style is so wide,"‘ says Beresford. ‘"A lot of influences are from country, blues, rock and jazz â€" all of that stuff enters into our music.‘‘ Gene Hardy, the band‘s saxophonist and violinist, points to groups like Sty and the Family Stone, The Band, and Parliament Funkadelic as major influâ€" ences on the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. And, not to be overlooked, is the impact of the music of Bourbon Street. 12:30â€"5:00 8:30â€"12:30 ‘‘Synthesizers do have their place but 1 think they quickly date themseives because people get quickly accustomed and bored of the sound,‘‘ says Bourbon Tabernacle Choir drummer Gregor Beresford. He doesn‘t understand why more of today‘s bands don‘t use instruâ€" ments like the organ, piano or clavinet because of their beautiful tone. ‘‘These instruments have such warmth and depth,‘‘ he explains. ‘‘We all (the band) recognized that it was something that was_sadly missing from young groups.‘‘ You won‘tâ€"find a sythesizer at a Bourbon jam session, but what you will find is an intoxicating musical mix of blues, jazz, funk, soul and rock â€" you name it and it‘s in there. In fact, a great deal of original Bourbon tunes are built around the rich sounds of the Hammond In these days of technoâ€"pop overkill, The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir is one of the few bands that relies solely on its musical ability. By Michelle Lahn No synthesizers, gadgets Just good music â€" in Bourbon Tab‘e'rr;éc:vI;aâ€"E)rToiâ€"rv's,tyle says. ‘"‘People keep classifying harder electronic music as industrial. But we don‘t really think we‘re industrial because we‘ve done some lighter stuff. As such, | don‘t think industrial exists as a genre at the The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, which alsoeonsistsofChrisBrownonkey~ boards, Chris Miller and Peter Mercier on guitar, Jason Mercer on bass, and vocalists Dave Wall and Kate Fenner, has come a long way since their early days of cover work. Today, their perforâ€" mances consist largely of original tunes and the covers that they do perform are injected with a shot of that distinctive Bourbon Tabernacle style. ‘‘The stuff we pick is usually pretty obscure, or at least obscure enough that you probably wouldn‘t be able to tell it is a cover,"" Hardy laughs. But it‘s because of original tunes like Rescue Me and Tell Me That You Love Me that the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir moment, but a lot of those sounds of the early 80s have been carrying on through the current music of the 90s."" "‘I guess the easiest way to explain it," Keevill adds, ‘‘is basically to say that real, eight original songs produced by the 1980, the octet has released three recordings. in 1987 band followers experienced that First Taste of Bourbon, a threeâ€"song cassette sampler. The next year brought a followâ€"up release of if Hell Had A House Band, and in the spring of 1990 Sister Anthony captured the Bourbon pure energy. Recorded in an isolated studio outside of Toronto, Sister Anthony contains can regularly sell out Toronto clubs the likes of Albert‘s Hall, and The El Mocamâ€" Since the Bourbons were formed in ‘‘We went into a studio that is comâ€" Battle of the Sexes " Sat., May 4/91 Recession Specialâ€" ~ ~ "~ " ** "ro@ C um Free Pool 1 â€" 5 p.m. 579 King St. N., Waterloo g:gullr Buifll‘e‘t $3.75 Open Daily t. noon till 1 p.m. FREE _ Noon iam. 746â€"5209 Starting at 9 p.m ENTERTAINMENT ZONE, WEDNESDAY, MAYy But gradually, since coming together as a band in November of 1989, Newkirk and Keevill have put together their own studio (SCREAM, and acronym for Sound Creaâ€" tion, Recording, Engineering And Manipuâ€" lation) in the attic of the home where they both live. It‘s an expensive part of what they do, too. For two guys with day jobs (one a hair stylist by day, the other a retail store manager) acquiring the plethora of elecâ€" tronic gizmos (synthesizers, sequencers, samplers, analog this and digital that) needed to create their sound is a costly Both young men (in their earty 20s) have decidedly pointed their music in a ~marketâ€" able‘‘ direction. They don‘t want it to be so offâ€"theâ€"wall that radio stations or dance clubs won‘t play it But it‘s definitely alternative â€" and techno *‘Technology is a big, big part of what we and bands like us do,"‘ Keevill says Newkirk sees heavy techno music as evolving away from industrial â€" beating on metal and such â€" and towards more lyrical and melodic elements. Such is the case with DigiT . true industrial music is sort of the same thing punk was in the late 70s It‘s something that was very influential, and it changed the music industry It gave the music industry a big kick in the butt To help reach that potential, the Bourbons recently released a new video entitled, Put Your Head On Recorded last winter, both song and video were produced by Wiseman. The band also plans to record a new album this summer and is contemplating a move to New York City to "reâ€"energize and reâ€" fuel. ‘You have to take risks in this bus: ness while you‘re young,‘ says Beresâ€" 1ord "Yqu‘ve got to start getting imagiâ€" He also feels that the band has become much tighter and professional and that they have tremendous potential to sell a lot of records ‘‘All these peopie in the band are very creative and different and it just seems to me that whenever you get a mix of people like that, you have a potential for something that is semiâ€"explosive,"‘ he says pletely isolated. So we spent a week living there and just making an album, says Beresford. "‘In that sense the album really connected because it was done over just a week and nobody was going home after the session. There‘s a real symmetry to it."‘ Although the Bourbons had recorded before, for Berestord, Sister Anthony was just the beginning for the band ‘‘We‘re all learning about the recording studio and we‘re becoming better mus: cians,"‘ he says. ‘‘Our music is maturing in terms of writing and arranging Grope Toads, Friday, May 3 Waterloo‘s NETWORK (Continued on EZ11)