Change is a good thing, and no one embraces this better than Apostle of Hustle frontman Andrew Whiteman. His band has put out three records that differ vastly: the laid-back vibe of
Folkloric Feel, the dense and, technical
National Anthem of Nowhere, and most recently, the dark textures of
Eats Darkness. They're a hard band to pin down and fully understand, but they're never boring.
The indie rock band is fresh off a very positive tour opening for Gogol Bordello. "We felt we were with some very like-minded people," Whiteman says. "We definitely had our work cut out for us because [the audiences] didn't really know who we were. It was very fun. It was a big challenge for just two people to step out in front of 1,500 people and try and get a reaction. That's kind of our job. It's like foreplay. You just have to warm them up and get them ready."
The "we" Whiteman speaks of are himself and drummer Dean Stone, who currently make up the touring band. Bassist Julian Brown was unavailable, but this new configuration ended up being a musically transformative experience for the band.
"Me and Dean had to figure out a show with just the two of us, which was pretty difficult," says Whiteman. "If you're in a 10-person band and one person leaves it's not that big of a deal, but if you're in a trio and one person leaves you've got to turn a bunch of the songs upside down if you're going to play them. We had to do that, but it's been working out."
But reworking songs is nothing new for Apostle, and even as a trio the band is known for frequently rearranging its songs. Tracks like "National Anthem of Nowhere" have become barely recognizable over the past year. Switching up genres and tempo, the lyrics often become the only vestige of the song's original version.
"We are constantly tapering and changing and rewriting and adding parts and taking parts away and changing rhythms and time signatures," says Whiteman. "We naturally do that, but just having two people we had to really kick that into overdrive."
The band's songs also have a newfound energy on this tour, picking up on some of the manic gypsy-punk liveliness of Gogol Bordello.
Apostle of Hustle plays Il Motore on Friday in one of the last chances to see them for some time. Whiteman will be on the road for most of next year playing in his other band, Broken Social Scene. In Whiteman's words, he has to answer when BSS calls.
"I do Apostle of Hustle because it's love and it's obsession, I have to do it, but there's absolutely zero money involved. I'm lucky enough to be able to make my money playing music [with Broken Social Scene], being able to pay my rent playing music. It's a very, very rare situation so I have to honour that."
But that doesn't mean 2010 is going to be a quiet year for Apostle. The band is releasing a stoner movie called
Demand Age and plans to put out an album they recorded with Haitian voodoo priest Jean-Baptiste Bonga. Apostle of Hustle sure knows how to keep things from getting boring.
Apostle of Hustle plays Il Motore on November 27.
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