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Toronto's Star...
Ben Rayner is the rock critic for the Toronto Star...and you're not! Known for his sardonic wit and a willingness to slot Britney and Beyoncé alongside Uncut and UFO, Rayner is the ultimate generalist: a genuine connoisseur of musical snot-itude but also an observer of Much Music, boy bands and all the rest of it. He has the guts to tread in the mainstream, a place that many rock critics avoid for fear of setting off a bear trap of banality. Yet you can leaf through just a small sample of his work and be left with the impression of dedicated student of the underground, and a diehard music fan above all else. Rayner and I recently enjoyed several late afternoon beers at Toronto's Red Room, and discussed what life is like writing about music for Canada's largest daily. Cameron: When did you first start
getting into journalism?
Ben: My mother is a reporter and my
father was a reporter too--they actually met while working for the same
newspaper back in England. And my dad eventually became a music teacher so
I guess I combined elements of both. I never really wanted to do journalism
because I didn't want to do what my mom did. But I was always a pretty good
writer so I ended up taking journalism in school because I got money for it
up at Carleton. I had done some writing for my mom's paper, growing up in
St George, New Brunswick--I used to help out with this April Fools issue
she'd do in the community newspaper. My mom doesn't think she's funny so I
wrote that from about the time I was 12.
Cameron: Do your parents still write?
Ben: My mom does. My dad's retired
now. He was a principal back in New Brunswick and he just published his
fourth or fifth kids book. He does some photography too and teaches piano.
Cameron: So it seems like you've lived
in a few places?
Ben: Yep, I was born in Colchester,
England, and then moved to Newfoundland to New Brunswick to Ottawa to here.
I'm as much Newf as I am anything else.
Cameron: How did you discover a lot of
the obscure music, growing up in the Maritime's?
Ben: I listened to "Brave New Waves"
on CBC radio a ton. That and Backstreet Records in Saint John, New
Brunswick were my only lifelines to what was happening in the music world.
I actually had Psychocandy by the Jesus and Mary Chain when I was
11. I had this babysitter who played it for me and I liked it. So I
definitely got into a lot of the weird stuff pretty early--the Jesus and
Mary Chain, the Damned, the Church, Severed Heads, Love and Rockets. I had
my first Joy Division album at 12. I remember I bought it in St Johns,
Newfoundland off the very same guy who used to work in the Sam's at
Brunswick Square in Saint John, which is just too perfect not to be part of
some greater design?sorry, I know that's a total stoner thing to say.
Otherwise, I've always been a big metal fan--I grew up in a town of 1,300
people in rural New Brunswick, so that's pretty much a given. For the
electronic stuff, it started with New Order and Cabaret Voltaire, then
into Arthur Baker and The Orb. I had read about a lot more of the techno
stuff than I'd actually heard so it wasn't until I got to Ottawa that I
really got into techno. I was and still am a huge techno nerd.
It's the same type of group as indie rock nerds--all awkward boys [laughs].
I began going to lots of parties once I moved to Ottawa. There was actually
a good audience for that kind of music in Ottawa. It was a small music
community at the time so you'd see all the same faces.
Cameron: And it was in Ottawa that
your writing career really started?
Ben: Yeah, I started interning at the
Ottawa Sun in my fourth year at Carleton and they hired me for the
summer before I had even graduated. That was around 1996, I think. They
hired me as a GA for the summer but I knew the editor a little bit. Craig
MacInnis, who used to be a rock writer and a film writer in Toronto, was my
arts prof at Carleton and he introduced me to Vit Wagner. Indirectly, he
got me the job at the Star, through his contacts.
Cameron: What were you doing at the
Sun when you first started?
Ben: I worked weekends at the start.
Eventually, the entertainment editor offered me a three-month contract to
replace Paul Canton, who was their music writer. Paul was leaving to write
a book about Alanis Morrissette. It actually turned into four months
because Paul took an extra month to write the Alanis book. Just when I was
starting at the Sun, there were a ton of pretty good bands in
Ottawa playing all sorts of different music: Punchbuggy, Furnaceface,
Wooden Stars, Starling. There actually seems to be a new wave of bands from
Ottawa now because I'm getting sent a lot of stuff from that direction.
Anyway, once Paul came back, they gave me a column writing about bars. And
then the publisher liked me enough to give me a column on the Saturday
op-ed page.
Cameron: What were you writing about
then?
Ben: Well, he wanted me writing about
the "politics of youth" but it very quickly degenerated into the
usual?stuff I write about now. Then, I got hired as a news writer and then
the rock writer again when Paul left. In the space of two years, I moved
around a ton.
Cameron: How did you end up coming to
the Star?
Ben: In about May of 1998, the
Star phoned me--I had actually interviewed for Betsy Powell's job
when she got hired. They called me up, asked if I still wanted to work for
the Star. I was like, "Uh? YES." He said he couldn't really
guarantee me the job but it was pretty much mine if it was available. It
was just weird. I never really wanted to live in Toronto, but it was
obviously a great opportunity. I had never really read the Star
before that, which maybe was a good thing.
Cameron: I always thought it was a bit
strange when you got hired because a lot of the stuff you ended up writing
about wasn't "newsworthy" in a sense. It was music that wasn't getting
covered anywhere else, at least in mainstream media.
Ben: I don't know about that; the
Star's always been really good about letting me do whatever I want
and covering a wide range of topics. It's a bit worse now because we're
working without an editor. It's pretty much running itself at this point.
Cameron: So there's a lot more freedom
at the Star than at the Ottawa Sun?
Ben: It was just a different approach.
On my second to last day at the Sun, Swervedriver were playing
their first ever show in Ottawa. And I love Swervedriver. So I put in an
advance for the show, it's my second to last day and the managing editor
calls me over and says, "Ben, Ben? come 'ere. What are you doin'? Who are
these guys? Who are the Swervedrivers? Alannah Myles is playing the Hard
Rock Café and we don't have anything!" They were just freaking out. It was
just an example of the kind of controlling people who had no clue in terms
of music at the Sun. But at the Star, they don't care. As
long as Christian Aguilera gets reviewed when she comes through, I can
write about Richie Hawtin ad nauseum if I want to.
Cameron: How do you and Vit Wagner
share rock writing duties?
Ben: Well, Vit's been at the paper for
13 years but I'm actually the senior rock writer at this point. It's
supposed to be Vit featuring the "mature artists" and me just doing
whatever. After Betsy Powell left, it was just me and a couple of
freelancers I was using. And I just ignored a whole tier of stuff--y'know,
Deep Purple and Yes. There were obviously exceptions, like when the Rolling
Stones came through town, but there would be months where I'd be writing
about nothing but techno.
Cameron: Did you ever think there'd be
a point where you might lose that free reign?
Ben: No, it's not like anybody was
complaining about the stuff I was writing. I think they appreciated that I
was writing about all these other kinds of music. The electronic stuff
especially, nobody was writing about it when I started. Even eye
or Now weren't covering it that much, and I think the
Star appreciated that we were giving the readers something a
little different.
Cameron: I think that's pretty
reflective of the youth focus the Star's been trying to build
since the mid-1990s.
Ben: When I started at the
Star, the National Post had just come out and the
Star really wanted to stock themselves with young writers. And
they're still saying that today. There's this thirst to be different and I
think that's a good thing, but when you try too hard at something like
that, inevitably you'll fail. For a newspaper, when they manage to find a
writer who is able to connect with their audience, they're very
appreciative. You'll get a lot more leeway?plus nobody reads the
Entertainment section anyway [laughs].
Cameron: Have you ever submitted
anything that the Star has rejected?
Ben: No, never. Of course, I file so
late most of the time that there's not a lot they can do in that 10-minute
window [laughs]. But no, nobody's ever complained. That's the thing; the
Ottawa Sun was a right wing paper staffed by pretty left-leaning
people while the Star is a lot more central. They're very cool
about allowing for many voices. Especially in the Entertainment section,
you could've been a communist during the McCarthy era and you still
would've got published.
Cameron: I remember you once wrote
about going to a Yanni concert. How'd that come about?
Ben: I wasn't even going to write
about it but my friend thought it would be funny to go. I like doing shit
like that. I saw the Backstreet Boys five or six times; it's pretty
interesting to watch them go from the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull to
50,000 people at Sky Dome. My first week at the Star, I was flown
to Montreal to see the first Canadian appearance by the Spice Girls. And
last Valentine's Day, the Star flew me to New York to speak with
Kylie Minogue. I really enjoy doing the pop stuff where Vit really doesn't
like it. It's just so much fun to write about.
Cameron: I really like reading your
columns because you're not really harsh and elitist like a lot of rock
critics are. You seem to be able to keep the audiences for the music in
mind, and write from that perspective.
Ben: I think that's because I've been
writing about it for so long and because I've been to a lot of the really,
really bad pop shows. Bands like O-Town or the real boring stuff like Our
Lady Peace or Matchbox 20. I see a band like that and I just don't get
anything from them. It's really hard to write about those type of bands.
But with the pop bands, you start to judge them on a sliding scale. Like I
know a Britney Spears show will be entertaining and it won't be as
obnoxious as a Christian Aguilera show. And with the Backstreet Boys, the
last time I saw them, it was so sad. They had become totally earnest and
they were all dressed in black?"This song is dedicated to my sister. She
died three years ago of lupus." When Justin Timberlake was still playing
with 'N Sync, their shows were always kind of fun. They'd have Mystery
Science Theatre 3000 heads bobbing around on the video screen. A lot
of that stuff is way more clever than it's made out to be and it's totally
entertaining?even if it's dreadful. The bad ones are still really bad but
the good ones would surprise you.
Cameron: Are O-Town the worst of that
ilk that you've encountered?
Ben: Not sure, they were just the
first that came to mind. I was thinking about them the other day. Not only
were they lip-synching but they were also miming playing their instruments.
It's really hard to pick a worst band. If you're talking about the most
unpleasant band to watch, it's usually those half-assed bands that aren't
really good or bad. Like Incubus or Three Days Grace. You just sit there
thinking why the fuck do they have such a huge audience?
Cameron: I'd agree. I would much
rather see something I absolutely hated than something I'm just indifferent
about.
Ben: Yeah, come to think of it, Bon Jovi
were pretty fucking awful too.
Cameron: One band that I thought kind
of turned a corner of banality was Creed. They started out really boring
but then they got pretty over-the-top with the posturing and religious
overtones. It got to be so sensationalized that they became sorta
interesting for their sheer ridiculousness of it all.
Ben: Actually, Creed were one of the
worse shows I have ever seen. I remember sitting there with Kieran Grant
and my ex-girlfriend, thinking it would be really funny, but it was just
brutal. There were these Roman pillars on stage and every song sounded
exactly the same--like Alice in Chains with Eddie Vedder singing. Their
singer is one of those guys you just want to smack in the face.
Cameron: What kind of promo items are
you getting from the record labels these days?
Ben: Mainly just the CDs at this
point. I get all my mail sent to my house because it gets stolen at work. I
did an experiment a few years back with the Garth Brooks re-issues that
came out. I tucked them behind some books, under my desk, and sure enough,
they were gone within a few days. People literally rifle through there. The
problem with getting everything sent to my house is that I'm literally up
to my ass in crap. But it's nothing like it was a few years ago. The labels
just aren't giving out as much stuff as they used to with the CDs. If
you're lucky, you might get some candy or a coupon for $2 off at KFC.
Cameron: Do you throw most of the
excess right in the garbage?
Ben: Yeah, that or I give it to the
United Way or something.
Cameron: With all the free CDs you
get, do you ever buy anything at HMV or the big chain stores?
Ben: I've become friendly with a lot
of the cool indie labels so I get most of that stuff now, so I can save my
cash to buy weird 12"s. The last thing I bought from HMV was the Rhino
Left of the Dial box set. It's awesome--really good for road trips.
It cost $120 but was definitely worth it.
Cameron: What's in your CD player
right now?
Ben: I've really been obsessed with
the re-issues of the third and fourth Suicide albums. I've never been a
huge Suicide fan but they have this song "Wild in Blue" that I just can't
get enough of. It's the darkest tune ever, just this throbbing death disco
thing. It doesn't sound like anything else they've ever done but it's so
good. [Responding to music coming over PA] The Paul Oak enfold megamix? This
is when trance used to be all right--1995 or 1996, when I used to be a
full-on rave kid.
Cameron: Well, they were playing the
Cranberries before you came in so I guess their music policy changes come
late afternoon.
Ben: The Cranberries had their
moments. I'll give anything the benefit of the doubt and try to find
something to like. I'm just so negative most of the time that it's too easy
just to slam most of the stuff I hear. But yeah, the Cranberries had some
decent tunes?This is totally zooming me back. I'm starting to feel a bit
melancholy.
Cameron: Do you go to a lot of record
industry parties?
Ben: Sometimes, but not so much
anymore. When I first moved Toronto, that was kind of exciting because we
didn't get a lot of that in Ottawa. It's not that I dislike the showcases
or whatever but I just hate talking to people at those things. I'm pretty
reclusive; I'll nip in the back right before it starts and leave the second
it ends.
Cameron: Are you often assaulted by
young bands wanting you to write about them?
Ben: Yeah, there's a little bit of
that but you can normally tell right away when you're getting into one of
those conversations. But yeah, it's not quite as romantic as bands shoving
their demos in my face. I get a lot more, "Hey! My friend's in a band. They
play covers out in Brampton. You should check 'em out."
Cameron: Are you still as enthusiastic
about seeing so many concerts as when you started?
Ben: It's hard because I've seen so
much now that I get pickier and pickier about what I'll watch. It's not a
pretentious thing; it's just I don't want to be seeing the same kind of
band over and over. I've actually been going to a lot more of the
electronic stuff recently for sheer pleasure, which means spending a lot of
time in Montreal. But I still think there's no substitute for a good rock
show and sometimes I forget that. I'll see somebody like the Dears and
they'll destroy me every time. But when you're going out for a living, it
can get pretty draining. If you're seeing Blink-182 on a Monday and Yanni
on Tuesday and Melissa Etheridge on Wednesday, I would even pass up the
Constantines just to stay home because I'm out every goddam night. I don't
like when the job erodes my enjoyment of the music.
Cameron: What else would you like to
write about besides music?
Ben: There's a little space to roam in
my column so it's a good outlet for that. It's funny. Just last week, I got
a call from my acting editor asking if I'd like to write about the male
contraceptive pill. It had come up in some meeting and they determined
Rayner's the guy to do it. I went back to sleep, thought about it and
politely declined. I actually like the unpredictability of news--you go in
for your three o'clock shift on a Saturday and you're shuttled out to
Grimsby to interview Mike Harris. Those days don't happen when you're
writing about music, but that's fine.
Cameron: You wrote recently about the
Jandek on Corwood documentary. What did you think of that whole project?
Ben: I thought the filmmakers handled
the whole "myth of Jandek" thing pretty respectfully and did a good job of
confirming that obscurity is an essential part of his art.
Cameron: I enjoyed all the scenes with
the high-brow "rock scholars" pontificating about his music.
Ben: Yeah, like that guy who insisted
it was pronounced Yan-Dek. It was cool to see Calvin Johnson involved. He's
the real deal--one of those true indie guys who's just totally into that
lifestyle. And I had forgotten how much I like that old Beat Happening
stuff. There's just something very sinister about his voice.
Cameron: Lastly, who are some of your
favourite writers, fiction or otherwise?
Ben: I'm an absolutely obsessive
Martin Amis fan. You should read London Fields or Dead
Babies by him; it will probably change your life. You'll know all my
tricks if you read that but it's the most black, black satire. It's nasty
stuff. Otherwise, Chuck Eddy and William S. Burroughs. I wouldn't really
say that any of these guys are influences--The Simpsons is
probably a bigger influence on my writing than anything I've ever read.
There's more of that in this head then anything else. The amount I know
about The Simpsons is just disturbing. I'm just up to my neck in
Simpsons stuff. I've got talking play sets, a talking Krusty doll,
a plush Itchy and Scratchy. I stopped short of getting the Simpsons chess
set. There's actually two different ones--there's a really nice version
that I've seen once and then there's one that's cheaply painted and widely
available [laughs]. I've also got an original David Silverman sketch. I
cornered him at a conference when I worked at the Sun. I was
stoked. Everyone was asking him for sketches when I was talking to him and
I just couldn't bring myself to do that. But then by the end of the
conversation, he drew Homer for me and said, "I think you're a little
obsessed. You have to stop."
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