Caught in the Carousel

Dearly Beloved

By Pamela Obenchain

Dearly Beloved

Friendship, it's something we all need. It saves us from our loneliest nights, gets us through the hard times and helps to make our best moments even more special. And it's what brought Dearly Beloved together.

Formed in 2006, the Canadian band is made up of four longtime friends, Rob Higgins, Niva Chow, Chris Molson and Gavin Maguire. "I call the band The Beloveds and in a way I almost wish I had named the band The Beloveds," says Higgins. "At the time, Dearly Beloved was perfect because the only people I was making music with were people I was really close to and love was definitely a huge component."

Dearly Beloved

Higgins began writing music to deal with a stressful time in his life, his father's death. Having such a creative outlet to deal with the situation is what saved him and ultimately, made him realize the importance of love in his life. "Just remembering," he says, "how much the folks in my life love me—that genuine love and support that the people in your life do have for you, it can be enough to get you through pretty much anything."

Since that time, Dearly Beloved has put out three albums and developed a cult following in their own country. All of its members have impressive backgrounds in the indie rock scene of Toronto, with Higgins himself coming from Canada's influential alt rock band Change of Heart. They recently signed with the Zoe label, a division of Rounder Records to put out their latest effort, Make It Bleed.

Dearly Beloved

Make it Bleed is the band's first U.S. release and trying to break this market can be...challenging. While Dearly Beloved does utilize the technology the digital age has to offer, that can also bring its own challenges. With the advent of social networking and You Tube, any idiot living in his mom's basement with delusions of being the next Jeff Beck can post his "badass" self for all the world to enjoy; this could possibly muddy the waters for a new band trying to gain attention. Higgins, however, feels this isn't really an issue in the long run: "The cream will always rise to the top. If you have something to offer that can resonate with people, it will," he says. From the glowing reviews Make it Bleed has received (my own included) that statement is proving to be true.

Dearly Beloved likes to use technology for a slightly different, more specific purpose though. Explains Higgins, "For us, we need to use it on a small level to feed tours. When we're going from town to town we need to be able to use Facebook and MySpace to connect with the folks in the small towns. Our main focus is touring, we're not an internet band. We're not a band that's going to sit there and pursue becoming an 'internet sensation' as much as we would pursue becoming a touring band because that's the way I grew up, that's the only way I know how to connect with people. Our whole thing is much more about connecting on a human level."

Dearly Beloved

That connection is what Higgins enjoys most about playing live. His first real gig was a house party in high school. During the first song, the class bully started yelling "Higgins, you fucking suck!" and in a scene straight out of a John Hughes movie, Higgins and his bandmates stood their ground against the growing group of bullies and finished their set. "I toughed it out for the rest of the show," he says. "I played the rest of my set and by the end of the show I had a whole bunch of fans there. We didn't crumble, we just sort of held our ground and did our thing," Higgins recalls. And all these years later, he still loves "sweating it out with grit and passion" with his band: "I still get a huge kick out of connecting with other musicians on a stage in a pocket around a great melody that I crafted with friends."

Rather than touring immediately after the release of Make it Bleed though, Higgins and his friends took a road trip to the desert. For five nights, they "lived and breathed the desert life" at Rancho de la Luna, the famed Joshua Tree recording studio. "The whole band came down there and it was a creative explosion; absolutely magical" says Higgins. "We were at the home of bad ass and we got a whole bunch of it on us." Decamping to the desert right after a major release is not the way most bands would do it, but it clearly worked for Dearly Beloved. Explains Higgins "We have 11 new songs in the can for the next time that people are interested in hearing new music from us."

Internet:
dearlybelovedmusic.com/
www.myspace.com/dearlybeloved