Saucy band dislikes "preachy" music

By Aileen Goos,
The Projector,
January 24, 1994
Red River Community College

█ Bootsauce: a pungent mix of rap, pop, and Hendrix.

No Sunday sermons here. Bootsauce isn't the type of band you'll see perched on a soap box spewing out words of wisdom to their many throngs of worshippers. Theirs is a digestible kind of preaching fans have come to respect from the Montreal-based quintet.

"We don't want to tell our fans how to live their lives," says vocalist/lyricist Drew Ling. "That's just not what Bootsauce is about."

"Besides, our fans are probably less screwed-up than we are," adds bassist Al Baculis.

But when the need to interject arises, Bootsauce steps in.

Such is the explanation behind the song "Sorry Whole" featured on their latest release, Sleeping Bootie.

"Life ain't a western, it's Hell," reads one of the song's lines, based on an acquaintance's descent into drug use. The band wrote the song as a plea to their friend to cut the habit that was killing him.

"He had all these suffering delusions," says Ling. "Our song tries to tell him to stop digging his own "Sorry Whole"."

That the inclusion of "Sorry Whole" on Sleeping Bootie was discussed and debated by band members is par for the course. Even with the most admirable of relationships there's bound to be conflict somewhere throughout the process.

"There have been times when one member of the band will come to the rest of us with an idea that just doesn't work," says Baculis. "But sometimes they'll insist; they just can't hear why it doesn't work."

Ling and Baculis are satisfied with their newest effort, although it has met with disinterest from some critics. The band explains the change in musical styles as an evolution; an eclectic blend each member has contributed to.

"Rap, pop, Hendrix, it's sort of a big mixture of all those things with Bootsauce," says Ling. "It definitely measures up to anything else we've ever done. I guess we'll have to gauge it with the response to our live shows."

Bootsauce is now eagerly awaiting a promotional tour to coincide with the U.S. and European release of Sleeping Bootie this spring.

Next on the band's agenda is a cross-Canada tour. "Sleepers Awake...The Tour" kicks off in Winnipeg on Jan. 24 at the former Portage Village Inn.