Eschewing the term ‘supergroup’ the four musicians comprising the lineup of the new Canadian rock band Bonds of Mara prefer to see themselves as four fellas with shared life experience, shared musical interests and a shared desire to get back into the ‘game’ of writing, recording and performing music – but on their own terms.
Featuring former I Mother Earth vocalist Brian Byrne, who has spent the last few years working on high-tech music distribution platforms and other cool techie ideas, Bonds of Mara sees him joining guitarist Sal Costa, formerly of My Darkest Days, Dave Benedict who played/plays bass for Default (who reunited a couple of years ago to tour with Stone Temple Pilots and Seether) and Finger Eleven/Saint Asonia drummer Rich Beddoe.
The group recently released its debut single, the effervescent, hook-laden and exceptionally badass Lights Out, and has more songs in the can, in anticipation of releasing a full album at some point down the road.
“I think when bands like this come together with members of different well known bands, people think its not going to be something that will last more than a song or one album or whatever. We’re going to go out there and prove the opposite,” said Collingwood, Ontario-based Costa, who is also studying to be a plant-based chef.
“And we want the music and this band to stand on its own legs, not from anything else or what we have each done in the past. Because that’s going to be the one hurdle that we’re going to have to jump over – living up to the expectations of what our other projects have done. We want this music to speak for itself,” added Byrne, who lives on the east coast of Canada.
The origin story of Bonds of Mara is quite simple. Musicians who were contemporaries of one another back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, who had grown disillusioned with the music industry to one degree or another and who had started working on other creative endeavours in their lives, realized they had a lot in common personally and creatively … including a burgeoning itch to return to making, recording and performing music.
“I think it was through Adam Gontier [ex Three Days Grace, current Saint Asonia vocalist]. He was the connection because I met Sal through his Instagram page. He messaged me actually and we decided to get on the phone together and I thought it might be interesting. I had been shy about joining a band or doing music for the past couple of years. And Sal, for whatever reason, seemed really awesome. We started talking about tunes and wanting to do music again. Sal was in the same headspace where he didn’t know if he wanted to do the band thing again. I think we felt safe with each other and a friendship developed, and we talked more and more about music, and kept it going and started thinking about how we could approach some other people to join in,” Byrne explained.
“Sal was the one who thought about Dave and I’d always really enjoyed talking to Dave the handful of times I would run into him on the road, he seemed very kind and nice. And I remember that about Dave, and obviously his playing. And we just started to put things together from there. It really is one of those situations where you make these very common statements that sound very disingenuous, but it really was an organic process. It felt really easy peasy to put the pieces together relatively frictionless, even with all the geographical constraints with us living in different parts of the country. It just felt good to do, and we kept rolling with it and now here we are sitting in a vehicle at a beach near Collingwood talking to you.”
What is different about Bonds of Mara is that everything is done on their own terms, and that there is no performance pressure other than simply writing, recording and playing the best music they can _ and having as much fun along the way as possible. Costa said connecting with Byrne, Benedict and drummer Rich Beddoe helped him overcome his resistance in jumping back into the music business with both feet.
“At some point during the whole journey you blur the lines between the music and the music business, and you think that you just hate all of it. And I will speak for myself, but for me it was almost like I thought I was over music, period. But it’s like that old saying, what you resist persists, and I just felt myself resisting music so much, I didn’t even want to listen to it at times. I remember saying to myself, ‘if I don’t even want to listen to it, there’s obviously a reason it’s painful for me to listen to music, and that’s because I must still want to do it.’ And when I started realigning the controls of trying to resist the urge to want to play again, that’s when I connected with all these guys,” he said.
“So, yeah, I want to do music, but I want to do it with people that I like. And when we all got into a room together, we had a great synergy. The way that this all started was we all went to Vancouver, that would be our meeting point. Let’s stay in a room for like 10 days and see if there is any musical chemistry. And there was. And they way things are now, there is way less pressure on us, and when there is less pressure, everything becomes better. The music becomes better too. I have found in my career any time I felt pressured to make something happen, it never does. When you just let things unfold, it happens. I think there is a lot less pressure and we’re doing it because we love it.”
“One thing that does make this kind of unique, and why we are so adamant about having the freedom to do what we want is the fact that we were all the last guys in our respective bands, the last to join. Those bands were already established as far as the sound goes. The songs had been written and all that had been developed. But with this, we have all worked this from the ground up together, so we’ve got a little more of a vested interested and taken great ownership in it. And it’s 100 per cent us,” added Benedict.
What might come as a surprise to some music lovers is that Bonds of Mara isn’t trying to replicate the alt rock stylings that predominated in the likes of I Mother Earth, Default, Finger Eleven, or My Darkest Days. There isn’t a hint of that ‘Grunge’ angst, rather the lead off single from the band, Lights Out, is more just straightforward hard rock, infused with excellent, but not overpowering hooks and wonderful melodies.
“Sal was the one who said he wanted the band to sound like four guys just playing music together,” said Byrne.
“One thing we really wanted to do as well was feature the bass, because some of our favourite bands had really great bass sounds, like Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, etc. A lot of modern music on the radio right now has so much saturated guitar sounds that the bass is just part of the guitar frequency. And a lot of the bass is programmed. We’re like, ‘let’s just feature what is there instead of adding a ton of crap. Whatever we can do live, let’s just record it live,’” said Costa.
Lighten Up and other music from the initial Bonds of Mara sessions was actually produced by Danny Craig, drummer for Default and an excellent producer in his own right. He is also subbing for Beddoes behind the kit while Beddoes works through some immigration issues after marrying an American woman.
“I said to the guys that we’ve got Danny the drummer from Default, and he’s a killer producer as well. So, we got Danny to lay down drums for those sessions and he produced them and also produced the single Lights Out. Moving forward, we’re going to get back in a room with him because the chemistry was amazing, so he’s our captain from a production point of view,” said Benedict.
An actual date for a prospective Bonds of Mara album release has not even been broached, as the band is focused on playing some summer shows to introduce fans to the band and its music.
“When we initially got together, we came up with about 10 ideas and then we whittled it down to four. And then from there we actually finished three songs before taking one that we re-recorded to make it single worthy. We recorded those three initial songs and then out of that we had a couple that were left over that we went back and finished up, just recently actually. Then when Sal came in to re-record his parts for the Lights Out, we recorded a couple more tunes. So, we have five or six right now, and we’re going to start woodshedding again soon and try to come up with a bunch more. As far as when we think the album is going to come out, I don’t think we really have a solid date or solid plan yet,” said Byrne.
In the interim, Bonds of Mara are playing a select number of shows over the summer, with the next one being Aug. 24, at the Georgian Triangle Music Festival in Wasaga Beach. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/BondsOfMara.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
