Greg Rekus may wield an acoustic guitar, but he is a punk rocker at heart, especially on his most recent CD ‘Punkcoustic’.
The Winnipeg musician returns to the Owl Acoustic Lounge for their Jan. 13 open mic.
While the CD features bassist Nick Kouremenos (This Is A Standoff, The Johnsons and Morals) and drummer Jamie Carrasco (Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers), he won’t be bringing them on tour which takes them to Alberta as well as several dates in the United States.
“I don’t know if you have the deep freeze we have here, but it is a good time to leave here,’ said Rekus from his Winnipeg home, deep in the throes of a Winnipeg winter.
“Plus I’m getting cabin fever here. I spent the fall recording so I didn’t get a chance to get out,” said Rekus, who has a job as an audio technician which keeps him from touring in February as well as during the summer festival season.
Paul Peters, who recorded Propagandhi's most recent album as well as Royal Canoe and Comeback Kid, recorded Rekus’s album.
He hadn’t intended on using a band on the CD.
“But a lot of singer songwriter I know were using bands on their CD and I thought that is exactly what this CD needs,” he said.
He also hadn’t intended on featuring Jamie Carrasco.
“ The drummer I wanted to use had trouble getting over the border. Jamie is amazing,” he said.
He has been working on the songs for the new CD for at least two years.
“ I had about 20 songs for this CD I started writing new song after my last full length album came out. So I had to cut them down to 20 and a John Prine tune I’ve been playing ‘Please Don’t Bury Me,” he said adding a variety of songs made the final cut. A lot of them came from playing them live.
“There are a couple political songs. But I don’t want to get too preachy. So there are a couple songs about drinking and v having a good time. Others are fictional stories. ‘Coffee Brown’ is about people you see on East Hastings in Vancouver who move to the city with the best of intentions,” he said.
He is pleased his punk influences comes through on the CD.
“ You definitely feel it even though it is an acoustic guitar plugged into an amp. The drummer likes punk music and Nick is a punk rock bassist,” he said.
“It is a really good record. I wanted it to sound like if you’ve been listening to NOFX and Pennywise for the past 20 years, you would still get this record,” he described.
He is excited to return to to Owl Acoustic Lounge.
“I’ll be playing a lot from the new album, the John Prine cover and a Simon and Garfunkel cover I’ve been working on. There’s this song off ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water called ‘Keep the Customer Satisfied,’ and I listened to it and it’s like ‘that’s a punk rock song in disguise,” he said.
“It’s a Monday night, so I don’t expect there to be a lot of people. But there will be enough people who come out to make it fun he said.
It is the Owl Acoustic Lounge’s open mic night, so he is excited to play it.
“People who are the biggest music fans tend to be people who play music,” he observed.
