Music:

Member Since: 10/17/2006
Band Members: Marie Avery - Guitar/Piano/Lead Vocals
Naomi Kidd - Bass/Lead Vocals
Trevor Kidd - Drums/Vocals
Influences:

SOUNDS LIKE:

They've been dubbed "Frenetic Pop", compared to Immaculate Machine, and said to be reminiscent of the Arcade Fire, but with beautiful melodies, complex compositions, and a dash of punk rock spirit, they probably sound most like Tori Amos meeting Babyshambles in the middle of a snow storm.

OUR INSPIRATIONS:

Trevor:
Jon Bonham, Buddy Rich, John Maher (not to be confused with John Mayer), Steve Gadd , John TheodoreCurrent Listening: Talking Heads- 77, Blondi- Parallel Lines, Oasis- Whats the Story Morning Glory, Babyshambles- Shotters Nation, Radio Head- The Bends

Naomi:
Mary Hopkin, Paul Lowenburg, Catherine Calder, Tina Weymouth, The Wall CarpetsCurrent Listening: Kaiser Cheifs- We are the Angry Mob, The Buzzcocks- Different Kind of Music and a Different Kind of Kitchen, Immaculate Machine,- Fables, Psapp, Babyshambles- Shotter's Nation

Marie:
The Beatles, The Libertines, Over the Rhine, Jack White, Thom YorkCurrent Listening: Babyshambles- Shotter's Nation, Amy Winehouse- Back to Black, The Libertines- A Time for Heros, Blood Red Shoes- I'll Be Your Eyes, Feist, The Reminder

MEDIA:

An Offhand Rebellion is an indie rock band from Blind River... I bumped into these cats in Elliott Lake on a gig and knew they would be the perfect group to open for Immaculate Machine. Quirky pop songs, great melodies and harmonies... Paul Lowenberg {TowneHouse Tavern}Rebellion proves experimental, progressive and...pop By Laura Stradiotto For The Sudbury StarThey're kind of experimental and progressive, but open to interpretation. Hailing from Blind River, An Offhand Rebellion made its debut at the Townehouse Tavern Thursday with the release of their first EP "Fire, Fire". The Sudbury Star spoke to band members Naomi Kidd, Trevor Kidd and Marie Avery over the phone earlier this week. An Offhand Rebellion opened up for Immaculate Machine. Cover is $5.Is there a story behind the name An Offhand Rebellion?Marie: We have a lot of punk influence, but at the same time we're not political or anti-establishment necessarily. The idea of being An Offhand Rebellion kind of has something oxymoronic about it.How long have you been playing together?Naomi: We actually met in college five years ago and we were in a band with other people. We all went our separate ways and Trevor and I got married. Then Trevor and I decided to do music full time, just do a lot more music and we looked up Marie. She moved to our town and then we became a band. That was last June.You do music full time?Naomi: We practice full time. We don't do shows full time. We play a lot of music in our home.How is it playing with your spouse?Naomi: It's perfect. I can't imagine not doing it. I have a lot of friends in bands who travel around without their spouse and I don't know how they can do it. We both love it so much. It's like our hobby we do together, except it's more than a hobby for us.On your myspace site you describe yourself as experimental, progressive and ... pop?Trevor: Its experimental, progressive and indie.Marie: Basically, that means we're not really sure.What are some of your influences?Naomi: We're influenced by people like the The Beatles, The Libertines and Canadian music. Marie: Yes, definitely the Canadian indie scene is really exciting for us right now with bands like Arcade Fire and that genre. But we also like to reach far back into rock history with the Buzzcocks and the Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin and also Mars Volta. Naomi: The thing is we are influenced by so many varieties of music, but at the same time we don't carry everything across that way. We don't try to sound like anyone. We sound like us. To say those are our influences is to say that's who we listen to, but we don't try to sound like anyone. Trevor: No we don't sound like anyone like that. Marie: By the same token, we all grew up listening to classical music. We're influenced just as much by Beethoven as the Beatles.Describe the music scene in Blind River.Trevor: Actually, it's surprising. This is my hometown, this is where I grew up. When I was a teenager, the scene was non-existent. I was the only person who played an instrument pretty much in my high school. I tried starting a band but there was absolutely no one. Now it's amazing how much myspace has done for a small community, because I come here now and there's piles of little kids doing little bands and interacting and networking with everyone from the Sault to Sudbury and Espanola.You said myspace has made things happen. Is that being replaced by Facebook?Naomi: I'm the little Facebook queen. One of the first things I did was create a group on Facebook for fun because no one else was starting one for our group. Usually fans start one for a group, but I though, whatever. I have a lot of updates on there, I update it nearly every day. It's fun and gives me a chance to stay in touch with all my friends back in B.C. and my family.Who writes the material? Is it a collaborative effort?Marie: We all write it together. For the EP, all the songs we put on there are a good cross section of what we're all about. There's a fun aspect of it, kind of a childlikeness in all our music. We tend to write about very personal things. We don't have a set formula for what we write about, it just kind of happens.So, there's no main singer. Why did you choose to front the band that way?Marie: Naomi and I do the majority of the singing. Trevor: I do a bit of background vocals. Marie: As far as fronting it, Naomi and I... Naomi: We dual. Marie: Because we're both strong vocalists and have a background in that, we're kind of on equal footing as far as skill goes. As we share writing the songs and lyrics, it makes sense to do it that way. Trevor: It's more fun, too. Naomi: When Marie and I are up there and she sings a melody line and then I sing a melody line, we're sharing it and it brings all the music together. It makes it that much more enjoyable and magical.Tell me a bit about the process of making your first EP. Trevor, you have an engineering background?Trevor: I usually record the traditional rock way - the way most people - with the lead singer and the background vocals. That's the kind of stuff I used to do. With this (band), though, we really had to bring out the dueling aspect, so there's no lead singer and background vocals. They're both in the front. You really see this dueling aspect where it's back and forth, back and forth. Instead of one continuous run, they're sharing. The composition of our music is hardly ever the traditional rock structure like chorus, verse, chorus. I think that's why I put the progressive on the web page because it's not traditional, not the indie pop music you'd expect. We're different. We're light and poppy and fun and at the same time we have these intricacies, more of an orchestrated way of writing than traditional rock or pop music.

Type of Label: None