Bodhi Jar

Fanshawe students from out of town always seem to be asking the same two questions; “What is there to do in London?”; “Why can’t I find anything?” While London might not compare to a city like Toronto, it excels in one specific area: local music.

With two world-renowned music programs and nearly as many venues as there are Tim Horton’s locations, this city is literally crawling with talent. Take a quick walk down Richmond Row and you’ll be sure to pass dozens of concerts at any given time.

You would be particularly lucky if one of these concerts happened to feature the psychedelic funk-rock band Bodhi Jar. This group of Fanshawe graduates puts on the most enthusiastic live show I’ve seen in a long time and that raw energy translates into their music perfectly.

On Sept. 18, they released a five song EP full of violent passion and grit entitled Bodhi Jar.

The EP opens with a powerful track called “Eaves Deli” that serves as a sampler for the album. From the heavily distorted intro, accompanied by the lead singer Andrew Bragg’s raspy upbeat vocals, to the intimate calm-before-the storm breakdown, this track really captures the band’s essence.

The follow-up song, “Prototype” begins on a calmer note, displaying suave and lifting vocals, devoid of all rasps. Crisp alt-rock guitar riffs and funky bass lines help keep up the energy while effectively progressing the song. In the more aggressive choruses, the addition of smooth background vocals maintains the soft essence of the piece.

Of course it wouldn’t be a Bodhi Jar track without a frantically impassioned bridge somewhere and it seems like the band tried to get out a song’s worth of excitement in about 30 seconds of “Prototype”. Not only are these songs carefully crafted within themselves, the whole arrangement of the album comes together to display a highly versatile band.

If you’ve had a hard time finding the funk in this album, check out the concluding track “Golgotha”. This final song opens with a beefy slap-bass riff alongside a quick, funky guitar. You can really hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine influences on this tune and it gives the song a cool ’90s edge.

“Golgotha” falls short in one area however as the minute long guitar solo feels empty and vapid in comparison to the sheer amount of noise that Bodhi Jar usually generates. This is the unfortunate reality of writing music with only one guitarist. Sure the drums are banging up a storm, but the soft bass doesn’t do enough to fill in the rhythmic gap that the guitar has left.

If there’s one good thing that came out of this solo, it’s that the song dwindles enough to create a generous reprise at the end. Going out with such a grand ending gives the listener an image of the band riding into the sunset, possibly on stallions, onto bigger and better things in the near future.

All in all, it’s hard to believe that a four-piece band can make this much noise and make that noise sound so succulent. Bodhi Jar is truly a band that pours their hearts and souls into every note and lyric written. - Interrobang

We're pleased to present the winner of our recent Album Art Contest and our newest Center Stage band, Bodhi Jar.

Find out the story behind the cover, where they find their inspiration, and what they've got in store for the future in this feature and interview:

"In 2013 we found each other and started down the path of creating music that was more than just a paycheck or a stepping-stone, but a true expression of the soul. We were like four pieces from four different puzzles that somehow fit together and laid the foundation of the Bodhi Jar sound."

What was the inspiration behind the album art?
We are all huge fans of Jeff Jordan’s work and were floored when he was actually interested in working with us. His art is so demanding it can completely consume you, which in a way, is what we are trying to achieve with our own art form. In the end it was less of a choice and more of a necessity.

How do you think your album art represents your music and sound?
It comes from the same realm we do. Visual arts and music have a deep relationship and that is very important to us. Jeff’s painting “Feeding Time” is just the perfect representation of what we created. At first glance it seems ordinary but the more attention you give the more you notice something very strange is going on. Strange is good.

Describe your sound in one ramble-on sentence.
Visceral and beautiful and groovy and jarring and progressive and funky and psychedelic and heavy and stinky.

What inspires you to make music?
We have all been musicians or surrounded by music our entire lives so it is honestly a compulsion. It is one of the few ways people can truly express themselves now.

What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?
Just creating something is always the most exciting part, and the freedom to do so I suppose.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a musician?
Scheduling…because unfortunately we haven’t reached wandering bard status and still have to work outside of music to survive.

What's one of your all-time favorite recordings?
“Goliath” off The Mars Volta’s album Bedlam in Goliath. That recording takes you on the craziest ride of your life. They truly tapped into some hidden power and somehow captured it.

Name three people who have influenced your music, and tell us why- Living or dead.
Omar Rodriguez Lopez, he is barely human with the amount of music he has created that is so rich and dense. He is a mad genius.

John Frusciante is another endless well of inspiration. There are two very different sides to his music. One is the very funky and organic with Red Hot Chili Peppers and the other being his solo career, which is an always morphing and growing and is a true expression of his soul.

Zach Hill!

Do you have any recent or upcoming projects you'd like to share with us? Tell us about it.
Right now we are just trying to share what we have created with the EP and play as much as we can, but of course we are still writing new stuff everyday and it is turning out to be a very interesting story…

What is your ideal or target audience?
Our target audience is anyone that our music can speak to. We aren’t trying to cater our music to anything really and it just comes out however it comes out. Never along the process do we stray and think what would people want to hear here, we just do what is best for the story we are trying to tell. The bottom line is making music that we can love and never want to stop playing, and if other people love it too it just helps us create more.

Do you write/compose your own songs? Briefly describe your songwriting process.
Yes everything you hear comes straight from the Jar. One of us will have an idea and we just all dig in until something comes out or we drop it instead of forcing something. It is important that things come naturally to us even though some of our music doesn’t exactly sound natural.

What do you like the most about Radio Airplay?
I like that radio airplay lets us share our music with people all over the world and gives us a chance to see what our potential fans look like and listen to. - Radio Airplay

One thing we can all appreciate about Canada is that it’s full Canadians, neighbourly hockey enthusiasts and baby sitters of the Eiffel tower. The nation has also churned-out some awesome and influential bands by the likes The Flatliners, Propagandhi, Sum 41 and countless bands also featured on Musically Fresh – Click Here.

Bodhi Jar are another notable export, bringing with them a very unique take on the Post-Hardcore genre, by experimenting with Psychedelia, Progressive Rock and Funk.

Their self-titled debut EP catches your eye with the artwork alone, which is art should be; open to interpretation. Personally I see undertones of white washed media and the under-appreciated underdog of industry but that’s just my interpretation.

The genre of Post-Hardcore can sometimes be seen an acquired taste with it’s loosely coherent myriad of influences and styles sometimes leaving you asking, is it Punk? Metal? Emo? – Who knows?

This debate in fact makes it the ultimate middle ground as a sub-genre between all of the above and this Canadian quartet have added some insightful elements, bringing more to forefront and broadening the listeners’ horizon.

The band formed in 2013 under what must have been nothing short of mystical circumstances, as to get this sound from four not so different musicians is pretty impossible. So consider this four-piece “the odd couple” of the music world, bringing together their incredibly estranged influences making for a sound unlike any other.

Influences: ‘Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Mars Volta, Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, John Frusciante and Kings Of Leon are just a few artists we draw influence from.’

If you ever find yourself in Canada not only must you apply for a Visa and never leave, but jump head first into the nation’s scene, where so many quite frankly awesome bands from such a quaint gem of the American continent are playing and honing their craft as you read these very words. - Musically Fresh