If I were to say “Alberta Queer Music”, the first person to come to mind is probably k.d. lang. Although this Edmonton native is the most celebrated queer artist to come out of this ‘redneck’ province, she is certainly not the only one. It’s no secret that there does tend to be more gays in the arts scene, but let me whet your appetite with an interview withby interviewing one of Canada’s up &and coming musical acts.
We were blessed this year during Edmonton’s post-Pride parade celebration in Churchill square with an array of spectacular entertainment, including drag queens, singer/songwriters and stilt walkers, but a highlight was when the Wet Secrets took the stage.
“Our song ‘Secret March’ was just waiting to be played for thousands of dancing queers on a nice, sunny day,” says drummer and paint-can player, Trevor Anderson. “Luckily, when we asked the lovely Krystal Ball to help out on the triangle, she more than stepped up to the challenge with a fantastic solo! It didn’t hurt that [her outfit] matched the drum kit we got from local punk rock legends SNFU, either.”
They describe their work as fun-good-time-dance-in-your-underwear music. You can’t help but shake it up under the influence of their rockin’ energy and stage presence, once they start marching in their matching red and white band uniforms (which Trevor acquired from Red Deer College).
The fuzz/horn-y/indie rock band members are among Edmonton’s busiest and most prolific artists. The amount of involvement that the members of the Wet Spots have in other bands and businesses can get a little difficult to explain. On tuba, trombone and trumpet, we have Donna Ball and Kim Rackell, founding members of the classic and sexy Capital City Burlesque (some of you might remember Donna from her days bussing after you party animals at the Roost). Kim’s fiancée, bassist and lead vocalist Lyle Bell, is part of the Juno nominated Shout Out Out Out Out!. Pianist Paul Armusch, who works with Bell as the Whitey Houstons and Whit Sundays, is also in the band the Faunts. Anderson himself has produced and directed 5 short films with his company Dirt City Films which have played at GLBTQ film festivals around the world: Rugburn, Rock Pockets, Dinx, Carpet Diem, and The Island.
With super gay songs like “Mr. Rimjob 1999”, “Anal Rape Santa” and “The Chinball Wizard” (which is all about Trevor Anderson, surprise surprise), it’s no wonder that the homo-centric band has opened for another gay favourite, Metric. But although the whole band isn’t playing for the same team, you can see them hanging with their homo homeys all over town.
“We joke that there are 3 gay men in the band, plus Lyle and Paul. We have tagged the girls as 14 year old gay boys trapped in bodacious female bodies,” mentions Trevor.
The idea of a band first took seed when local writer Fish Grotowski took a picture of Lyle licking Trevor’s ear at a pub one night - a Wet Secret. The band officially formed in 2005 as an experiment between friends, seeing if they could write, compose and record a full 10 song album in a week. Thus they created the do-it-yourself album, “A Whale of a Cow”. The album became an independent favourite, and after playing at many venues and festivals here in the west, the Wet Secrets recorded their first studio album in 2008, “Rock Fantasy”. The album became widely popular, spurring a tour to the east and to the US…or was it spurred by their own appetites? Trevor Anderson explains:
“We love meat! In Montreal there was smoked meat sandwiches to devour; in Austin, Texas, a huge BBQ every night where Donna, who’s been a vegetarian for years, ate nothing but steak! As long as a city is famous for meat, we’ll play there.”
Fans will be happy to learn that the band plans on going back to the studio this fall for an album to be released early next year.
“At first we started all this jokingly for our own amusement, but it’s evolved into something great. With our over the top costumes, they think this is all a joke, so we’re trying to make the music real and as mind-meltingly good as possible, so it will stand on its own and surprise everybody!”
A benefit of being in a wealthy part of the world is that people have money to go support local talent, and unfortunately our queer artists and allies sometimes get left in the dust by our community because people simply don’t know about the great stuff being produced nowadays. So next time you see the Wet Secrets in print, make sure you go and check them out; your ears (and your feet) will thank you for the workout. In the immortal words of one of their song titles, “Get Your Own Fucking Moustache, Asshole!”
