Montrealer tried and failed to do this Socalled thing ‘low-key’

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This article was published 08/10/2011 (5469 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Josh Dolgin didn’t have to look far to cast characters for his first musical.

The Montreal-based artist known as Socalled premiered his debut musical in Montreal last month featuring a cast of puppets he made himself, played by a crew of actor and musician friends.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Dolgin says. “I just started making puppets one day about a year ago and before you knew it they started showing up everywhere and I did a full-blown musical, believe it or not.”

Believe it, because his musical, The Season, was performed during the Pop Montreal festival on Sept. 25. He wrote the script, about a love affair between a forest animal and an alien, and the musical score over a period of several months while on tour and put all the pieces together in the span of one week.

“I did a full score for a string quartet and orchestra and stuff and everybody learned it in a week. That’s absurd,” he says with a laugh.

That he could put something so ambitious together in so short a time isn’t a surprise considering his past work.

As both Dolgin and Socalled he has been a reporter, cartoonist, musician, producer and now puppet maker/musical writer/director.

His latest album, Sleepover, followed a similar pattern, starting as a low-key affair with his main six-piece band before morphing into a genre-hopping affair featuring more than 30 different musicians performing a mixture of hip-hop, klezmer, calypso, folk, funk and dance music.

He admits he failed in his goal to keep his fifth release simpler than his earlier ones.

“I started with the small crew that I wanted to be the core sound and added things if people came to town, like Roxanne Shante, the godmother of rap, or the king of calypso, Mighty Sparrow,” he says. “It was a dream to work with them. Then I started adding special effects and fun treats to it and soon there were 35 people on it.

“What I realized at the end of the process is that’s what I like to do: put things together. Why fight it? I try to make it clear, but the fun is those unnatural connections that come together to create a new sound.”

His touring crew is the original six, who will stop at the West End Cultural Centre Wednesday for their first local show since playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival two years ago.

Dolgin says he is interested in exploring more of the city because his mother and father were raised and met here before moving to Ottawa where he was born.

“My parents were a mixed marriage: my dad was from the North End and my mother is from the South End. I’m glad to finally play downtown Winnipeg, the land of my forefather and foremother,” he says.

 

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When it came to picking a band to play the Winnipeg Jets After Burner Social Sunday, there was probably no better choice than Blue Rodeo.

The members of the veteran Toronto roots rockers are all hockey fans, and co-frontman Jim Cuddy organizes the annual Juno Cup charity hockey game between musicians and ex-National Hockey League pros during the Juno Awards.

Cuddy is a self-described “long suffering” Toronto Maple Leafs fan, but is thrilled the Jets are back, he said this week.

“There’s nobody that’s not for Winnipeg. Vancouver divided the country, Ottawa divided the country, but there’s nobody in this country that is not cheering for Winnipeg,” he said.

Cuddy was in town Thursday on a promotional tour for his new solo album Skyscraper Soul, but is returning with his bandmates to check out the Jets/Montreal Canadiens Sunday game before heading to the Winnipeg Convention Centre to play a set with the band. Tickets are $43 at Ticketmaster.

“I think it’s a very exciting thing for hockey — the more Canadian teams the better,” he says. “It’s just fantastic news. I knew I wanted to be part of it in some way so I’m glad Blue Rodeo is playing. I probably would have tried to come anyway because it’s Canadian history and hockey history, and that’s important to me.”

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca