By Andréa Rojas
The forces of lo-fi distortion, freshly-pressed vinyl and microwaveable tour food have given birth to their next generation — an indie-rock progeny that goes by the name of Man Legs.
The four-piece, comprised of Josh Boguski, James Perry, Joe Simmons and absentee guitarist Bryce Cloghesy (currently pursuing his studies at McGill), is the product of informal after-school jam sessions that started in the sixth grade.
“When it comes to Man Legs, it started in the summer of Grade 11,” says freshly-graduated guitarist/bassist Boguski.
“We all live very close to each other and have always . . . hung out and played music,” adds drummer Simmons.
Unlike many of the bands looking to make a mark on the Calgary indie scene, the members of Man Legs only just turned 18. That, however, hasn’t hindered them from pursuing their musical interests to the same lengths their older musical peers have.
“We’re just kind of getting into the bar scene,” says Boguski. “We were actually able to play a few bar shows before we were all 18 — just some ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of thing.”
At a time where a lot of their peers are clicking through Facebook photos from their 2010 graduation and still getting the hang of first-year university, Man Legs are looking to shed more childish endeavours, as their name might suggest. However, these four Calgary boys are still just that — Calgary boys.
The band had the opportunity to participate in the Sled Island Music Festival, a personal milestone.
“We had just turned 18 . . . and my parents were out of town so that was a pretty wild week,” says guitarist/bassist/vocalist Perry. “We went to a house party and I’m pretty sure a chandelier was ripped out of the ceiling.”
In addition to the destruction of home furnishings, their status as recent high school graduates provides them with a unique fan base to that effect.
“It’s kind of great because we have two totally different followings between bar shows and all-ages shows,” says Boguski. “They’re two completely different experiences.”
“When we have bar shows it’s mostly . . . our friends and older people coming, but when we play all-ages shows, we get all these people who are just so excited to see us,” says Simmons.
“It gets pretty rowdy; there’s a lot of crowd surfing going on,” adds Boguski.
While differing in age range, Man Legs’ following has one thing in common – their affinity towards lo-fi, an indie music genre characterized by experimentation and purposefully rudimentary recording techniques.
“There’s a huge following of the Friendo/Women thing,” says Boguski, citing two influential Calgary lo-fi acts, the latter of which was signed to prominent Calgary indie label Flemish Eye.
It is here that the ties connecting the veteran and emerging personas of local indie rock emerge. Man Legs has very specific reasons for their attraction to lo-fi.
“We’ve come to terms that our greatest efforts are still going to be below Warner Brothers releases in terms of fidelity,” says Boguski. “For awhile we were hiding behind a mask of distortion . . . there’s a pretty big following for that kind of stuff and we got into it for a bit.”
“There’s no commercial appeal at all for lo-fi which is kind of a cool thing,” says Simmons.
Considering the heterogeneity of their fan base, it’s interesting that Man Legs has decided that their first publicly available compilation of recordings will be a self-released cassette tape entitled Please Please Yourself with a circulation of only 100. Although releasing their first recordings in restricted amounts and on antiquated technology might seem a market strategy about as efficient as eating yogurt with a fork, Man Legs have their eye on the segment of their fan base that see a cassette tape as less of a novelty and more of a weird grey thing that somehow won’t fit into their CD drive.
“We’re going to release them with digital downloads as well so they’re not completely inaccessible to some people,” says Boguski.
“You’re paying for the artwork and the novelty of the tape — a souvenir from the show,” says Perry.
And with that, Man Legs has only one final request.
“If Flemish Eye is reading, then give us a record deal!”
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