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St. Catharines is Yummy

Flavour Of The Month − August 2005 − St.Catharines label Yummy Recordings and its headman Joe Lapinski are discovering a smorgasbord of musical talent from the Niagara Region that anyone can dig in to, reports !earshot's sin_baldi. Yummy Recordings ( St. Catharines , ON.) www.yummyrecordings.ca

By sin_baldy

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Wake up St. Catharines , there's a rumbling in your belly and its yummy! Garden City-based Yummy Recordings has been kicking up the dust in basements across the peninsula since 1999 and they're ready for people to eat up what's on their menu. These humble, DIY, community cheerleaders, fronted by Joe Lapinski (Palooka, Joe Lapinski), are slowly heading up a groundswell of local talent in the Niagara Region committed to good times, getting together, making music & friends. Yummy is also a recording studio, based out of A-Frame Studios in St.Catharines, where, ...here comes the name dropping�, front line Canadian acts like the Diner is Ruined , The Regards , Blackberry Blossom and Raising the Fawn have recorded. The studio also functions as a meeting place and social rendezvous for a flourishing community of like-minded (and un-hardcore) artists, dramatists and musicians.

!earshot - How long has Yummy Recordings has been around for? Tell me how & when things got started, and what the initial goals/ideas were? Comment on your approach to the organization of the label?  Is Yummy a label, a recording group/collective, a company, all of the above, or what?

Joe Lapinksi’s &band Palooka is
one of the flagship Yummy bandsJoe Lapinski. - Yummy Recordings came about when my band Palooka was putting their heads together on how we were going to release our first album Palooka", back in 1999.  We were DIY all the way so decided to continue with that philosophy and create our own label (the name Yummy comes from our friend SPK's cat Yucky.  Yummy is the arch nemisis of Yucky).  Our initial intentions were to just have our own label that we could release our stuff on, and also be able to release other projects on.   I started creating a recording studio out of my parent's basement, and found myself recording friend's bands.  It just seemed fitting that these bands would join Yummy, unless they had other plans.  One of the first bands to join the roster was The Regards, out of St.Catharines.  I eventually started adding other acts that I recorded and/or mastered like Readable Ink ( Ottawa ), Garrett Lacroix (St.Catharines), Bronx Cheerleader (St.Catharines). More are on the way. As it stands right now, Yummy is a label as well as a recording collective. I offer bands my help in putting shows together, meeting other bands in or out of Niagara , they have a spot on the Yummy web-site (www.yummyrecordings.ca), and I sell their albums through the web too.  I also help record, master, and/or produce these bands, so the end result is something that I've helped to materialize and mold to the Yummy standards. But it should be known that to be on the Yummy roster, I don't need to record the you, your music just has to hit me in an original and wonderful way.  I like the hands-on approach to everything.  

!e - Tell me about the music community in St. Catharines/Niagara, and where Yummy fits in to the scheme of things? Is most of the talent on the imprint homegrown or from elsewhere? What's the connection?

JL - The music community in St.Catharines/Niagara is awesome. There are a tonne of great new bands popping up everywhere, with all their own styles. The scene here reminds me of something that is just resurficing or just starting to bloom.  The arts community plays an important role in this growth too.  Everyone is helping everyone, and it's leading to something that is new, fresh, and original.  We have the Niagara Artists' Company who has always supported all kinds of arts and talents, and we have local theatre companies (such as Suitcase In Point) who promote involving local musicians/bands in their productions.  Its great!  All this cross-breeding can only lead to something that will set this area apart from other cities. It is young now though.  Kinda like what Guelph was like maybe 15 years ago.   Yummy plays the role of trying to get new bands out playing, and having their music recorded.  That's pretty much it.  There are other labels in the area who do the same, and that's great. The more the merrier. Most of the promoters and labels in the area are friendly to each other and support each other. This will only promote positive growth.  I like it because most of us are pretty indie, and just want to create something good and positive.   A lot of the Yummy talent has stemmed from the Niagara region.  A great band based in Ottawa (soon moving to Toronto ) called Readable Ink contacted me because I used to work with one of the guitarists, Kader Blain .  We recorded their first album in a barn in Gastown (outside of Pt. Colborne.  It was great.  Another band I've produced and just mixing right now called The Hoa Hoa's is from Toronto at the moment, but originally stemmed from St.Catharines.  Most of the Yummy roster still lives in this area.  I believe that we'll make a name for this town soon enough!

!e - Tell me about A-frame Studios? Is it the command centre for the label? What happens there.?

JL - A-Frame Studios is where I work. It's the hub of Yummy for the time being. I record here, and live. It's a great atmosphere because I can work at any moment of the day.   Some of the best recordings I've done here have been field recordings of the street outside.   I invite people here to create music, and be themselves.  I throw a few mic's in front of them and see what happens.  Pretty laid back.  I've learned this from one of the best engineers in the area:  Dr.Pee .  He recorded a chunk of my solo album in his kitchen.  Best experience of my life.  Talked about whatever, then pressed "record", and there we had it. That is what music is about .... Being yourself, and feeling natural.

Readable Ink’s most recent release
is called A Journey West!e - Talk about the label's association with the Suitcase In Point theatre company? How did this relationship come to be, and what sort of cross-pollination has resulted from this collaboration?  

JL - I have always had a fascination with soundtrack music, or musak. I saw a Suitcase In Point production called "Call To Mind" back in 2000, and instantly wanted to get involved somehow with their extremely talented theatre folk.  Next thing I knew, I was playing live terrifying music at one of their Halloween productions.  I've been with them ever since, and currently act as their musical director.  I have brought Yummy artists into their productions, such as Jay Peters (drummer, Palooka, The Silver Hearts, Magna Cum Loud), and hope to involve more in some future productions.  They are one of the best things going in St.Kitt's right now, I have to say.   As a result from being with them, I have spent a lot of time creating soundscapes for them.  Anything from ambient travellings, to field recordings of the casino.  I love it..... Always a challenge, and a tonne of fun.

!e - What is the Yummy sound? Is there one? If not, please tell me about the styles & aesthetics that determine who make the Yummy cut, or not?

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