The inside story of Down With Webster's Liberal victory party performance
The Canadian rap-rock band Down With Webster played the Liberals' victory party on Monday night — because, as it turns out, Prime Minister Mark Carney is genuinely a big fan of the group.
Down With Webster was an active part of the Canadian music scene from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, and they returned to the stage last year to embark on a reunion tour. Their song Time To Win was featured at Carney's rallies throughout the campaign.
Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud talks with band member Tyler Armes about rapping with the prime minister backstage, and what you can tell about a person based on the music they know by heart.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Tyler: So really what happened was last week sometime, Mr. Carney got in touch with us and asked if we could leave the date open to come and perform. And then we found out a few days later we were going to, in fact, come and perform. And, you know, being the nice Canadians that we are, you don't show up without a gift. So I called my buddy that makes hoodies and I'm like, "We need hoodies, like, immediately." He's like, "They're going to be very expensive to rush them in two days." And I was like, "It's worth it, no problem." He made a medium, large and an XL. One of them got totally ruined in the process — the dye ran all over it. So when the package showed up in Ottawa, he's like, "Good news, bad news. They're there in Ottawa. You only have two, and hopefully one of them fits the prime minister." Well, I'm wearing the larger one that does not fit the prime minister. And then, yeah, Mark has the other one.
Elamin: Well, you know what? It seems like it worked out OK.
Tyler: Yeah, I did some googling. I was like, he's 5'9". He looks like he's in shape. Apparently he runs a lot, so I'm like, the medium, it's going to work.
Elamin: I hear that you met Mark Carney for the first time in the green room on Monday night before you guys performed. How do you know that he's a real fan, and this didn't come together because some campaign staffer Googled "a song about winning from someone who's Canadian"?
Tyler: Totally, good question. I know that over a decade ago when we were first starting to tour, I remember reading press that somebody in politics was a big fan…. So apparently he came to see a show and was watching the opening band, and wanted to know what all the commotion was about and why they were all sticking around for whoever was on after, and that was us. So the way that I know that he's a die-hard fan is because the correspondence we had prior to showing up, the list of songs they wanted us to play, there were some deep cuts on there. And it was clear that he was super involved in that process.
And then, obviously, there's a video we posted backstage where he's rapping word for word, bar for bar with the band, and he's not missing any of them. Like, this is something that he listens to in the car to get pumped up, listens to at rallies — it's a very sincere thing, which really made the choice for us so obvious. Obviously, so humbling to be called upon by your country and to perform at something like this. It's not something that we ever thought was going to happen with these songs we made when we were kids in my dad's garage, but it was a no-brainer. It wasn't just a record label trying to insert their artist for press, and it wasn't a flavour-of-the-week thing. It was a real connection that he had to us.
Carney dances to Down With Webster after election win
2 days ago
Duration 1:06
Elamin: Tyler, everything that you just said is truly extraordinary. And I want to dwell on like eight different things that you just mentioned. First of all, the notion that you would tell me that Mark Carney, in the middle of running a national campaign to be the next prime minister, took, I don't know, two and a half to three minutes, I assume, to say, "Hey, when Webster shows up, I want them to hit Parade Music. I would like to hear the words, 'I've never been in love, I've only been in clubs,' at my victory party." That's extraordinary to me. But also can I just say, what's not lost on me is he would have been listening to Time to Win Vol. 1 during the financial crisis, when he was the governor of the Bank of Canada.
Tyler: Yeah, that part, it's a testament to music. And you know what? You can think you know where your music's going to end up, but when you release it into the world, it's going to have a life of its own. And it's wonderful. It's amazing.
Elamin: What was it like having Mark Carney rap the band's words back to you when you guys were backstage?
Tyler: I was just super impressed with his timing and his delivery. I want to know what else he listens to because if you like our band, you like a lot of music, because our band is such a mashup of so many genres. But it was so cool. I wanted to stay longer and do it for 15 more minutes, but he had secret service with him and more important things to do.
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