Jason Kodie will tell you himself he has no illusions of grandeur.
He鈥檚 been in the game for a long time, bopping around the fringes of Canada鈥檚 music scene, carving out a musical niche for himself in some of the dustiest corners of the industry.
Sometimes that means writing and performing musical narratives in Hungarian; other times it鈥檚 pedaling the grounds of a street performers鈥� festival hammering out tunes on a homemade piano bike.
Kodie is probably best known as one of the founding members of the five-piece, world beat sonic bonanza, Le Fuzz. He formed the band with multi-linguist Frank Bessai in the early 2000s. The pair brought along Thom Golub, Dwayne Hrynkiw and Chris Smith, and have been rocking eclectic gigs across the country since the band鈥檚 inception.
Eclectic would be the easiest way to describe Le Fuzz, but to truly capture what they do requires a journey into the deepest recesses of the English language; multitudinous might be a good place to start.
Writing and performing in seven different languages, the band borrows from Sanskrit to Swahili to Russian for its lyrics. And while to some that may seem disingenuous, Kodie says that every song they write comes from a personal place.
He explains, for example, how Bessai encounters immigrants from across the world through his work. As he becomes friends with them, they tell him stories or he has experiences with them that inspire new songs.
鈥淲e dip into those catalogues,鈥� Kodie says. 鈥淭he thing about the band is that every tune that we鈥檙e singing in another language, there鈥檚 an authentic link to it. It鈥檚 not like we picked up a Putumayo record and went 鈥榓w, this is a nice song鈥欌�攖here鈥檚 a personal connection to it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those things where we鈥檙e still foolish enough to be doing this, but there鈥檚 a love and there鈥檚 an honesty about the tunes that we are doing.鈥�
In that way, Kodie jokes, the band鈥檚 members are almost like 鈥渃ultural language brokers.鈥�
And while playing cultural festivals in Spanish or French isn鈥檛 necessarily a straight path to fame and glory, Kodie says it certainly keeps his music and outlook fresh.
鈥淚 enjoy the diversity. It鈥檚 tough to make a living for sure鈥攂ut you can have really interesting weeks, where you鈥檙e playing 10 gigs and they鈥檙e all completely different.
鈥淏ut then the problem is re-creating that the following week or the following month鈥攖hat鈥檚 the challenge,鈥� he jokes.
Le Fuzz will attempt to keep it diverse when the band rolls into Jasper March 8 to rock the house during the Jasper chapter of L鈥檃ssociation canadienne-fran莽aise de l鈥橝lberta鈥檚 Sugar Shack.
The band will actually play two shows: a stripped down set during the traditional Francophone dinner for guests of the event, and a bigger gig which is open to everyone later on in the evening.
And, of course, since it鈥檚 a Francophone gig, the group will perform and present mostly in French. But don鈥檛 be surprised if some Hungarian or Portuguese sneaks it鈥檚 way in. After all, Le Fuzz does rock quite a multitudinous catalogue.
Trevor Nichols
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