During their heyday, legendary Nanaimo-based ska/punk band The Kiltlifters played hundreds of shows and went on four cross-Canada tours. Their music charted in the Canadian Campus Radio Top 50, including a No. 1 ranking in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
This weekend, The Kiltlifters will play two reunion shows on Saturday June 15 with sets at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Nanaimo Bar, to ramp up before another show at the 25th anniversary of the Victoria ska and reggae festival on June 20.
Playing their high-energy horns to raucous crowds, I caught up with saxophone player Matt Carter to hear about the band’s upcoming shows and why upbeat ska music is exactly what the world needs right now.
What is ska music, you might ask? It’s often described as a precursor to reggae and rocksteady, having emerged in Jamaica in the 1950s with early artists drawing inspiration from blues, jazz and Caribbean folk music. It has a characteristic infectious beat and typically features a prominent horn section.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Julie Chadwick, The Discourse: Tell me why you guys decided to do a reunion show. And how long has it been since you last played?
Matt Carter, The Kiltlifters: I’m pretty sure our last gig was in 2011. All of us were basically graduating from the jazz diploma program [at Vancouver Island University] and were like, okay what are we gonna do now? We kind of wanted to play music in the bars, that looked fun. We were all learning about ska music and as horn players, it’s a great way to play high-energy stuff. So it took off from there.
In terms of these reunion shows, we talked for a couple of years about maybe getting the original six members back together and it never came together. And this year is the 25th anniversary of the Victoria ska and reggae festival, which basically started a year after the Kiltlifters started — we were the first band in the second year of the festival. So I had a thought like, ‘Hey, let’s contact the festival and ask if there was any interest in having the Kiltlifters do a set?’ And they were like, ‘Absolutely.’
To prep for this we thought we wouldn’t worry too much about getting all the original members back together. We’re not trying to get the band back together to go touring, but to just play some fun shows and revisit some of these songs. Just old friends reuniting with old friends.
JC: So how much of the original six is in it? And you are all VIU graduates?
MC: We’ve got the three original horn players — myself on saxophone, Scot Rounding on trumpet and Craig Burnett on trombone. And then we also have Dave St. Jean, who was in the band for most of it, on trombone.
The original members were all jazz program graduates. And the rhythm section we have now — Andrew Fraser on bass, Duncan Symonds on guitar and Jesse McNeill on drums — were all VIU or Malaspina jazz program graduates.
The music program there had a whole bunch of eager and talented musicians who loved playing interesting music, so there was always someone we could find that would want to jump in and join in, and that’s really a huge part of why the band lasted for 12 years.
JC: When you put it out there that The Kiltlifters were doing a reunion show, did you find that people remembered you?
MC: People do remember the band, that’s been one of the pleasant surprises, to be honest. I think a lot of people are probably really stoked that a number of us old friends are getting back together and that fuels a lot of it.
We were best men in each other’s weddings, people had kids, and toured Canada — we just went through all these life things together, but then haven’t played together since 2011. Until now. And I think getting people together to play fun and happy music at a time when the world could use it is something worth celebrating.
JC: Once you get into your 40s — I don’t know if it’s midlife crisis or whatever — but you start getting this nostalgic feeling for stuff.
MC: And it’s not just us, you’re seeing lots of bands coming back. At Ska Fest this year, bands like The Suicide Machines and the Planet Smashers, who started in the 90s, are going to be there playing uptempo ska for both new and old fans.
JC: Do you think ska music is having a bit of a comeback?
MC: There definitely is some ’90s nostalgia now, but in terms of music, I think there’s a bit of ska coming back. For me, it’s cyclical.
But there’s a lot of uncertainty and whether it’s world conflict, inflation or the housing market, there’s a lot of things that challenge young people now that weren’t challenges to the same extent that maybe it was for us in the ’90s. So I think with ska, which for the most part is an unabashedly positive, uplifting music — I could see why people would want to be tuned in to that.
There’s a really cool writer named Aaron Carnes who wrote a book In Defense of Ska, and he’s pushing this phrase, “Ska now more than ever,” and I think that’s it. We need some uplifting music, whether it’s soul, rock and roll, or it’s ska and reggae — the festivals are the most connecting for people that I have ever been to.
You can be four years old, you can be 40 years old, 80 years old, and you’re all dancing side by side. I don’t want to sound hippy dippy but there’s really some essence to ska and reggae music that brings people together, and I think that needs to be amplified right now.
The Kiltlifters play at The Nanaimo Bar on June 15 at 7 and 9 p.m. — no tickets in advance, just show up. They also play the Victoria Ska and Reggae Festival on June 20 at at Ship Point (Inner Harbour) in Victoria between 4 and 10 p.m. and from 1 to 2 p.m. on July 1 at the City of Nanaimo’s Canada Day festivities in Maffeo Sutton Park.
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