Even though Windsor, Ontario is technically in the Great White North, it serves truly as an eastern suburb of Detroit (and no, I’m not “calling it South Detroit” like that nauseating Journey song that I will mention no further). Even though there hasn’t been many bands to make their way out of the border town, many Windsorites cross over into Detroit all the time for concerts.
In their many journeys into the States to check out shows in Detroit, the guys in the quintet MicLordz and Sauce Funky got their education in all sorts of Detroit music. Whether it was classic R&B, hip-hop of rock, the band melded their love for all those music, and most likely add a little Chili Peppers and Sublime, and the sound of MicLordz was forged.
After touring a ton over the years, the do-it-yourself had released a slew of releases and spreading the band’s gospel. MicLordz and Sauce Funky are ending the year on a high note, with the new release of their new EP, “My World”. The title track of the EP is now starting to get some radio play in Canada and in the States and brings it’s hard working, good time vibe to more and more stations every week. With the EP taking off, the band just did a record release party at the Blind Dog in Windsor and have some more dates planned in Michigan and Ontario before the year is out.
But with the band having a few days in between shows, I was able to chat with lead singer “Boots” Marjanovic, who is the driving force behind the band’s strong work ethic. In the interview, “Boots” and I discussed the inspiration behind the autobiographical video for “My World” and how Detroit helped influence their music.
Here’s my interview with Boots:
AM: Have you been surprised with the amount of stations picking up on “My World”?
BM: It’s been great, but that’s been the goal the whole time. For a band like us, it’s tough to write a so-called radio single. We really tried to write more hook oriented songs and we’re not surprised we ended up going in this direction. You never really want to have the band pick the first single (laughs), but we all believed in this song and was a good representation of the band at this moment. It’s been an exciting time, and having the support of Jay Hudson and the 89x “Homeboy” show has been a major part of the success so far. And we’re hoping for more play and at least one more song on the station before the year is out.
AM: The video for “My World” seems very autobiographical in it’s delivery, what was the inspiration for the video treatment?
BM: We went back and forth with the idea and concept for the video. One of us brought up the video for Van Halen’s “Right Now” and piggy-backed off that idea. We let fans take a peek into the workings and story of the band and the things that go into making this band. People sometimes don’t understand the industry and the road, so we hope this helps with that. The point of the video is to show that it is a tough grind, there’s a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of positives and negatives and how you get through them.
AM: Was there anything that you left out of the video that you were not so sure about adding in the video?
BM: We didn’t really leave out that was too crazy. There might have been a few things that the powers that be might have had a problem with, so we left those out. But I think video describes out story pretty well.
AM: For the rest of the album, what sort of lyrics and musical themes are on the EP?
BM: There’s other songs that show the hunger of this band and the desire to go to battle for our music. We wrote a few songs for hope of licensing for different things, but all relative to what we do. But we really want to get people hyped up, and girls are always an important part of the songs we write and the things we do, because they are a good portion of the fanbase. “1 AM” is a smooth older track that’s geared for women. On the album, we re-did the song “Nothing to Me”, which hopefully shows that we hit different sides of the musical spectrum.
AM: Being from Windsor, how did the music of Detroit and going to shows here help influence the band?
BM: It’s an unbelievable influence on us. Windsor is like a suburb of Detroit and we would always go and hit shows. Me and Mike (O’Phee- other vocalist) would hear guys like Eminem and Kid Rock and totally get inspired. Even going back to music like Motown and Seger, it just shows how great the music of Detroit is and how it influenced us. But I think with Kid Rock, as he mixed up rock and hip-hop and how it crossed racial boundaries, that was the one that did it for us. Music is such an important part of the legacy of the Detroit, it’s hard to say otherwise.
MicLordz and Sauce Funky open for Critical Bill at the Emerald Theater on Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 24th). The show is free and check out www.emeraldtheater.com for more details. For more band info and tour dates, check out www.miclordz.com.
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