After that mind blowing performance by Professional Help, live from the rooftop while under quarantine, we caught up with the man himself to talk about what it was like playing a surprise concert for the citizens of New Westminster.
Austin Shelley, legendary music journalist, has the exclusive interview below.
Interview
Austin Shelley: So how surprised were all those people to suddenly hear a rock concert blasting from the rooftop of one of the buildings next to them?
Kevin Rosmer: Not surprised at all actually because we had played the week previous but it went terribly, so we decided to play it again and get it right. Oh well, first times are always a bit of a train wreck. I'm sure they were all surprised by the first performance but by the second time they knew what was coming. Although we played a lot better so perhaps they were surprised by that. The first performance was awful though.
AS: A little hard to do a soundcheck I guess when you're trying to surprise the neighborhood, hey?
KR: Yes exactly. I think Phil, who was the audio engineer and playing keys, would have liked to do a proper soundcheck, but we really wanted to give people a shock when we started.
AS: So how did this whole event come to be?
KR: Well I'd been hearing people cheering outside for a few days and it always seemed to be the same time, but I had no idea what it was all about. So I went out onto my balcony one evening and asked my neighbor what was going on and he told me about the whole 7 o'clock thing. Immediately I started getting ideas in my head. I was going to just go out onto my balcony with my guitar and make some noise, because people were just making noise, you know? Firecrackers, banging pots and pans, blowing air horns etc. So I thought "hey I could maybe at least play a guitar solo or something, that might be fun. But then I started thinking about doing it up on my roof instead of the balcony, and the idea just took off from there. Suddenly Phil and Riv were involved and we were getting a PA and everything. So I went to the drawing board and started working on a song.
AS: How long did it take you to put that song together once the other guys got involved?
KR: I think it was a couple weeks. I came up with an idea and then we had a writing session at my place and developed it. Then I finished it off and sent a rough demo over to the guys so they could figure out their parts while I wrote the lyrics.
AS: The lyrics are classic, man. This will definitely one day be a nostalgia piece. Obviously they're making reference to a lot of specific things that are going on right now, but how did you come up with them?
KR: Well as you said, I pretty much just had to observe what was going on around me. In fact there was one moment while Riv and Phil and I were hanging out and we were having a conversation about this virus and everything. And I was talking about being out shopping and I said "It's so weird, there's tape on the floors in the grocery stores" and immediately, like a eureka moment, jumped up and wrote that down into the lyrics, because of the natural rhyme and it just slipped out of my mouth so perfectly. There were a few specific things that I wanted to make reference to as well, like this ridiculous toilet paper situation, or the movie Contagion. It was just so funny to me that pretty much everyone had seen this movie and we were all watching the same things that were coming out on Netflix. Plus rhyming it with Matt Damon came so effortlessly.
AS: Yeah, what is up with this toilet paper business, huh? And so I take it you've watched Contagion yourself?
KR: No I still haven't watched it! I've been too busy putting together this damn concert.
[laughs]
AS: Hopefully soon! I mean if you're ever going to watch it, what better time than now?
KR: Yes the time is ripe.
AS: This performance technically counts as the first Professional Help live performance then, is that right?
KR: Indeed, I was thinking about that as well. Pretty epic first concert. I'm glad we caught it all on video. Well, technically that's the second performance, but I do have a video of the first performance too which shall remained sealed away in a vault.
AS: A vault? No way man, the people gotta see it!
KR: Never! It was bad. It shall never see the light of day.
AS: I'm sure it's not that bad. I have a feeling this will be made available one day. It will be like the lost recordings of Elvis, finally being made available for the first time.
KR: No, because the lost tapes of Elvis are actually worth hearing. This was just...
AS: What was so bad about it?
KR: We didn't perform it as well, we were rushing, my singing was HORRIBLE when I tried to reach for those high notes, and I think the cold air threw off the tuning of the guitar so it sounded off from the keyboard. Still not that warm out these days.
AS: That sounds like it would be hilarious.
KR: It probably is if you're anyone other than us.
[laughs]
AS: Alright well great job, way to lift people's spirits up and entertain all those people staying home.
You can check out the video from the April 11th show now, and a studio recording of the track is also available now right here.
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