Watch For The Watchmen

by Mike Ross

The Edmonton Sun

May 4th, 1995

Funny how "we're a Canadian rock band" have evolved from a guilty secret to a boast.
It probably took the Seattle scene to touch it off, but Canadian rock seems to have found a sound of its own. For an example, check out the triple bill at the Convention Centre tonight, featuring The Watchmen, with Headstones and Rymes With Orange opening.
Watchmen guitarist Joey Serlin doesn't necessarily buy the term "Canadian sound," citing the huge variety in Canadian music, but admits there is a binding attitude.
"I think there is a common thread through it," he says. "I'd probably say that it's sincerity. That just might be the bands I'm listening to, but I think there's an honesty to Canadian music, for the most part."
Like practically every act that got anywhere in Canada, The Watchmen had to first develop a large number of fans in their home town. The band had little trouble with that task, drawing sell-out crowds in Winnipeg years before MCA picked the band up. But the time eventually came to move on - and Toronto was the obvious place to start.
"We couldn't sit in Winnipeg any more," says Serlin. "We had come along as far as we could as a home-town act. We felt that we had to take it one step farther and the place to do that is Toronto, due to the fact that 90 per cent of the industry is based there."
It's even gone farther than Toronto, now.
While The Watchmen got out of their deal with MCA America - "they just signed us and then didn't do anything," says Serlin - and might not be touring the US in the near future, the band is off to Europe next week for the first time.
The first gig? Backing up the Tea Party - another Canadian rock band - in Brussels.