Sailing tough on Rough Sea

Rough Sea, Wednesday April 29 at Zaphod's

By DENIS ARMSTRONG

The two-year-old banjo-and-ukulele trio of Justin Kops, 26, his girlfriend Christina Laurin, 20, and Justin (Justinomics) Poulain, 22, have been running their band since 2007 on a pretty meagre budget.

"We like to think we're more down-to-earth," says Laurin, who is speaking with me from the shoulder of Hwy. 7 just east of Marmora.

"There are a lot of ups and downs in our lives, which is why we call our band The Rough Sea. We travel a lot, and we rarely have jobs. Our life is unstable. We're always broke."

That's OK, so too are a lot of people who thought they did the right things with careers and pensions.

But then, The Rough Sea isn't into music for the money.

"It's a passion," she says. "Justin and I have strong chemistry, romantically and musically."

If anything, The Rough Sea is more like the psychedelic hippies of Haight-Ashbury, turning their back on materialism to make folk music, such as their 2008 album Drawn in Crayon: A Tale.

Still, living without a steady cash flow is challenging. Last year, on their western tour, they had to hitchhike to their Yukon gig from Vancouver. Rides came quickly and the people weren't as weird as rides in the past.

"One day we got picked up by a trucker and you could tell his rig was his house," Laurin recalls. "He had TV and satellite radio and gave us beers.

"But they all aren't like that. We got a ride once from a trucker outside Pembroke who played Donald Duck having sex over and over. It can get weird, but generally, people are generous and friendly. It gives you faith in humanity. People are so different."

And when they needed cash they busked on street corners, sometimes making as much as $100 an hour.

"It's hard, but I'm happy. It's what I want to do with my life," she says sincerely.

Which is the beauty of their low-fi approach to life. Being old-school acoustic banjo trio means they don't have to tote expensive amps and soundboards everywhere. Still, Laurin says the band plays with plenty of punk energy. She describes their sound as "pretty loud, in-your-face."

But The Rough Sea's fortunes might be turning a corner. They recently signed an agreement with iTunes, so their music, including a new album they'll record later this summer, will be commercially available. As well, they're headed out east for an extensive tour of the Maritimes, where they hope to buy a cheap van.

So, if you see "three scraggly looking kids thumbing a ride," next week, who knows, it might be The Rough Sea headed to their next gig.

DENIS.ARMSTRONG@SUNMEDIA.CA

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SCENE SETTER

The Rough Sea with Gauche

- Where: Zaphod Beeblebrox, 27 York St.

- When: Tonight, 9 p.m., $6

JUST TO CLEAR SOME THINGS UP.(my 2 cents on the matter)

 This morning when justin came back from the store bearing the article, i was definately intrigued to see what it was gonna say,what it was gonna look like.  Upon reading it, my muscles tensed up and anger completely encompassed me.  lies lies lies lies lies.  The media is something you can never trust...it's almost common knowledge, andd of course when doing the interview we took that into mind.  a journalists goal, the medias goal, is to create draw for people to read their article/ watch their news hour, etc..  create SHOCK value. 

a) we didn't hitchhike to the yukon...i specifically said that..made a point of it

b)we are not hitchhiking on our tour out east

c)we did not sign an agreement with itunes...it was with a friends distro company, cobraside...which is distroing our stuff digitally

d)do not watch for us at the side of the road next week, we'll watch for you

it seems as if the media knows what their story is goiing to be before you even get the chance to tell it to them.  DON"T TRUST THE MEDIA

Christina