Toronto Music Scene

By: Sheena Lyonnais
September 2, 2008

Burlington’s the Saint Alvia Cartel are gearing up for the release of Between the Lines September 9 by heading out on a fall tour with raspy rockers Against Me.  The Toronto stop places them on the Island during arguably one of the biggest festivals of the summer, Virgin Festival.

We caught up with Benjamin Rispin, one of the three vocalists/guitarists, at Warped Tour to talk about what the new release brings to the table.

“We don’t like sticking to one genre, so we mixed it up.  We’ve got some dance hally stuff, we’ve got a Russian Waltz with an accordion solo, actually Wade from Alexis and Black Lungs guests in that song with me,” Rispin said.  “We’ve got some Madness ska stuff, we’ve been playing Motown and then there’s some good ol’ fashioned punk rock.”

Although the album will be a mishmash of influences, there is one song that really sticks out in Rispin’s mind and that’s the one about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, better known as the SPP.

“It’s a North American union dialogue between George Bush, Harper and the president of Mexico where essentially the States have offered us security and backing if they can take all our natural resources.  Harper saw dollar signs and said all right, so we’re going to be fucked in twenty, thirty years, totally raped of all our resources.  Lumber, fresh water, oil.  I’ve been talking to this guy, Gordon Laxer, a professor in Alberta, and his papers in the Globe and Mail are what really got me turned onto this situation.  I just started to ask him questions, and he was nice enough to give me his time.  We used some samples of him from a protest out front of the Parkland Institute, so that’s a cool song.  It’s all over the map and we’re pretty excited about it,” Rispin said.

The tour with Against Me comes as a nice departure to the six-piece, whose love affair with Warped Tour is a little shady.

“Every day it’s the same old thing, you’re in all these different towns, but it’s Warped Tour so only the tents are different, so it’s kind of a mind fuck,” Rispin said.  “You just kind of go with it, you give people smokes, keep your head up and watch your back.  It’s kind of like prison except you don’t go out and try to fight the biggest guy, because Andy from Every Time I Die is fuckin’ huge.”

To hear a new song from Saint Alvia check out www.myspace.com/thesaintalviacartel and listen to their addictively catchy song Blonde Kryptonite on the radio.

For more information on the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America check out: www.spp.gov and www.canadians.org/integratethis.

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