Photo courtesy of Gypsophilia.
Do you remember those unforgettable parties in university, where from a crazy idea sprouted a crazy party? Well, I must give credit to Gypsophilia for one of those, when, in their early days, they had the brilliant idea to throw a 1930s dance party at the North Street church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Now, five years later, they’re all grown and still making the masses dance. I spoke with Ross Burns, guitarist for Gypsophilia, prior to the band’s arrival in Ottawa where they will play the Jazz Fest for the second consecutive year.
I’ve known you all for close to 5 years now. From humble, but swinging beginnings at the North Street Church in Halifax to winning an ECMA for Sa-bA-dA-OW! - Congrats! How has the band evolved through the years?
We have grown up a lot over the past few years. In those North Street Church days if you had told us that we would put out an album, tour the whole country and win an ECMA none of us would have believed it. At that time, we were just working toward the next rehearsal and the next show. Since then we’ve had lots of chances to travel, play together, compose new music - we are getting better at all of it.
We didn’t all know each other before we started playing together in Gypsophilia, but at this point we are good friends. Being really familiar with each other makes the band sound its best - we really trust each other and know what kind of things to expect from everyone when we are on stage. That all makes it easier to play well together. At this point everyone in the band is writing music and has a real strong musical voice - we are really proud of being a cohesive band these days.
