The Smalls singer Mike Caldwell on getting the band back together

The Smalls (photo: Dave Heath)

Interview by Jason Schreurs

As predictable as some band reunions can be (DOA, for the countless time?), there are bands that only diehard fans think and hope will ever get back together. In the case of Edmonton’s The Smalls, who to this day are impossible to categorize musically, a reunion after more than 13 years of being broken up was pretty out of left field for most of us. Meanwhile, hardcore fans of the band’s eclectic punk/metal/rock/country/whatever sound are probably wringing their hands together and saying, “See, I told you so!” The Smalls singer Mike Caldwell, for one, is happy the band has been able to do a string of reunion shows. What comes next is anyone’s guess.

How does it feel to be doing The Smalls again?
It feels pretty good, actually. I didn’t really have that much trepidation about it, I suppose. It’s actually been really fun and I hadn’t really been around a couple of the guys very much. [Bass player] Corb [Lund] and [guitarist] Dug [Bevans] left Edmonton and went and did their own thing pretty much immediately after The Smalls broke up, so I hadn’t really been around them too much for about 10 years, but it’s been pretty fun getting back together and joking around and all of that.

What is it about The Smalls’ music that you were able to do this reunion? A lot of bands from the ‘90s sound really dated now, so what is it about your songs that have lasted?
I don’t know. That’s a tough one. Back then when we were writing music we didn’t really try to have a contemporary sound for the time. We didn’t try to sound grunge, specifically, or metal-y, specifically, or any of the popular trends at the time, like the pop-punk thing or whatever. We kind of took elements of all of those things, and bands that we liked, and incorporated them into what we did in some ways, but we also liked to isolate ourselves. When we would write a record we would hole up in our little hovels and jam spaces and get into our own little world, and we’d intentionally do that for months. So we’d get into this space where all there was, really, was our music. We were just so focused on doing what came out of our minds or whatever, and trying to make it into something. So although our influences are there, and can probably be heard and interpreted, I’m not really sure that there was a style or trend that we really fit into.

How much did coming from Edmonton have to do with your original sound and the lack of trends in your music? Was where you came from a big part of that?
I think it was and it wasn’t. It was a big deal for us as young men because we actually all came from smaller towns, so Edmonton was the place where we all met each other and came together in a city environment. Now, Edmonton doesn’t seem like a big deal compared to Vancouver or Toronto, as far as a big city goes, but to us then it was the big city and the scene was something really new and powerful for us to experience. When we first saw SNFU come back to town and play in a little club or all-ages show, it was really quite a powerful experience for us. And it was just something that I felt that I had to be part of, and from the stage instead of from the audience. Coming from a small town and knowing that I wanted to play music and sing and express myself that way, but not knowing how to go about it, and then coming to a big city and seeing that there actually was a way that people were doing it, it was a pretty big moment for me. And I think it was like that for the rest of the guys, too. It could have happened elsewhere, or perhaps anywhere. But it did happen in Edmonton, so that probably affected us in some way, but our music is more a product of the four of us, and not so much a product of the scene or the city.

When you got back up on stage with these guys, what kind of feelings came back and was it the same as back in the day?
It was, kind of. It was definitely a similar feeling. There are lots of little moments with our music, some of it’s kind of tricky, and it’s not the simplest music that I’ve played on stage, so there’s little mistakes that happen and little moments of euphoria that happen as well. And it’s funny how as those things happened memories of them happening in the past came back. So that was kind of neat.

The Smalls are currently on a Canadian reunion tour. The dates are listed here.