The Lower Companions

Local rockers The Lower Companions have a new album.


At a CD release party on Nov. 24 at Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, the band released its second album, Lock & Step.


Front man Jason Maas, a Fort Rouge resident, said he’s excited about the band’s latest release, which follows its debut album Clean from 2009.


While Clean had a more of folk-roots sound, Maas said, the new album is more of a rocker, and is much different than the band’s initial release.


"We decided to notch it up… I’ve always been a rock ‘n’ roller," Maas said.


The band has been together since 2009, and got together only shortly before releasing Clean. It was originally something of a solo project for Maas, when the group was known as Jason Maas and the Lower Companions.


With the release of its second album, Maas said the band has really come together as a group.
"Over the last three years it’s become more of a complete band. Everyone gives their two cents for the songs, everybody contributes," he said.


Maas said while the album is new, some of the songs on Lock & Step are pieces he’s been working on for years.


"One of the songs, Bracket, I wrote when I was 17-years-old," he said.


The band starting recording its latest album in February at Private Ear Recording, and has anxiously awaiting its release ever since.


"We’re really pumped because it has been so long since we put our last album. We’re especially excited about (this album) because it’s a closer representation of the kind of music we’ve been making than our last album was," Maas said.


The album can be purchased on ITunes, and at the Folk Festival Music Store.


For more information on The Lower Companions visit lowercompanions.com. - The Sou'Wester

Local rockers The Lower Companions have a new album.


At a CD release party on Nov. 24 at Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, the band released its second album, Lock & Step.


Front man Jason Maas, a Fort Rouge resident, said he’s excited about the band’s latest release, which follows its debut album Clean from 2009.


While Clean had a more of folk-roots sound, Maas said, the new album is more of a rocker, and is much different than the band’s initial release.


"We decided to notch it up… I’ve always been a rock ‘n’ roller," Maas said.


The band has been together since 2009, and got together only shortly before releasing Clean. It was originally something of a solo project for Maas, when the group was known as Jason Maas and the Lower Companions.


With the release of its second album, Maas said the band has really come together as a group.
"Over the last three years it’s become more of a complete band. Everyone gives their two cents for the songs, everybody contributes," he said.


Maas said while the album is new, some of the songs on Lock & Step are pieces he’s been working on for years.


"One of the songs, Bracket, I wrote when I was 17-years-old," he said.


The band starting recording its latest album in February at Private Ear Recording, and has anxiously awaiting its release ever since.


"We’re really pumped because it has been so long since we put our last album. We’re especially excited about (this album) because it’s a closer representation of the kind of music we’ve been making than our last album was," Maas said.


The album can be purchased on ITunes, and at the Folk Festival Music Store.


For more information on The Lower Companions visit lowercompanions.com. - The Sou'Wester

by Sheldon Birnie

Since the 2009 release of their debut LP, Jason Maas & The Lower Companions have been grinding it out in Winnipeg’s roots scene. Now, on the eve of the release of their latest record, the six song Lock & Step, at the Times Change(d) this Saturday, singer, songwriter, and band leader Jason Maas got on the phone here to Stylus to talk about the band, the record, and what comes next for the Lower Companions.Stylus: You guys have been active on the Winnipeg scene now for a while. Could you tell us briefly how the band has gotten to where it is today, with this new record?

Jason Maas: I’ve been playing around town now since about 2004 with my old band. We were just a down and dirty rock n roll band. A couple of the guys who I’m currently playing with played with me in that other band. We disbanded because a couple of the guys were moving away. Basically, my first instinct was to do a solo project, kind of tone it down and do some folk/roots kind of stuff. That’s where it started. We released a really folky album back in 2009. That was fun, but I definitely started missing that rock n roll vibe, so we’ve been aiming to get back towards that the last year or two. We’ve been playing around town pretty often, just trying to get out there.

Stylus: Yeah, the EP definitely sounds like it’s made by one band, but it really has an eclectic feel to it. The songs all sound like they’re coming from different influences, or different spaces. What are some of your big influences as a songwriter?

JM: I’d say my largest songwriting influences would be Bob Dylan, Neil Young. Those guys are amazing. That show was amazing the other night. Did you make it down?

Stylus: Oh yeah. It was great!

JM: Yeah, right on man. Lou Reed is a big influence on me too, as far as vocal stylings go. Like his performance on “Sweet Jane” I think that’s the one vocal performance that I always try to take something from, like that creativity in there. The band Wilco. A lot of bands that meld that roots and rock idea, that’s kind of what we’re going for.

Stylus: The release is at the Times Change(d) this weekend. You guys have played there quite a bit, hey?

JM: Yeah, the last year or so we’ve been playing there a lot more. It’s just such a great space. A lot of Winnipeg musicians have launched their careers out of that place over the years. So yeah. It’s great to be in there and play as often as we have been lately.

Stylus: Have you been playing any of this new EP live yet?

JM: A couple of the songs are really old songs, that date back to my previous band. The majority of them are relatively new, though. So if people haven’t seen us for a while, there’ll be a bunch of songs they might not recognize.

Stylus: Do you guys have anything else that your working on now that this EP is finally coming out?

JM: Well, we’ll be basically working on promoting this album for the foreseeable future. We’re working on a tour for next summer. We’re going to head out west, or at least that’s the plan. A couple of the guys in the band are teachers, so that limits the times we’re able to go out on tour. But yeah, I mean, the album is really inspired a lot by Winnipeg history. The old buildings, some of the characters from the past. I’ve always been fascinated by the history of this city. That’s part of what we’d like to do when we go out on the road, is be ambassadors for this great city.

Stylus: Have you folks done much touring before? What’s the extent you guys have hit the Highway outside of Winnipeg?

JM: The vast majority of our shows have been in Winnipeg. We’ve done a number of one-nighters out in small towns. Our last one was in Ashern, Manitoba, last summer. It was a blast. Those small town shows are always fun. As far as touring goes, we’re definitely focusing on next summer and try to get as many shows in as we can.

Make sure to check out Jason Maas & The Lower Companions on Saturday at the Times Change(d) with the Honeysliders, and pick up their nice little EP Lock & Step! - Stylus Magazine

by Sheldon Birnie

Since the 2009 release of their debut LP, Jason Maas & The Lower Companions have been grinding it out in Winnipeg’s roots scene. Now, on the eve of the release of their latest record, the six song Lock & Step, at the Times Change(d) this Saturday, singer, songwriter, and band leader Jason Maas got on the phone here to Stylus to talk about the band, the record, and what comes next for the Lower Companions.Stylus: You guys have been active on the Winnipeg scene now for a while. Could you tell us briefly how the band has gotten to where it is today, with this new record?

Jason Maas: I’ve been playing around town now since about 2004 with my old band. We were just a down and dirty rock n roll band. A couple of the guys who I’m currently playing with played with me in that other band. We disbanded because a couple of the guys were moving away. Basically, my first instinct was to do a solo project, kind of tone it down and do some folk/roots kind of stuff. That’s where it started. We released a really folky album back in 2009. That was fun, but I definitely started missing that rock n roll vibe, so we’ve been aiming to get back towards that the last year or two. We’ve been playing around town pretty often, just trying to get out there.

Stylus: Yeah, the EP definitely sounds like it’s made by one band, but it really has an eclectic feel to it. The songs all sound like they’re coming from different influences, or different spaces. What are some of your big influences as a songwriter?

JM: I’d say my largest songwriting influences would be Bob Dylan, Neil Young. Those guys are amazing. That show was amazing the other night. Did you make it down?

Stylus: Oh yeah. It was great!

JM: Yeah, right on man. Lou Reed is a big influence on me too, as far as vocal stylings go. Like his performance on “Sweet Jane” I think that’s the one vocal performance that I always try to take something from, like that creativity in there. The band Wilco. A lot of bands that meld that roots and rock idea, that’s kind of what we’re going for.

Stylus: The release is at the Times Change(d) this weekend. You guys have played there quite a bit, hey?

JM: Yeah, the last year or so we’ve been playing there a lot more. It’s just such a great space. A lot of Winnipeg musicians have launched their careers out of that place over the years. So yeah. It’s great to be in there and play as often as we have been lately.

Stylus: Have you been playing any of this new EP live yet?

JM: A couple of the songs are really old songs, that date back to my previous band. The majority of them are relatively new, though. So if people haven’t seen us for a while, there’ll be a bunch of songs they might not recognize.

Stylus: Do you guys have anything else that your working on now that this EP is finally coming out?

JM: Well, we’ll be basically working on promoting this album for the foreseeable future. We’re working on a tour for next summer. We’re going to head out west, or at least that’s the plan. A couple of the guys in the band are teachers, so that limits the times we’re able to go out on tour. But yeah, I mean, the album is really inspired a lot by Winnipeg history. The old buildings, some of the characters from the past. I’ve always been fascinated by the history of this city. That’s part of what we’d like to do when we go out on the road, is be ambassadors for this great city.

Stylus: Have you folks done much touring before? What’s the extent you guys have hit the Highway outside of Winnipeg?

JM: The vast majority of our shows have been in Winnipeg. We’ve done a number of one-nighters out in small towns. Our last one was in Ashern, Manitoba, last summer. It was a blast. Those small town shows are always fun. As far as touring goes, we’re definitely focusing on next summer and try to get as many shows in as we can.

Make sure to check out Jason Maas & The Lower Companions on Saturday at the Times Change(d) with the Honeysliders, and pick up their nice little EP Lock & Step! - Stylus Magazine

Jason Maas is in good company. The Monty Yanks frontman's solo debut welcomes a host of talent -- in addition to his new bandmates, the disc boasts guests like Nicky Mehta of Wailin' Jennys, members of Ten Too Many, Experiences and more. But the VIPs can't overshadow the main attractions: Maas' sand 'n' smoke vocals, poetic tales of yearning and eclectic folk-rock, the latter of which incorporates everything from the ramshackle romance of The Band to even '50s sock-hop rock and doo-wop. Speaking of good company.

www.lowercompanions.com

***1/2

- The Winnipeg Sun

Jason Maas is in good company. The Monty Yanks frontman's solo debut welcomes a host of talent -- in addition to his new bandmates, the disc boasts guests like Nicky Mehta of Wailin' Jennys, members of Ten Too Many, Experiences and more. But the VIPs can't overshadow the main attractions: Maas' sand 'n' smoke vocals, poetic tales of yearning and eclectic folk-rock, the latter of which incorporates everything from the ramshackle romance of The Band to even '50s sock-hop rock and doo-wop. Speaking of good company.

www.lowercompanions.com

***1/2

- The Winnipeg Sun

Jason Maas and the Lower Companions release this disc Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Pyramid. United by Maas’s gritty vocals and hooky, flat-picking acoustic guitar, Clean opens with one of the album’s stronger tracks, Bonafide War. It’s a bit hit and miss from there. Chock-full of religious language and references to the Lord, the lyrics on Clean often fall short of the album’s musical calibre. That’s not to say that just because lyrics are Christian they are necessarily bad, but these ones often feel thin and uninspired. The band has certainly put together an ambitious collection of songs spanning several genres, from ‘50s pop to folk and gospel. With help from the Wailin’ Jennies’ Nicky Mehta’s backing vocals, the last two tracks on the record tell beautiful tales of love and death. If you can look past the flaws, you may find something good lurking behind the rhyming couplets and lyrical abstractions.

3 out of 5 stars

This review appeared in Volume 64, Number 07 of The Uniter, published October 15th 2009. - The Uniter

Jason Maas and the Lower Companions release this disc Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Pyramid. United by Maas’s gritty vocals and hooky, flat-picking acoustic guitar, Clean opens with one of the album’s stronger tracks, Bonafide War. It’s a bit hit and miss from there. Chock-full of religious language and references to the Lord, the lyrics on Clean often fall short of the album’s musical calibre. That’s not to say that just because lyrics are Christian they are necessarily bad, but these ones often feel thin and uninspired. The band has certainly put together an ambitious collection of songs spanning several genres, from ‘50s pop to folk and gospel. With help from the Wailin’ Jennies’ Nicky Mehta’s backing vocals, the last two tracks on the record tell beautiful tales of love and death. If you can look past the flaws, you may find something good lurking behind the rhyming couplets and lyrical abstractions.

3 out of 5 stars

This review appeared in Volume 64, Number 07 of The Uniter, published October 15th 2009. - The Uniter

January 13th 2010
Old habits die hard

by Mike Duerksen (Volunteer)

When local frenzied-rock ensemble The Monty Yanks split up in the early days of 2009, there was only one thing left to do for lead vocalist Jason Maas: He recorded Clean, a folk-rock album with all the songs that didn’t fit the chaos-driven mantra of his previous band. It was released this fall.

“I saw the breakup as an opportunity to release a new album and go in a completely different direction,” the 29-year-old said last week over the phone from his downtown apartment. “I’ve been writing a lot of songs throughout the last five years. A lot of the songs were dirty rock songs, but some of them were of a more folky, gentle nature.”

Armed with a catalogue of tunes to choose from, Maas started looking for a capable backing band. He recruited an experienced troop of local musicians to undergird his raspy voice, including Jesse Millar, Ian Sorensen and Jen Bihun (The Experiences), along with David Singleton (The Monty Yanks) and Tim Friesen (The Shouting Ground). Nicky Mehta (Wailin’ Jennys) provided female backing vocals.

Just over a month after fronting The Monty Yanks’ farewell show, Maas and the band entered Private Ear studios in Winnipeg. The result was 11 tracks melding disparate genres such as gospel, ‘50s shake ‘n’ roll and pop into a cohesive folk record.

“The goal was to take all these genres and try to make them fit in one album. A big part of what I was trying to do was take all my influences, filter them out and then distill them,” Maas said.

All that was missing was a suitable name.

One day Maas and a few friends were hanging out and, by his own account, were already a little tipsy when they stumbled upon a magazine article.

“If you join Alcoholics Anonymous they tell you to stay away from your lower companions. They’re the people that will drive you back to your old habit. So we’re reading this article on how to tell if you’re an alcoholic or not,” Maas said. “One of the questions was, ‘When you drink do you find yourself hanging out with your lower companions?’ We all looked at each other and realized, yeah, we are the lower companions.”

The band plans to give the debut some legs to stand on by taking it across the country this summer.

- See Jason Maas and the Lower Companions on:
Saturday, Jan. 16 at Shannon’s (no cover fee)
Wednesday, Jan. 20 at The Academy w/ Don Amero (tickets at Into the Music, Music Trader)
- Visit www.lowercompanions.com
- The Uniter

January 13th 2010
Old habits die hard

by Mike Duerksen (Volunteer)

When local frenzied-rock ensemble The Monty Yanks split up in the early days of 2009, there was only one thing left to do for lead vocalist Jason Maas: He recorded Clean, a folk-rock album with all the songs that didn’t fit the chaos-driven mantra of his previous band. It was released this fall.

“I saw the breakup as an opportunity to release a new album and go in a completely different direction,” the 29-year-old said last week over the phone from his downtown apartment. “I’ve been writing a lot of songs throughout the last five years. A lot of the songs were dirty rock songs, but some of them were of a more folky, gentle nature.”

Armed with a catalogue of tunes to choose from, Maas started looking for a capable backing band. He recruited an experienced troop of local musicians to undergird his raspy voice, including Jesse Millar, Ian Sorensen and Jen Bihun (The Experiences), along with David Singleton (The Monty Yanks) and Tim Friesen (The Shouting Ground). Nicky Mehta (Wailin’ Jennys) provided female backing vocals.

Just over a month after fronting The Monty Yanks’ farewell show, Maas and the band entered Private Ear studios in Winnipeg. The result was 11 tracks melding disparate genres such as gospel, ‘50s shake ‘n’ roll and pop into a cohesive folk record.

“The goal was to take all these genres and try to make them fit in one album. A big part of what I was trying to do was take all my influences, filter them out and then distill them,” Maas said.

All that was missing was a suitable name.

One day Maas and a few friends were hanging out and, by his own account, were already a little tipsy when they stumbled upon a magazine article.

“If you join Alcoholics Anonymous they tell you to stay away from your lower companions. They’re the people that will drive you back to your old habit. So we’re reading this article on how to tell if you’re an alcoholic or not,” Maas said. “One of the questions was, ‘When you drink do you find yourself hanging out with your lower companions?’ We all looked at each other and realized, yeah, we are the lower companions.”

The band plans to give the debut some legs to stand on by taking it across the country this summer.

- See Jason Maas and the Lower Companions on:
Saturday, Jan. 16 at Shannon’s (no cover fee)
Wednesday, Jan. 20 at The Academy w/ Don Amero (tickets at Into the Music, Music Trader)
- Visit www.lowercompanions.com
- The Uniter