We’ve all watched a favourite band take the world by storm only to have that storm whirl them around in the familiar story of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
After more than a few years of living dangerously—including a couple of near misses and finally a death in the band—Brit-rockers BiFurious are poised to take a new direction, musically and, one can hope, personally.

Setting up shop in an old Scottish castle (otherwise known as the Third Space), the Urban Tales 10 band will record one more album—ByeByeFurious—to appease fans who were disappointed by the group’s tentative breakup plans, even going so far as to broadcast the affair on live webcast (on bifurious.ca).
“The acoustics in there are quite astonishing. I was in there tuning it up for the studio the other day and I sang a C above middle C and the reverberation is actually still going a week later. It’s astonishing, really,” guitar god Keith Bleak (Dave Clarke) says in a phone interview.

“So we’re looking forward to quite an amazing experience in there. And I think it will also be a bonding experience for the band. As you know, my ex-wife [keyboardist Daphne Highland-Smythe, aka Davina Stewart] is in the band and we’ve had some friction, but now we’re hoping to be able to reunite and love.”
Given the timing of the recording, and the location, rumours of nefarious spirits roaming the castle are creeping through rock rags the globe over.

“Bad spirits? No, not at all. I felt my near-death experience took me not only up to the light, but through it,” Bleak says. “I had a clear vision of the afterlife, and I saw nothing there to indicate to me that the supernatural means any violence or pain to any of us—even on Halloween, in a big, dark, spooky Scottish castle.”
Bleak, since blacking out and being run over by the band’s tour bus, has found a new purpose in life, taking up meditation and Buddhism.

“I blacked out probably for a good couple of days, and when I awoke, I found myself with numerous injuries to my body and clothing, and woke up,” Bleak says. “I am full of metal now, which is good. Metal, metal pins, steel pins, aluminum, steel plate in my head—all manner of joinery connecting my parts together, but now I am whole.”

The band—rounded out by Cody Gold (Jesse Gervais) and wife Lydia (Linda Grass)—seems on unsure footing, however, especially given the tense post-marital relationship between Bleak and Highland-Smythe.

“We don’t talk at all, really,” he says with eerie calmness. “That helps. It helps to just be at one with each other, without talking. She has a very shrill voice. It vibrates against my second chakra very painfully. So I ask for peace and silence. And if she won’t stop talking I crawl under the table and lie there quietly for a while, until she goes away. And I think that’s the basis for a very good, post-marital relationship, don’t you?”

No, it actually seems like the calm before the storm. Maybe those spooky Urban Tales of the castle will be true and BiFurious will have a true bonding experience. V

Fri, Oct 26 - Sat, Oct 27 (8 pm)

Urban Tales 10: BiFurious
Directed by Taylor Chadwick,
Erin McDougall
Written by Jason Chinn, Darrin Hagen, James Hamilton, Rosemary Rowe
Starring Dave Clarke, Jesse Gervais,
Linda Grass, Davina Stewart
Third Space, $18 - $20