The Immigrants - January/February 1999
by Sarah Chauncey
Sound: Earthy, wine-y, full-bodied roots music.
People: Pete Zantingh (vocals, guitar); Rob Van Hartingsveldt (more guitars, vocals); Fred Geus (bass, vocals); Paul Hogeterp (electric violin, fiddle, vocals). Guest-starring Todd Lumley (The Waltons) on keyboards and Paul Brennan (former Odds, Big Sugar) on drums.
To contact: James Porter, RamJam Management Group - 306 Sackville St., Unit 8, Toronto, ON M5A 3G2 (416) 966-9404, FAX (416) 966-9274,
“We were experimenting a lot with this album, compared to the first one, so it was a different recording experience for us.” So The Immigrants Fred Geus explains the process of putting together Awkwardly Mobile, their earthy and defiantly un-Celtic sophomore album. Best known for traditional fiddle-and-such arrangements, this group of flying Dutchmen (by way of Hamilton) chose John Switzer (Jane Siberry, The Waltons) to help them shape their sound.
Recorded at Orchard Studios, Number Nine Sound and Switzer’s own studio, Geus explains, “Paul was no longer playing traditional fiddle, so he was experimenting a lot with different effects and ways of playing with those effects.” Whatever he wound up using enhanced the songs without overpowering them. Because the band was no longer tied to their Celtic sound, “The mix stage gave us even more room for experimentation.” The main transition for the band, Geus says, is that “The acoustic is very much mixed in the background; it’s not in the foreground like on the previous recording. We wanted to toughen up the sound a little bit.”