CRASH TEST DUMMIES
Back from the dead
KRISTEN MCKENZIE QMIAgeney Crash Test Dummies front man Brad Roberts knows all too well what Frank Sinatra was singing about in "My Way". After struggling against cre ative constraints from major record labels, the Canadian croonerwiththe unique bass baritone voice ended up going on a six-year hiatus until he could find an uninhibited (and financially viable) way to make music again. "Iwastot.allyrunve andldid n'tknow howthingshappened and howthingshappenedwith other bands," said the Win nipeg native, referring to the group's heyday in the 1990s when smash hits "Mmm Mmm Mmm", "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead" and "God Shuffled His Feet" charted around the world ''It's only now that time has changed and the industry has changed ... that I can see the must larger machinations. I didn't expect to get famous, but I didn't know what to expect really.I don'tthinklreallyun derstood the magnitude of what happened until it was over:'
"It's much more enjoyable nowbecause I'm doing what I want to do rather than what I'm being told I must do," he added. ''I'm not working for others. I'm workingfor meand that makes it so liberating:' Not that the road to creative freedom has been an easy one. Frustrated by the restric tions BMG had put upon the group's last major album -the label rejected dozens ofsongs
during the creation of1999's Give Yourself a Hand - in re sponse, Roberts created his own label and released three subsequent albums. Unfortu nately; he proved not much of a businessman. "We quitbecause I couldn't make it work financially;" he said frankly. ''I couldn't make money ... it has to make finan cial sense for me to do it'' So Robertstooksometimeoff to teach music and throw him self into his other passion yoga It wasn't long, however, before he was itching to make music again. 'Tm not really good at doing anything except for making records and performing. Those are two things I'm really good at'' Luckily; he soon found a fan in music producer Stewart
Lerman, a New York-based recording engineer who's pro duced soundtracks for such films as Revolutionary Road and The Aviator. With Ler man's creative input and fi nancial backing, the Crash Test Dummies were able to release their latest album, OoohLaLa, earlier this year. ''He writes and produces fan tastically;" Roberts said ofhis new collaborator. 'We [wrote] about 40 songs and we picked about 10 songs [for OoohLa La]. Therearesomanyrecords that I have left waiting:' And with a little bit ofluck, his fans won't have to wait an other six years to hear them Aside: Crash Test Dummies play T he Chan Centre for Performing Arts Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets at T icketmaster.