Webber’s soft voice is appropriately Canadian-clipped when she speaks. Its groggy, morning amplitude is far from the windy levels she accesses when matching co-vocalist Stephen McBean on the band’s sophomore release, In the Future (released January 22, 2008, on Jagjaguwar). Think Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick, and you’ve got a fair picture of Webber’s musical impact. That one has to reach so far back in the canon for a similar comparison is a testament to the anomaly of women in bands with a sound described by critics as “massive”, “heavy”, and “sprawling”. It puts Webber on the same level as other anomalies, like Candace Kucsulain from Walls of Jericho and the Boredoms’ Yoshimi P-We.
“I kind of felt like that whole sexism thing was like, I don’t know,” Webber continues, leaving the sentence’s remainder to circumspection. “When we did the last U.S. tour [2007], it became apparent that there’s so much sexism in rocknroll music. I mean, the promoters, the sound guys — everybody just sort of ignores the woman in the band.” Webber describes being mistaken for a backup singer and routinely having questions directed to other band members on issues pertaining to her equipment. The rest of the band was similarly frustrated, according to Webber. “They’re like, ‘Why don’t you ask her? She’s right beside me.’ Funny stuff like that. It’s ridiculous.”
Webber seems surprised by the experience and rightly so. In their private lives, Black Mountain’s members operate on an entirely different and socially aware level. Much has been made, for instance, of the activist element in their day jobs. Four of the five members — bassist Matt Camarind, drummer Josh Wells, McBean, and Webber (keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt excluded) — work for a government-funded, nonprofit, social advocacy group in East Vancouver.
Egalitarianism runs throughout: Even when discussing intimate subjects, Webber spends the majority of the time plugging other band members (Schmidt’s dead-on visual rendition of In the Future’s tone for the cover art) or friends’ projects (the Cave Singers are her new favorite touring band). These refreshingly do-gooder aspects lend themselves to the Canadian stoner-hippie descriptions often applied to the group in past interviews. Further ammunition: They’ve occasionally labeled themselves a collective and an army.
Webber laughs when I suggest that it’s a product of American fancy that all Canadians live on communes. “Actually, I think that comes from the bio that we put out before the first album,” she replies. “We were having fun with just the fact that a lot of our friends were playing music, and we all get together a lot, and we’ll record on each other’s albums. People thought we all lived together in the same huge house on a farm and that we’re all related. We don’t all live together. We just help each other out.”
As for the “stoner music” element, Webber can see why it comes up, but doesn’t necessarily think the band can be so easily pigeonholed. “I guess we have a classic rock thing, but it’s just rock. Even when friends’ parents ask, ‘Oh what’s your band sound like?’ I just say a rock band. Every song is different: There’s the folky song, the creepy-dark song, the classic rock song. We like to be loud, epic. Even the soft, folky parts, they’re pretty loud; epic in that way that everyone is playing.”
Like all things with such intensity, questions arise as to longevity. I tell Webber that there are certain times on In the Future, when I fear for her voice and wonder why she isn’t wearing a cape, because she most assuredly will fly off into the sunset. I can hear her eyes rolling at my corniness, but Webber politely laughs anyway. She says that she’s been singing since she was a kid and honed her skills in punk bands along the way. “The wailing part is pretty natural, I suppose,” Webber explains. And just in case anyone doubts her role in the band, Webber adds, “If I didn’t give it super hard when we play live, I probably wouldn’t be in the band.”
Amber Webber's Random Top Five:
1. One album for trapped-on-an island scenario: I could probably listen to a Fleetwood Mac album over and over again. I listen to Rumour quite a bit.
2. First album purchased: A Corey Hart album at a garage sale. I know that the first couple of albums I bought [after Hart] were Belinda Carlisle [Peals of laughter follow]. I was just thinking back on how obsessed I was with Belinda Carlisle. And then when I realized she was part of the Go-Go's, I was even more obsessed with her.
3. Last album purchased: Actually it was the new Shins. I'm kind of into the Shins' album three years after everyone else bought it.
4. Best album received as a gift: The Great Speckled Bird, Canadian actually. Do they live on a commune? [Laughs] I don't know. They did travel on that bus. Have you ever seen that movie, Festival Express? You should really see it.
5. Unsuspected fan of: The Wu-Tang Clan. We're all really big fans of them.
currently performing in and on tour with:
Lightning Dust http://www.lightningdust.com/indexpage.html
Pink Mountaintops http://www.jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=pinkmountaintops
Black Mountain http://www.blackmountainarmy.com/
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