The song that changed Jay Malinowski’s life came to him on a late Kingston night, walking down Brock St. over 20 years ago.
Bedouin Soundclash, the award-winning and internationally recognized band, got their start right here on Queen’s campus. It all started with a chance introduction while moving into Waldron Tower—when their mothers first introduced them—swapping records and eventually making music. For Jay Malinowski, BFA ’04, and Eon Sinclair, ArtSci ’04, time has flown by. Twenty years since the release of their influential second album, Sounding a Mosaic and fresh off an acoustic show in Kingston on Jan. 28, Malinowski spoke to The Journal to reflect on the group’s journey.
The band found their feet while at Queen’s, balancing music alongside the ’ studies. Despite its small size, Kingston had all the right ingredients for Bedouin Soundclash to thrive.
“I was originally going to go to art school in Chicago. I thought, Kingston’s a small place, and maybe I need to go to Montreal or something like that. Like all things in life, as I’ve realized over time, it’s actually, usually what’s right in front of you. It’s already there, you just have to see it for what it is,” Malinowski said in an interview with The Journal.
Bringing together Malinowski’s interests in bands like The Clash, and English punk rock—heavily influenced by West Indian Culture in the ’80s—along with Sinclair’s Guyanese background and love for dancehall, created a combination that made their music stand out.
Though “outliers” in the Kingston scene in the early 2000s, the group consistently brought out masses of student crowds, sometimes playing up to six nights a week.
“Our goal was always to make people dance,” Malinowski shared. “We weren’t influenced by what was happening in Montreal, or Toronto. We were just in this little bubble, and there were all these kids that were going out, you know? And so, we really took advantage of that.”
Taking their musical aspirations seriously, Bedouin Soundclash saved their partying days for later in life. Offered national tours during their time at Queen’s, the band still opted to finish their degrees.
Everything changed with the release of their second album, Sounding a Mosaic, which included their most famous track, “When the Night Feels My Song.” Under Montreal-based Stomp Records, the album was produced by Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains.
Needing one last song for the album with more of a “spiritual element” to it, the now-famous line came to Malinowski during a particularly reflective late-night stroll down a familiar Kingston haunt—Brock St.
“I went home, and it kind of wrote itself […] I just that’s the one vivid memory of living in Kingston, and of that song coming out,” Malinowski shared. “[The song] literally, literally changed our lives. We had no idea.”
Playing at Broom Factory as part of their acoustic tour brought back plenty of memories for the band. “It [creating the album] doesn’t feel like that long ago,” Malinowski shared.
“There’s just an immense sense of gratitude that we have,” Malinowski said. “Especially when I sing ‘When the Night Feels my Song’ every night, it’s just an incredible feeling of gratitude,” he added.
Their cross-Canada tour—kicking off on March 20 in Edmonton follows their UK run last year, celebrating 20 years of the iconic album. It’s allowed them to see the wide range of fans who their music has touched too.
“It’s not something I take for granted ever. We also get younger people who grew up with the song, either their parents played it for them, or they were watching CBC Kids, and they heard that song every day on the CBC,” Malinowski laughed. “It reminds us of how old we are.”
Though it’s been two decades since the band called Kingston home, some things never change. Late-night pizza, clothing trends, and local staples like The Toucan remain awfully familiar to Malinowski.
“I don’t know the last time I was in Kingston and so it gave me a real sense of nostalgia, just ing all the things we would do.”
Malinowski’s advice to budding musicians in the city was to focus on themselves, looking inward—rather than outward—to find their inspiration. He described Kingston as an “incubator” in which artists can develop their sound.
Bedouin Soundclash isn’t the first legendary band to come out of Kingston, and it certainly won’t be the last.
“The ultimate goal of playing music—in my experience and why I do it—is because you’re sitting at the end of your bed, or you’re walking down the street on Brock St., you’re feeling a certain way, and you’re trying to express that emotion to other people who might be feeling the same way,” Malinowski mused.
“That connection is incredibly profound. The rest of it can go away.”
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