https://blackmastiff.bandcamp.com/
Edmonton’s Black Mastiff (Bob Yiannakoulias, Clay Shea, Allan Harding) is a band built around lifelong friendship and having fun, something they value above all else and extend to their audience in a porous, heavy, and vigorous live performance. Keeping it together has always characterized their stoner rock sound, that leads with a sly, moody, steady groove leaning into a blizzard of distortion, and borrows from a myriad of rock and soul influences from 70s metal to Stevie Wonder. When I write guitar riffs I usually imagine Stevie Wonder is singing the notes, says singer Yiannakoulias. If I can hear his voice in my notes then I’m keeping it. So is Stevie Wonder stoner rock!? Sure why not. With their third full-length album Loser Delusions (Fall 2019), keeping it together became a literal priority. During the four years since their well-received Music Machine (New Damage Records, 2015), recorded and beautifully produced at Thunder Underground Studio in the desert of Palm Springs with John Garcia (Kyuss, Vista Chino), the trio had to change their perception of how a band operates, meeting unforeseen professional challenges head on. Already Renaissance men and entrepreneurs in other life ventures, the band sharpened their production and business know-how by starting their own label, Grand Hand, with tour mates Chron Goblin. When drummer Allan moved to Vancouver, instead of giving up they decided to see how distance apart could add to, rather than take away from, their creative process and sound. The result is a determined continuation of what they do best, with a voyaging out into new sonic territory. -Thea Bowering-