Of Gentlemen and Cowards pt. One- Band Comes Together

     My photographer Victoria pitched an idea a few times but I always put it aside: “Why not interview the band Of Gentlemen and Cowards?” She had contact information for some members of the band and she thought they'd love to chat, but something always kept me from actually agreeing. I was hesitant for two reasons. First, I would be talking to four people--very different from my one-on-one chats. Second, it was my first venture into a music-related interview, and any new genre of interviews has inherent new challenges. However, how could I say I'm meeting all types of Canadians while excluding musicians? I agreed, and Victoria contacted them. I didn't really know much about the guys except for the knowledge that they attend McMaster University, and they recently had the chance to play on the David Letterman show (I'll explain that later). Driving to Hamilton to meet them, I realized I didn't even know their names. That's how blindly I was going in. 

        After pulling up to the house at which we'd agreed to meet, we wondered if we had the address right. It was an older looking house, and saying the lawn could use a trim would definitely be an understatement (no offence to your place, guys). Soon, I would learn that this is primarily the band's practice space. Whoa, a whole house to practice music! Dedication. After sitting and chatting a bit about what I was doing, and waiting for the three out of four band members that would be coming, we sat down in a backroom and made ourselves comfortable. So after a couple of weeks and an hour drive, I finally took Victoria's advice and took the time to meet Josh Dawson, Simon Edwards and Christian Fedele. Sorry fourth band member Jake, maybe we'll meet some other time.

Left to right: Christian Fedele, Josh Dawson and Simon Edward

Photo by Victoria Alexander

        In the words of one of Hugh Hefner's kids (I forget which), “some reporters have a story already written before the interview.” I've experienced that before, but not this time. I had no idea which angle to take, so I decided to start simply with "how did each of you personally get into music," with drastically different answers.

        Simon was thirteen years old when he received his first ever guitar, the day of his Bar Mitzvah. The thing was, musically he didn't have many role models at that point in his life. His mother is deaf, and his father is partially so, leaving only his sisters as family influences. This was the nineties, so their interest was naturally boy bands, boy bands, and more boy bands. These influences didn't speak to him very much, and it took until around university for him to really discover the rock music he would fall in love with. As he told me, he force-fed himself with thousands of songs, CDs and records, learning all he could. All the while, the cheap guitar from that Bar Mitzvah he received five years previous held a special hold on him. It was his first leap into instrumental music, having sung all his life, and it's an instrument he still keeps to this day.

        At around ten years old, Josh was given his first guitar, a Stratocaster, by his parents. Josh's family was a bit more musical, with his grandpa writing songs for the iconic Stompin' Tom Connors, among others. His father taught him a lesson in those early years that he remembers to this day: "you can sell everything in your room, but never your guitar." In about grade nine or ten, he started playing in a punk band that had about seven guitar players. They realized they needed a bass player, so Josh took the role. As soon as he had it in his hands, he loved it. He told me how he could feel the power; it was like holding a gun to the band and saying he could do whatever he wanted. Okay then...anyway, he stuck with it.

        Christian's mother received her Royal Conservatory certification in piano, whereas his father was once in a band called Shining Star. He started off with piano lessons from age 5-7, but he stopped because he told me how "piano sucks as a kid." I wouldn't know, I never took piano, I'll take your word. Then came music in school. He remembers how it was like Harry Potter, with a whole line of mouthpieces set up. Just like "the wand chooses the wizard," the mouthpiece chooses the musician, "it's not always clear why" as Ollivander would say. Christian ended up with the baritone sax, cool enough I'd say. This was mixed in with a brief musical theatre career (a short-lived stint as Kurt in The Sound of Music). One time though, he found his moms classical guitar, and went on YouTube to learn how to tune it. Drawing inspiration from "You Never Give Me Your Money" by the Beatles, Christian started his time as a guitar player. 

Simon and I... am I mid-laugh or something? Probably, hilarious guys.

Photo by Victoria Alexander

        But how did these guys even meet? They seemed like they've known each other forever, but I was far from right. Simon and Jake, I learned, knew each other from high school days. Together, they decided to go to McMaster University, Jake for sociology, and Simon for engineering. Around the second day, another new McMaster student, Christian, was walking down the halls of his residence when he saw some kid doing work, already, at his desk. Christian also noticed the guitar, and decided to introduce himself to the kid, whom he learned was named Simon. Boom, that's three out of four have met. That first year, Simon and Jake were in a few bands that weren't really going anywhere, and decided to try and get a little more serious. So at the end of the year, they left the others and recruited Christian, who by then was a friend who knew all their stuff. They practiced all summer, but realized they needed as bassist. Ads went up in student lounges, and a student a year older than them saw them and became interested. The undergrad halfway through his classical music degree was really just looking for someone to jam with, so he gave him an email saying he was interested. If you hadn't already guessed, that was Josh, and now the four of them all knew each other.

        Josh heard some of their stuff, and wasn't really a big fan of it. In fact, not at all. But he saw how intense Christian was rocking out and realized that was someone he could work with. He decided to give them a shot after all, and after a month, Christian, Simon and Jake told him that they were going to give him a shot.

            Of Gentlemen and Cowards was born.

TOMORROW: Read about their decision to try and become bigger than a university band, their very unsuccessful first tour, their "musical epiphany," and winning the chance to perform in front of millions on the David Letterman show.

Simon, Josh and Christian fooling around.

Photo by Victoria Alexander

Rob Furlong and his World Record Shot

     I honestly hate technology. You start to give it even the faintest bit of trust, and it goes behind your back and makes things difficult. Well, maybe on that hand, I should of just charged my iPod (which doubles as the recorder for most of my interviews) before I decided to call Robert Furlong. Anyway, as the phone call with Robert was wrapping up, my iPod died. With fingers crossed and silently fuming under my breath in the hopes I wouldn't be heard on the phone, I hoped the recording would of saved before the device shut down. It didn't. Once my iPod had enough charged to turn on again, I realized my whole phone call recording had never been saved. I ran to get a piece of paper and a working pen, then with the questions I had just asked in front of me, I closed my eyes and recalled most of the answers I could. My older brother has been awarded the distinctions with one of the best memories in Toronto (apparently they rank this), so I like to think my memory isn't too bad as a bit of runoff from him. What I realized though was that recalling all Rob said really allowed his answers to sink in more. I feel I'll be rethinking his answers for a while to come.

     With that in mind, there may be a few “specific” details missing from this particular interview, but that really isn't an important aspect to this one. In my opinion, in this particular conversation I had the chance to have, it was more the emotional aspects than the specifics that had the strongest prevalence. I've had the chance to discuss humorous careers, daring adventures, cooking, opera music, ballet, religion, ice road trucking, stunts, ultimate fighting, challenges and many more categories. This week, I've had two very different conversations regarding the death of a human being. A topic that's never very easy. Earlier this week I had the chance to speak with Carol Todd, the mother of bulling victim Amanda Todd who unfortunately took her own life in October. The story of meeting Carol is for a Canadian Stories book I'm working on. Meeting her took a lot of personal reflection, in regards to if I felt I was able to speak with someone about a sensitive topic such as suicide.

     Speaking with Robert was similar, yet very different at the same time. Rob and I spoke about a “world record” he held from March 2002 to November 2009. The record he held was “longest recorded sniper kill in combat”, a record he received while serving in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda. Upon his spotter noticing a belligerent (enemy) soldier during conflict Shah-i-Kot Valley, Furlong took the shot that would kill the enemy soldiers life, a shot that was 2430m in length, a shot he would later learn had more significance than simply aiding the mission. I had to decide if I was up to speaking about such matters, if I felt Robert would like to talk after all these years (knowing he had spoken about it before) and had to consider if it was appropriate to write about. Needless to say, I made contact and we were in touch. At about three o'clock on Tuesday the 20^th of August, I called Robert Furlong's cellphone. He was out east at a coffee shop taking a break and reading emails. That's when we started talking about his career with the Canadian Armed Forces.

 Rob Furlong, photo retrieved from 

http://algercafe.blogspot.ca/2011/05/longest-recorded-sniper-kills.html

     It was around 1997, the year after my little brother was born, when Rob decided to join the Canadian Armed Forces out east, becoming the first in his family to enter this profession (thanks, Rob). This is an instance were the recording would of came in handy, but I can let you know that he then went to Quebec for some training in a wide range of areas, yet it was what he would do outside of training that would effect his career, that being competition shooting. After people realized the talent he had there, he earned himself a spot (out of about two offered) in a more detailed sniper program, which Rob decided to go for.

     After training, came Robert Furlong's first deployment, he was off to Bosnia-Herzegovina as a peace keeper. What he would later realize here was how much more organized the bases were, the protocol and even things to do in your free time. He didn't really realize this then, as to him it was his first deployment as a soldier (well, peacekeeper). It was when Rob was sent to Kandahar Province, Afghanistan with the first deployment of Canadians and Americans that the comparison to Bosnia was made. They landed in an old air force base, and slept in two man tents. Rob made it to his first active war zone as a fighter, as a soldier. This is what he was trained for. Early on, he was stationed in an old, formerly Russian town with Anti-Taliban locals, a fellow Canadian and some Americans, mainly gathering intel. Then came Operation Anaconda, one of the first large-scale operations and battles in the war. 

     Somewhere in another area of conflict, a Canadian named Arron Perry would take a shot at a belligerent in a helicopter. This shot hit its mark, and unbeknownst to Perry, would set a world record for the longest in combat kill since a United Nations Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Sniper named Carlos Hathcock in 1967, Vietnam. Perry wouldn't hold this record for long. 

     With that going on in one area of combat, Furlong described to me what fighting in Anaconda was like, my first time hearing first-hand a soldier explaining what it was like in an active war zone. It seemed you were constantly being shot at or bombed at. You had very little solace, and when you did, you were planning tactics to strike back at the enemy to aid the mission. Mid-fight, his spotter noticed a troop down below in the Shah-i-Kot Valley. Rob took his shot, the enemy was neutralized, and fighting was continued without a second thought by many. After all, this was war.

     It was when he made it back to camp after the operation protocol was finished that stories started to spread about what he had done. He had beaten both Hathcock's and Perry's "record", and killed a man in combat from an astonishing 2430 meters, nearly 2.5 kilometers. 

The rifle used by Furlong

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tac50.jpg

     How could one be proud to be know for this particular record? Be proud knowing that people know you as the man who took another life from an especially long distance away? Rob wasn't proud of that aspect, be he is proud he could successfully aid his country, and the protocols of the mission he was on. I say that's a pretty hard internal battle to fight. 

     I asked him what went through his mind when Canada left Afghanistan, and I received the longest pause in an interview I'd had ever been granted, before an answer. Of course he's glad that we're gone, and that soldiers can feel safe again with their families, and our nations out of war. But he remembers all his friends left behind, or brought home no longer with us, and wonders if they're really done in Afghanistan yet.

     While sitting at his desk one day at work, Robert Furlong received an email from a friend. A British soldier named Craig Harrison broke his record, twice, with two consecutive shots on Taliban soldiers. Rob felt several emotions at the same time. Firstly, relieved the title wasn't his anymore. Yet he also felt he now knew what Craig may be feeling about the record he just received.

     After talking about life now, Robert and I said our fair wells, and he invited me to keep in touch. I'd like to thank him for taking the time to speak with an 18 year old learning about Canada, and for protecting our country.