It’s a good thing The Arrogant Worms didn’t sprout south of the 49th parallel. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be celebrating that nation’s birthday like they will be this July 1st when the trio from Kingston, Ontario bring their collection of good-natured, irreverent songs to headline the 2014 Steveston Salmon Festival.
“I can’t imagine that in the U.S. an act would be hired to perform on the Fourth of July then have funny songs about their country,” said Trevor Strong by phone from his home in Kingston. “I just don’t think Americans have the same sense of humour to laugh at themselves as easily as we do.
“As Canadians, I think it’s a point of pride to be able to take a joke.”
One of them is how ridiculously large Canada is in the aptly named Canada’s Really Big.
We’re bigger than Malaysia
Almost as big as Asia
We’re bigger than Australia and it’s a continent
So big we seldom bother to go see one another
Though we often go to other countries for vacations
Our mountains are very pointy
Our prairies are not
The rest is kinda bumpy
But man do we have a lot!
(we got lotta land, we gotta whole lotta land)
So stand up and be proud
And sing out very loud
We stand out from the crowd
‘Cause Canada’s really big!
“We’re fun and funny in an upbeat way,” said Strong, who along with Chris Patterson and Mike McCormick formed the Arrogant Worms about 22 years ago. “And we’ll be performing a lot of songs about Canada on July 1. I think we’ve got about five different Canadian anthems we’ve written. Plus, we’ll play whatever else passes for our hits.”
The trio met at Queen’s University in Kingston and became members of a group called the Queen’s players.
“It was a campus group that did really poorly organized shows in local bars,” Strong said. “We also started doing sketches and songs for campus radio.”
The exposure led to a string of live performances that was noticed by the CBC.
Two decades on, the Arrogant Worms have gathered a following from coast to coast and are familiar with the Metro Vancouver area, but have never been to Steveston before and are looking forward to the live audience at Steveston Park.
“We change what we do a bit if we are playing in front of an audience who already knows who we are,” Strong said. “At a Canada Day festival, there will be a lot who don’t know us. So, we’ll be a little more careful to make sure we warm them up to the fact we’re meaning to be funny.”
Annually, the group performs between 30 and 40 gigs.
“We used to do well over 100, but we all have kids now. So, we’ve dialled it way back,” Strong said, adding it’s still fun to experience the feedback from audiences.
“Everything is fun but the travelling,” Strong said. “As you get older physically moving your body from place to place gets more annoying each year. But the shows themselves are great.
“I tell people that my job is great, but the commute is a killer. Although we no longer do the jump in the van and drive across the country type of tour,” Strong said. “One year we did the coast to coast drive about four times. But the novelty wears thin pretty quickly. But every year now we cover most of the provinces.”
With a reduced number of gigs, performing is like a “great part time job,” Strong said.
“We’ve all got other things going on, although we did put out a new album this year.
What keeps Strong busy away from the stage is writing songs, as well as teaching in schools.
“Chris is a full time teacher now. And Mike, I’m not sure what he does. He does something,” Strong said. “He’s writing something. What it is exactly, I don’t know.”
Asked if they have a message in their shows, Strong said they generally try not to take themselves too seriously.
“We’re not a comedy group that puts the message first,” he said. “But we have little digs in there now and again.”
Take, for example, The Coffee Song.
Young Derrick would love to take my order
He works at the coffee place just up the street
He’s happy and annoying with a smirk the size of Texas
He’s my coffee enemy
Would you like a mochacino?
Or perhaps a cappucino?
Or maybe a frappucino?
Said Derrick wearing the chinos
All I really want is a cup of coffee
So strong the spoon stands up just a cup of coffee
All I really want is a cup of coffee
Give me a friggin’ cup of coffee, Derrick
“I think everyone has had that experience,” Strong said.
So, where did this happy-go-lucky troupe get their somewhat imposing name?
“We used to make up lies about where the name came from because the real story is not very interesting,” Strong said.
One of the more elaborate mistruths was it was derived from a Shakesperian passage.
“It was something like, ‘What is man but an arrogant worm.’ That was completely manufactured. But we got it printed a couple of times.”
Another was claiming the name came from a painting by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch whose work in the early 1500s was known for its use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives.
“But the truth is that when we sent out our first songs to CBC we didn’t have a name,” Strong said. “So, we had to come up with one.”
What they actually did was compile a list adjectives and nouns on a sheet of paper, “Because all the bands at the time were like Blue Rodeo, The Tragically Hip,” he said
The trio ended up crossing off all the combinations they didn’t like until they were left with Arrogant Worms.
“Except, I actually found the pad we used that night about 10 years ago and saw we had also crossed off Arrogant Worms. So, now I’m a little confused,” Strong said beginning to laugh.
The Arrogant Worms play July 1 at the Steveston Salmon Festival’s Main Stage starting at 1 p.m.
