When I met producer, MC and vocalist Odario Williams in the late ’90s, he was a fresh-faced Winnipeg hip-hop head fronting a foursome called Mood Ruff. Williams stood out, not only because the music of Mood Ruff was different — drenched as it was in jazz, funk, smarts and sunshine — but also because the guy knew how to work a room, onstage and off. A real go-getter, he could often be found networking in Toronto, passing out CDs and hustling for gigs.

This is the memory that shot to mind when I discovered that Odario is now leading Grand Analog, a mostly T.O.-based “rap ’n’ roll dub and soul” band who have been gathering both steam and buzz since releasing their quality CD Calligraffiti late last summer.

As we catch up, I share these impressions with Williams, who laughs before explaining his drive.
“At the time that Mood Ruff first came around, the only reality for a lot of urban acts was to be signed by a major label. Basically, the training the Toronto cats got seemed to be to get a manager, pour everything into creating a beautiful-sounding, well-compressed recording, and get signed by a major who’d take care of everything from there.

 “But I grew up with punk rockers, and my reality was to do it yourself — get the resources, record yourself, promote yourself, and tour,” he continues. “Where a lot of urban artists just don’t tour, Mood Ruff would play with rock bands, funk bands, punk bands, and I learned the live aspect from all of them. That’s what made me include live music in everything I’ve been doing. I find it necessary. Coming to Toronto was always an eye opener because they always thought everything I was doing was unnecessary, like ‘What’s with all this running around the country?’ As I closed the Mood Ruff door after we released our last CD in 2005, I brought all of my old values with me, but now they actually apply to today.”

Though Grand Analog “was supposed to be a rock band” when he started it five years ago in Winnipeg, it morphed over time after Williams relocated to Toronto to further his acting career. Though he fronts the band, it’s a fairly open collective, with his Winnipeg-based brother Ofield Williams as well as local artist Alister Johnson a.k.a. DJ Catalist also at the core. 

 “I wanted to be even more free musically than I thought I was with Mood Ruff,” says Williams. “Sonically, I knew that I wanted to dig into dub and rock and soul. I’ve always wanted to do that, but years ago I wasn’t free enough upstairs to know that I could. Now, I’m just going all out with it, and my perfect partner is DJ Catalist because we think alike. The music really comes naturally when we sit together and produce.”

The two created the basis for Grand Analog as we now know the band when they “grabbed some of my dad’s old records that he finally let me touch” and made the beats for “I’ll Walk Alone” and “Get Live & Go.” The two tunes are enormous yet very different from one another — the former is rooted in funk, soul and ska and the other is a blend of big beats and the even bigger guitar riffs of Canadian music veteran Damon Mitchell (The New Meanies).

 “Neither Alister nor I saw an entire album coming,” Williams admits. “We just kept making music and Urbnet said, ‘Let’s put this thing out.’”

Garnering plenty of favorable comparisons to the likes of k-os and OutKast, Calligraffiti has been earning Grand Analog audiences in droves. Ditto their live shows. As comfortable playing jazz festivals as they are electro and rock nights, Grand Analog will follow Friday’s Canadian Music Week gig with a trip to Austin’s South By Southwest Festival, where they’ll perform on the International Reggae stage. This after playing last year’s SXSW International Hip-hop stage.

“With all this newness in music happening, plenty of old models are now falling,” muses Williams. “Back in the day, if Grand Analog had come out, we would have been tagged as some weird, alternative hip-hop thing and I’d be touring with Arrested Development. Now, especially with all the mash-ups, the mixing of rock and electro and punk bands that have DJs, it’s all acceptable and it’s perfect timing for us.”