The Stables are the type of band that thrive within their collective limitations. Sure, their bass is made out of a bucket and a hockey stick and they use a suitcase for a kick drum, but it’s not about what those items can’t do, it’s about what they can. The Stables circumnavigate whatever drawbacks might be contained within those instruments to find the powerful and unique tones they offer, using them to lay the foundation for their music.

These three Oshawa boys prove that it doesn’t matter how pretty or expensive the thing you’re banging on is. It’s all about who’s holding the stick. The songs are finely crafted, up-tempo country tunes, both timeless and contemporary. Simple acoustic guitar paves the way for often playful, occasionally forlorn lyrics, while sweet harmonies stand in stark contrast to the group’s punk rock roots.

But that’s what makes the Stables so great: they make the contradictions work. We caught up with Poor Pelly of the band to talk about life on the road and how sometimes a little outside motivation might be a good thing.

There's a definite punk element to your sound. Is that an intentional thing when you're writing or just one of those unavoidable things from (I assume) growing up playing punk rock?
For sure. It's definitely in there. There's a point where you realize that good punk music and good country music have a lot in common. Three chords and the truth. But all three of us listen to all music and there is a lot of folk, country and bluegrass influences as well. I think personally, most of my newer songs have been very “folky.”



How did the band come together? Were you always a three-piece? I swear I've seen a picture of you as a four-piece band on a wall in Nanton, Alberta.
We have primarily been a three piece for the last four years. We do have a lot of talented friends, and when you find them in your audience it would be silly not to have them join you for a few songs. We have a couple different fiddle players who often join us around here. That would be Sean Battams or Jay Osborne. Sean is slowly becoming a full time member of the band, I think. The picture you saw in Nanton is probably our mandolin-playing friend Clayton Yates or stand-up bass player Diamond Dave. Both those guys are in Washboard Hank’s band and he was playing the hotel the day before us. So they stuck around and we had a pretty crazy night, to say the least.



Why the washtub bass and suitcase kick-drum? Is it just a matter of keeping your overhead low, or does it add a unique element to the sound?
First and foremost it's about keeping the overhead low. But beyond being broke, we are also old and lazy so it's less gear to carry. There is definitely some uniqueness to the sound. Some people dismiss it for being too "gimicky." We are happy with the sound we make from the stuff we use so that's what matters to us. If we get some extra attention from it then we'll take it. We have had this formula for the last few years though. Don't be surprised to see more and new instruments rounding out the sound for our next album. That's all I'm permitted to say about that right now.



You guys have released one full-length already. Are you recording a new album any time soon?
Yes. We've been secretly planning the release for September two years ago. It's nice not to have labels and people breathing down your neck about deadlines and whatnot, but that could be helpful too. We have started recording and assembling the songs we want to use, but I have no idea when it will be close to done. Just talking about it depresses the shit out of me. We'll get there though, somehow.



You guys have toured a bunch from the look of it, and based on that one mini-doc on your website it's caused you a few problems. Is touring worth all the hard work for you guys?
Touring can be hard. But personally it's my favorite thing in the world to be doing. Travelling the country with two of my best buds, seeing and doing things we would never get to do if we took that 9-5 at the factory, meeting amazing people, making new fans and friends that you get to keep forever. Sure, your van is gonna break down or catch fire. Sure, there's gonna be some blow-outs between band mates. Sure, you’re going to log onto Facebook in Sault Ste. Marie to find out your girlfriend broke up with you. But that's the stuff you read about bands in magazines when you’re a kid learning how to play your instrument and thinking, "Wow, that's great. I hope I can do that some day." We are lucky to have the stories we earned. I hope there's more to come!



Are there any plans to tour in the near future?
As soon as we have a new album we will be out there to support it.



Where's your favourite place to play?
Wherever people will listen! [Laughs]. It's a hard question to answer. We have had so many good times in so many places. I guess if I had to I could narrow it down to two; two different islands on two different coasts. Newfoundland is always amazing and we are pretty much peeing our pants with excitement anytime we are heading there. There is something magical about the people out on that island. It always feels like going home, even to mainlanders like us. The other is Cortes Island, B.C. We have some friends that we grew up with that play in a band there called Cortes Rocks. Whenever we go there we know for a fact it's gonna be one of the best weeks of our lives. It's a special place filled with special people. But if you’re hitchhiking there, don't get in a car with a guy named Kieran.



What's coming up for the band?
We have Harvest Festival coming up. We are always excited for that one. I think this will be our fifth or sixth year playing Harvest. It's this crazy international DJ party with 1,500 of the craziest people you've ever shared a spot in the woods with. It's another world. We have been the only band in the past but I think that's opening up a bit. We play the Friday night by the Screaming Heads fires — I shit you not. After that you can find me dancing in the glowing pyramid — again, I shit you not. The Harvest Festival happens Sept. 16 to 18 near Burkes Falls at the Midlothian Castle.



And lastly, who plays what?
We rotate through the instruments. We all play everything—although I'm not allowed to touch the drums — The only rule is that whoever wrote it sings lead. Then we have our choice between guitar, banjo, harmonicas, drums, gut-bucket, mandolin, tenor guitar — whatever else we might find.

Recommended track: When the Morning Comes

Video: Here Come the Stables

The Stables are:
Poor Pelly — guitar, harmonica
Blind “Billy” Blasko — guitar, washtub
Darren Clarke — guitar, drums

Ty Trumbull is a Toronto writer. He works as an editor at 680News and can be seen playing banjo with his band, The Sure Things, every Monday at the The Dakota Tavern.

He’s lived among a pride of lions, swum with great white sharks and trained Bengal tigers to live in the wild. One might think Dave Salmoni — zoologist and host of the new Mark Burnett TV reality series Expedition Impossible — is a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

Not so, says Salmoni.

“I’m not a thrill-seeker. I’m a calculated risk taker,” says the animal trainer who calls Toronto home. “I’m more safety focused than most people, probably because I like hanging out with the world’s largest predators.

“Unfortunately it’s really dangerous,” Salmoni adds.

Tapped as the host of reality TV king Burnett’s new adventure series, in part for his well-documented history of risk taking and quite possibly for his hunky good looks (attested to by many fans on the Internet), Salmoni appears on Expedition Impossible when it airs this summer on CTV and ABC.

He hopes the show continues for at least as many seasons as Burnett’s mega reality hit, Survivor, which has been renewed for an astounding 24th season.

Expedition Impossible follows 13 teams of three in a race across the deserts, mountains and rivers of Morocco. The winning team members will each be awarded $50,000 and an SUV. Each team represents a different slice of life in America. There’s “the New York Firemen,” “the California Girls” and “the Gypsies,” to name a few.

Salmoni says his job was to send them off and collect them at the end of each challenge but also to provide them with a bit of guidance and motivation.

“I’m their conduit to what they’re about to experience,” he says. “I’m also an authority figure: I tell them what they have to be careful of, but I also tell them, ‘Don’t give up and get going.’ ”

Although the contestants underwent some training to make sure they were capable swimmers and could ride a horse, Salmoni says safety was really left up to each contestant’s judgment.

“We send these people off, and the only thing they have between them falling off a cliff or a camel killing them is their own sensibilities and knowing what’s going too far,” Salmoni says.

It would be nice to have Salmoni around in a death-defying situation — especially one involving animals. The 35-year-old has made his living by putting his life on the line to train and better understand large predators. Somewhat surprisingly, Salmoni wasn’t raised with a great focus on animals. His mother was a figure skating coach and his father a chemical engineer.

Neither of his parents were particularly wildlife oriented. Salmoni says his love of the outdoors was fostered at their family cottage near Sudbury, Ont., where he spent his summers as a child.

Salmoni studied biology at Laurentian University and wrote his thesis tracking the hibernation of Canadian black bears. But it wasn’t until he apprenticed at the Bowmanville Zoo, 40 minutes east of Toronto, as an animal trainer, that he realized his true interest was working with animals rather than studying them.

“When I started having relationships with lions and tigers, I realized this is what makes me calm and happy. This is what people talk about when they find their passion.”

Salmoni trained under zoo owner Michael Hackenberger, who connected him with a Bengal tiger re-wilding project in South Africa. His experience was turned into the 2003 documentary Living with Tigers that aired on the Discovery Network.

He has since documented his diverse explorations with predatory animals through his production company Triosphere.

In Sharks: Are They Hunting Us? Salmoni dives in South African waters to investigate whether or not sharks target humans. In Rogue Nature he gets up close with bears, chimps, hippos and crocodiles in their natural environment.

But while it may sound like Salmoni’s daring verges on foolishness, he says everything he does is carefully analyzed.

“I’m always reading the animal. I know what every twitch, what every look means and when I need to be aggressive or submissive,” Salmoni says. “Each species has a dance that you’ve got to do.” Attacked by a lion he had worked with closely while training him in Ontario, Salmoni says it was a reminder never to become too trusting of an animal no matter how amiable you think it is.

“You have to stay on your game,” Salmoni says of the experience when the lion lunged at his throat. “If one of the nicest animals you’ve ever met is ready to kill you, it reminds you: ‘Oh s***, this could still go bad.’ ”

The experience also inspired Salmoni to create the show After the Attack, documenting victims’ retelling of their animal attacks, exploring how they survived and what may have triggered the incident.

Salmoni continued his work with big cats, filming Into the Pride (2009) on a private game reserve in Namibia. For six months he slept in a tent in the southern African bush trying to connect with a family of aggressive lions so they would become more accepting of tourists. The series — which aired on Animal Planet — shows Salmoni regularly being charged by the dominant female, Cleo, and her big-maned alpha male, Brutus, with only a long stick and his own chutzpah to protect him. One wonders what keeps Salmoni going in the face of such danger and repeated rejection.

“I think I was born with a passion for animals,” Salmoni says.

Salmoni bought a home in Toronto’s Little Italy, but he’s usually elsewhere around the globe working for 10 months of the year. When he’s home, he says, he likes that the city is close to where his parents and siblings live.

“Toronto is central for me,” he says. “It would probably be easier for me to live in Los Angeles, but you have to make adjustments in life to see family.”

At this point in his career he is able to choose where he wants to film and what animals he wants to work with.

“It’s a great place to be,” says Salmoni, who is looking to swim with polar bears, orca whales and whale sharks in the near future.

Salmoni credits much of his success to following his passion when it wasn’t affording him much luxury in life.

“I was not afraid to do what I loved and not worried about a paycheque — this has led to opportunity,” Salmoni says.