It’s a rainy Wednesday evening in the Glebe. A young man adjusts the black hat perched atop his shoulder-length blonde locks, while watching his reflection in the only window at Compact Music, an locally-owned vinyl store.
By day, 23-year-old Alex Boyd works here. This is his father’s store. By night, Boyd is the lead singer and bassist of Ottawa-based indie rock band Riot Police.
“I was pretty much born in the store,” Boyd said.
“When I was growing up, I got baby-sat in the store. After school, I would wait here for my dad, to go home together. I’ve sort of always worked here, but my dad ‘hired’ me when I was 14 years old.”
Boyd’s work at the store is complementary to music’s role in his life. “When I had my first piano lesson, I was five or six years old. I was playing the bass as well, by the time I was 12,” he said, “and then, I joined the men-and-boys’ choir at Christ Church Cathedral. At age 13, I started my own band and it’s just been all music since then.”
Riot Police is a four-member ensemble. All the members of the band write the lyrics for their songs. So far, the band has released three albums, their latest being Movement in March.
“Good music isn’t just about practicing,” Boyd said.
He said music goes beyond piano classes and choral performances. In his case, his music has been shaped by personal experiences.
“I had a gun pulled on me when I was in Grade 12 over a pack of cigarettes,” Boyd said, when asked about his musical influences.
He says it casually, but he’s rubbing his palms together and it’s not cold inside.
Boyd said when he was in Grade 12, a few Grade 9 girls got drunk on school property one day, which got them suspended.
When the girls came back to school the next day, Boyd saw them walking down the hallway and called out to them saying “Well done, girls!”—while sarcastically slow-clapping.
He said the incident reached the ears of one of the girls’ older brothers, who showed up to school the next day with another boy, who pointed a gun at Boyd and mugged him.
The aftermath of the incident involved a quick meeting in the principal’s office with all parties and their parents, and the return of Boyd’s things.
Boyd said that the sight of the gun, however, lived on with him. “It really affected me. I never thought I’d actually see a gun in person. Why do people even have them? I just don’t see the point.”
“The memory almost disappeared from my mind until one day, my dad called me and told me that 68 people were shot in Chicago. It all came back to me, so I took that and wrote a lyric,” Boyd said.
The song that Boyd wrote is called “Chicago,” which appears on Movement in March.
Boyd said he sees his music as an instrument to vocalize his political thoughts, adding that he is currently writing a song about murdered and missing Indigenous women in America.
“Politics is something that I would like to go into, in the future, if I can. I see a future for myself in there,” he said.
Provided photo
