A
s it turned out, the best decision
Alexander Sowinski ever made
was dropping out of school. Back in 2010,
the drummer from Mississauga, Ont. was
studying contemporary jazz at Humber
College. That’s where he met keyboardist
Matthew Tavares and bassist Chester Hansen.
They started jamming together, moving away
from standards to jazz-inf luenced takes on
hip hop tracks by the critically acclaimed rap
collective Odd Future. After receiving less
than f lattering feedback from their professors
about their move towards hip hop, the three
decided to step away from school.
Their timing couldn’t have been better.
They’d filmed their interpretation of Odd
Future leader Tyler the Creator’s song
“Orange Juice” and put it on YouTube. It
found its way to Tyler the Creator, who loved
it, eventually performing and recording
with the band. They called themselves
BadBadNotGood, perhaps as a tongue-in-
cheek nod to their judgmental teachers back
at school.
Since then, the band has released five
albums, each gaining critical and commer-
cial momentum. And through all of this, the
one thing that’s kept the band grounded, as
they’ve toured the world and collaborated
w it h ma ny i mpressive mu sic ia ns , is t hat t hey
run together.
“When we’re on tour, we’ ll go for a run in
a big group,” Sowinski says just after getting
back from playing shows in Japan. “Recently,
were running in Yoyogi Park, this beautiful
place in Tokyo,” Sowinski says. “It was like
running a mile loop in rain forest. It was
typhoon season and we got drenched – a few
phones probably got ruined. But there were
tons of people out doing all sorts of exercise,
and we had a great run.”
Sowinski and the rest of the guys in the
band have always been athletic and health
conscious, but he’s really got into running
in the last few years. “With touring, there
isn’t a gym accessible everywhere you go,”
says Sowinski. “Going out for a run balances
you physically and mentally. Making you
naturally tired. It allows you to build energy
toward the show.”
This year, Sowinski ’s sister signed him up
for his first race experience, the Sporting Life
10 k in Toronto. “It was the first time I ever
did anything like that,” he laughs. “I found
it really fun.”
He and his friends keep each other in
check with the Nike+ Run Club app. “We’ ll
challenge each other to run a certain amount
in a month,” he says. A recent challenge he
got to piece together all around the world,
including a run in a park in Copenhagen, and
finished it up in Japan.
When Sowinski is back in Toronto devel-
oping a new album, he’s got his favourite
running routes. “I run down along the
Humber River, and in High Park,” he says of
his two go-to Toronto west end spots. “I also
have a 10k loop from my house, down to the
lakeshore and back.”
And while they are working out materialand recording, Sowinski often uses running
to get away from the group for a momentary
pause and figure out his contributions. “A
good and a bad thing that I’ ll do is throw
the demo we’re working on onto my phone
and take it for a run. I do a lot of dissection
listening on a r u n. Even if it suck s I ’ ll listen to
it over and over. Listening to it while running
lets me see how all the elements work.”
But Sowinski much prefers to use his
time on the run to appreciate the music by
the many friends the band has made over
the years. “I’ve been using Apple Music,”
he says, noting that Montreal producer pal
Kaytranada’s Polaris Prize-winning debut
album 99.9% is an an excellent running
companion, and features BadBadNotGood
on one track. “Sometimes I need something
more upbeat and energetic, so I don’t notice
the run as much anymore. Then I’ ll throw on
a jazz album that helps me pace myself.”
His teachers back at Humber would be
proud.–MDBadBadNotGood
Drummer
Alexander
Sowinski
The band that runs together,
stays together“Going out for a run balances you physically and mentally.
Making you naturally tired. It allows you to build energy
toward the show.”66 Canadian Running November & December 2016, Volume 9, Issue 7running celebrity