Although relatively new to the Toronto scene, soul-reggae combo cityfolk has induced some raising of the eyebrows and swaying of the hips from some local music denizens. As guest vocalists of Toronto supergroup The Commotions '” better known in these parts as The BacktheFuckUps '” cityfolk frontmen King Iyah (bass) and Jay Byrd (guitar) practically stole the show at Ronnie Spector's Christmas bash at the Phoenix Concert Theatre last December. Some have gone so far in comparing their vocal harmonies to those of Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. Wesley J Ramos played voyeur on a Messenger conversation King and Byrd were having based on his questions. Portions of that dialogue are pieced together here.

The name of the band, is it one word or two? King: cityfolk is one word (lower case)... explain how you came up with it... Byrd: I just thought that all of our songs had a folk sensibility, but urban subjects.

Did you know there's a duo named City Folk from the U.S Midwest region that is biting your styles? King: There is no comparison. It's a couple of white guys who play covers of popular folk like James Taylor. Byrd: We are going to be THE cityfolk.

Reading from your cleverly written press bio, you two have known each other since high school. How did drummer iFree and guitarist Andrew 'œDoods'? Zalameda (of indie rock bashers More Plastic) come into the picture? King: Everything about the cityfolk experience has felt like fate. Byrd: That we met up after about two years of no contact, only to find out that we had been teaching ourselves to play instruments at almost the exact same time '“ fate! If you want to talk fate, when I moved into my current digs, Doods was my neighbour. I met Doods playing his guitar on the step, and I told him I was teaching myself how to play. He invited me to knock on the door sometime and he would teach me a few things. I don't think I was a great student, and I never would have dreamed that the strange and beautiful thing that is More Plastic would allow Doods the opportunity to moonlight with us. He also forces us to listen to the things we didn't get in the '˜hood. 'œWhite-folk music.'? AC/DC and shit. iFree is pretty well traveled on the underground music scene, so it was no surprise that eventually we would meet up with him. Of course, I say that in hindsight because at the time we really didn't know anybody, we just knew we wanted a band. Some guys we were jamming with at the time had iFree come over. When we decided we wanted to do this thing, he was our first thought, as we remembered him giving life to the half-formed songs that would eventually help us learn to write better songs.

It is no secret that some musical segregation exists in Toronto. As a multi-faceted band, is breaking beyond the seemingly strict boundaries of the Toronto reggae/soul community and venturing into the often supercilious world of indie rock a conscious decision or is it a natural result of having Doods in the band? Byrd: We like live music, and we are tired of what is out there on the 'œregular'? outlets, so we started to get into the indie scene that way. King: It was also a matter of our own backgrounds, having a wide range of interests and a wide circle of friends from different backgrounds who make up the cityscape of our music. We know that the things we're thinking and feeling are being felt by so many others out there, a silent majority of people who believe, like us, that music is a communal thing, not a platform for over-inflated egos. That said, Doods brings diversity to the music. Byrd: Yes. Doods knows a lot of people.

So what's upcoming for cityfolk? King: Most recently, we fell in with a couple of background vocalists '” Natasha Elkington and Anika McLean, a.k.a. Goldilocks '” who are going to really add another dimension to our melodies. Right now we are in the process of preparing a debut album. Expect to hear funk, reggae, soul, spoken word and rock.