Otto Motto: An Interview with Jose Contreras & Show # 974

Otto Motto is the latest album released by Toronto’s By Divine Right. A now legendary proto-indie rock band, By Divine Right is fronted by Jose Contreras and the band has seen many lineup changes throughout the years, in their previous lineups they featured Feist, Brendan Canning (of Broken Social Scene) and Brian Borcherdt (of Holy Fuck). Their current lineup of Jose Contreras (guitar/vocals), Geordie Dynes (drums) and Alysha Haugen (bass) has been together since 2010. In 2016, the band recorded a full album cover of Depeche Mode’s Speak & Spell album in their rehearsal space, calling it Speak & Spell U.S. Otto Motto is a sprawling double album containing 14 tracks and features haunting psychedelic pop textures to the songs as the lyrics dig deep and are contemplative.

The album opens with “Problems of the Professional.” Driven by acoustic guitar, drums and bass, this contemplative track opens Otto Motto. With lyrics such as “The gadgeteers exploits/The experts ingenuity/Profit from my mistakes” and “The polite way to make people vanish,” Contreras sings a song that is motivational and hopeful, but also wrought with frustration. As the song reaches the halfway point, it picks up the tempo as guitars bass and drums drift into a psychedellia influenced interlude before jumping back into the mid-tempo ethereal groove found here. “Fuzzy Empire” floats in with fuzz induced electric guitar and rolling bass and drums as lyrically the pop inflective chorus of “I can feel it in my bones/I hate to be alone/I’m not lying/Feel like dying/I need more,” echoes a complex collection of emotions of being close and distant at the same time. This is one of several tracks that features additional guitar from Toronto musician/guitarist Stuart Cameron. “St. Leon’s” was the first single released for Otto Motto. Starting off with a steady bass and drums before electric guitar and vocals come in, this track was written about a tour story and adventure that the band had in Nakusp, BC. St. Leon’s is an off the beaten path hot spring in Nakusp that has been described as mystical. As the song treads within its own sonic landscape, lyrics such as “Keep on going down that rocky slope/To St Leon’s off the logging road/There will be a place for you,” and “We left the motel at the break of day/Lived the dream and then we drove away,” Contreras seems to be singing of this hard to find place that is mystical, but also juxtaposing it with touring life that may be one in the same.

“The Weeping Man” has a late night moody feel, with primarily acoustic guitar, bass and drums, Contreras weaves the tale of the invisible people we see every day. In a brief interview with Exclaim! Contreras talked about the songs context a bit more: "The story of the song, really, is it's an amalgam of the invisible people we see every day. My Toronto always has had spirit people living in it. The people no one talks to; the people that don't go into stores; the people you see day after day and no one knows." This is also an example of the album’s live dynamic that captures you and doesn’t let go. “Smokies and Cannonballs” is a jangly rock track that switches up the pace and tempo of Otto Motto, while lyrically it seems to be about just shutting off from the outside world and just hanging out in your hotel room. “Wild Ducks” is a slower psychedelic art pop track that floats with a spontaneous energy, ”Alighter” drifts with an atmospheric ambiance, and “The Volcano” finds its place as the eighth track on Otto Motto. The groove digs deep on this one as the guitars, bass and drums put forth a locomotive-like groove awash in vibrant, but muted textures that mix with pop sounds. Lyrics such as “Twice before you start to crack/I collided with the night,” and “Find a light and hold it tight/In comes the night I need to find a cure/Holding back/Holding back the volcano,” emphasize an eruption that is about to take place, despite ones best efforts. “No. 87” has been described by Contreras as “warble-y existential disco based on a typo,” that was written “After some misadventures, I returned to live in Toronto, trying to remember my way back to the future.” This warble-y track also features dreamy vocals as it forays into more psychedelic pop in addition to the other sounds that permeate this track.

“East Side Anthem” attacks with a laidback rhythm and guitar work that festers with an influence reminiscent of Marc Ribot on Tom Wait’s Rain Dogs album. With its jerky stop and start dynamics, lyrics paint the picture of eerie and strange things that occur late at night on the east side of town. Musically the song, like many on the album feature textures and additional instrumentation, this one features streetcar guitar credited to Steven Lambke. “Middle March” is another standout track on Otto Motto. Saturated in themes of nostalgia for the future and past, the song features sparse drum beats from Dynes and soulful basslines from Haugen that blend with kaleidoscopic guitars from Contreras. There are also, like on many tracks on the album, backing vocals provided by Alysha Haugen. As the song reaches its end Shotgun Jimmie offers a brief segment behind a series of atmospheric sounds, asking for his friend to help him move a piano with his van that is both humorous, yet also fitting with the themes of wistfulness and melancholy present on this track. “Moon Jams” ends Otto Motto. The full band comes in as distorted guitars overtake the opening moments of this song. Also featuring lyrics sung in French, Contreras sings of taking a trip to the moon and looking back down at the earth. The lyrics are a bit abstract, but they seem to touch on existential themes and our significance in the vast universe around us. The song ends with a phone message by Shotgun Jimmie, who has little messages throughout the record asking to be put on the album.

Throughout Otto Motto, the songs are longer than 2013’s Organized Accidents (in addition to 2016's Speak & Spell U.S.) and take their time, but never overstay their welcome. Arriving just shy of an hour of music, the working title of this album was Onomatopoeia, which is a word that is associated with the sound that it is named after. On Otto Motto, the sounds are By Divine Right and can’t be associated with anything else. With this being the longest running lineup of the band, they are as Jose once said when describing the future of BDR’s sound “More us, and at the same time, wider.” Otto Motto widens their scope, leaving room for repeat listens, new interpretations and a sonic space for future sounds.

Listen to the interview that Revolution Rock did with Jose Contreras here:

By Divine Right & Jose Contreras Playlist (Originally Aired On February 11th, 2023):

1.  By Divine Right - St. Leon’s (Otto Motto - Fortune Stellar Records - 2022)
2.  By Divine Right - Tora! Tora! Tora! (Speak and Spell U.S. - Headless Owl Records - 2016)
3.  By Divine Right - Eating the Ghost (Organized Accidents - Hand Drawn Dracula - 2013)
4.  By Divine Right - Cupid in Oilskins (Mutant Message - Hand Drawn Dracula - 2009)
5.  By Divine Right - Out of It (By Divine Right - Kinetic Records - 1995)
6.  By Divine Right - Come For A Ride (Bless This Mess - Nettwerk - 1999)

INTERVIEW WITH JOSE CONTRERAS PART I

7.  By Divine Right - City City (Sweet Confusion - Linus Entertainment - 2004)
8.  By Divine Right - Supernatural (Good Morning Beautiful - Linus Entertainment - 2001)
9.  By Divine Right - Goodbye Paralyzer (Bless This Mess - Nettwerk - 1999)
10. By Divine Right - Highway Alien Paranoia (Al Hail Discordia - Squirtgun Records - 1997)

INTERVIEW WITH JOSE CONTRERAS PART II

11. By Divine Right - Smokies and Cannonballs (Otto Motto - Fortune Stellar Records - 2022)
12. Jose Contreras - Grand Central Station (At The Slaughterhouse - Headless Owl Records - 2019)
13. Jose Contreras - At 45 (At The Slaughterhouse - Headless Owl Records - 2019)
14. Jose Contreras - Silver Thread (Jose Contreras - Squirtgun Records - 2014)
15. The Heat Death - Don’t Tell Her That You Love Her (The Heat Death - 2018)
16. The Heat Death - I’m Already There, Sunshine (CJAM Session 2016)
17. By Divine Right - Psychic Radio (Hybrid TV Genii - Linus Entertainment - 2004)
18. By Divine Right - Past the Stars (Organized Accidents - Hand Drawn Dracula - 2013)
19. By Divine Right - The Weeping Man (Otto Motto - Fortune Stellar Records - 2022)

To hear this program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and click the February 11 file to download/stream the episode.