Kanesatake Mohawk makes it big overseas

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All the Indians are dead in America. They killed them all. There's no more.

"The guy who said that to me didn't understand what Native people were," said Alexander Binette, the 25-year-old Kanesatake Mohawk member of a band called Peaches 'n' Cream currently touring Asia.

"People over here are surprised that we still exist and that we have our own language and culture," said Binette, who has taken his band to play in a hotel in Guanzhou in mainland China, a disco in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, and the Hyatt in Oman in the Middle East. Peaches 'n' Cream is back at Dee Dee's Disco in Macau for a gig that started in mid-November and was scheduled to keep them there for at least three months.

"It's become sort of a second home to us. This is our second contract here and the band feels comfortable living here. Staying fresh, however, is going to be a challenge. When a crowd gets to know you, well, it's hard to keep them entertained night after night."

Peaches 'n' Cream, has been playing four sets of 45-minutes each six nights a week for the past nine months. Their repertoire includes hip-hop, rhythm and blues, classic rock and roll, and anything else that happens to be topping the charts at the time.

"We started playing all over Quebec to a Western audience who are very receptive to different versions of songs. In Asia the only thing they get is the very top hits, like Eminem, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, etc. Anything more underground they won't get so you kind of have to forget playing it over here," said Binette. "When people go out here they just want to let loose and dance to something they can recognize."

Binette seems on top of the world, but it's been an uphill battle. His father was an alcoholic who would sometimes take his frustrations out on him and his mother.

"It's not something I like to talk about. I don't want people to feel bad for me but it's something I want to put out there so the kids growing up know that I had to go through this too and I made it nonetheless," he said.

He credits his mother and his grandparents on his father's side with helping him get through the tough times.

"They were always waiting for me with open arms and I really appreciated it. They never expected anything out of me. Just being there with them was enough."

"Musically, my grandfather helped me a lot. He took a lot of time to teach me how to play the guitar, even though he played the fiddle. He would play a melody and encourage me to learn the chords to it. He was the first influence as far as playing with somebody else, which is key in this business," said Binette.

The Asian circuit is a means to an end for the core of this five-piece band. Binette plans on coming back to North American soil in the spring with band mates to hopefully cut original tracks. Tagging along will be bass player John, drummer Simon and Phil the keyboard player .

"We do want to record (originals) but not right away. At first we'll be blending in original live stuff with popular songs. If you come out as an original band, you won't get any exposure. You kind of have to prove that you can play in front of a crowd and please the crowd, and then slip something in original and adjust from there. From the crowd's reaction you'll know if it worked or not."

The band had been playing the club scene in Quebec when they got a call one day that changed their lives. There was a market for these types of bands in Asia. The question was were they willing to pick up and go? It was a question they didn't take long to answer.

"We jumped at the chance," Binette said. "We love to travel and to be able to play music and see different cultures at the same time. It was a no-brainer."

Peaches 'n Cream is represented by Casey Boyle, an agent with S.L. Feldman & Associates. He told Windspeaker there are many reasons why the market has been receptive to groups from North America.

"The hotel gains a certain prestige frm being associated with a Western style group in their venue. Also, the local acts, while being very good musically, do not have the look that the market wants, that being what the locals see on MTV," said Boyle.

"There's a lot of talent on the rez," Binette said. "I would say there's more talent on the rez per capita than in most other places. The problem is if they're good on the rez, they might not be the big fish when they go off the rez and it discourages some people.

"Even for myself I knew there were better musicians out there but there came a time when I asked myself if I was going to be satisfied with the way things were or was I going to work even harder? I soon realized that I loved music enough to do something about it."