Our Mercury

Having met in grade one, Our Mercury members Ben Stevenson and John Watson have a long history, but let’s skip years ahead to when they first started playing music together– Grade 5. Performing a Dayglo Abortion cover for the school talent show, these boys were clearly punk rock prodigals. A fact that was confirmed when they competed for the Battle of the Bands while John was still in elementary school and Ben was just in grade 7. “When I first heard The Clash I knew for sure that that’s what I wanted to do. I knew from a young age,” recalls Ben about his first childhood musical heroes. It wasn’t long before they outgrew high school gymnasiums, and by 12 they were playing their first show under the name Misdemeanor at an Edmonton punk hole-in-the-wall called Punk n’ Junk. Their reputation quickly spread. “Bands from California were calling up Punk n’ Junk asking to play with us, it was insane. We must have played once or twice a week. We were added to shows that we didn’t even know about until we saw our name on the posters when we were walking down the street,” remembers John. Word of Misdemeanor soon traveled west, and they were recommended to producer... more...