Originally Published: 2009-09-27

Random Robbery

Toronto rock duo Random Robbery is grabbing attention with its new self-titled album. It may be their first record, but five years of working together have seen the two principals of the band develop a close personal and creative rapport.
Random Robbery comprises powerhouse vocalist Barbi Baumann and experienced multi-instrumentalist/producer Rob Laidlaw. Their story began when Laidlaw recruited Baumann to be the singer in the house band he put together for Montana, one of Toronto’s leading nightclubs.They performed there three nights a week for 18 months, and the project was so successful that such legendary rock singers as Loverboy’s Mike Reno were invited to perform for them. Reno, in fact, became a good friend, and co-wrote two songs — “Superhero” and “Triumph” — which appear on the album.
Laidlaw recalls that “the gig gave the two of us a great foundation, showing that we could work together and that we enjoyed each others creative intelligence. When it finished, Barbi came to me and said, ‘Let’s write a record!’ We were starting from the ground up. We wrote almost 60 tunes, then whittled them down to the best 20. Our executive producer, John Duffy, joined in making those decisions.”
Recording at Toronto studio MDS was a long process, but the duo’s perfectionist approach paid off. Laidlaw co-produced with Murray Daigle (Sum 41) and contributed guitars, bass, keyboards, programming and backing vocals. Baumann played piano and sang all lead vocals, and former Harem Scarem member Darren Smith contributed drums and backing vocals. Laidlaw now declares that “at the end of the day, we are real happy with the result.”
The powerful and dynamic sound of the record deserves to bring it airplay on rock radio, while the quality of the songwriting has been recognized by some prestigious international songwriting competitions. The stirring and passionate “Carry On” won the 16th annual Billboard World Songwriting Award as Rock Song of the Year, and “5:09” received an honorary mention from the Great American Songwriting contest, while the Toronto Magazine Awards nominated “Bleed” in the Best Rock Song category. Random Robbery also received a spotlight for the ninth annual International Music awards.

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