Dearly Beloved's Rob Higgins Wants to Be Your Repo Man

Dearly Beloved's Rob Higgins just might be the world's nicest repo man. He doesn't give a crap about your unpaid furniture from IKEA, and sometimes he doesn't even care about his own.

"We're recording some new songs today," says Higgins over the phone from his cozy Toronto pad. "I've actually turned my living room into a dub studio.

Damon (Richardson, guitar) is coming over in a bit and we're going to lay down some guitar tracks. Sometimes there's nothing better to do on a winter day than make some coffee and work on songs."

It's been three years since Dearly Beloved released their attention-grabbing You Are The Jaguar debut, but the wait is nearly over. Their new RepoRepoRepo album comes out via MapleMusic in March, but keeners can check it out now on both iTunes and Puretracks.

It doesn't end there. Higgins and company are already working on another new disc, which the frontman hopes will be ready by this time next year.

"It's intended to be a series. We have a vision of releasing three albums in a set period of time. That way, we don't have to dwell on things too long and we can get new ideas down."

Higgins is excited to be back in the cycle of recording and touring, which he says helps keep the band fresh and motivated.

"We're playing a show at The Rivoli in Toronto on February 15, and then we'll work our way across Canada to Junofest in Calgary. We're pretty pumped about that, actually. We played Junofest last year and it was a blast. We actually had a pretty good show and it was pretty full. It's a good chance to schmooze a little, too."

In the past, Higgins has described the band's sound as "chaos tempered with love and delivered with great fury." Not only does he still agree with the description, but he believes it's been reinforced on the new disc.

"The whole idea of what we do is based around the moment, and that's where the chaos comes from. There are strong personalities in the band, and it tends to get crazy from time to time, but we temper that with a great love for each other.

"The live show is amplified on the album. The rock sounds are more rock, and the pretty sounds are more pretty. I think it sounds a lot better production-wise as well, which helps a lot."

Higgins has honed his bass playing skills over the last 15 years. Not only is he Rush singer/bassist Geddy Lee's nephew, but he's rocked out with Change Of Heart, Doctor and even Our Lady Peace. What you might not know is that he's also an avid hockey fan with his own weekly sports show on XM Satellite Radio.

"I'll probably be covering the Junos for XM as well," says Higgins. "Hockey is definitely my second passion. I love that I get to incorporate both passions into my everyday life. I get to go on the radio and talk about hockey."

Believe it or not, Higgins somehow manages to find time to produce other bands as well. His next project behind the board will be with Taking Out McKinley, an up-and-coming alt.rock band from Toronto.

"We're doing two weeks of pre-production before we go into Metalworks to record in February," says Higgins. "I'm really excited to be working with them as well."