Upside of Maybe

Taku Ito’s new walkout music
Posted onMarch 25, 2023

Canadian musician Scott Bannerman wrote a custom walkout song called 'Smallmouth Disneyland' for Elite angler Taku Ito.

Written by
David A. Brown

It’s distinctive, connective, and often definitive — a Classic angler’s walkout music says a lot about their personal style and preference.

From rap to rock, Christian to country, musical genres are diverse, but one angler will walk out to a custom song written specifically for him.

We’re talking about Takumi Ito, the standout from Chiba, Japan, whose walkout song, Smallmouth Disneyland, was written by a fan he’s never met. That fan was Canadian musician Scott Bannerman, who gladly shared his songwriting story.

“The song was a collaboration with my brother Michael (Bannerman) and our friend Charlie McEvoy, who added a variety of synth parts to the song and helped us in terms of getting the recording done,” Bannerman said. “We wrote most of the song in one night and then I revisited it a few times over the following week and tweaked some lyrics.

“We eventually started recording the song at Charlie’s studio, which took about two months from start to finish.”

There’s more to the story, but first, some relevant background.

Quick learner

Qualifying for the Elites through the 2019 Bassmaster Opens, Ito had never fished for smallmouth bass prior to his rookie Elite season. Impressively, 2020 saw him claim three Elite Top-10s — all on smallmouth fisheries: St. Clair (10th), Lake Champlain (10th), and the St. Lawrence River (6th).

A year later, Ito ended the 2021 season by winning the final Elite event on the St. Lawrence River. This is where he coined the phrase “Taku’s Smallmouth Disneyland” — a reference to the Lake Ontario honey hole where he sealed his win.

Located outside Chaumont Bay, south of Cape Vincent where river meets lake, Ito’s winning spot comprised standard smallmouth-friendly rock structure in 26-27 feet. Following a strong Day 3, Ito arrived on Day 4 to find a massive school of jumbo smallmouth had invaded his spot.

Ito leveraged the opportunity for a 26-pound Championship Sunday limit that sealed his victory and gave him the platform to deliver one of the most memorable statements in Bassmaster Elite Series history:


“Smallmouth can speak the Japanese language; I can speak the Japanese language, so I can speak smallmouth.”

The genesis

Okay, we’re not debating the Dr. Doolittle assertion, but the totality of Ito’s achievement and his memorable stage presence impressed many, Bannerman included.

“Although we have written lots of original songs for our band, I’ve never tried to write a custom song for anyone before,” Bannerman said. “I remember when Takumi first talked with (Bassmaster emcee) Dave Mercer at the weigh-in about his boat being like ‘Smallmouth Disneyland,’ I felt like Takumi needed his own special weigh-in song.

“I had talked with my brother about writing it for several months before we eventually sat down at the piano and started piecing it together. We had not been in contact with Takumi, so we were mostly focused on creating a fun song that I thought I would use as my own blastoff song if no one was interested.”

While Bannerman wrote the song with Ito in mind, he felt the lyrics also would broadly apply to the excitement inherent to smallmouth events.

“The anticipation that every tournament angler feels when blasting off in Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, or especially the St. Lawrence River is something that I think we can all relate to,” he said. “It’s like the excitement we had as kids when we would visit places like Walt Disney World (or Disneyland).

“It’s a great feeling when you’re heading out in a tournament knowing that catching a 25-pound bag is possible. That’s how I see the song; just as an anthem of hope for an outstanding fishing day.”

The man behind the music

Hailing from Stratford, Ontario, Canada, Bannerman’s a high school principal who plays in a local band, Upside of Maybe, with his brother Michael. The band stays close to home during the school year, but summer finds them playing a schedule of tour dates.

A member of the Forest City Bassmasters, Bannerman fishes local tournaments as a boater. Last year, he fished his first St. Croix Bassmaster Open event as a co-angler at Lake Oneida; and he’s planning to fish this year’s Open at the St. Lawrence River.

“I am a huge fan of competitive bass fishing and tend to watch the live streams for Elite series events every chance I get,” Bannerman said. “I’m really excited to Marshal at the Lake St. Clair event this year as well.”

When Smallmouth Disneyland was complete, Bannerman wrote to Ito through Facebook Messenger. It took a while to connect, but with the help of Google Translate, Bannerman offered his song to Ito, patiently waited for his decision and eventually got the green light.

“I was pretty excited after that point, but I still didn’t believe it until I watched the first weigh-in event at Lake Okeechobee online to confirm that the song was playing,” Bannerman said.

Meaningful message

Bannerman said his favorite part of Smallmouth Disneyland is found in the second verse:

“Drop it down where the big boys hide, make a little twitch let’s go for a ride, it’s California somewhere on this old spot of mine.”

“I can just relate to this verse so much when I’m casting a dropshot and feel like it’s about to get hit by a 5-pounder every cast.”

Like a tournament angler making a long run to find that kicker, Bannerman said he traveled to the Bassmaster Classic just to hear a 20-second clip of the song he wrote played in the Thompson-Boling Arena.

“As an artist, I generally write for myself in mind and plan on singing the songs I write directly to an audience,” Bannerman said. “When I first heard the song played at an Elite event, I felt really excited and proud.

“As a songwriter who is also a huge fan of bass fishing, it’s likely as close as I’ll ever get to participating in the Classic myself, so I’m just really proud of that moment and want to soak it in as much as I can.”

So what does Ito think of this custom song?

“This is my very favorite song because Smallmouth Disneyland (reminds me) of my Bassmaster Elite win,” he said. “That was a good memory, so now, my song is very impressive.” - Bassmaster

Upside of Maybe takes home London Music Award
By
Patrick Grapes
Friday, Jul. 10th, 2015

Local band Upside of Maybe has won the London Music Award for “Pop Artist or Group of the Year”.

The awards, given out by Scene Magazine, are voted for online by the general public. This was the band’s third time being nominated as a finalist.

The awards were handed out Wednesday evening at a ceremony in London. Upside of Maybe is a roots based pop/rock group from Stratford and London.

They’re first full length album, called “Midway Midway” came out last November.

Photo: Michael Bannerman (left) and John Munroe, members of Upside of Maybe. - Stratford Now

Upside of Maybe releases EP, full-length album in the works
Author of the article: Cory Smith

Published Jan 15, 2021 • Last updated Jan 15, 2021 • 3 minute read

Michael Bannerman, the lead singer of Upside of Maybe, has tried to find the positives for his band during the pandemic.

“I think a lot of musicians I know have been home so much they’re just writing songs like crazy, and they have a lot of material,” the Stratford frontman said.

That includes Bannerman and his brother and bandmate, Scott, who have written seven songs for Upside’s upcoming full-length album that should be released some time in 2022. One of those songs was included in the band’s second EP, All Who Wander, which dropped this week.

“It’s a bit eclectic,” Bannerman said of the four-track project, most of which was written pre-pandemic.

All Who Wander, the opening self-titled track with a blues/alt country sound, was scribbled on a cigar box guitar in Saskatchewan a couple of summers ago. The band had always wanted to record it, but it never seemed to get done – until COVID-19 gave them time.

Mr. Sad Eyes has a pop vibe and features a brass arrangement that was booked to record in New Orleans last March when the pandemic broke out. The virus forced the band to use Skype to collaborate with the musicians in Louisiana.

The Moment I Knew was written during the first lockdown in the spring and features Kitchener-Waterloo cellist Cynthia Martens Steele. The pop ballad debuted at No. 86 on the Canadian Independent Country Music chart and continues to climb.

Rainmaker has garnered the most attention. The second song on the EP tackles “truth and reconciliation” with a story based on the history of residential schools in Canada. Indigenous group Okama added its own touch to the track with percussion, throat singing, chanting and wood flute.

The song is a finalist in the 2020 World Songwriting Awards’ collaboration category

“There’s a lot of different feelings that go into it,” Bannerman said.

The quintet, which includes two musicians from London (guitarist David Dresser and drummer Troy Lockyer) and one from Lambton Shores (bassist John Munroe), has been together for about 15 years. After chasing record deals and stardom with different bands early in their careers, they’ve settled into a sweet spot where recording music is a passion project, and touring is mostly done at their convenience.

“It’s a nice pace, and nice to be able to do little tours in the summer and take breaks,” Bannerman said. “You do hit a wall sometimes, and maybe get a call to play a festival in Newfoundland, and you think, ‘That would be awesome,’ but you can’t get time off work, and five guys are juggling other priorities.”

Years ago, the band would have hit the road to support their latest project and try to further their careers. One of their first stops would have been northern Ontario, where Rainmaker is already popular.

“We’ve been on those tours with 29 shows in 30 days across the country, and they were awesome at 21,” Bannerman said, “but when you’re hitting 50 it’s a different animal.”

With the province under another lockdown, Bannerman and his Upside of Maybe bandmates will continue to write music and put together their second album, along with videos for a few songs.

“That’s been a healthy thing about this process,” Bannerman said, “is that musicians are rethinking how they do things – Facebook Live shows, videos, to get it out there, but it’s weird playing to a wall.”

cosmith@postmedia.com - Stratford Beacon Herald

Watch: “Rainmaker” by Upside of Maybe

September 22, 2021 | Web First
Aaron Epp | Online Media Manager
Stratford, Ont.

Gerard (Abouyou) Roberts from the Indigenous worship band Okama dances in the video for “Rainmaker.”

Stratford, Ont.-based rock band Upside of Maybe released its latest music video at the beginning of January, but it took on new resonance in May upon the confirmation of more than 200 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.

Written by Upside of Maybe singer-guitarist Michael Bannerman, and performed with members of the Indigenous worship band Okama, “Rainmaker” deals with the wrongs perpetrated against Indigenous peoples by white settlers. The video depicts a priest abusing an Indigenous student at a residential school.

Bannerman, who is a member at Avon Mennonite Church, works in the mental health field. He was inspired to write the song after taking some professional development courses relating to Indigenous peoples’ experiences with the residential school system.

For Bannerman, writing and recording the song was a way to acknowledge colonialism.

“It’s really easy for us to say, ‘I didn’t do that, I wasn’t there, I didn’t push some kid into a residential school,’” he says. “I needed to personally take ownership of what [white settlers have] been responsible for.”

At the end of the video, the Indigenous child—now an adult—visits the priest who once tormented him and embraces him in an apparent gesture of forgiveness.

Bannerman says that as white people, he and his bandmates thought long and hard about that ending.

“On the one hand, it’s a nice, [warm and] fuzzy bookend to the situation, but we’re not saying this is how [every conflict] needs to end,” he says. “Reconciliation doesn’t always look like an embrace.”

“The idea was to put this video out and ask: What does it mean to ask for forgiveness? What does forgiveness look like?” he adds.

Upside of Maybe filmed “Rainmaker” last November at Woodland Cultural Centre, located at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont. The video was nominated for Music Video of the Year at the 2021 Forest City London Music Awards in London, Ont.

The song appears on Upside of Maybe’s latest release, All Who Wander. Visit upsideofmaybe.com(link is external).

Do you have a video we should see? Email submit@canadianmennonite.org(link sends e-mail). - Canadian Mennonite