Anything worth doing should be done right the first time. While we’ve all heard the adage a million times, how many of us have actually applied it to our lives? Unleashing Toronto’s most intense fusion of hip-hop, funk, rock and R&B, wordPEOPLE have done just that. However, as the tale behind their debut independent full-length People’s Eatery proves, it took a while to get this collection of 13 tracks done right.

wordPEOPLE came together in 2003 and quickly garnered praise for their original style and crowd moving performances, winning talent shows and releasing their PLAYONWORDS EP in 2005. The first single, "Foolin Yourself" reached Number Two on the request-based “Top 9 at 9 Countdown” on 91.5fm The Beat in the South Western Ontario region. Pleased with the reception and success of PLAYONWORDS, wordPEOPLE set their sights on a full-length. Teaming with producer Adam King (Cancel Winter, The Good Lovelies, Run With The Kittens), the group quickly realized that despite the initial strength of the songs, they wanted something more for People’s Eatery. Little did they know that it would be a full two years before their efforts would see the light of day. As front man and lyricst apeX reiterates, better to get it right the first time through. Restructuring People’s Eatery extended beyond the music. While not a conceptual effort, apeX relates that the album is tied together by the common theme of people watching, a bird’s eye view of the everyday.

“We imagined just sitting and watching what people do. What's happening in their lives? Naturally, the observations are diverse: that guy over there is “sitting on the fringe of a binge like Sin City citizens, where moves are calculated by the neighbour’s dividends,” he's stressed about money (‘Keep Up’); the woman over there is in love but is too shy to speak to the object of her affection (‘Just Don’t Know’); the group of folks over there left work early because they really need to decompress through dance (‘People’). Musically and lyrically, it's a mix of the “physical and digital, the sensible and whimsical,” he states.

The end result? wordPEOPLE offers 13 tracks of poetic honesty, musical prowess and spotless production. Expanding their vision to incorporate guest musicians, wordPEOPLE not only restructured internally but also unwittingly redefined the parameters of what constitutes a band. To explain, People’s Eatery features guest appearances by independent luminaries such as God Made Me Funky’s PHATT al, Moka Only, The Good Lovelies AND Louwop the Dirty General.

“I like the idea of making records with other people,” apeX smiles. “We go through the writing process ourselves and then it’s fun to see how someone else interprets what we’ve done. I don’t think it sounds like a typical guest-spot record though. Everywhere people guest, it fits and the album becomes really diverse. Bringing our friends into People’s Eatery is the perfect way to augment the base we’ve set. We care about the songs enough to let others in on what we’re crafting instead of limiting ourselves to the confines of our members.”

Moreover, by including such a diverse group of musicians and lyricists on People’s Eatery, wordPEOPLE ensure that their music truly does defy classification. While many bands and artists are quick to hide behind definition, wordPEOPLE embrace all aspects, confident that their ability to span musical gaps obliterates constriction and guarantees appeal to all walks of life.

As apeX declares, “eclectic may be a sub genre these days but that’s what we are.”