How a labour of love led to a new documentary about the indie music scene in St. John's

It was, as they say, a scene. 

In the new CBC documentary On the Edge, Mark Cumby takes audiences back to a specific place and a specific time: St. John's, in the early 1990s. It was a city where a lively indie music scene was matching the energy of grunge from Seattle, and feeding on the music of other cities, too. 

Cumby, a video producer with CBC in St. John's, combed through archive footage, photos and, yes, lots of posters, and tracked down musicians and others who shared — and rushed — stages back in the day. 

Speaking with St. John's Morning Show host Krissy Holmes, Cumby shares how he captured the raucous scene that emerged in St. John's, his memories from his teenage years, his inspirations, and the people who left such a strong impression.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How long have you been working on this?

A long time. I first started thinking about doing it in 2017. Now, that's not saying I've been working on it since 2017, but I started picking and poking at it.

What was it like for you? How do you remember this scene as a teenager yourself?

Well, thank God there [were] no smartphones because we didn't take pictures — well, you know that's the time period that we first met.

Yeah, it was.

So you were there. I got up to all kinds of no good. And this scene was a huge influence on my musical interests and my thoughts on life and art and music.

OK, can we just acknowledge this, too, right off the bat? The word "grunge" was kind of a cringe word, I think, in the St. John's scene. Why do you think that was?

Yeah, it is interesting. In the documentary, Brian Downton does mention that — Brian is the drummer for the band Potatobug — and he does mention that. And it is true.