“It’s been a long journey from the beginning but we never gave up once,” says Down With Webster bassist and keyboardist Tyler Armes.

The seven-member band stemmed from Toronto in the late 1990s for a junior high school project. The boys enjoyed playing music together so much they decided to keep working at it, and see how the band might evolve.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Down With Webster use a range of sounds — from pop, to hip-hop, to rock — but don’t call them a ska band.

“We got off our feet just by booking as many live shows as we could in any venue we could get, and being relentless, because we knew we had something good and original going on,” Armes says.

Other members of the band include front man Bucky — skilled in the art of freestyle — and Kap the Hype Man, whose sole purpose is to run around the stage with a megaphone and act as a “human bouncy ball,” as the other members describe him.

Down With Webster got their start playing events like Warped Tour and Virgin Festival, and it wasn’t long before some of the music industry’s biggest producers and record label owners took notice.

Timbaland and Gene Simmons of KISS both offered to sign the band to their personal labels –– but the boys decided to take a different route, signing with Universal Records to release their debut album, Down With Webster, in 2007.

Though the band has developed a cohesive variety of sounds and ideas, infusing elements of pop, rock and electronic, the heart and soul of Down With Webster’s music lies in the world of hip-hop. Armes firmly states the band is “in no way at all ska,” even with using orchestral instruments such as trombones and trumpets to back up their raps and guitar grinds.

The band’s diverse sound has breathed new life into a catchy cover of Hall and Oates’ “Rich Girl” and raw single “Time To Win,” off their latest album Time To Win.

Now, the men of Down With Webster are looking to the future, including the release of their next album, Time To Win Part 2, in the spring –– and, hopefully, some international tours in the near future.

On the other hand, the band is also satisfied with over a decade’s worth of effort.

“At the end of the day, it’s worth all the hard work when you have someone else to book your shows and do your sound checks,” Armes says.