One-on-One with Bravestation
Bravestation: Devin Wilson, Jeremy Rossetti, Derek Wilson, Andrew Heppner
By Allyssia
The boys from Bravestation are not afraid of a little hard work. Since the band formed in June of 2009, they’ve successfully and single-handedly recorded an EP, performed extensively, and designed one hell of a logo. But all of that’s in the past. As the rockers down beers at Queen St. W fixture Java House only days before their last show until this summer, they’re focusing on the future, especially their next album.
“It’s going to be bigger and better than the last one,” says Derek Wilson, the band’s guitarist. Not surprisingly, the rest of the band seems to agree with him.
Bravestation has reason to be confidant. Their debut EP, which can be described as a mix of New Wave and garage rock, has attracted attention from many of Toronto’s music bloggers, and even caught the attention of Toronto Star entertainment reporter Ben Rayner, who listed their eponymous effort as one of his reasons to live when it debuted in July 2009. Not too shabby considering that, a year ago, the band didn’t even exist.
Bravestation came to be almost completely by coincidence. Though Derek and his brother, lead-singing bassist Devin Wilson, and drummer Jeremy Rossetti were jamming as a three-piece before, it wasn’t until Wilson met Andrew Heppner while studying at the Harris Institute for the Arts last year that the band took its current shape.
It all began with a homework assignment. As sound engineering students, university grads Derek and Heppner were required to record and master a demo for a band. Wilson volunteered his own band for the project. At first Heppner, who was the top in his class, limited his participation to mixing and mastering, but before long he was asked to contribute on the other side of the tables.
“It sort of became evident that he could do more than turn knobs, so we put him on keyboard,” says Derek.
With Heppner taking over the keyboards, Devin was able to start playing bass, an instrument that they couldn’t utilize as a trio. He also ended up replacing his brother as the band’s lead singer.
“He was my younger brother so I sort of cultivated his talented. Then I decided that it was time for him to take the spotlight,” says Derek, completely stone-faced.
“And you didn’t really like singing anyways,” Devin adds with a smile. The band laughs, and swigs are taken from beer glasses.
Fast-forward one month: the band has a polished EP recorded. Fast-forward one more month: the band is touring.
Though the band has done a lot in a short period of time, it has by no means been an easy journey. Being a new band without a label or a PR firm has forced the band to take matters into their own hands with every aspect of their careers. It also means that they have to learn some lessons the hard way, which happened when they first tried to perform the songs they’d originally recorded for their EP.
While rehearsing, they found that it was impossible to recreate the layered instrumentation that worked so well on recorded tracks. Instead of trying to rework the songs, or perform them differently, the band scrapped all eight songs and started from scratch. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“It morphed into a simpler, more straight-forward sound,” says Devin. This stripping-down of their songs is responsible for the low-fi, gritty sound that makes the EP so interesting.
This do-it-yourself work ethic also helped them market themselves. Devin, who is currently studying Graphic Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), designed the band’s logo (which, the band would like you to know, represents “growth and duality”). They enforced guerrilla tactics to get coverage from the press. To get attention from the nationally-circulated Toronto Star, they sent an email to Rayner with the subject “Bravestation EP review (Joy Division rocks!)” after reading on the journalist’s profile that he was a fan of the post-punk rockers. Clearly, their system works.
But after five months of touring and playing the same songs, the band is looking to put their old repertoire behind them.
“It gets a bit boring playing the same songs over and over again,” says Rossetti.
After playing at Toronto’s Rancho Relaxo on January 8, Bravestation won’t be performing again until they produce new songs and a new EP this summer.
Though they like their current sound, they’d like to change things up on their sophomore effort by featuring a lot more keyboard and taking more risks with their music to create a more experimental sound.
“Knowing ourselves, it probably won’t be too odd,” says Devin. “But who knows really?”
Check out Bravestation this Friday, January 8 at the Rancho Relaxo. They’ll be performing with Beta Porn, The Property Line and Cap Guns. Doors open at 9 p.m and tickets are $6.
Check them out on Myspace at www.myspace.com/bravestation.
One-on-One with Lowell Sostomi of Great Bloomers
The guys of Great Bloomers. Lowell is on the far right.
by Michael
To set the record straight, this band’s name has absolutely nothing to do with undergarments. The name is simply a play on words of the phrase “late bloomers.”
I recently had the chance to have an interview with the lead singer of Great Bloomers, Lowell Sostomi. This year the band has released a full length album, Speak of Trouble and are set to tour with Rural Alberta Advantage. The tour starts November 11th in Hamilton and will visit Ottawa, Kingston and Peterborough Ontario before finishing off in Montreal.
Great Bloomers began as “a hobby band” for Sostomi, with members coming and going before the lineup finalized to what is stands as now. Their first EP, which was released in 2007, was “written before we even had a practice,” according to Sostomi.
What makes Great Bloomers interesting as a band from Toronto is that their music is not at all urban. Their sound can be found to be rural, and this sense is seen in their video for a song from Speak of Trouble which features them playing in a variety of settings including a pumpking patch and a cornfield complete with scarecrows. The video can be seen at the bottom of this article.
Their music has even caught the eye of Canadian music legend Gordon Lightfoot. Sostomi told me that they have met with Lightfoot many times already. In fact, they turned down one show with the Rural Alberta Advantage because they plan to go and see one of Gordon Lightfoot’s four shows at Massey Hall.
Great Bloomers couldn’t be happier touring with Rural Alberta Advantage. RAA have been getting bigger and bigger, partly because of them being featured as the X3 Artist of the Month for July, and partly because they are such wonderful people.
“I’m super stoked, they’re such a great band,” said Sostomi.
The band has of course experienced the pains of being a small band. “We’ve played to one person, we’ve made $10 from one show,” Sostomi said. But the best show for them was in the most unlikely of places- a small town in Saskatchewan with a venue which holds less than 100 people. The town is called Bruno, and the venue is called All Citizens.
Sostomi described it lovingly- a bunch of people who had absolutely no idea who Great Bloomers are went to see them, and got really excited as the band played their set.
What’s next for this band? Sostomi said he already has an album’s worth of new material. But don’t expect them to rush out anything- give them time to at least show people what Speak of Trouble is all about.
Interestingly, if you are a huge Tears for Fears fan, you and Great Bloomer’s lead singer would have a lot to talk about.
If you can, try and make it to the Steamwhistle Brewery in Toronto on Friday, November 6, when the band will be playing a show before their tour with RAA.
One-on-One with Modernboys Moderngirls
The boys in the band: Brett Millius (drums, backing vocals), Juan Carlos Rivas(bass), Akira Alemany (lead vocals, guitar)
By Allyssia
If you have any sort of connection to the Toronto music scene, you should know Modernboys Moderngirls. They’re the band your friends keep telling you to check out on MySpace. They’re the ones that you’re always hearing snippets about when you’re chilling/eavesdropping at Marcello’s. They’re the ones with that infectious song “My Baby Says Boy, Don’t You Ever Go,” which received descent rotation on The Edge. Well, if Quasimodo isn’t ringing the bells of Notre Dame in your head by now, you need to keep reading if you want to keep any indie cred at all.
Modernboys Moderngirls is, ironically, a Toronto indie rock band known for their retro-inspired tunes. Their sound is a combination of pop, soul, blues, punk and old time rock ‘n’ roll among other genres. This complex fusion successfully renders their music unclassifiable, a fact that doesn’t bother the band one bit.
“We don’t buy into the whole ‘genre’ thing,” says Akira Alemany, the band’s songwriter, lead vocalist and lead guitarist. Instead, the band chooses to ignore the limitations and restrictions that come with subscribing to an established genre, and combine the elements that they like from the different genres to create their unique sound.
Their love of experimentation is well expressed through the band’s clever (albeit cumbersome) name. The band got their name from 1920s newspapers, which used the term to refer to Japanese youth who were exploring the Western culture being presented to them during that period.
“The name kind of represents being excited and exploring new avenues, new arts, and new styles,” says Alemany.
This unique sound is well demonstrated on the band’s debut LP, I Might As Well Break It, which was released last month. The path to the release was not, by any means, a brief or easy one.
It all started one fateful night at the Horseshoe in 2008. It was a stormy winter night, and though the weather outside was frightful, but the band was so delightful that fans and curious concert-goers packed into the club to see MBMG perform. Their set was so electric that it attracted the attention of a promoter affiliated with Edgefest, an annual festival known for promoting Canadian rock music. The promoter called them up and invited them to perform at the festival that summer. The band agreed in spite of the fact that they hadn’t even recorded a demo.
In the months leading up to the show, the band recorded a demo, also titled I Might As Well Break It, so that they’d have a way of promoting their music. Since then, they’ve tweaked and altered, eventually transforming it into the LP we can all purchase today.
Though the band’s popularity among music lovers and critics is growing, the band would prefer to keep a lower profile off stage as compared to other publicity-hungry musicians. The band finds that audiences participate less at shows if musicians tell them everything. The reasoning? Well, it’s hard to get excited about seeing a band when you already know what sort of cereal they eat for breakfast.
“There’s no mystery,” says Brett Millius, the drummer. “I think being inaccessible is good.”
Though the band holds some disdain for overexposure, they do acknowledge the important role that self-promotion has played in their careers, especially through the Internet. MBMG currently maintains accounts on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Last.fm, while also maintaining a personal web site. They also send out an e-newsletter to members of their mailing list.
Though many fear that the use of the Internet in the music industry is counterproductive because it encourages file-sharing and discourages the purchasing of albums, MBMG isn’t worried.
“I listen to stuff [online] that I would never listen to other wise,” says Millius, “But if I love an album I’ll still go out and buy it.”
Check out Modernboys Moderngirls on Nov. 6, 2009 at the Silver Dollar. They’ll be performing with L.A band Lemonwilde, so you won’t want to miss it!
One-on-One with Make Your Exit
By Allyssia
After meeting with Jeff Buckley, Mike “Skidboot” Denby, Mike Dellios, Mike Thomson (yes, there are three Mikes), and Oliver Pauk from Make Your Exit at AKIN Collective, an affordable workspace for artists founded by band Dellios and Pauk, I was reminded of one thing: the Toronto independent music scene isn’t the cut-throat industry you’d think it is. Seriously, it’s not. Instead of being a metaphorical bloodbath of bands trying to cut each other down to get to the top, or a city-wide crab bucket, the scene is full of camaraderie and bands doing whatever they can to help each other progress. Don’t believe me? Well, consider the fact that without this sense of camaraderie, Remind Me the Reason I Came, the sophomore EP from this Toronto indie outfit wouldn’t exist. Had the bands been in direct competition with each other, the members of Provincial Parks never would have recommended that the boys contact Brent Bodrug, the album’s sound engineer.
“We all agree that this album involved a very different process,” says Dellios, the band’s bass player.
“Different” may be a bit of an understatement. While their first album was self-recorded at Dellios’ cottage, their latest effort was recorded at Bodrug’s Sly-Fi Chapel Recording Studio, a converted chapel just outside of Trenton, Ontario. The band insists that the experience was positive, since it took them away from all the distractions and commitments of big city life.
“You’re just totally immersed in the task at hand,” Dellios says.
So what was the fruit of this small-town labour of love? A pretty solid EP, actually. Remind Me The Reason I Came is a cool mix of rock, folk, pop and ambient sounds that is reminiscent of well…no one, actually. Not since The Diamonds has a Canadian band made such great use of four-part vocal harmonies. Also, who else but Make Your Exit can claim to have featured a saxophone and a xylophone on the same album?
The band admits that, aside from the recording process, there were a lot of fundamental differences between this album and their debut eponymous release. For one, the songs are a lot more positive and upbeat.
“People at our shows actually have smiles on their faces now,” jokes Pauk, the man behind the sax and one of the band’s newer members.
But the most noticeable difference between the albums is the fact that this one has Jeff Buckley (not that Jeff Buckley) singing lead, a role he assumed two winters ago when the band realized that to take their music in the direction they wanted, and they’d need someone singing lead. It was a wise choice, as Buckley’s understated vocals complement their mellow sound well.
Unlike many other bands, Make Your Exit was lucky enough to avoid the pressure to deliver on their sophomore effort.
“I think that would have required someone actually listening to our first record,” says Mike Thomson, who plays drums.
A contributing factor to their lack of stress was the amazing support that they received from their friends, family, and fans. They have a dedicated group of fans that come out to all of their shows, and a lot of support from medias like CBC Radio 3, various satellite radio stations, AUX TV and music blogs [insert Grayowl Point namedrop here].
The only pressure they did feel was that which they inflicted upon themselves. Having dedicated a lot of their own time and money into the project, it was important to the band that they create an album that seemed worth forfeiting their resources.
Though their optimistic, they do acknowledge that nowadays, it is harder for bands to generate a bigger following.
“Unless you’re making the hippest, most electric shit out there, it’s hard to get people behind you,” says Pauk.
Regardless of any factors that may be working against them, the band has their sights set on big things. They’d eventually like to tour internationally while continuing to have fun with each other and create music that they’re satisfied with.
But like most musicians out there, their ultimate goal is to be able to support themselves fully by doing what they love: making music. They’d love to have one of their songs featured in an Apple commercial someday because it would be a great way to generate attention and profits for the band, and are willing to accept the backlash that would come with this act of “selling-out”. Mike Thomson, the band’s drummer, who currently juggles a full-time job and his band obligations, writes off the term as “over-used”.
“If you’re working a job you hate and someone offers you millions to create music for two years of your life and you say ‘no’ because you don’t want to “sell out”, you really need to look at yourself in the mirror.”
Make Your Exit will be holding their CD release party at Sneaky Dee’s Friday, September 25th, at 9pm. The band will be performing with The Paint Movement and Corduroy. Be sure to check it out! I know I will be…
For your listening pleasure, visit them at http://www.myspace.com/makeyourexit
Interview- Winter Gloves
On August 29, 2009 I had the great pleasure of interviewing the Montreal indie-rock outfit Winter Gloves. Despite my inexperience as an interviewer, the guys were awesome. Lead singer Charles F was very nice and a little soft-spoken, with drummer Patrick Sayers as the most vocal and outgoing. Guitarist Jean-Michel Pigeon and keyboardist Vincent Chalifour were also a little on the quiet side but were also very nice considering I was a virtual unknown interviewing them.
First I asked them whst kind of music they grew up listening to and if it influenced them. Patrick said he really idolized his older cousin and grew up listening to classic rock such as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, and the style of music did influence the way he approached the drums. Charles said he started listening to Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block, but eventually discovered Nirvana and Metallica. Vincent said he really liked progressive metal and rock but said he eventually made a u-turn when he realized he didn’t want to play as fast as he did. Charles added to that, saying Vincent didn’t really have a choice in the matter. When Charles wrote the songs for Let me Drive EP he said he needed a good sound mixer and Vincent was the guy for him. Vincent said he really liked the songs and wanted to play them. As for Jean-Michel, he said first that he was the only one who didn’t listen to Metallica. He said that he hung out with skateboarders and listened to bands like Primus.
Next I asked for Charles’ last name, only to be met with failure. Charles said that it will just remain F, and that he has forgotten his last name. Vincent jokingly added “F is for forgotten.”
When I asked Charles about his stint with Lady Grey, he said that it was a really complicated band to rehearse with. They had two rehearsals a week, one in Quebec City and one in Montreal. That made it very difficult for him and he ended up playing only three shows with them.
I then asked about the origin of the name Winter Gloves. Charles said that he lived in England for a year and then moved to Montreal to start a band. At the time he was working as a climbing instructor. After working with Vincent, Charles started looking for a band name. He said he wanted something with Winter in the name because they are a North American band and he loves the cold and the winter. While working in the shop he said that he was facing gloves all day, and said that that was how he came up with the idea of Winter Gloves.
I then inquired about their tour with Thunderheist in April. Patrick said that the tour was great, that the two types of music really complemented each other, despite the craziness of the tour. He also said that in November they will again be touring with them on the west coast of the United States.
When I asked if About a Girl was inspired by a girl, Charles said that he had grown up in small-town suburbs and when he lived in England he got to see shows a lot more often and was excited by big city life. He then wanted to live in Montreal and said that About a Girl can be about a city, the feeling that one gets when they visit a big city after living in a small town, the feeling of everything being new and exciting. It also captures the seduction element of the big city, seduction that can be harmful or very beneficial to someone.
After his response I had to ask about their song “Glass Paperweight” which was the inspiration for my username as well as the domain name for this blog. Charles said it was the first song he wrote for the project and said that is used to be a really heavy guitar-laden rock song. After writing other songs, Charles revisited his first song and figured that it should have been a little more relaxed like the other songs in the project. Charles said that it is the only song on the album that has a bit of a negative tone. He said that he is a negative person and tries to write as much positive music and as he can. He also said that it is a song they don’t play at their live shows because while it is not totally depressing, it is a change of pace from their other songs.
Patrick said that most of Winter Gloves’ gigs have been opening acts, with an allotted time of 30-40 minutes, and because of this they didn’t have any time to take a breather or bring down momentum. When they have their own crowds and headlining gigs, Patrick said, they will have more time to play songs like “Glass Paperweight.”
I asked about any new music they’re planning on releasing, and Charles first mentioned A Way to Celebrate, an upcoming release which features alternate versions (acoustic, live or remixed) of all the tracks from About a Girl. They are also now writing their second album, and said that they hope to release it in Canada and the United States in April.
I then asked about a blog post I had read about the “division” of the Montreal musis scene and if they thought that anglophones and francophones were still divided, but they didn’t really think that at all. Patrick said that maybe 3-5 years ago the scene was divided, but now with the increase in indie bands everyone seems to be in the spirit of helping each other out. Montreal francophone bands like Malajube and Les Breastfeeders are a good example of bands accepted by anglophones. Patrick added that he understands what the blogger was talking about but says that Winter Gloves are certainly not going to “wave a flag and say ‘WE’RE GOING TO BRING QUEBEC TOGETHER!’” to quote Patrick directly.
Vincent added that the only barrier left is music companies that categorize between French and English music. When this happens, bands may not get to work with certain producers and music industry people or play the same venues based on their “French” or “English” label.
When I inquired into any developments on their stolen van case, Patrick gave such an amazing story that I must quote it word for word.
Patrick: We got absolutely no help from that cops on that one. Charles spent tons of time at the police station trying to explain that the van was stolen and they said “You left the guy the keys and you left it there over the winter time so technically it’s not stolen, the guy could have just moved with the van.” We said “No, the van had a parking plate, no one’s supposed to drive it unless the van needed to be moved so that [the snow could be plowed].” No one’s looking for it, it’s just lost. To put the cherry on the cake, this guy is my uncle. My uncle fucking robbed our band’s van. It’s pretty aggravating.
Charles: Do you want to keep it off the record?
Patrick: That is so on the record! You can’t miss [the van]. If you open it up it looks like you’re in a freaking limosine. There’s a mirror in there, blue faux-leather padded walls, it’s got a bench. It’s a pimped out old red van.
Vincent: A 1992 Chevy van.
Michael: So it’s not like you just lost a crappy thing that could be easily replaced?
Patrick: Well we wanted to resell it! That was the whole point, we stored it over the winter and were going to take it in the summer. I was wondering why my uncle’s phone number didn’t work anymore and I figured it out when I showed up at my uncle’s place and they said “Oh, he hasn’t lived here in a long time, he just disappeared!”
I then asked about my topic of interest- women in music. Patrick mentioned the Donnas, a group that he really liked. He saw them in a live show and said that they “blew [his] mind.” Patrick said he’s tired of “sausage fests” and said that he’s really happy that there are a lot of girls at Winter Gloves’ shows. Charles jokingly added that the reason girls come to their shows is because of Patrick.
I then asked them to make up their dream female super group. They came up with the final roster of Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love on guitar, Melissa Auf der Mar on bass and Cindy Blackman on drums.
I then asked what Canadian indie artists they are listening to. Patrick joked “I don’t listen to any music but my own!” Charles said he discovered Chad VanGaalen, the Polaris-prize nominated arist. Vince mentioned A.C. Newman, Patrick Watson, and French bands like Karkwa. Charles mentioned Clues, who they saw at the Hillside Festival in Guelph.
Finally I asked about how the crowds are in the United States as opposed to Canada. Patrick said that crowds varied from state to state, mentioning that he thought that some of the people who saw them in the States didn’t really like them. He said that even in Canada crowds are definitely different. Comparing Edmonton to Montreal, he said that people go a lot more crazy in Montreal.
Overall it was a very enjoyable interview and got me excited for their show, which you can read a review for below.
Interview- The Passengers- Part III
Michael: Recently I posted on the blog about women in music…
Jonny: Women are nice.
Michael: I sort made the observation that it would be really easy to come up with a group comprised of entirely males. But when you think of an all girl group you might think of the Spice Girls or the Pussycat Dolls. What’s your stance on women in music? Do you think society would be ready to accept an all-girl group?
Jonny: I think so. There are [bands like] Le Tigre, that’s a kickass band. One of my biggest inspirations for writing is PJ Harvey. She’s an amazing songwriter and she’s really hardcore, tougher than most guys. I think society’s more than ready to accept an all girl band.
Daniel: I think in indie rock, even Canadian indie rock it’s almost become a staple. There’s always a girl singer part to a lot of really good songs. The new Dirty Projectors album is so good!
Jonny: I don’t like the guy voice…
Daniel: Well you don’t like the guy’s voice but the girl’s voice, I think it adds a certain quality.
Ryan: Well it’s all relative. I don’t think the world will ever be ready for certain bands. It’s very hard to stay objective about music even though that was objective and self-refuting. Most of it’s just your opinion, it’s preference. I don’t think that the world is ready but I think people will be, certain people.
Daniel: I think it’s there, you just have to find it, you know what I mean?
Michael: Let’s say theoretically you could take as many female musicians as you wanted and created a band, which female musicians would you choose?
Jonny: All right, I’ve had this prepared for years!
Daniel: This is the kind of game I love playing. Alright, girl drummers…
Jonny: There’s that one from Bat for Lashes.
Daniel: We saw Bat for Lashes live and they had a girl drummer who was just fantastic. So her on drums, I don’t know her name but I checked out her other band and it was pretty good too. Okay, let’s go for the typical four-piece band.
Jonny: Jenny Lewis…
Daniel: Ya, my crush on Jenny Lewis makes me want her in this band.
Jonny: So what, Jenny Lewis on guitar?
Daniel: This game is too hard! (laughter) Needless to say there are a lot of female musicians I’d want in a supergroup.
Jonny: I can do this, I think I can do this. PJ Harvey. Drumming, Karen Carpenter.
Daniel: You should get the singer of Deerhoof to play bass.
Jonny: Oh ya she’s good! She’s adorable and really good at guitar. Dan in a skirt? Okay I was just kidding about that. I really like Tori Amos, she just does everything, you know? (quiet discussion) Well apparently we’re not ready for an all-girl band!
Daniel: The question just has too many options!
Jonny: Ooh, let’s get Tegan & Sara! They’re good at guitar. We have this inside thing, Dan and I call each other Tegan and Sara.
Daniel: You’re (talking of Jonny) Sara because you talk a lot.
Michael: Well it’s not really inside anymore, is it?
Daniel: It’s outside now…
Michael: Okay, let’s make a permanent roster [for this band] so that, if this ever reaches the stratosphere…
Jonny: Or some millionaire who says “I have a billion dollars to pay these girls to make the best band in the world!”
Michael: The following is a challenge to the following female musicians:
Jonny: Jennny Lewis as a singer, PJ Harvey on guitar, Kim Deal on bass and Karen Carpenter on drums, done!
Michael: You heard it here first, you heard it hear first.
Daniel: I think they would create a whole new genre. It would be the most amazing thing you ever heard in your life. It’d be like… yeahhhh.
Michael: That’s the new genre, “yeahhhh”?
Daniel: Yes, and it will have four h’s. (laughter for a few seconds)
Jonny: Take control of this interview Michael!
Michael: Oh, I like the way this conversation’s flowing… I don’t really have much left.
Jonny: We could talk for hours, recording our own voices…
Michael: What kind of Canadian indie artists are you listening to right now?
Ryan: I’ve been listening to a lot of country and folk. There’s a band from around here called the Cavaliers, they’re local. There’s a musician who works for a camp called Christian Horizon his name is Seth, and he’s a brilliant musician. He was in a band called Battle Creek which is always a staple for me. Uh… I guess there’s a time when you don’t even know who you listen to. Broken Social Scene always. I love them, they’re nice.
Daniel: Lately, I found I’ve been listening to a lot of our friends. Which is kind of nice, making friends in indie music. Matt Henderson, Mike Harloff… Fitness Club Fiasco is [Harloff's] new name. The Cavaliers, they play amazing live shows. There’s Broken Social Scene and all their little side projects..
Michael: Like Reverie Sound Revue…
Daniel: Jason Collett. The new Metric album, I really enjoyed.
Jonny: Arcade Fire.
Daniel: Arcade Fire, I think they’re due for another album that will knock me off my feet.
Jonny: The Elwins, as I’ve stated before. Cutest EP of the last year…
Michael: Last time at The Basement I was so angry that I did not have the money to buy that EP, I was heartbroken.
Daniel: The Bicycles, even though they’re not really around. I don’t know if they’re on hiatus or if they broke up.
Michael: Sorry, you were saying…
Jonny: Sorry, sorry. We’re very apologetic/polite.
Michael: The Canadian way to solve problems.
Jonny: It is, isn’t it? I’ve been listening to Oh No Forest Fires, they’re phenomenal guys. I’ve also been listening to Make Your Exit, I used to work with a guy named Jeff Buckley, no relation to Jeff Buckley. They’re really good, I don’t know how to describe it. Kind of Broken Social Scene and Apostle of Hustle. I love Emily Haines and her writing. I’m trying to convince myself to not get a tattoo of her name. I’m very… what’s the word?
Daniel: Monomaniacal? You get an idea in your head and then you just go with it.
Jonny: Impulsive, that’s the word! Ya, I almost had an Emily Haines tattoo.
Daniel: Not as a diss to her, but we have a friend… I’m not going to go there.
Jonny: Let’s just say embarassing tattoos of bands that are no longer good. Like if I were to get a Third Eye Blind tattoo today…
Daniel: They have a new album, they could be good.
Jonny: There was a tattoo of a band that’s now really bad. They were good at the time..
Michael: Let’s keep the band’s name anonymus.
Jonny: Ya.
Michael: Well if you do get the Emily Haines tattoo you could be like Johnny Depp and the whole “Wino forever” thing. I guess you could try to find a variation of Emily Haines.
SuYen: I just got into the Canadian indie music scene, I’ve been listening to Death from Above 1979, I think they’re fantastic.
Daniel: Too bad they broke up though.
SuYen: Mike Harloff. Metric… I know [Jonny] likes Emily Haines so. If you asked indie in general I could name a lot.
Ryan: Forgot to mention Wintersleep. I like the singer’s voice, it’s not as good live but still really nice to hear.
Michael:Are you guys familiar with all the other bands with Winter in their names? Besides Wintersleep there’s Wintermitts, Winter Gloves…
Jonny: There are a lot of bands with the words “deer”, “black” and “castle”.
Daniel: There’s a lot of “wolf” bands.
Jonny: And “antler” too. Deerhoof, Deerhunter. Crystal Castles, Black Castles…
Daniel: I could go on forever about local indie bands that are good. Wooden Sky is releasing an album, they’re really good…
Michael: I think that concludes our interview, thank you so much for your time.
Interview- The Passengers Part II
Below is a transcript of the second third of my interview with the Passengers.
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Michael: At your shows you often talk about how the internet helps you. The internet is a good resource for you guys as far as spreading the word of your music. How do you think the internet helped you guys? Was word of mouth more helpful or MySpace and Facebook, that kind of thing?
Jonny: I think they go hand in hand. Word of mouth is still a viable means of getting to know who you’re listening to, what your friends are listening to. But it’s just easier to know what they’re listening to with the internet. When you first hear a band you’re like “Hey Ryan, have you checked out this band?” and he’ll say “What’s the MySpace?” Ya, I think they definitely go hand in hand.
Daniel: I think it does so much. I mean, you could have friends or family in other countries and you can just say “Hey, check out my band.” Then they go and tell their friends and almost immediately you have someone in England listening to you, right?
Jonny: I think we kind of take it for granted, you know? “There’s someone in England, across the ocean, listening to our song!
Daniel: Imagine ten years ago, you’d be listening in morse code. “F chord, C chord…”
Ryan: I also think that with the internet, word of mouth is great but I think it’s most effective in a tightly knit community like a high school or something. But with stuff like Facebook and MySpace it’s really easy to make a community, you know? Like on Wikipedia, you can go from an article about a penguin to a baseball. After one click you’re in a totally different world on the internet.
Daniel: You know, instead of saying “Check out my band, hear them live!” you can just say “Check out my band, here’s the link.” It has its pros and cons I think because there’s also overexposure, so many bands can do that.
Michael: What do you think is the best moment you’ve ever had at a show before?
Daniel: There’s this bar in Mississauga called Marcello’s, and the owner Marcello is a good character. He has a very strong personality I’d say, on occassion when bands are playing he’ll come from behind the bar and get the mic and do a rant. It’ll be off the top of his head, like “It was the night, it was dark…” Long, weird, off the top of his head. Then after our last set, one or two months ago he just came up to us and said “Ah man, I should have done a rant!” And I said “You know you’ve kind of made it when Marcello wants to do a rant for your band.” I felt so happy.
Michael: Do you have any stories that can top that?
Ryan: Well Marcello is a very good character so it’s very tough to tell a story not featuring Marcello.
Daniel: Whenever we play “Asleepwalker” when it builds into that big part it makes me feel so happy. I love playing that. It’s my favourite part of every show.
Ryan: Or in “Garden City” when everyone’s clapping and seeing people dancing, enjoying the music. We feed off the audience more than we realize, I think. When they’re really enjoying the music those are the best times.
Michael: How about your worst moment at a show?
SuYen: It wasn’t too far off, I think it was two weeks ago? Marcello’s?
Jonny: Our show was sloppy.
SuYen: Ya, I think it was the worst.
Jonny: I think our worst shows are when we’re really sloppy. I can be really hard on myself.
Michael: Are there any incidents of, you know, being heckled or something?
Daniel: I think we deal with the heckling by… well we don’t heckle back, but we sort of play into it.
Jonny: There was this girl last time who kept telling me to take off my shirt.
Ryan: That’s not so much heckling as someone thinking you’re sexy.
Daniel: I remember we had a show in Scarborough and everyone was sitting down, and I remember one girl thought it was too loud, because she kept plugging her ears. And it threw me off for a bit, and then I felt sort of out of place, in a way. I wouldn’t say it was because of mistakes or anything, but it was kind of a weird feeling?
Jonny: Feeling like you don’t fit in or something, those are the bad shows.
Daniel: The odd mistake doesn’t faze me that much but it’s more embarassing when you kinda get into that head space of “No, I don’t feel right up in front of people at the moment.”
Jonny: You’re very vulnerable. It’s like being naked and walking down the street.
Michael: I really like your use of metaphor Jon.
Jonny: Thank you! I read books these days!
Michael: Often when you see at award shows, when a band is coming to accept an award, they always make big acceptance speeches like “I’d like to thank God, and I’d like to thank my fans.” So how important are your fans to you, because there are a lot of artists who say fans matter a lot but then at the same time might not give a shit what they say.
Jonny: I think there’s a point in those artists who are really established when they realize that someone is always going to buy their music, and it’s not such a big deal anymore . For a small-time band like us the fans are really important. Who else is going to listen to us? Who else is going to tell their friends about us? Sometimes fans will tell us what they like and what they don’t like about us and we take really take it to heart.
Daniel: I don’t really know how to explain it, but it kind of helps you in a way, to do what you do.
Jonny: You know, when you’re playing a show and the fans are singing along, you think “Wow, that was something I made them do, taking the time to memorize the lyrics and sing along to.” It’s a really humbling experience.
Daniel: I think it’s really nice, you know, how you grew up liking a band, and then other people are sort of feeling the same experience, wanting to see a band live. Now that we can do that for people it kind of makes us feel really nice.
Michael: A lot of Canadian indie bands that I’ve noticed are very very nice, I’ve found that a lot. I guess it’s a stereotype for Canadians too, “Canadians are really, really nice.” Do you get that kind of vibe when you’re playing shows with other bands? Are they all as nice as they seem to be?
Jonny: Well there’s a handful of bands that we really like…
Michael: Would you be able to name any of them?
Daniel: Really friendly, or really unfriendly?
Jonny: Well we can’t really name the unfriendly ones…
Daniel: Well because of shows we’ve made really good friends with Matt Henderson, we always try to get as many shows as we can with this guy. He’s just the nicest guy in the world. And the Elwins….
Jonny: When we first met the Elwins we were playing a lot of crappy shows with all these bands that just didn’t fit us. I remember when the Elwins played it was like a breath of fresh air. I felt so happy playing a show alongside them.
Ryan: They’re also the sweetest guys in the world. Well a lot of the time when we play bars we’re not always very functional and sometimes the other bands might have been at the bar a little too much. Sometimes they’re not just our style of music and I don’t know if this is mean to say but not our style of people. You know they’ll say “Ya man, fuck ya, fuckin’…” (laughter) I can’t understand the people whose every other word is “fuck.” I wonder, you know?
Daniel: I think there’s a correlation between style of music and personality traits.
Ryan: I just find that more often than not, I’m just kind of a person who likes to socialize if I’ve met people beforehand.
Daniel: Well I guess to make it more specific you did say the Canadian “indie” scene, and I think that in the Canadian “indie” scene it’s true, people are nice. Because we meet all different genres of people, and different genres have different types of people, some not so favourable, some pretty favourable.
Jonny: There was a sign recently put up by some beer company, where it said “Beer colder than Toronto” suggesting that people in Toronto aren’t very nice.
Michael: Ya, I heard about that!
Jonny: They took it down! A lot of people were saying that Torontonians are actually nice.
Michael: I don’t know, I find that on the subway people aren’t very nice there…
Jonny: I think people aren’t nice on every subway though… Except for that homeless guy who wants to sit… on you?
Daniel: I think it’s a big city mentality. In a big city people are more likely to just be doing their own thing whereas in a small town…
Michael: I think we could have a seperate interview about whether Toronto is actually nice or not. We could probably go another hour, you know…
Jonny: Ya, let’s do that!
Daniel: I took a university course on urban environments and the city and we talked a lot about big cities versus small towns. Mississauga is… are we expanding?
Michael: Oh ya, I’d say we’re expanding…
Ryan: The sixth largest city in Canada, aren’t we?
Jonny: How many are we?
Michael: About 750,000 or so?
Daniel: Well you can tell by the skyline. To be honest, I kind of like it. I like New York a lot, so…
Michael: Do you maybe dream of recording in New York some time?
Jonny: Yes. Electric Ladyland…
Ryan: Do you like the idea of a lot of buildings being within the buildings or watching them from a distance?
Daniel: I just like a nice skyline, you know?
Ryan: There’s this one bridge that goes into Hamilton. To the left side, it’s just ocean and on the other side it’s just filth and grime. It’s absolutely amazing.
Daniel: I remember we were driving home from a show once and the lake effect with the buildings all lit up was really nice.
Ryan: You know on the other side there are all these factories and a lot of smoke and you wonder “Why is the smoke not reaching the other side of this bridge?”
Michael: Ya, I think we might have strayed a little…
Interview- The Passengers, Part I
As if I haven’t gone on enough about how amazing this quartet from Mississauga is, I now have an interview to prove it. Below is a transcript of the first third of the interview, with some minor edits.
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Michael: Michael here, interviewing the Passengers for Grayowl Point. And so my first question is, if you could each answer this individually, what kind of music did you grow up listening to and how did it influence your sound, I guess you could say?
Ryan: I didn’t really listen to music until grade eight. In grade eight, my teacher mentioned the song “Hotel California” and I knew that song because I heard it one time and all I listened to was the Eagles for two years, and other classic rock. I also liked Van Morrisson because I thought Moondance was one of the greatest songs ever. Well I’m not sure what can be called “growing up”… Because growing up I didn’t really listen to any music until the Eagles.
Daniel: I know I pretty much grew up listening to a lot of Queen and Paul Simon. I don’t know how it really fits into what we do now. I remember grade six was my Radiohead year… I think that’s when OK Computer came out, that’s what we get a lot of comparisons to. I went through a punk phase for a bit… Wow, that’s a good question. The Beatles, obviously, since birth I guess. I guess you can say it influenced us melody-wise, like in the guitar parts, you know?
Jonny: I guess, growing up, I listened to a lot of country music and reggae, so I have a mix of Patsy Cline…Peter Tosh, Bob Marley. And then in my high school years I listened to a lot of Jeff Buckley, there’s a bit of that in the way I sing. I listened to a lot of the Verve and Radiohead, and a lot of disco music too like the Beegees and Donna Summer, so, some of my favourite stuff.
SuYen: Well, mine’s going to sound really strange but… my first musical experience was the Britney Spears “Oops I did it Again” CD, and then some Backstreet Boys (laughs). When high school came I didn’t really listen to a lot of music, and after a while I went to Sum 41, a little bit of Linkin park, and after that I went to a Japanese band called X Japan, that bad influenced me to play drums. But then after high school I met these guys and they introduced me to Radiohead. Now I’m exploring music and I’m still learning, listening to the Beatles and stuff.
Michael: Now I know this question is pretty common, but how did you guys meet? Is there someone who can tell the whole story?
Jonny: I think I can!
Daniel: Well you’re kind of like the essential figure…
Jonny: Ooh! I started a band in high school with a friend of mine named Phil, and we found a drummer through Craigslist who was kind of scary, and we also had a friend named Louis who plays bass with us and a few days before our first show, our Craigslist drummer dropped, and I’m really glad he did because he was kind of creepy. I think he was fourty years old, probably. And he suggested Dan who played drums and learned all the drums that week. We made three songs the night before probably, that was the first incarnation probably. After, we all kind of went our own ways and then I might Ryan and [SuYen] at my church, Mississauga City Baptist Church. We also played with Timmy Blank, who’s a very cool, stand-up guy. Later Timmy decided to part ways with the band and the first person who came to mind was Dan because he was a good friend of mine, and I wouldn’t really feel comfortable playing with someone else, so I asked Dan and he said yes. And we lived happily ever after, the end.
Michael: That’s awesome. So I guess another really common question, why the Passengers?
Jonny: We were under the band name of Her Majesty and we said “this is a really bad name.” And then we thought of calling the band Copper Gold which is one of the worst band names of all time that doesn’t exist yet. If you’re going to make a band name don’t call it Copper Gold. And I think I was just going through words that I liked.
Daniel: And we made a really big list, like a text file that we would send back and forth to each other. We had like Paper Cups,… I think I made about seven Beatles references like the 909’s…
Jonny: And the Lovely Rita’s or something? And then we settled on the Passengers, and I think it was [Dan] who said it looked really good on lined paper. Because if you were to have a paper with a middle dashed linem all the letters of the Passengers would fit under the line.
Daniel: It’s called the x height and it looks really nice if it’s in all lower case letters and it kind of lines up really nicely as a logo.
Michael: Okay, during the brief period when you guys changed your name to the Revelries, where did that name come from?
Daniel: That was from a really late-night MSN conversation, I think Jon suggested the Rivalries, and then I just kind of like looked at it and thought “Revelries?” like revelry, like a party, and then I immediately thought “have a revelry”. After I showed the definition of a revelry which is a joyous gathering, it seemed like the direction we were trying to go for our music.
Michael: Okay, so as if Jon hasn’t talked enough already (Jonny laughs), do you have a sort of process you go through when you write a song?
Jonny: Ya. I think what happens is I get a lot of ideas, and the first thing I do when I have a song idea is I go through it once, and then I just chuck it, I completely scrap it. And my idea is that if a song is good it will come back to me, like when I’m walking down the street or driving, and usually the songs that come back are the ones that I work with. If it’s not memorable enough then it’s not worth writing out.
Michael: Your EP that you released, “Do you have a flag?” Of course I’m going to ask why “Do you have a flag?”
Ryan: The first time that EP name came to us was when Timmy Blank was still in the band, and we were coming out with some recordings and we were all sitting around. And at the time we were really into a comedian named Eddie Izzard. He had this little routine where he was talking about how the British are conquering all these different colonies, and he said “I claim India for Britain”, and someone said “You can’t claim India, we live here”, and then “Well, do you have a flag?” and then “Well we don’t need a flag, we live here!” and he’s like “No flag, no country!” And we thought it was good because at the time we were all really into Radiohead, even more than we are now. Radiohead named their first album Pablo Honey, wasn’t that after a comedic routine?
Jonny: The jerky boys, they did prank calls in the early nineties.
Ryan: And so Pablo Honey came from that, and so we thought “Ya, that’s a good sounding name, and it’s more like Radiohead, so it’s everything that we want!”
Daniel: I think I can add to that. You guys were going to name the Skyscraper EP, before I was in the band, and then it was going to be “I’m okay if you’re okay”, and when we were thinking of the new EP, and then I brought it back and said “Hey, why don’t you actually go with the name that you were thinking of because it sounds really cool”. I think you can make your own meaning out of it too, it’s a very broad statement, or question to ask, and it can mean a lot of things.
Michael: When I was looking on the inside of the CD it said that you, Dan, actually took the album cover picture. What inspired you to take that picture?
Daniel: I think that when Jon first told me that they were going to name that old EP “Do you have a flag?” I asked if I could do the artwork for it. I had the idea of someone making their own flag, that was the inspiration for that. And the idea just kind of stuck with me, the idea of sewing machines, sewing needles. And pretty much what ended up becoming the cover of that was what I had as an idea two years before. It was stuck so long in my head I just wanted to get that up.
Michael: Do you guys have any plans for releasing music any time soon?
Jonny: Ya, we’re hoping to start recording another EP come the fall, around October. So we’re just trying to find the songs for that EP. It sounds a lot bigger and more joyous than our music thus far. We’re really enjoying working on that album so I’m really looking forward to it.
Michael: Okay, how many of the four of you can play guitar?
Jonny: I think all of us.
Michael: Individually, what was the first song each of you learned on guitar?
(band takes some time to think back)
Ryan: That is a good question, Michael. You know, I’m really not sure. Everyone will say “Oh, I learned ‘Smoke on the Water’ first and that’s the first riff everyone remembers playing. When I first got my guitar I was in grade eight. My dad played the ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff.
Jonny: Your dad plays guitar?
Ryan: He doesn’t. He picked up the guitar and played it and I thought “My dad is the best guitar player in the world!” Then he taught me it, so my dad was my first teacher. So the very first riff I learned was obviously the ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff, and everyone can say that but it hold significance for me because my dad was my very first teacher. I guess the first song I learned was-
Jonny: That was a long intro…
Ryan: Ya, I know, but I guess the first song I learned was “Walk this Way” by Aerosmith because I thought that it was neat. (Jonny and Ryan hum the guitar rhythm)
Jonny: Oh um… Mine was definitely “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins. When I first started playing the guitar I was obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins, and I thought I could play it because it was in a different tuning. I was very unsuccessful but I was trying.
Daniel: I started learning guitar when I was in my big Green Day phase in grade six, and I think it might have been “Time of Your Life”. I know for so long I didn’t know how to read tabs off the internet but the first time it all made sense was like that scene in the Matrix, when Neo sees real life as the Code. It was a solo for a song off their Nimrod album, I think “Walking Alone”? And one day I started trying some things, and then I read the tab and I started hearing the solo, and then I realized that’s how it works! I guess “Time of your Life” and “Walking Alone.”
SuYen: This is a really hard question… I’m going to have to go all the way back, oh man… Because I’m not really a guitarist, but I like to play guitar, I don’t do all that crazy solo stuff, I think it was “Unintended” by Muse.
Ryan: Sorry, I wanted to redeem myself. The first song I learned was “Here Comes the Sun” but without a capo.
Jonny: Ya, well the first song I learned to play was “Classical Gas”. (awkward pause)
Ryan: Next question.
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