Another man’s trash is a FemBots Treasure

While working on their latest album, Calling Out, indie rock band FemBots took their home-made instruments or ‘junk-struments’, out of the city and up north.

It was a necessary venture as primary members Brian Poirier and Dave MacKinnon both live in Toronto but drummer Nathan Lawr resides in Sudbury, quite a distance away. They recorded parts of the album in Cordova Lake and Lakefield (both near Peterborough) as well as in Lawr’s basement in Sudbury.

“We started setting up these weekend retreats at family and friends’ cottages and that’s where we did all of the record really,” MacKinnon said. “We started out the first couple of sessions that way. [We] were really [just] writing and figuring out what we were doing. Once the ball got rolling and [we figured out] what the record was going to be like then it seemed to be a good working operation and we just kept going with it.”

When writing the lyrics, MacKinnon took a notepad with him as he wandered Toronto. It was a process which resulted in the song, “The End of the Day,” which was based on a conversation between two school bus drivers talking about fine wines. 

“You have to do something that shuts off the conscious part of your brain,” MacKinnon said about why he took a notepad wherever he went. “I used to be able to write when I had a job driving for a living, which was great because the logical part of your brain is occupied doing a job and the non-logical part of your brain is free to roam. Without access to a car at this time, I’ve just had to wander around the city.”

Along the way, the band also had help from Iner Souster, who designed their junk-struments, as well as Paul Aucoin from the Hylozoists, who played vibraphone and organized the horn parts on the album. Aucoin also appears on Laura Barrett’s album, Victory Garden, set for release this month too.

“He’s everywhere. He’s unavoidable,” MacKinnon said with a laugh. “We were fairly far through the record at that point so really we just gave him all the songs and said ‘pick the ones you want to add stuff to and we’ll go from there.’ It was quite lovely.”

The original plan for the new album was for it to be recorded using only junk-struments. After finishing their tour for The City, FemBots spent a year on-and-off working on the album that way until it proved to be a dead end due to the nature of the instruments they were working with.

“It was getting hard to try and get real songs, like what we were coming out with was a strange cross between Bugs Bunny music and electronic dance music,” MacKinnon said. “After we hit a dead end, we just started improvising over those rhythm tracks as a whole band and that was sort of where the record really took off and started to turn into what it is now.”

While it failed, the junk-struments-only concept would have brought FemBots full circle. MacKinnon and Poirier started the band as a home recording project, using power tools, toys and broken down thrift store instruments as their junk-struments. The pair also used tape loops and reel-to-reel machines to create post-industrial folk songs, resulting in wild live performances.

In 2000, they released Mucho Cuidado followed by Small Town Murder Scene in 2003, whose title pretty much explains the ghost town country feel of the album. That record also saw the band use more traditional instruments in their mix. The City was released in 2005, an album that explores the lost history of Toronto. Lawr appeared on the album as a guest musician, splitting time with his own solo act, Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs. Aucoin also provided horns on The City, as FemBots built from their junkstrument sound on their debut to a band featuring piano, guitars and strings.

While it has been three years since the release of The City, to MacKinnon, it hasn’t felt like it’s been too long at all.

“We never seem to be able to write while we’re touring. We just try and go back to scratch and reinvent the band for whatever reason, mostly because we don’t want to repeat ourselves,” MacKinnon said, with a laugh. “Three years, seems a long time but it’s not really, once you actually get into the process.”

Calling Out is released on Sept. 16 on (weewerk), with a CD Release Party at The Music Gallery (197 John St.) on Sept. 26.

- Jon Brazeau

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The Framework: A Complete Frame

Rayanne Lepieszo, Chris Graham, Tobias Smith, Scott Winter and Ryan Kash have been The Framework since 2006 but they weren’t new to Toronto’s music scene at the time they came together.

 “We’ve all been friends for many years,” Lepieszo explains happily. “All of us in the band had music careers before. Ryan, Chris and myself, we’re all singer-songwriters so we all knew each other through the Toronto local music scene and we always wanted to do a project together. Chris knew Tobias through the local music scene as well and I guess that was another connection, where the two of them really wanted to hook up at some point to do something together.”

After officially forming in late 2006, it was the band’s second-place finish in Mix 99.9 RadioStar Songwriting Competition in February 2007 that fuelled the band’s initial performance.

“We played our first show, our very first show in July 2007 so when you really look at the starting point of everything, I’d say The Framework really became a full band at our first show,” Kash explains. “That’s when the full production got out there.”

Now some two years later, The Framework is on the brink of releasing their first full-length album, Before Tonight, which, as Kash explains, the title takes on a complete meaning of the bands past, present and future direction.

“It’s kind of a complete statement of The Framework up to this point and a projection into an immediate future,” Kash says. “We were recording this record over a year and the title kind of goes along as a complete sentence in a certain sense, so my idea was, ‘The Framework before tonight’; the songs leading up to now and that point. ‘Tonight’ will be the launch party, as well as ‘tonight’ will be our next year or two promoting this record.”

Graham adds thoughtfully, “Hopefully you can put it on and you can listen to it the whole way through and it’s an experience from start to finish. For us it’s just like an extended version of what we’ve already done and this album actually captures us completely. It’s like a snapshot, a long snap shot of the last two years and a half or all different points. If you listen to one song you can be like, ‘Oh we did that one in January’ or you know, ‘We did that one a month before that.’ I think the most important thing about the album is that it captures what we do live. What you hear in the album is the energy that you’re going to feel when you come see us play.”

Though The Framework has been together as a band for a relatively short time, their music and total package is of a band that has spent a lifetime performing and creating music. It makes you wonder, if this is the quality of this band’s craft right now, imagine these five musicians 10 years down the road.

“You know I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far,” Kash says. “We had no idea that we’d even get to this point, that we would have gone to New York to play a couple times, that we’d play in Cincinnati, that we’d play in different places in Canada and that we’d play to full houses, I never dreamed that we’d do that.

“We’ve grown as friends and we’ve grown as musicians and we’re really super proud of the record, Before Tonight, coming out. It’s a great statement we’ve been working on for a long while and we’re really proud of the songs and to know what we’ve got here, it’s an achievement for us and we’re excited about what’s to come.”

 Aside from the band’s performances, tours and music making, The Framework is extremely involved in the complete package of their product. From the designing of their merchandise, to the sound they produce, it’s completely hands on with these five.

 “We have Ryan that does all the graphic art work, Chris he does the mixing and engineering of our records and it’s great because we can really focus on how we want our product getting out,” Lepieszo explains. “I have a background on music industry, I worked in a music industry for a number of years so it all helps coming into play and getting The Framework out there.”

Looking at The Framework and the thousands of musicians around the world, one thing remains the same: making music — or rather living music — derives from a passion.

“Music and songwriting and singing . . . just comes out of me the same way that my drawing and painting or any of my visual art comes for me,” Kash explains humbly. “So it’s really just one of those things where it’s a form of my own expression and I’m kind of compelled to do it. That’s what makes me happy, doing this and all I really want to do is feel free to express myself in any artistic way I want, whether it’s writing songs or performing songs. That’s what I love about music and art and that form of expression, being able to do that, that’s gold to me, that’s king to me so for me that’s where my passion sits.”

“I would have to echo Ryan’s sentiment,” Lepieszo adds, “I’ve always been drawn to music and I think that everybody has a form of self-expression whether it is art, music or even athletics. The thing that I’ve been the most drawn to and where I’ve found the most gratification is in expressing myself.”

As for the future, Graham concludes, “Putting out the album is just the beginning. It’s like a whole new world now. Who knows what the future holds, we’re already looking ahead like, ‘Okay, what do we do next?’”

— Xolisa Renee Jerome

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Freeing The Way For The Future Of Sound

Chris Alfaro, musical alias Free The Robots, minces no words when describing his latest DJ project. “The concept of Free the Robots says it in the name itself. Message: Take advantage of the freedom you really have as an artist.” He describes our present access to technology as a freeing experience for artists, especially those who enjoy mixing genres as much as Alfaro does. From hip hop to jazz to beat-breaking electronica, Free The Robots reaches in multi directions, past and present, to produce an all-new sound experience—and I hear the live show’s even wilder than the EP.

“That's the thing about electronic music. There's no real formula. People can play the same music and the way it’s played can be totally different depending on the artist.”

It’s all in the process for Alfaro, who spends many an hour searching through crates of old records, looking for interesting samples, with recent finds as vast as Ethiopian tunes from the ‘60s to lesser-heard Billie Holiday hits. Then he freely links these sounds from the past with a contemporary mode of expression, making electronic music that is all his own. “The freedom of D.I.Y. keeps a more intimate connection with listeners,” he explains, as he—perhaps unwittingly—champions a new age of far-reaching technological availability. If you can grasp the technology needed—software programs, equipment, cables, and so on—any aspiring artist with good ideas and unwavering determination can make his or her sound.

As for Free The Robots, Alfaro’s going to keep riding his wave to the top. “When I mix, I really like to dip between genres regardless of where I'm playing. Whether or not it’s party rocking or playing a lounge I still play whatever I feel.”

That’s just the kind of attitude needed in an increasingly genre-defying world of music. As record labels continue to falter as taste makers and the mass influence of internet sources increases, Alfaro may have a very real—not to mention good—point.

Musicians like Free The Robots really do exemplify a certain recently-attained freedom, from corporate labels, yes, but also from the old musical pigeon hole. Free The Robots and artists like them say, “Who needs it anymore?” It’s like a musical take-back, and we’re all invited to the party.

On that note, when asked to describe the live show, Alfaro says, “It's like a huge robotic mess controlled and in harmony.” Though the roboticization of music doesn’t seem to be a main interests of this DJ, who loves keeping it old school, scouring records like it’s his job to make sure all new DJs don’t go exclusively digital on us, there’s a clear link from the past to the present for Alfaro. “Shopping for records is like History 101 for me. These lost gems are what inspire new ideas. I'm glad to be part of the cycle.” So it seems technology and widespread access to it is just another step in the cycle, the next illogical place music has landed us in our early 21^st century; not a replacement, but another accoutrement in our endless search for the sound that’ll take us forward. It might not be a mass movement, in fact, it might just be in the smallest detail, according to Alfaro. “You have to be very attentive when looking for stuff to chop because you might just miss a gold mine section of a song. I look for the littlest parts that have potential to be something greater.”

Searching for that something greater in the tiniest details, Free The Robots is following its way to freedom, one track at a time…

- Aurora Prelevic

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GREGG GILLIS: MUSIC’S MOST TALKED ABOUT ENIGMA

Gregg Gillis (a.k.a. Girl Talk’s) rise is one that has come as somewhat of a shock to a lot of music critics.

The 2006 success story, Night Ripper, garnered him some serious attention; everything from outrageous live shows, amazing samples and insane groupies all left their mark on the music world. During our interview, Gillis was in between calls, sound check, and what can only be assumed to be another huge gig filled with exposed ass cracks, debaucheries that could set records and overall pandemonium we’ll all will never forget from the last tour.

Gillis started Girl Talk back in the summer of 2000, just before going to college.

“I always considered myself good at math and science, so I usually approach the music using that same process,” Gillis says. “I was studying engineering in college and pretty much all my spare time went to the Girl Talk project.”

The groundwork for Girl Talk began with Gillis experimenting with a lot of different samples. Gillis states he’s always pumped by artists who push the limits, visionaries like Kid 606; a man known for raising the bar in the DJ world and more notably being widely recognized as one of the few producers today who can successfully tackle nearly every electronic genre.

“A lot of my earlier interest in underground experimental music is kind of what pushed my initial interest in music,” Gillis says. “The technique of manipulating a pre-existing track intrigued me. I like to take things to the most extreme you could possibly go and really create an entity of the tracks I use.”

The first Girl Talk release, Secret Diary, was released in 2002 on the label Illegal Art. Gillis explains how getting to this point wasn’t as cut and dry right off the bat.

“They liked my stuff, but nothing got released right away,” he says. “I basically just kept sending them stuff until they felt they had a good amount of tracks to release an album.”

This was followed up with 2004’s Unstoppable. Despite the label’s take on Girl Talk’s style, Gillis says that his use of samples in the first two releases would not fit well in the mashup genre.

“I know a lot of the shit I do is closely related to that scene, but the first two records were more or less just me playing around with samples that I really liked,” he says. “I consider them to be more of a sound collage; I picked through a lot of samples for those two records and I’m glad that it turned out the way I wanted.”

2006 was the year of the Night Ripper. Gillis’ third release took everything that brought him to dance in the first two releases and heightened the overall experience. Sharper mixes, hotter samples, clever use of sound manipulation and distortion made a record that put the clubs on notice, got indie kids grinding, and really solidified Gillis’ hard work and steady climb to perfecting the music he’d grown to enjoy and respect from his early years.

The samples ranged from a lot of Top 40 club bangers that dominated a portion of the early 2000’s and other work from artist Gillis has sampled on previous releases such as Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G, Beyonce, and Atlanta rap diva Trina.

“I don’t consider any of these songs guilty pleasures because a lot of my guilty pleasures are more in the realm of Avant Garde,” Gillis explains. “I’m ready to represent man, I like a lot of the stuff I sample.”

The record also brought Gillis’ use of unauthorized sampling to the forefront. The New York Times have called Gillis, “a lawsuit waiting to happen,” but considering the fact Gillis has not had any problems yet; the party will continue and it definitely does during his outrageous live performances.

Gillis’ work has also allowed for him to dwell into the remix world in 2007. Indie tastemakers like Tokyo Police Club, of Montreal, and Peter, Bjorn and John have all gotten a little love from Mr. Gillis. Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear did a remix for “Knife,” which has really been one of the tracks that has showcased Gillis ability to be a “jack of all trades” in music. While remixes are fun, Gillis says they take away from his prime focus.

“I spend most of my time downtime doing the Girl Talk project and considering the process of making a good remix; I couldn’t see myself doing a lot of them, depending on the person or the timing,” he says.

From 9/10 reviews, half-naked stage performances and the overall world domination that was Night Ripper, Feed the Animals was just a little more than highly anticipated. The album’s release was pushed back from it’s original September release to Nov. 11. The album basically picks where Night Ripper left off as a lot of the notable samples were Top 40 hits of the last two years. Gillis also incorporates samples of very specific eras of popular music; everything from indie rock veterans like Thurston Moore and Yo La Tango, to old school bangers from Eric B & Rakim, Dr. Dre and Salt N Pepa. The record is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license, which depending on certain stipulations, allows Gillis to copy, distribute and transmit his work.

Gillis has beaten the odds and managed to use over thousands of samples without getting slapped with a huge lawsuit. Four albums strong and still partying hard, there is no doubt Gillis will continue to climb the ladders of the music world and mix and mash some of the best songs in the game.

“We haven’t had any problems yet,” Gillis says. “When the situation arises, we’ll deal with it accordingly, but for now I’m just to continue making music”.

-Max Mohenu

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Bringin’ the Nu Funk Sound To A Dance Floor Near You: Toronto’s God Made Me Funky
*********************featured at NXNE*******************

 “We did have to get over the hump of people being like, ‘Are you guys a Christian polka band?’ Nooo, funk…” says PHATT al, lead rapper of the Toronto band God Made Me Funky, chuckling. The name—as original as the music this eclectic troupe puts out—actually comes from a Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters song title, and thank God for it! 

God Made Me Funky has been together longer than most bands can manage to stay friends and you can feel it in the ease with which they fuse incredibly variant styles of music to form a solid ‘n bumpin’ nu funk sound. They started out in the new jazz fusion movement of the ‘90s, and have developed over the decade into an original entity. “We’ve become more of a collective than a band,” PHATT al says, “That’s where the funk sound really started to emerge.” God Made Me Funky boasts a nine member band of variously trained musicians, from classical to jazz to hip hop, the common bond among them, as PHATT al puts it is “just to play and get people to dance and have a really really great time.”

This diversity reflects an amalgamation of sounds, “That’s nu funk to us; that’s the mosaic that we bring to music.” PHATT al, coming from a hip hop background himself, describes the band’s fusion not as a ‘each member represents their own style’ kind of thing but, rather, as a meeting of many minds open to mixing sounds. “It’s not like ‘I’m the rapper,’” PHATT al assures us.

He attributes this openness to being from Canada, which is an interesting point taken from someone who lives half the year in L.A. In fact, it seems, the more time PHATT al spent in the U.S. in the past, the more he realized the advantage of being a musician here. “Being from Canada and growing up with just so many different cultures around me and musical influences … I started to realize the advantage that I had was my mind was really open to just different sounds all the time. That’s what really drew me to being in God Made Me Funky, just the fact that there were so many different influences and people were really open to collaborating together and making a new sound.”

When he was first exploring the U.S. music scene, PHATT al found that it was “really segregated and it was really weird to me.” Sending out some true patriot love, PHATT al says, “What we [the band] get from being together is just the experience of being with people from different cultural backgrounds and their ability to accept who you are and teach you about themselves also. It’s such a wonderful experience.”

On that note, one can’t help but wonder what it’s like traveling with nine bustling musicians on their cross-Canada tour bus. “It does get fun at times,” PHATT al laughs, again. Ever-full of positivity, he chalks it up to yet another learning experience. “Either a band will completely implode and destroy itself or you get to be like a family and that’s what we are at this point. We are, basically, the nu funk Patridge family.”

It sounds like a non-stop party with God Made Me Funky, indeed. The recent release of their album, “Enter The Beat,” has got them on tour and bringing the beat along. Though they’ve received much press for recent commercial-and-film appearances, the band is definitely known for their live performances. PHATT al boasts just how important the show is to their music. “We don’t record any songs that we haven’t played for an audience.” If making people dance is the goal, God Made Me Funky seems to be doing just that.

But ask PHATT al ‘what can we expect from the live show?’ kind of questions and his answer is, predictably, another chuckle. “The live show is basically a free for all where anything can happen and does.” God Made Me Funky, he explains, focuses the development of their live sound largely on audience response. “In the studio you can make things happen and you’ve got time to make things happen. On stage you’ve got this one shot to really just show people what you got, show people what you’re about.”

He links the band’s diverse sound with a general movement of music listeners today. “It is such a mash up of music now. People are no longer sitting there saying ‘I’m a metal head’ or ‘I’m a hip-hopper,’ it’s just ‘I listen to music…that’s probably one of the greatest accomplishments in music is that people are now able to broaden their minds and free themselves from just being trapped by labels, you know. Go out there and just listen to music and have fun, and that’s dope.”

Breaking through all conceivable label barriers, as they hope their audiences will, too, PHATT al says, “We go for it every single show. That for us is the epitome of what we do, bringing the live show to the people.” God Made Me Funky builds on audience response and then brings that vibe into the studio, as opposed to doing it the other way around. Thinking of the dancing throngs, PHATT al says: “They’re not our fans, they’re our equivalents. If we don’t have a good show, we know it because people aren’t moving. They’re not fans to us, they’re nufunktonians. Everywhere we go, we bring nufunktonia.”

God Made Me Funky was just nominated for their first Juno award for Best RnB/Soul Recording of the year for the album “We Can All Be Free.” The new album, “Enter The Beat,” is in stores March 11^th, 2008.

- Aurora Prelevic

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Great Lake Swimmers: See You on the Islands!

They’ve recorded in empty grain silos, churches and on Toronto Island but for their fourth album, Great Lake Swimmers moved further east down the shoreline and recorded Lost Channels on the Thousand Islands.

The idea came to fruition when the band was playing a show in Gananoque and they were approached by photographer/author Ian Coristine, who felt the Thousand Islands would be a rewarding experience for them. The band took him up on the suggestion and spent several weeks recording the album in the area.

“A lot of the songs were already written going into the recording at the start but the way it influenced it the most I guess would be obviously the acoustics, which were a pretty important thing to me,” said the band’s lead singer/songwriter Tony Dekker. “But also I think that when you’re in a space like that it draws a certain kind of performance out of you and I felt we were able to approach the songs there in a different way because we were in special spaces.”

Among the locations the band recorded in were the Brockville Arts Centre, St. Brendan’s Church, located in Rockport on top of a bluff above the St. Lawrence River, and Singer Castle on Dark Island. With such a spooky sounding name, the setting only added a haunting tone to the band’s folk sound.

“It was a really amazing experience. We had to hire a boat captain to get us there with all of our gear and everything. It was like a forty minute boat ride or something from the shore,” Dekker said. “It was a really great island with a huge stone castle that took up almost the entire island.”

Fans should be aware the iTunes version features two bonus tracks (“It’s Too Late” and “The Storms Are on the Ocean”) but for the proper listening experience, they may also want to consider the vinyl version. The album has a definite “Side A” and “Side B” transition, one that was intentional by the band.

“I felt like the album was broken down into two parts or two sides like a record,” Dekker said. “Side A is a little bit more up tempo and has, relatively speaking, the type of music we play now and side B is more like what people have sort of come to expect from us, which is the slower stuff and more ballads, quieter and more atmospheric songs.”

The band has certainly lived up to their name. Dekker started Great Lake Swimmers in his native home of Wainfleet, a small town near Lake Erie, recording the band’s debut self-titled album in an empty grain silo. The initial demo for their third album, 2007’s Ongiara, was recorded on Toronto Island (the album was also named after the boat that ferried the band to the island).

Last year saw Great Lake Swimmers’ profile gain a huge boost when they opened for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The former Led Zeppelin singer praised the band and told Dekker he had a great voice. The evening was not only special for Dekker but for the entire band as well. 

“I felt it was a real special moment for the band because we had never really played on a stage like that before and it was just a really positive experience all around,” Dekker said. “I think everyone felt really good about it and really energized by that.”

On top of their high profile performance, their song “See You on the Moon!” was recently featured in a Honda commercial. The children’s song first appeared on the Paper Bag Records compilation See You on the Moon! in 2006 but despite writing and recording the tune, Dekker didn’t think about making a permanent shift to the Raffi demographic.

“It was just a one-time thing. When I sat down to write that song, I didn’t spend a lot of time on it but it was a fun thing to do and to break out of my normal writing cycle and a normal way of writing,” Dekker said. “The song has really taken on a life of its own.”

What is in the band’s normal style right now is touring. The band concluded their North American tour with a hometown performance and are now on their way to conquer Europe during the month of May. Their first show home will be – where else – in Niagara Falls on June 13.

Lost Channels is available now on Nettwerk Records.

-Jon Brazeau

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Great Lake Swimmers
An interview with Tony Dekker
By Aurora Prelevic

Ask Tony Dekker of Toronto indie group the Great Lake Swimmers why he makes music and he replies bluntly.

“I don’t really understand it myself,” he says. “Why any one would choose a lifestyle like this seems completely ridiculous from my perspective.”

Dekker’s perspective is, of course, that of a struggling (though increasingly recognized) indie artist. He’s living the lifestyle that is, in his own words, a ridiculous choice. It seems paradoxical – that is, until you realize that in Dekker’s case, it wasn’t so much a choice as a necessity to do what he does.

“I feel compelled to do it, like there’s a fire in me, or a really bad itch,” he says of crafting the Great Lake Swimmers’ drifting, ambient form of folk. “Sometimes it’s just as natural as taking a deep breath of air. I guess I do it because it’s like breathing to me. I would need to do it regardless of my situation.”

And indeed, with a little help from his friends, Dekker has been creating music “regardless of his situation” for several years now.

“Great Lake Swimmers started off essentially as a solo project,” he explains. “When I first moved to the city [of Toronto] and started playing the songs live, I crossed paths with a few like-minded musicians who helped me record the parts for the first [self-titled] record [released in 2003], and occasionally played with me at live shows. That was the start of a revolving door of different backing members for the first couple years. The core members these days, Erik Arnesen and Colin Huebert, came to the project in the same sort of way. I met Colin on my first tour out East, when I was doing shows with his band Ten Year Drought. By the end of the tour he was drumming on my songs almost every night and we sort of continued that when he moved to Toronto shortly thereafter. With Erik, I was actually playing drums for his rockabilly/surf band the Donnellys. I knew he could play the banjo really well so when I started to get busy with my own stuff, and his band went on hiatus, I asked him to help out. We’ve since done five or six tours together.”

They also finished the Great Lake Swimmers’ second album, Bodies and Minds, which was released in March of 2005. Soft, sweet, melodic – and at times haunting – the album hovers somewhere between ambient folk and alt-country, but with a distinctive, atmospheric sound all to itself – likely a result of Dekker’s offbeat choice of recording space. GLS’s first release was, after all, recorded in an abandoned grain silo, while their second was done at a lakeside church in rural Ontario.

“The choice of location, rather than studio, has become pretty important to me as a recording tool,” Dekker explains. “In a way, we’re using the space as an instrument, or as an aural backdrop, if that makes sense. It provides continuity and a common thread for the records, and also emphasizes the process of making the record. When the raw tracks are done with a lot of ambient sound, it becomes a lot harder to fake it in the mixing room, and I like that aspect of it. You can’t get around the fact that the sound was captured in a specific place at a specific time. Also, you can’t get that kind of reverb out of a little box or an effects unit. It makes the experience more real to me.”

Abandoned grain silos and rural churches aren’t the only places GLS has brought Dekker. “We’ve had some great opportunities to travel and play really nice shows,” he says, a master of the understatement. “We’ve opened for Andrew Bird at La Cigale in Paris, and played with Feist in New York City. We’ve also played in tiny venues – one that springs to mind was in Jackson, Mississippi, and that felt really good.”

But while his experiences exploring the world are clearly unforgettable, of even greater importance to Dekker are his experiences exploring the music. “The moments that I value the most are the ones where I feel lost in the dark and the music is lighting the way,” he confesses. “I really felt that way with the first record, completely lost in the dark, where the songs were little refractions of light. Writing and recording are really the most important aspects of it for me.”

That act of hands-on writing and recording is what Dekker cites as one of the most appealing aspects of working as an independent artist. Currently with indie lable weewerk, Dekker explains that “the pros [of working with an independent label] are definitely that you have a lot of control over your destiny and you have the opportunity to build something out of nothing, from the ground up. The effects of hard work are more noticeable I suppose.

“The ironic down side to that, of course,  is that there is a lot of work involved and that gives you less time to be a writer or an artist or whatever, when you’re helping to oversee a lot of the other details to help it run smoothly. But overall I’m happy with how things are happening because in the end it is a really gratifying way of doing things. For the initial pressings of the first record, by myself at first, and then with a few other people, I put together every copy by hand. It felt good, and feels good, to dedicate yourself to something so entirely that in the end you feel like you are delivering something that has permanence, or at least that you feel strongly enough to go to those lengths.

“In the end,” he concludes, the work “is its own reward, and the delivery itself is gratifying enough.”

At least, it is until the fame, coke, and hookers arrive.

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HERE WE GO MAGIC: THE EXPANSION OF LUKE TEMPLE

Luke Temple has previously released an EP, two albums, and a seven-inch on Mill Pond Records under his given name with a considerable amount of critical acclaim. Not only did he win over critics of the indie music world, but he also brought heavyweights like Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Sufjan Stevens to their knees.

Stevens had cooed that Temple had, “one of the most beautiful  voices in pop music,” whereas Gibbard one-upped Stevens and said that Temple had, “one of the prettiest voices in all of indie rock, hands down.” Temple simply shrugs off these praises.

“It's just two rolling quotes that have gathered snow over the years. Press likes to focus on those kinds of things to give context to artists,” he said.

Now Temple is trying to shrug off some of that context as well. His voice is still as mesmerizing as usual, however; last summer some musical experimentation in the bedroom of his Brooklyn apartment led to the nascence of Here We Go Magic.

“This record is less oriented around my voice and more about the big picture in terms of texture and overall sound. I wanted it to stand on its own outside of anything else I have done,” he said.

Desiring a fuller and more rounded sound, Temple enlisted the help of Baptiste Ibar (bass) and Peter Hale (drums) to complete the band. Because Mill Pond Records is on a break, Here We Go Magic is signed to Western Vinyl under what Temple calls a “change of pace.” Its self-titled debut features nine tracks of sumptuous ambience and is set for release on Feb. 24.

Recorded in two months in his less than soundproof bedroom, Temple had to set up an agreement with his neighbour that he would not play after 10 p.m. on weeknights. His recording equipment of choice was a cassette 4-track, home analog synths, and a SM-57 microphone. Temple describes the song-writing process as illusive enough but with more emphasis on layering.

“I like working alone, and what better place than at home? I also have a pretty good grasp on the 4-track at this point and I enjoy the limitation it imposes. I can be kind of an ascetic in certain ways,” he said.

Born and raised in Salem, Mass., Temple originally moved to New York to pursue visual arts. However, today the city is where his music career thrives instead.

“[New York] has embedded itself into me the way any place can. I don't think I will be here forever. I miss nature sometimes and it's only sometimes because I wilfully repress it any other time,” he said.

For a change of scenery, Here We Go Magic is slated for this year’s SXSW festival, a festival that Temple has played in his solo career as well. He said that last year he often found himself stumbling intoxicated three miles to his hotel on the highway.

Already fairly established and well-respected by his contemporaries, Temple’s aspiration with Here We Go Magic is to “play and write more music and hopefully not have as much in the way of that happening.” That and a new guitar.

- Melissa Kim

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An Interview with the Hoa Hoa’s

On a particularly grey and muggy July day, Lee Brochu, Richard Gibson, Femke Berkout and Calvin Brown of The Hoa Hoa’s took time out to meet up with Spill Magazine in Kensington Market, where the band lives, records and have been known to give the locals rooftop shows from their Augusta Avenue loft. 

The Hoa Hoa’s—pronounced “wah wah’s” after the Vietnamese word “hoa”, which means flower—are aptly placed in Kensington given their variety of musical influences and incessant instrumental variation and euphonious acumen. 

“We like to switch up instruments to keep things alive and keep the energy and creativity flowing,” says Lee, the convivial, yet oblique and analytical member of the group.  This disparity in musicality lends to a variety of sounds on their recent Sonic Bloom release, which could be described in short as “shoegazey” or “psychedelic-pop”, but has reflections of late 60’s stoner rock, jangly mid-80’s apathy pop, as well as more recent explorations into minimalism and melodic repetition.

When asked about songwriting, each member of the band reiterates the collective nature of the process, but indicates that “Femke comes up with a lot of dance-y bass-lines that normally start out the songs, which stem from jam sessions”. As described by Lee, Femke is “a classically trained musician who just happens to play The Cure for fun.” She indicates that she “had guitar and violin lessons growing up” but also says “I tended to take photographs of musicians and other things more-so, as I never had the guts to go on stage”.

It seems that her union with Lee while on vacation in St. Catharine’s back in 2001 has helped her come out of that shell.  The pairing of these two, in conjunction with Lee’s regular jam sessions with Richard—who at that time would travel to St. Kit’s from Toronto to play—was essentially the birth of The Hoa Hoa’s. 

While the band members won’t admit to having a preferred track of their own, citing “it changes all the time” they did each cough up a current favourite musical group: Femke pondered for a split-second before naming The Velvet Underground, Calvin chimed in with Primal Scream, Lee said Echo & the Bunnymen and Richard added Love. These influences are apparent on Sonic Bloom, which doesn’t bother the group since “you can try to sound unique, but people are going to compare you to someone familiar, regardless; at least until you get to a point where hopefully people are comparing others to you.”

In discussing live shows and the dynamic that The Hoa Hoa’s wish to convey, each member is very vocal, offering up similar views and occasionally finishing each other’s sentences. Richard indicates that “we don’t take it really that seriously when we play live.  It’s about having fun and partying with the audience.” Lee makes it clear that “you can’t only make party music”, citing some of the album’s diversity, to which Richard clarifies “but if you’re playing at a club on a Friday or Saturday night, that’s what people want to hear and that’s what we’ll play.” Femke mentions briefly the visuals they will have on display aside from just them standing there playing, which leads Calvin to state, “We hate it when you go to a show and the band expects you to just stand there and watch them”.  Richard completes this thought by stating, “That’s why we try to have projectors or other things for people to watch”, which Lee follows up by stating “Since we’re having fun, people feel more like they can relax and have fun. There isn’t this obligation to stand and watch us”. 

Now that the album is out there, the band is “just trying to spread the CDs around and gain more distribution. We’re also getting them out to colleges and universities throughout Canada and the U.S. to gain awareness.” While they are playing at Pop Montreal, Halifax Pop Explosion and may tour in October, Lee states that “with bands like us, touring just for the sake of it may not be worth it. Playing for five people in Halifax may not be as beneficial as organizing yourself and making a name first.” 

Their approach is pragmatic and unpretentious in knowing the necessity of establishing a niche in order to build an audience.  “You also need a certain level of success and organization to continue on.  Being a musician can simply be a hobby, but then it’s pretty hard to tour Europe,” they add.

Fans can expect another album from The Hoa Hoa’s come Christmas ’08, which just might have more instruments, experimentation and Calvin playing the banjo.

- Robert Bell

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Radiohead, Sarcasm, and Democracy: Meet The Hollows

One wall of the stylish Annex flat is painted a deep red, and electric guitars hang like shiny ornaments poised for play. The atmosphere is relaxed; soothing vocals waft out of the speakers. A big glossy hardcover Beatles book stares up from the coffee table. It sure looks like the place where rock and roll lives. But don’t be fooled by the swank style—there’s a big sound, and even bigger bite, to this Toronto talent. Lead vocalist Dave Browne reclines with a beer, his good-humouredly sarcastic comments punctuate the conversation as he peers out from under his indie-rock coif. Seated opposite, guitarist Coz Costa has a natural ease about him, and chats readily and enthusiastically. Bassist Stephen Court and drummer Jay Herdman each have a quiet intensity; they smile shyly and speak seldom. But this band is up for a good show, Dave assures me, “We’re all pretty easy. There’s a lot of banter, that’s why they come to see us, they don’t even know our songs” he laughs.

The Hollows came together with an unlikely strike of serendipity. Long-time collaborators Browne and Stephen Court met Costa when their paths crossed in a car collision. “I didn’t have a license at the time” confesses Browne with a playful grin, “I still don’t”. The two east-enders from Scarborough teamed up with West-end Etobicoke-based Costa to from the band in 2003. It was easy enough to meet in the middle on musical tastes which range from Radiohead and the White Stripes to vintage and classic rock–just some of the persuasions that factored into the mix when the group started cultivating their own sound. Drummer Jay Herdman later joined the ranks to complete the foursome, which was dubbed the Hollows a name explained as originating from the feeling of “ coming from an empty place and trying to fill it up with something...like art”.

Certainly, there’s something artistic about the richly layered influences which come together to form the classic-rock-indie hybrid for which the band is becoming known. “When we play live, we want to show people that we are inspired by classic rock, Zeppelin, the Beatles, but also indie rock, we are capable of crossing genres. But I think at the end of the day we still sound like the Hollows”. The group prefer not to be easily categorized, or nailed down to a single predominant influence. “I don’t think we will ever settle into a particular genre, we all like music that’s so varied” explains Herdman.

Whatever the slightly evasive stylistic nuances, the vocal intensity and melodic harmonies are turning heads when the Hollows take the stage. They can—and sometimes do—belt bass-lines, but there’s just as much force to their softer tracks like “Falling”. “We have this whole other acoustic face,” says Dave, striking a more serious tone, “even in the stuff with more edge, we’re always trying to put that heart into the singing, because otherwise you walk away and you don’t remember a note”.

For the Hollows, songs come about as organically as the band itself did. The creative process is democratic in which each member contributes to a track: “Everyone touches it,” explains Costa “I can’t wait to give it to them...One of us will be playing something that we’ve written but we don’t tell the others, and we hope that it will stop another guy dead in his tracks”. Even though the song writing is a collaborative effort, their songs often have a sound that reveals a personal perspective on life. Dave describes his writing style as “kind of an interpretation with words, put colourfully that describe a certain way of life... observations on mundane things, like being in Scarborough on a Sunday and walking by a bingo hall and seeing five fat ladies smoking and wasting their life savings on bingo, that’s a song to me”. Songs are pieced together in a collective effort, but retain the distinctive imprint of each member. The result is a range in repertoire from hard and heavy to mellow and melodic. Together, these variations make up the blended sound of the band; “once we’re done with it, it’s gonna be a Hollows song anyhow”.

Radiohead, sarcasm, and democracy--this is love: “We’ve played in a lot of other bands before, and it’s never been like this” says Dave. And with the release of their four-song EP, they’re looking for great things on the horizon. A tour is in the works, the band hopes to collaborate with other indie Canadian acts and Dave’s got ever bigger plans: “I really would like to follow in the footsteps of Bono and get political...”

- Davida Aronovitch

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The Horse’s Ha: No Laughing Matter

After meeting at a Chicago concert in 2002, James Elkington (of The Zincs) and Janet Beveridge Bean (of Freakwater) formed a musical relationship that marked the beginning of The Horse’s Ha, a five-piece band unique for its enchanting mix of jazz and English folk.

“Janet and I started playing together a while ago, after my old band opened up for her band,” begins Elkington. “Janet’s very supportive of music she likes, and she was kind enough to ask me to play with her at a weird one-off show she was doing.”

The two began playing covers at expensive restaurants but the set list was soon abandoned as Elkington began writing original songs that they now performed alongside Fred Lonberg-Holm — renowned improvisational cello player — who had previously played on Bean’s solo album and is now a current member of The Horse’s Ha.

Following the addition of Smith, the formation of an “actual band” seemed a smooth transition, says Elkington: “It was beginning to seem like a good idea . . . so I invited Nick [Macri] who used to be in The Zincs and we both thought Charles [Rumback] would be a great drummer because he really is just a great drummer.”

Despite the fact that only Macri hails from Chicago, The Horse’s Ha prides itself on its Chicago roots and praises the city for its inclusive nature.

“I immediately felt very comfortable here and found the sense of musical community . . . to be very strong and welcoming,” explains Elkington. “It’s the sort of place where people of all sorts of musical backgrounds play together without worrying about sticking to their chosen genre, and I think that’s definitely helped to shape the band and make it what it is: a folk group that has a lot of jazz musicians in it.”

Since its release in early June, the band’s debut album, Of the Cathmawr Yards, has received praise for its original sound and storytelling capabilities. Despite his gift for lyrics and references to nature and fantasy throughout the record, Elkington refuses to think of himself as a writer.

“I’m basically a musician who wanted to write songs and started to write lyrics because there was no one else who would do it for me, which, when I stop to think about it is really the reason I’ve ever done anything!” says Elkington. “I really don’t second guess myself that much, so I’m not sure why there are quite so many references to the moon on this album.”

In addition to Bean and Elkington’s haunting harmonies, the band’s unique jazz-folk sound has worked to cement The Horse’s Ha as a strong presence in the indie scene.

“I like a lot of English folk music and Janet does too,” shares Elkington. “Although a lot of country music influence comes out in her writing.”

Though Elkington enjoys the lyrical aspect of song writing, he maintains he feels best while writing music.

“I’m a complainer, that’s my main default setting,” says Elkington. “If I’m in the middle of writing songs, then I’ll probably be complaining that I’m not doing enough playing. . . . I do like playing guitar though and I’d have to say that I feel more confident writing music than lyrics because that part of my brain seems to be a little more informed. I listen to a lot of music.”

When asked whether fans can look forward to an extensive tour, Elkington maintains the key to the band’s success is not to make it a full-time concern.

“I’ve always found that if you do the same music every day, you start to resent it a little bit in the way you start to resent any repeating process,” he says, “so I try not to make that happen by mixing it up as much as possible.”

However, listeners can look forward to future albums — although they should be patient.

“We have an EP that we’re almost ready to record and an album mostly written, but it took us about five years to get round to recording the last one,” says Elkington, “so we’ll have to wait and see how quickly the next record happens!”

-Anne T. Donahue

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The Evolution of Islands

Islands has changed a lot since the band’s 2006 debut album, Return to the Sea.

The Montreal-based indie rock group has juggled its lineup, signed with a new record label, ANTI-, and finished a new album, Arm's Way. Despite the forward progression, some of the songs on Arm’s Way predate Return to the Sea.

“‘I Feel Evil Creeping In’ was a song we performed on our first tour and we actually played it in Toronto at the Drake Hotel in December 2005, five months before the record even came out,” said Islands’ frontman Nick Thorburn. “These songs run the gamut and they weren’t necessarily intended to be on Arm’s Way but when it came time to compile the songs for the record, they became a cohesive thing, woven to maintain that consistency.”

With numerous tunes already in the works, Thorburn said the moment he thought about putting a new album together was when the band wrote “The Arm”.

“That song was written really spontaneously, without a lot of motivation. It just kind of happened,” Thorburn said. “That was the turning point, when I knew not only would that be on the record but it would be a touchstone of the record, the jumping up point, and it would be a huge turning point for the band too.”

Islands was formed in 2005 by Thorburn and Jamie Thompson after the breakup of their previous band, the Unicorns. The duo felt they needed extra musicians to flesh out their sound, so they called out to their friends in the Montreal music scene for help, including Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade.

“Islands was really an early project then and we made the record before Jamie and I put the band together,” Thorburn said. “We had Dan and Spencer come in and it was a really casual, pleasant environment. There wasn’t a lot of direction, it was really open-ended and creative and it just sort of happened. It was a pleasant experience.”

With their debut album released in April 2006 and a proper lineup for the band set, it wasn’t long until Islands was dealt its first major blow. Just one month after the release of Return to the Sea, Thompson parted ways with the band, posting on the band’s website that he didn’t think being in a successful band was all that important anymore. Despite the loss, Islands continued onward and started recording Arm’s Way in early 2007. It proved to be a better experience the second time around as the band took a more professional approach.

“It was smooth because we had a couple studios and we had a producer, and that’s something we didn’t really have before, that I’ve never had,” Thorburn said. “One of the most pleasurable things I know is being in the studio and making a record.”

As if one band wasn’t enough, Thorburn also has a side-project with former Islands touring guitarist Jim Guthrie called Human Highway. The duo’s debut album, Moody Motorcycle, is expected to be released on August 19. Thorburn said he can handle multiple projects at once but Islands is his top priority.

“Islands is the main project and the project that’s the most active for me,” Thorburn said. “Human Highway might play a show here and there but there’s no problem juggling either project.”

Islands’ Arm’s Way was released May 20 and you can catch the band live at the Phoenix on May 29 as part of the band’s North American tour.

-Jon Brazeau

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Jeremy Jay: Perfect for a Late Night Soirée

Jeremy Jay’s sophomore synth-pop release Slow Dance (K Records) is a nostalgic disco-dazed based in the winter but Jay warns not to get too hung up on the theme.

“The theme is just setting a scene in the song; a place where emotions can take place,” says Jay.

Because Jay’s music has a very reminiscent tone to it, some critics have claimed that Jay’s sound is too throwback for their liking.

“They can lick my balls,” responds Jay, “A lot of [my music] is just being honest for posterity’s sake. It’s part of the human document, which is something I really believe in.”

Many songs from the album—including the tracks “Gallop,” “Canter Canter,” and “2 Step Gallop”—originated as a series of beat exercises for Jay that were sold at his shows on a cassette tape called Canter to Gallop. The tape also featured a Frankie Lymon cover.

According to Jay, Slow Dance has more of a band feel compared to his previous releases because most of the album was recorded live in studio with no overdubs.

Although he was born Jeremy Craig Shaules, he adopted the name “Jeremy Jay” as a simpler stage name when he became a recording artist. His latest album follows not only his debut full-length but also an EP and a handful of seven-inch vinyl releases.

Jay alternates between living in Los Angeles and Paris. French is his first language because his mother is Swiss and his parents would speak it within the household. Therefore, living in what Jay claims is one of the most beautiful cities in the world was not a struggle for him. Four years ago, he recorded a French demo called This City Tonight, which never had proper release and he has no immediate plans of future French recordings. At the moment, Jay prefers making memories in the French capital than making French songs.

“I once jumped into the canal in the twentieth and swam to the other side naked with a girl when she dared me to; not believing I would,” he says.

It has been misreported that Jay was born in an air force base in San Diego. However, that was not the case. He was born in the Chula Vista area of San Diego County and one year later his family moved to a cul-de-sac in Los Angeles where he rode his BMX and built jumps.

The only time when Jay did not live in California or France was when he resided Portland, Oregon for three years. Around this time, while house-sitting for a friend, musician and K Records founder Calvin Johnson showed up to pick up some records. Although Jay was unfamiliar with Johnson’s music, he found his company amiable enough to share coffee and cake at a local coffee shop. Not long after, Jay was signed to Johnson’s label.

As of late, Jay has been increasingly interested in folk music, even citing that Manitoban folk singer Terry Jacks is his favourite Canadian singer, and that Jacks’ song “Seasons in the Sun” made him cry.

“The idea of folk music is a music that you can play live. Right then and there, just on your lonesome. It’s immediate,” explains Jay.

Jeremy Jay will be playing a Toronto show on November 8 although no venue has been announced yet.

— Melissa Kim

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JERRY LEGER: EAST TORONTO’S RISING STAR

It is believed that a large majority of the musical talent that emerges from Toronto's indie music scene comes straight out of the city's west end. Enter Jerry Leger, a young and energetic songwriting whiz hailing from Toronto's east end. He's about to change that notion of where Toronto's talent resides with the release of You Me and the Horse. Although it’s his third album, Leger says it feels like his first.

“This new record feels more like it is a debut release for me,” Leger explains. “I learned so much from the making of my first two albums, you know with the learning curve and some bullshit along the way.”

Going back to 2005, his self-titled debut album Jerry Leger and The Situations was spontaneously born out of having lots of spare time available in the studio. Leger and his band had intially set out to record just a three-track demo.

“We had all this extra time to kill in the studio and we had lots of other songs so we just decided to have a go at putting a full album together,” he said.

Putting spare time to good use the result was a very fluid and lively folk-rock piece which garnered the attention of Juno winning folk/contemporary artist Ron Sexsmith of whom the young Leger (19 years of age at the time) had met while working at his day-job in the east end.

“Ron used to come into our shop quite a lot, he lived just up street from the store,” Leger said.

Through those frequent in-store visits, Leger managed to place some of his material into the accomplished hands of Sexmith. Gaining respect from an influential icon, Sexsmith began frequenting many of Leger's shows on the east end. He would later play piano on four tracks of Leger's 2006 second release Farewell Ghost Town and openly regard Leger as being, “one of the best songwriters I've heard in quite some time.”

Inspired by legends such as Neil Young and Bob Dylan, Leger pays notice to how important the storytelling aspect of their work has been critical to their success. As a kid, Leger's dad played a lot of Dylan and Young around the house and from his mom it was The Beatles. His grandparents would be the ones to introduce him to Hank Williams.

“Hank Williams’ song ‘Lost Highway’ just feels like an old friend,” Leger comments.

Strongly grasping the fundamentals of what has made the likes of John Lennon, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan so important to music - creativity, conviction and of course swagger. Leger uniquely pours these fundamentals into himself and his music, carefully and creatively forging his own path, not committing forgery.

Being free from a binding record contract has given Leger the opportunity to create music unrestricted and at his own pace. The result, the 23-year-old now has three highly polished records under his belt.

“I'll likely sign with a label eventually but for now it's been a lot of fun just being independent,” Leger says.

Last year he toured the southern states of America, exploring the origins of his very craft.

“I was very well received by the American crowds that I performed to, it was especially validating to hear praise from the folks who have “lived and breathed folk & roots music from its early beginnings,” Leger remarks about the tour.

You Me and the Horse is a collection of songs performed by Leger acoustically, his band The Situation taking a break this time around. As mentioned, this album feels like a first. A clean slate to be more precise.

“I love how it sounds and the album's simplified production,” Leger exclaims, adding, “the spotlight is on the songs and the songwriting, this is my best work to date.”

- William Self

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Joel Plaskett: Tripling Your Listening Pleasure

Joel Plaskett has won more East Coast Music Awards than I can list in a single article – last year alone saw him win six out of seven nominations – but success hasn’t stop the critically-acclaimed Nova Scotia musician from creating his most ambitious album yet: Three.

The triple album began as Plaskett noticed a few of his songs were repeating the same word – the original three being “Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’,” “Rewind, Rewind, Rewind” and “Gone, Gone, Gone” – and from there, Plaskett’s greatest task unfolded.

“I thought ‘oh maybe I’ll make a record with that as a theme on it.’ Then I thought there might have been a couple records there, maybe make an acoustic record, a rock-n-roll record and then I said ‘maybe a triple record,’” he said with a laugh. “Once I had that in my mind I just sort of set out to do that. I set up a recording studio in Dartmouth where I live and rented a little space and got carried away; I wrote a bunch of songs and enjoyed trying to put it all together.”

When recording the album, Plaskett admitted he had “six sides” of music in mind. Plaskett is a fan of the vinyl format and even owns a wind-up gramophone at home.

“It doesn’t even require power,” he said. “If the power grid were to shut down tomorrow and hard drives and CD players stopped working, we could probably fashion something that spins at 33 1/3, wind it up, put a needle on it and listen to it.”

Perhaps it is a coincidence but Plaskett was 33-1/3 years old when he started recording Three. Plaskett is proud to see his album selling well on vinyl too.

“You know, it’s funny people are buying vinyl again. I still love it as a format, the artwork alone is what makes it great,” he said. “It’s a static image to you, it’s not like a computer screen where you can flutter about MySpace and read about someone while you’re listening to them through the computer speakers on an mp3. Vinyl requires a certain dedication to make sure you flip sides and pay attention and you’re left to hear what the artist provides you.”

The album features guest appearances from Rose Cousins, Ana Egge and even Plaskett’s father Bill, with all of them on board for the first part of the tour as well. Being able to record with his father was something Plaskett felt was a great experience.

“He was a real sounding board for the ideas, he played on a bunch of stuff and is playing on tour. We’re touring it kind of acoustically right now, it’s really fun,” the younger Plaskett said. “He has a real traditional music background which I love as well and playing with him was a great way to heighten that element of the guitar-playing, the country sound and the British folk influences that he and I share – he grew up in England – and that was stuff that he helped rearrange.”

Three also contains a beginning, middle and end theme as the album finishes with the song “On & On & On,” featuring the return of his band The Emergency. As The Joel Plaskett Emergency, the band recorded, ahem, three albums as well as a DVD/EP. Their 2006 song “Nowhere With You” was featured in a Zellers commercial but Plaskett tunes appearing in odd places isn’t something new. With his old band Thrush Hermit, the Plaskett-penned song “Hated It” appeared in the Kevin Smith film Mallrats back in 1995.

“It was just this roundabout way,” Plaskett said with a laugh about how his song made it onto the soundtrack. “I remember going to see the movie and being told what scene it was in but I don’t know if I could ever totally hear it in the movie. That soundtrack really reached a lot of people in the United States, it’s pretty wild.”

Currently on tour, Plaskett rolls into Toronto on May 23 for a date at Massey Hall. Although he played six consecutive shows at the Horseshoe Tavern in December 2007, Plaskett could only look forward to his appearance at Massey as being epic.

“This will be different, it will be the biggest show the band has ever played in Toronto. I’m nervous about it, excited and we’re really gearing up to it. The tour has been great and I think it’s going to be a real epic evening at least in my mind. I can’t believe we’re playing it but we are,” he said. “I’m excited about getting to Toronto and playing Massey, it’s going to be uncharted territory.”

- Jon Brazeau

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An Interview with The Joys

Two-time Toronto Indie Music Award winners The Joys are clearly loved by the people in the indie scene here in Toronto.

The four piece band of talented musicians consist of Sarah Smith on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mike Mckyes on lead guitar, Ken Ross on bass, and Glen Gamble on drums.

For The Joys, performing at an award show was no different from playing a regular full-length set anywhere else. When asked what the difference from playing one of the concerts and playing at the award show their answer was simply, “Shorter. We put on the same show no matter what.”

The band members have a variety of influences including some popular classic rock that they try to display through their music. The music they write also holds influences from their own lives, and major events that happen to them and their families.

“We're a female-fronted rock act,” they explain, “A mix between Janice Joplin, Black Crows, Zeppelin, Van Halen and Melissa Etheridge.”

The Joys are definitely the kind of band that reaches out to help other artists and get to know them. They like the fact that in the Toronto indie music scene, artists try to help others, and are willing to extend a hand. They believe that this is the strength in the Toronto indie scene.

“It's very strong and it's nice to see bands are not looking at everything as a competition,” they said. “It's about working together and helping each other out. We invite bands to come do shows with us constantly.”

The Joys have a lot to look forward to with their new album and touring. One of their shows will be at the popular summer hangout destination Grand Bend.

“We're just going to keep doing what we're doing,” they said. “Touring, writing, recording and most of all, making fans!  Our new CD came out July 8th via KOCH Records so we're pretty focused on the release right now.”

Every year we see and hear more music from Torontonians being played in more places. The Joys agree that the Toronto Music scene has a hand in putting Canadian music on the international market.

“We don't look at it as the indie music scene,” they explained. “It's just the music scene period.  I think the meaning of ‘indie’ has changed and there are more artists doing it on their own with smaller dedicated teams helping them get their music out to the international market.”

With potential success in their future The Joys do know what it is like to be the band on the road, and like any other artist they know that it takes a lot of time, dedication and hard work. So what is their advice for the struggling artist?

“Fast food is bad for you, but it's so good.”

You can find out more about The Joys on their official website www.thejoys.ca

- Ana Cristina da Silva

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The Juan MacLean: Back to the Future

John MacLean isn’t afraid to admit when he’s lying to us.

“I’ve always been much more interested in making music that sounded futuristic or otherworldly than a typical guitar-bass-drums ensemble is going to sound,” he says. “In some ways, I think it’s an illusion; the things that make music sound sort of “futuristic,” if you will, are the things that people have been doing since the ’60s, they’re basically the same tricks. It comes down to taking all those things and then somehow doing something a little bit different with them so you’re not purely sounding retro.”

However, his latest album sounds fun, fresh and nowhere near outdated. Never shying away from reinventing himself and his sound to best convey his musical message, The Future Will Come marks a dramatic shift from New York-based MacLean’s first album, Less Than Human, released in 2005. The new record stands its own alongside today’s electro-pop powerhouses, mixing duet style vocals with synthesized accompaniment.

“The process was going back and having the music support the vocals whereas in the past it was the opposite,” MacLean explains. “They were sort of instrumental tracks with vocals put on top of them [before] and now it’s the opposite: they’re vocal tracks with instrumentation on top to support it.”

This venture into a more pop-oriented sound is the result of many changes that have occurred over the past four years of The Juan MacLean’s development. What started initially as a solo project has evolved into a multi-musician experience, incorporating far more than a couple of laptops.

“I work so much with other people and I have a live band that originally was just really like having a cover band that played songs from my album,” MacLean says. “That quickly evolved into a real band, if you will and I think that’s the biggest thing that has made this album sound different from my last album: having all of these other people from my live band play on the album. It’s definitely a lot more live sounding and it makes it a bit more engaging, I think.”

The Future Will Come also prominently features the vocal talents of Nancy Whang from LCD Soundsystem.

“Nancy had sung on a lot of things of mine in the past, and on my first album quite a bit,” MacLean says. “For this album, I just didn’t want her to play a role as a guest vocalist, I wanted her to be a full-time presence.”

This presence not only changed The Juan MacLean with the more obvious addition of female vocals but her inclusion in the songwriting process dramatically altered the tone of the record as a whole.

“Left to my own devices, I think the music would be much darker, and I think Nancy brings a lighter tone or contrast to things that I would bring to the table that would be a lot darker and brooding. I think that interplay between those two things makes for a much more interesting album,” he says. “For this album, Nancy and I talked a lot about writing really honestly about personal relationships in our lives and that we were going to tell this story of a relationship between two people that drew from our personal experiences of living this kind of lifestyle, playing and recording in bands and being a musician and how that’s played itself out over the past five or six years.”

Set against this backdrop of the rock star life of touring and being away from home, the lyrical essence of the album exudes a hopeful heartbreak.

“I actually find [songwriting] a bit painful,” MacLean reveals. “I don’t find it therapeutic in the sense that I feel like it’s done once it’s out there. In fact, it’s the opposite; [each song] always feels like a painful reminder every night we’re playing a show or hearing the song or something.”

It’s not all bad, however.

“I think in general, playing music is a therapeutic process for all of us and a big part of why we do what we do; we just all love playing so much.”

This love for music is apparent throughout both The Juan MacLean’s album and live performance.

“A lot of bands go on tour for the first time and break up because it’s such a stressful existence, it can really wear you out if you’re not careful,” MacLean says. “We’ve all known each other for at least 10 years or so, it’s just not really much of a problem. It’s sort of like going on tour with your best friends. I think the live show for that reason is really exciting and how much we love doing it comes through pretty well when you actually see the show.”

On that note, The Juan MacLean roll through Canada on June 9th in Vancouver (Richards On Richards), June 18th in Toronto (Tattoo Rock Parlour) and June 19th in Montreal (Les Saints).

- Heather Adamo

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Julie Dorion: Far From the Heartsick in New Brunswick

Everything has fallen into place for Julie Doiron. The Sackville, New Brunswick-based singer/songwriter found the balance in being a touring musician and being a good mom to her three children, she’s found love again after divorce, she has a renewed outlook on life, and her new album will be out soon.

Set for release on March 24 on Endearing Records in Canada and Jagjagwar in the U.S., Doiron’s I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day features a very confident collection of 12 indie rock tracks that reflect exactly where Doiron, 36, is in her life.

She said that this album is very positive and revolves around being happy for being alive and being grateful for the people around.

“I survived the things that you don’t imagine happening to you when you’re young and you’re planning out your life and you think it’s going to be great and you sort of survive that and you realize that it didn’t go the way you expected it to go or the way you felt it should have gone and you realize that you still have so many years left to make it work and make it the way you imagine it,” she said.

The album was recorded outside of Toronto at the home studio of Rick White, her Eric’s Trip bandmate/ex-boyfriend. Doiron handled both the electric and acoustic guitar parts and Fred Squire, her boyfriend and Calm Down It’s Monday bandmate, took care of drums and some guitar. Jon Claytor, Doiron’s artist ex-husband, is responsible for the cover artwork.

Although from an outside perspective this may seem like an awkward set-up, she says that it is not.

“I guess it’s because I really care about all of these people so I like to work with them still,” she said.

According to Doiron, White and Squire get along very well. While she usually does not say who her songs are about, she admits that if any of her new songs are about anyone in particular, they are most likely about Squire. In fact, two of the songs are written by Squire himself. None of the tracks are about White, as their relationship ended in the mid-’90s not too soon before the band they started in 1990, Eric’s Trip, broke up. However, White did direct her music video for her new song “Heavy Snow.”

After the demise of Eric’s Trip, Doiron released several albums that had a much quieter sound in order to separate her solo work from the rocking lo-fi band of her youth. After releasing many albums showing her softer side, one of which won her a Juno in 2000 for her collaboration with indie rock band Wooden Stars on Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars, she set out to release an all-out rock album that came to be 2007’s Polaris Music Prize nominated Woke Myself Up. Despite her intentions, Doiron confessed that there were still some songs that needed to be treated quietly and “it turned out kind of half-assed.”

She took that experience as a lesson for this go around, letting all of her songs fall into place organically; reflecting her live performances and heavily relying on instinct while recording. The most pop-driven song on the record, “Consolation Prize,” even features an off the cuff tool box chucking for effect instead of the intended guitar solo.

“I wanted this album just to be fun and happy. There are a few sad songs on there, but I think that’s okay. That’s part of life. We have ups and downs. I think it would be really strange for me to put out an album that was really, really happy from start to finish,” she said.

Since finishing I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day, Doiron has been focusing on improving her drumming and trumpeting skills, trying to make her dream of owning a house a reality, and putting together a collaborative album with Flemish Eye’s Chad VanGaalen.

When she is not touring, Doiron splits her time between being in Montreal with her kids and being inspired in Sackville.

“[Sackville] is a town and there are people and there are houses everywhere but if you just walk for ten minutes in pretty much any direction… it’s pretty open spaces and big skies so you have a lot of room to just sit down and think or ride your bike on the trail and not be distracted by things. I tend to get more influenced by the things around me that aren’t music related so New Brunswick is a really good place for me,” she said.

“I want to keep growing. I just want to get a little bit better every day.”

- Melissa Kim

I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day is available via mail order on March 10
and check out Julie Doiron performing live at the Horseshoe Tavern on March 26.

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Khan of the Hill

After thrilling the huddled, sweaty crowd at Toronto’s Sonic Boom Record Store and freaking out people walking by on Bloor Street West, King Khan was just delighted if people would smile.

Khan along with his band the Shrines, recently hauled their touring act through Toronto but on top of rocking out, Khan said he’s happy when his music really touches people.

“The greatest compliment that I’ve ever got as a musician has always been ‘Man you know what, after your show for one month, I was smiling,’” Khan said. “Not one day but one month. We’re like legalized crack.”

Khan and his crew combine grooving rhythm and blues with a positive gospel message and of course, Khan’s over-the-top James Brown-like stage presence, as he’s known for putting on masks and swaggering around the stage.

“The only reason we call it gospel music is because we don’t think about what we’re doing when we do it. We just know the people will follow,” Khan said. “We have followers because all we know is true love, justice and pure goodness.”

The band is currently on tour in support of their album, The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines. They played a flurry of shows in Toronto, appearing on July 23rd and July 24th at the Horseshoe Tavern and on the 25th at Rancho Relaxo. But on the 24th they pulled off a double-duty set with a free show at Sonic Boom just prior to their second Horseshoe Tavern appearance. As for why they gave the free show, Khan said it’s all about making sure as many people know about his music as possible.

“Any band that tours right now and pays a lot for gas, it’s not about the money, it’s about the message,” Khan said. “Now, we sell that to as many people as we can. We try to spread the gospel to everyone and that’s what it is.”

Indeed, Khan’s sentiments are expressed in his band’s song “Welfare Breed,” a personal song for Khan who once was lived on welfare for years. During performances, he encourages audience members to wave dollar bills, although in Canada, a loonie and spare change will have to do.

The Montreal-born Khan left his hometown in  1995 and toured the world, eventually landing in Germany in 1999 where he founded the Shrines. The band’s first concert in London was met with controversy as it was suspended by police and the band had to duck out the back door. While their show at Sonic Boom wasn’t as chaotic as that, the basement was packed with bouncing bodies and more fans lined the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of the show.

Throughout the set, Khan and members of the band hopped into the crowd, instruments still in hand, and even checked out some of the vinyl shelves of the store.

As the band marches on to tackle other towns, Khan will continue to march to the beat of his own drum.

“Labels can never control us and we just sell our merchandise,” Khan said. “Our merchandise is our soul.”

- Jon Brazeau