I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (or USS) consists of one part vocalist/guitarist Ash Bucholz (“Ash Boo-Schultz”) and turntablist/hypeman Jason Parsons (“Human Kebab”). Don’t ask us where these names came from, just know that it IS an indication of how crazy and out there these two guys are! Having garnered acclaim through being “hearted” by Toronto radio station 102.1 the Edge, this duo have taken Toronto and Canada by storm. With the recent release of their album Questamation gaining more and more attention from music lovers alike, we felt like it was time to for us at iheartthemusic to delve deep into the minds of the duo and get serious about who they are…well as serious as we could get!

iheartthemusic: The past two years have been pretty nuts for you two eh?

Jason: Yeah, going from being left to obscurity, to how do you catch up, to how do you get bigger now.

iheartthemusic: That’s true. I mean you did win the CASBY awards last year!

Jason: Yeah it was amazing.

iheartthemusic: Can you pinpoint at all one defining moment for you in the past two years?

Ash: I was actually in Texas and that’s when I found out that our music was on the radio, but not even just on the radio but getting played like seven times a day!

Jason: Also the fact that he [Ash] was in a different place mentally doing some incredible things for himself and I was working in Alberta at the time; that in itself was a pinnacle! It is actually true that the little band that could, without major label support or any label for that matter, could actually still find its way into that realm. Most bands would think that you would have to sign with the four majors and spend all this money and stuff, but we just stayed positive.

Ash: We are in total alignment with the idea that if you truly love something, you let it go. You can push so hard and you can try so hard to make something work and at the time we both were just like “let’s just let this go man”. We were driving ourselves nuts.

iheartthemusic: I truly believe that if you are meant to do something or be somebody then you will and I feel like you guys are a true testament to that.

Jason: It’s like Ben Kowalewicz from Billy Talent has a tattoo on his collar that says never give up and when I saw that I was thinking that I didn’t know if I’d ever get that tattoo but he was basically saying  that no matter what happens, it’s going to happen- which is totally true.

Ash: I mean if we weren’t here having a good time and laughing and telling jokes, we’d be on a roof somewhere digging ditches and dirt.

iheartthemusic: But probably still having a good time and joking around!

Ash: That’s what just kicks our asses!  You know you can dream about something your whole life, but you have no clue what its going to be like until it actually happens. Its hilarious because I still wake up in the morning and my instinct is to put on my work boots but its actually like no, I get to put on these colourful shoes that don’t need to have a big hunk of steel in them because hopefully nothing is going to fall on my toes today!

iheartthemusic: And now you have the cash that if you ruin one pair you can get five more! [laughs]

Jason: [laughs] Exactly!

iheartthemusic: You have had such great success which, I’m assuming, meant that major labels were knocking on your door, so what made you decide to not go the major route?

Jason: We started  our own label basically. We realized that we had a good grip on a business model, but we also had a good manager and an excellent team behind us that we felt that we had found the pieces to start putting the puzzle together. Right now the puzzle is almost complete; we’ve taken it as far as we can take it now based on what we have currently. We financed the whole operation, made all the management and creative calls.

iheartthemusic: It must be nice to retain that control over what is ultimately your future success.

Jason: That’s the compromise you have to make. If that [signing to a major label] is your goal then that’s what is going to happen for you. Like Avril Lavigne signs with SONY in New York, but her only interest at seventeen years old was probably to be taken care of for the rest of her life and be an absolute superstar.

iheartthemusic: And where is she now? [laughs]

Ash: Actually I was listening to Avril Lavigne this morning in my kitchen on top of my fridge next to a sweet potato…I really should not have that sweet potato anymore. I’ve had it for a really long time and it’s got to go in the green bin. I have this habit where instead of putting stuff in the green bin, I just throw it out the window into my backyard. Like if I have a pit of an avocado, I’ll just think that that can just go in the bushes.

iheartthemusic: I feel like that is totally fine!

Ash: I don’t want to hit a squirrel!

Jason: I still have a problem that I can never number two outside. Even if I had to, I would just hold it until the next fifth wheel or something.

iheartthemusic: Far too much information for this interview! [laughs] So how has the process been from self-releasing your first album Welding the C://, to now having a label (your own) backing your recent release of Questamation?

Jason: Creatively, the process seems to work in Ash’s favour no matter how random it gets or how focused it is. The business side of it, which I’m more involved with and our manager, we just try to plug in as many resources and networks as possible for the three of us to make it all happen in sync. It is really hard to maintain deadlines when there is only three of you, but you are still trying to maintain that level of control and of course creativity while at the same time create future opportunities, play shows, do interviews, be places, try to live a normal life and be healthy. I mean it’s a balancing act!

iheartthemusic: And a lot of musicians definitely cannot do that.

Jason: No they can’t and its unfortunate that it happens, but we’ve been through enough emotionally already that this is kind of easy compared to that.

Ash: Yeah, when we were recording our EP, I was roofing for fifteen hours a day, six days a week and then bringing my laptop to work and I was on a roof covered in tar and dirt and it was like ninety degrees and I would have my headphones on thinking I’ve just got to finish this drum part because we have to get it done by tonight. So the process was a bit different because we were still under pressure with this album in terms of getting it out, but in totally different circumstances. It’s just one of those things where its like; life on the road is such a grind, but roofing seventy hours a week while trying to record an EP is a grind. So it makes us very greatful if anything.

iheartthemusic: I wanted to ask you about your “Laces Out” video. How did you guys come up with the concept for that?

Ash: I had been talking about the idea of this neo-vaudeville, so it kind of came out of that. There’s the circus thing, but then there is just randomness: question marks on parachutes falling from the ceiling, etc. Then we kind of put it into the hands of the production company after planting the seed and we showed up day-of and were just like “nice growth”.

iheartthemusic: So the dude in the video isn’t actually a guy that comes to all your shows?

Jason: Yeah we know him. The film company is called Brook Street Pictures and they are from Ottawa and they are incredible dudes. They did their first feature with the guy who played Freddy Krueger.

Ash: Because they mainly make horror movies.

Jason: But they were absolutely inlove with our sound and then came out for a bunch of shows and the director saw something that Ash was talking about and then through the phone between Toronto and Ottawa put together the storyboard and then we went to the Sound Academy and the production company hired like sixty people and it was a full-on production.

iheartthemusic: One thing that I found pretty cool with this new album was that you guys use something called a “z-card”. Can you explain why you decided to use it for your album?

Ash: The ironic thing about that is that I worked in a factory on a machine that made the z-card. I worked there when we [Jason] met during a time when I was not really that accessible or available to society. It’s okay though because Jay kind of helped guide me back to relating to the rest of the world which was really great. It was handy to meet a person to do that.

ihearthemusic: He’s a good husband eh? [laughs]

Jason: [laughs] Exactly!

Ash: Father, son, brother…

Jason: Idiot.

Ash: Yeah, whatever you want. Putz! That’s a good one.

Jason: I hate that word!

Ash: I know eh, who likes that word!? So when the album came along I was like “we should make something that is like a map” and then it kind of came back to where it started.

iheartthemusic: What’s on the horizon for you guys?

Jason: Hopefully we will see Canadians at their various post-secondary institutes in the fall!

Ask any Canadian pop/rock/punk band what music festival they look forward to the most in the summer and they will likely say Cutting Edge . Now in it’s fourth year, Cutting Edge Music Festival (CEMF) has been notorious for it’s all-star lineup of bands, great campsites (alcohol allowed!) and fun activities to do in between sets. The weekend-long festival, which is taking over Bingeman’s Fun Park in Kitchener/Waterloo for the August long weekend this year, is quickly becoming the hot ticket for the summer for any concert goer. iheartthemusic decided to get to the root of why this festival is so popular. How did we do that you ask? Well we decided to grab some drinks with two of the festival founders: Jesse Brown and Carey Kurtin and ask these guys exactly what makes Cutting Edge Music Festival so “cutting edge”…

iheartthemusic: I wanted to start by asking how you came up with the concept that is Cutting Edge Music festival?

Jesse: There is a third person who we also work with named Ryan Kruger. Ryan and myself have been doing Destiny Events, which are electronic music based events for the past several years. We used to put on the World Electronic Music Festival and a couple of years ago we thought that we would try and take it to the next level and break into the rock market. That was the year that the “Cutting Edge” stage appeared at WEMF back in 2006. We had Broken Social Scene and Tokyo Police Club before they were known. So it went kind of well and we decided that maybe it would be better if the following year we made a rock-only festival and still do our other music on the side. Long story short we’ve since dropped WEMF with last year being its final year, and now Cutting Edge is what remains and is what has leapt off. We wanted to do a kind of festival that involved camping and getting away from the city and so we tried to look at what we could do to make our festival more unique and more fun. We wanted it to be more of a summertime memory that people would look back on and I hope that this will be one of the top memories of the summer for people.

Carey: Cutting Edge, I think, stands to definitely take that light. This year a huge piece of Cutting Edge is that we have incorporated the electronic side and given people the opportunity to basically party until four in the morning. So when the main stage is done, we offer an indoor stage that stays open until 4am. It really gives you that extra edge.

iheartthemusic: So literally you are partying for 48 hours!

Carey: Yeah! It gives you the opportunity to do something that no other festival in Ontario offers.

iheartthemusic: With so many festivals going on in Ontario over the course of the summer, what is the one thing that makes Cutting Edge stand out?

Jesse: Ultimately I would like to say it’s the vibe and the participation we get from everyone involved; bands don’t just come and play their set and get of there. With Cutting Edge we encourage all the bands that play for the weekend to stay and camp and do crowd participation things. For instance, last year we had anything from rock and roll jeopardy to a VIP bbq lunch that had Axl Rose flipping your burger to illScarlett doing the 420 olympics and participating with the crowd. Any little extra thing we can do to make this festival stand out we try and do and this year with our new venue we are also introducing a full water park, go-karting track and paintball. You can go for the weekend and check out lots of bands, check out the dance stage and go go-karting all in one.

iheartthemusic: Calling yourselves “cutting edge” music, what is the criteria that you follow when you are choosing bands to play?

Carey: We have had different methods that we have used. Obviously with the headliners you go for it would be someone unique every year, but they also have a similar vibe and even hit the same market or groups of people. We appreciate great music and try to keep a very diverse lineup throughout the years. I mean we have Andrew W.K. this year who is playing his first live performance in five years! I think that’s great! We are really trying to change what’s going on from standard festivals. Obviously it takes some time to grow, but I find it very unique what we are doing.

Jesse: The beauty of doing a festival too versus a one-off live show is that a festival gives you the chance to have lots of bands. This past year we did our search for the next cutting edge artist and we had various bands compete from all over Ontario for a chance to win an opening spot at this year’s festival. This year’s winner is this band called DAME, most of them are about sixteen or seventeen and they push themselves really hard. Again it was just another way for us to discover other bands and  we are looking for bands that want to participate in the festival more than just play and promote themselves. We are looking to grow together and do something as a music community.

Carey: That search is actually how we discovered Gentlemen Husbands as well. They were the first band to play at the battle of the bands and it was a little painful for them, but we were all floored by them and that’s how you discover great bands.

iheartthemusic: So are you looking for more local acts for your festival then?

Carey: A certain amount of Canadian talent I think is very important, especially for doing a festival up here, but if you are trying to push the envelope and are calling yourself “cutting edge” you can’t just stick to one market. We try and get world acts because that is what cutting edge music is all about.

Jesse: We are bringing in international talent from England this year too on the dance side with Lady Sovereign and so we have expanded. We have never marketed ourselves as an all Canadian lineup. We will always have the Canadian element, but we hope to expand and just showcase music from all over; whatever we think is good and what we think people will enjoy.

iheartthemusic: Over the past few years I am sure you boys have seen your fair share of shit happen, so what is a memory that stands out for you?

Carey: The first year takes the cake for sure! We did barricades and everything like that which was fine for most of the day and then Alexisonfire comes on to play and kids went crazy. Our barricades were destroyed by the end of it! Every single person working there that day was in the pit with our security catching people crowd surfing and trying to hold the barricades up at the same time. It was one of the most exciting moments.

Jesse: It was a transition from going from the world of dance music to the world of rock music. With dance music you can just have the regular barriers, but with rock music you have to have the riot control ones. The other problem was that our festival being on the same weekend as Caribanna, everything is gone all over the city and so we were cut short. This year we knew to place the order well in advance so we are covered!

Carey: Last year the fire was pretty cool too!

Jesse: Yeah the campers had a huge bonfire.

Carey: It just showed kids really getting into it and having a real party weekend.

iheartthemusic: You switched up locations this year, why?

Jesse: It was mostly because we were having liquor licence issues with the other venue, so we were told it was going to be too difficult to pull it off there. Our options to have it there would have basically been to remove some of the elements that make CEMF special like the BYOB campsite.

iheartthemusic: Most memorable performance in the three years so far?

Jesse: I don’t think I have one. It all just gets mishmashed together because we are always working.

Carey: Down With Webster was really good last year.

Jesse: We could ultimately keep naming off bands.

Carey: Actually I would say Mix Master Mike was my most memorable moment because we really gave the crowd something they had never seen before. You see the look on all these people faces; it floored them, I mean they were there for Alexisonfire and he came out with a good mash up of hip hop and rock and all that stuff together and people were loving it and crowd surfing!

Jesse: It is fun to kind of catch people off guard where they have expectations and that’s another kind of crossover from the dance world to the rock world where they are always used to a full band setup. This was just a single DJ up there and people were getting into it as if it was the whole Beastie Boys playing.

iheartthemusic: Hopes for the future?

Jesse: We would like to continue to grow and be a festival that is unique; expanding our campgrounds and offering more area, more stages and more styles of music. Of course there is a building factor because you can’t just go from A to E, so we are going through the steps and getting there. It’s fun because every year we learn from the past and what works best and what is different.