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

Everyone loves a CD release party: great music, great vibe and the chance to experience a young band before they are whisked off on tour or, worse off, stolen by our neighbours to the south. iheartthemusic ventured out to the Rivoli on April 10^th to catch The Paint Movement play during their CD release show. The Paint Movement consists of first and foremost four friends: Jason Haberman (vocals/bass), Jason Loftman (sax/keys), Kevin Kralik (vocals/guitar) and Glenn Candy (drums). If you do get a chance to catch them live, you will often see more than four people rocking out on stage as members of various bands tend to pop up during their sets, and this show was no exception. They have JUST dropped their 10 song LP, Our Eurythmy, on Nevado Records and are about to embark on a cross-country tour. Our Eurythmy is a blend of soulful melodies and jazz-like accompaniments that will surely leave you wanting more. Here is what Kevin Kralik, Glenn Candy, and stage mate and backing vocalist Dee Planche had to say about this exciting time in their lives.

iheartthemusic: You guys are first and foremost friends, so how did you decide to start a band together?

Glenn: We all met in high school and we basically were all players who were looking for people to play with. I met Jason [Loftman] in the music halls of school where I was taking the grade 10 guitar course and he would come by, pick up the guitar and we would jam out. We then started partying and playing and it all made sense.

Kevin: We were in a couple of bands after that that we took members from, but it just evolved over three or four bands. What we have now, between the four of us, just feels like it’s a stronger base.

Glenn: It’s a solid foundation. We feel pretty settled right now and along with all the other guest musicians it’s great. Tonight we have our friend Chucky on guitar and Dee singing with us and our other buddy Jeremy Panda who plays trumpet and played on the record as well. It’s just awesome.

iheartthemusic: Your live performances often involve many other musicians up on stage with you, why did you decide to do that?

Glenn: We are huge fans of the big band scene. Once we started recording we found that we needed certain things, like a female vocal chord, and so we brought Dee on board and then she just started playing live because of that.

Kevin: The theme of the album is unity and coming together, so what better way to exemplify that than bring our friends [onstage] to come jam with us.

iheartthemusic: So Dee, why did you want to come on board and help them out?

Dee: I love their song writing. I am a big fan of great tunes and also comfort level was big for me. These guys are so laid back and all around fun. That’s why we do music, it’s just good times.

iheartthemusic: Very true! Can you guys sum up the recording process, because you recorded it in Kevin’s basement, I believe?

Glenn: It was different. We started getting the shakes because we felt like we should have been playing a show!

Kevin: We took a lot of time off. I think it was three months without playing a single show and that transition was really weird for us when you are so used to playing once or twice every week.

Glenn: Plus, you still want to get your name out, so you don’t want to just disappear for a few months.

Kevin: The whole recording process was a great experience musically because we came together and really found ourselves and developed our sound. Now playing shows, we almost want to reciprocate that live.

iheartthemusic: Did it help with Kevin having a recording background?

Glenn: We say it was self-produced, but really it was this guy right here [points to Kevin]! If we didn’t have his skills, it would never have sounded the way it does.

iheartthemusic: You also recently signed to indie label Nevado Records. How did that come about?

Glenn: That came about when we were playing a show at the Horseshoe with a bunch of great bands and Nick, the record exec, happened to catch the whole set. We were in the process of hiring some PR who evidently worked for him anyways. It all kind of made sense and we sat down and talked to him for a bit.

Kevin: It was really good timing because we need that right now with getting our name out and advertising and promoting. It’s been a really great time so far.

iheartthemusic: In terms of press there seems to be a lot of Broken Social Scene references, do you feel pressure to live up to that?

Kevin: It hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m still trying to keep it low key.

Glenn: People can refer our sound to whoever they want. I mean, if they think we sound like them then that’s great! I find that our sound is pretty unique and people are trying to pinpoint it, but aren’t really able to do that, so they just throw a bunch of different names out there. They see a lot of people on stage and make the BSS reference.

iheartthemusic: With your genre of music, do you find it hard to promote it?

Glenn: I don’t really know because I don’t know what it would be like promoting a pop act. I find it interesting music, so if people get that and find a market for that, awesome. I think it’s cool that the indie scene right now is starting to be marketable and it’s opening up in Toronto so much.

iheartthemusic: What would you like people to get from your music?

Kevin: Just the honesty in the music, really.

Glenn: If anybody is like me, I am always looking for Canadian music and generally interested in that. If we get people to do that more, then that’s awesome. Canada is great for music and there is so much to offer right now.

iheartthemusic: Well, you are playing what you love which is important. So for you Dee, what has it been like being a female within the industry?

Dee: I guess there is always that stigma when you initially walk into a room, but ultimately the music speaks for itself. So when you start playing and start singing everyone sort of gets it after that. Everyone judges a book by its cover at first, and that’s just the way we are as humans. So you always have to step it up, but that’s cool and I like to do that and surprise people.

iheartthemusic: So the album is dropping and then you are going on tour. Is this your first cross-country tour?

Kevin: I’ve never been outside of Ontario.

Glenn: I went to Montreal once in grade six and I went to Texas for my cousin’s wedding, but other than that I’ve been to my cottage and that’s it.

iheartthemusic: What are you looking forward to the most?

Glenn: Seeing the country and playing random shows in random areas.

Kevin: Hopefully we make it back loving each other still.

Glenn: Chucky might be coming for the full two and half weeks, but his plan was to fly out and meet us half way for a week along with Jeremy. Eventually we are all going to kind of meet all together, sans Dee.

Kevin: It will be really exciting to see that side of the country.

iheartthemusic: What’s going on after the tour?

Kevin: We have been working on some new material, which we will be playing today, just to switch it up.

Glenn: We are writing new songs and when we get back we will probably focus on writing more.

The album is out now and you can pick it up at any record store, on iTunes or on the band’s MySpace!

Photography provided by April Day

Canadian Music Week comes but once a year so we thought, what the heck, why not get it started a day early. And so, on March 10th iheartthemusic ventured to the Horseshoe Tavern. For us), the band of the evening had to have been Bend Sinister. Comprised of Dan Moxon (vocals/guitar/keys), Joseph Blood (guitar), Henry Alcock White (guitar/vocals), Jason Dana (drums/percussion) and Joel Meyers (bass), their sound is jazzified rock that sounds SO sweet live. We got the chance to sit down and speak with all five of them about life on the road, their upcoming tour, and the story behind their album. 

iheartthemusic: Let’s start with probably the most asked question; where did the name of the band come from?

Dan: It kind of originated right when we were still in high school or rather the summer after graduating when we started jamming in my parent’s basement. We were arguing for weeks about what the band was going to be called. My name was the worst by far it was called Halo for Spaceboy. I was in high school and I thought that was so cool at the time. One of the guys in the band said “well why not Bend Sinister?“ and because he was reading the book at the time he held it up and we all agreed on it. Then we saw the cover of the book, which was this cool image of a person screaming and wincing and it just seemed like this perfect image, so we used that for our first little EP that we did. It was a total rip-off!

iheartthemusic: So you guys met in high school?

Dan: When the band originally formed it was myself and a few friends from high school. Now we’ve gotten a bit of a different line up, but it initially started with that fusion of just being band nerds and really close friends that would jam together and stuff. When it started, we made the sound go in the direction it went, and as time progressed, I’ve slowly kicked each person out and replaced them with the most perfect player for the job [laughs]. The real reason they left was because they realized that their ambitions were otherwise. Usually what it amounts to is people can’t handle touring. Nobody realizes how hard it is to really go out and be away for a couple of months and come back and still pay your rent, barely scraping by to get gas money sometimes. 

iheartthemusic: You guys just did a cross Canada drive to get to Montreal, do you have any stories from the trip?

Joel: There was this one crazy thing in that I wasn’t there [laughs]. I went to visit my mother.

Henry: Whenever I tell people that we drove straight from Banff to a couple hours past Thunderbay, without stopping, people can’t believe it.

iheartthemusic: Any fights along the way?

Dan: I think everybody was pretty much sleeping.

iheartthemusic: So you guys made the drive because you are currently on tour with Mobile and Inward Eye. Can you tell us a little bit about this tour?

Joel: We started our first date in Montreal and, because it’s Canadian Music Week, we’ve picked up a couple of our own shows in Toronto so we won’t be playing with them here. We are then going to meet up with them again in Sudbury and then solid all the way across Canada. The first show was really good, we played at Club Soda in Montreal and it was really exciting to meet the other bands. They are all really nice and we are looking forward to getting pretty drunk with them for the next couple of weeks.

iheartthemusic: You guys also just released a new album in October which is exciting!

Dan: We did our first full length in 2005 and this is the first major release and it came out on October 23^rd of 2008 and that’s what we are touring through this time.

iheartthemusic: The album has an interesting title “Stories of Brothers, Tales of Lovers”, is this a metaphor for what the band represents?

Joel: It is kind of a pseudo concept record. A portion of the songs are about one part of the title and another portion is about the other half.

Dan: The idea was that it was suppose to be a double LP release. One side being stories of brothers and one side being tales of lovers and it works as an album because we tie in a lot of themes and even start it with the same core progression that the album ends on. The second half is directly about these two characters that are lovers and the first half are songs that we wrote after that about specific characters or just nothing to do with the set of lovers, but more about the idea of brothers as a representation of humankind.

iheartthemusic: Well the brothers half is definitely my favourite part of the album.

Dan: Well we will be playing that tonight. On this tour we actually play the brother side almost completely through. We like to perform as much of the album as we can in its order because it has an order for a reason.

iheartthemusic: Tell us about your new video that was released today I believe.

Dan: It was released on MySpace today and was a feature video for the week and has been getting medium rotation on Much Music. I don’t know whether they have to wait until its finished being a MySpace exclusive to actually put it into motion though.

iheartthemusic: How did you come up with the concept for that video? The setting corresponds to your album cover as well, so was that done on purpose?

Joel: Yah that is where it was shot, in the same location.

Dan: The main reason for that [setting] was that with our album cover we were kind of playing on the literary thing much like the name Bend Sinister and so we wanted to do an album with the classic band shot. That’s why we chose the library as it fit with the theme of the album and it made sense to do the video the same way. We wanted to make all of the content have a theme or continuity to it, we are not actually business majors so we aren’t really down with the marketing front, but it seemed to fit for us this time.

iheartthemusic: What’s going on for you guys in the future?

Joseph: I think we could probably do some writing, get some new songs. I know Dan’s got some ideas. Get some fresh stuff out there.

Dan: I thought you would say something more exciting like take over the world. We’ll definitely start working on a new album after this tour.

photography provided by Kristin McCormack

New Music Night at The Horseshoe is always guaranteed to be a good time, no matter who is playing. This past Tuesday (March 10^th) was no exception. iheartthemusic ventured in the rain to check out the all-star lineup set to play and open up Canadian Music Week. The night began with Vancouver’s own Bend Sinister. Having not played in Toronto for more than two years, these guys proved to be a great kickstart to Canadian Music Week. They captivated the crowd with their jazz-inspired rhythm and lead singer Dan’s voice was hard to miss. They began their set with “The News,” the first song off their album Stories of Brothers, Tales of Lovers. Having listened to this album many times, I felt as though I was somewhat of an expert on their music, and I have to say, their live performance is better than anything I’ve listened to on my iPod. So many bands just don’t cut it live, but the boys from Bend Sinister show that real talent is still alive and kicking! Lead guitarist Joseph was incredible and his solos were unmatched by anyone else the rest of the night (not to mention the splits that he managed to pull off on stage!). It was a great change to not have to write much as the performance was THAT good.

Next on the lineup was the female foursome Machetes, who were up for a challenge after Bend Sinister’s performance. I had heard good things about these ladies, so I was excited to see what they had in store for us. After listening to their MySpace page, I got the impression that their sound was an acquired taste, which isn’t good for a picky eater like myself. They started with a song that contained the lines “why don’t you go fuck yourself” many times.  It was an odd choice to start off with, but it related well to their tough-girl persona. After about the fourth song I felt as though I had pressed repeat on my stereo with each song sounding like the next. Despite this, I have to admit that they were clearly talented, especially Alana Devee, the lead guitarist. She is a musician that will give the boys a run for their money and at one point attempted to play the guitar on her back (and managed to successfully!).

The band that I was quite excited to see perform goes by the name of Walter Mitty and The Realists and they hail from Limerick, Ireland. The name may sound familiar, for they were here in the fall for Indie Week and ended up walking away winning the whole thing! Well, they are back and eager to showcase their talent and show Canadians the reason why they won. These guys proved that there is amazing musical talent coming from overseas. Lead singer Niall MacTaidng (don’t ask me how to pronounce that one) started the show by painting football-like stripes under his eyes – I am assuming to suggest that they were ready for battle and battle they did blowing everyone away with their high-energy performance and, of course, incomprehensible accents. Niall proved he was a force to reckon with as he danced spastically about the stage and even joined the crowd below at one point. They used an array of different musical instruments during their set including a cowbell and, my personal favourite, bongos! At one point a drunken bystander got on stage and started to preach some incoherent gibberish, however this did not faze the boys at all, which makes me assume that this is probably a common occurrence in Ireland. They ended their set with a song called “Lie in the Summer” which is my new favourite song and was a combination of fast and slow syncs that flowed seamlessly together. Call it the luck of the Irish or whatever you want, these boys proved that they deserve to be here and with the 500 plus bands playing this week, this is one that you won’t want to miss. They are playing a plethora of dates starting tonight (Thursday, March 12) at The Hideout at 7:30pm. For more tour dates or to have a listen check out their MySpace.

Happy CMW!

photography provided by Kristin McCormack

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