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

Post-hardcore band Pierce The Veil stopped off in Toronto on the last leg of the Taste of Chaos Tour. These twenty-something guys consist of two brothers who are both musically talented and business-savvy having formed and cultivated the group themselves. Older brother Mike is a self-taught drummer and younger brother Vic has done most of the writing for the group. With the recent addition of Jaime Preciato on bass and Tony Perry on guitar, Pierce the Veil appear to be on the right track. With the hopes of garnering more exposure in Canada and taking time off to write their third album, these guys are set to explode!

iheartthemusic: Is this your first time in Canada?

Tony: We were here for Warped Tour.

Jaime: On Warped Tour we hit the major cities but we didn’t really get to see them because [the location] was always in a parking lot. This tour is cool because we get to see the actual venues and clubs and people.

iheartthemusic: What has been your favourite stop in Canada so far?

Vic: I think Edmonton was amazing, the crowd was nuts.

Mike: The crowd was awesome and it felt like we were at home there for some reason. So much love and it was fun.

Jaime: It was surprising because I don’t think any of us expected it to be the way it was. We were thinking that only 10 kids would know who we were, but it turned out to be the opposite. Very pleasantly surprised!

iheartthemusic: Let’s go back to the beginning. Vic and Mike, you guys started playing together a long time ago, right?

Vic: We didn’t start this band until a few years ago, but Mike and I have been playing since high school.

iheartthemusic: With your last record Tony and Jaime had not joined the band yet, so how has it been playing songs that you weren’t directly involved with?

Tony: At first it was kind of overwhelming. I mean, Vic explained everything that we were going to do and what we were up against, and Jaime and I had done smaller tours together but nothing like this. So Vic tried to explain how to take it seriously, like it was our job. We were practicing everyday and we weren’t used to that.

Jaime: It was definitely a different kind of vibe as far as starting a band, hanging out, writing songs and stuff like that since all of that stuff was already done. It’s cool to look back and see all the fun stuff, what with playing the shows, but now, starting to actually write the next album, which is going to be for Tony and I our first one, it’s kind of all coming back into place.

iheartthemusic: You must be pumped to write the next one then!

Jaime: Absolutely!

iheartthemusic: Vic, you have done most of the writing up to this point right?

Vic: Yeah, me and Mike just kind of jam at home. It’s going to be cool to see everyone contributing and I think it will be a nice change of pace for our band to move from an RV to a regular house again.

iheartthemusic: I know! You guys have been touring for the past few years!

Tony: As much as I stress out and get nervous before the shows, when I finally walk on the stage, that half hour makes everything you do worthwhile. It’s so much fun.

Mike: A lot of our fans have just actually become our friends now. I mean, we had no idea who they were before we started touring, and now we can get into every city and they can actually call us or email us and hang out like normal friends; that’s probably my favourite part.

iheartthemusic: They can call you, eh? Is there a communal phone that everyone uses?

Vic: [laughs] No, that’s a good idea though!

iheartthemusic: What has been highlights and lowlights of Taste of Chaos so far?

Vic: A lowlight was getting snowed in Rhode Island where Thursday was supposed to play. They set that date as the only day they were going to play Full Collapse all the way through and it got snowed in so we couldn’t get to the venue.

Jaime: A highlight was the first Canadian show in Vancouver because we had a signing afterwards and there were only two kids there; we were still stoked though. It was awesome! We thought that was the way Canada was going to be, and then the next day it was like 10 times the opposite.

Vic: Vancouver was a 19 and up show.

Jaime: It was a fun show because not a single person had any idea who we were, so it was awesome because those are the shows that we were used to before this band started.

iheartthemusic: Do you go into those shows with the mentality that you’ve got something to prove?

Jaime: I personally feel more comfortable playing those shows just because there are no expectations whatsoever. I had a lot of fun that show and that’s why it was a highlight, because every person was like “who are you?”

Vic: When the crowd puts out that vibe where it seems like they don’t like you or aren’t interested, then that’s when I feel like I can do whatever I want. You’ve got no one to impress.

Mike: I just kind of get in my own zone and don’t really care what happens.

iheartthemusic: What was a defining moment for you guys as a band?

Vic: I think the first time I saw a kid with a tattoo of our lyrics. No one had ever done that for any band I’ve ever been in. The fact that kids are feeling that connected to the lyrics and gaining a deeper connection to the band is pretty surreal.

Mike: I was super stoked when we were on Warped Tour and Kevin Lyman brought us on his bus to offer us this tour. We were on Warped Tour freaking out already, and then he offers us Taste and we were like shitting out pants.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of shit, I was speaking with Liam from Cancer Bats and apparently Vic and Liam are on the same pooping schedule?

Vic: [laughs] You guys don’t know this, but every time I am walking into the bathroom, Liam is walking in at the same time. It’s been like three times already. We talked about holding hands in stalls next to each other just to say that we did.

Jaime: Not only is that weird but that should never happen… ever.

iheartthemusic: Come on, it’s all about the band-on-band love!

Jaime: If I walked in and saw two guys holding hands, I would walk right out!

iheartthemusic: Vic and Mike have a side project going as well called Isles and Glaciers with members of an assortment of other bands. You just showcased for the first time during SXSW, how did that go?

Mike: Yeah, Vic and I had to ride with Bring Me The Horizon to Austin because we were playing there that same night. So we got to ride with them for 20 hours, which was interesting. Those guys are crazy, but cool guys. We played the AP party, which was outside underneath a huge tent and tons of kids lined up. Some of the songs are actually illegally out, so some of the kids were singing along. It was fun though. It was our first practice ever and it was on stage!

Vic: It went better than we thought it was going to. We thought it was going to be a disaster, but it was fun. We are hoping that the album for that will come out in the next few months so while we’re not touring we have new music with the Isles and Glaciers project. We also have a new video for this band coming out for “Chemical Kids, Mechanical Brides”, which is the first song on the last record.

iheartthemusic: Do you want to tell us about the concept behind that video?

Jaime: It’s an adult film in this RV! [laughs] We shot it in L.A. with the same director as the last video in a house and the house is meant to look like it’s alive. On our first video we had Vic acting and for this one we have two little kids. It was a little boy and a little girl and they were both awesome and trying to escape from the house. It’s a cool vibe, visually stunning.

Mike: It’s kind of creepy.

Vic: I wanted zombies but that got shot down.

iheartthemusic: So when will that be out?

Vic: Soon. It will be on our MySpace.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add for your Canadian fans?

Vic: We just want everyone to know that we are really excited about Canada and want to come back. The first thing I am going to do when I go back [home] is tell everyone that I want to book more shows here.

Jaime: I was definitely pleasantly surprised and impressed by the kids here.

The video for “Chemical Kids, Mechanical Brides” is now out on the band’s MySpace. Be sure to check it out!

photography provided by Patrick Moore

With a lineup that includes ex members of the band Jersey and The Full Blast, you know there are going to be some sweet tunes emanating from the stage. The Artist Life came to be not too long ago and have since been on an upwards spiral that has included an AP feature, a relationship with Underground Operations and being able to share the stage with the likes of The Flatliners and Andrew W.K. to name a few. Their pop-punk inspired sound is easy on the ears and will leave you either singing along or handbanging your way through the entire album. They are currently embarking on their first West-coast tour in support of their debut EP Let’s Start a Riot. This tour also  conveniently coincides with the release of their latest video for “Sleep So Sound”. iheartthemusic caught up with Ian Blackwood (vocals/guitar), Dean Richards (guitar/vocals), Chuck Leach (bass/vocals) and Jake Parsonson (drums) at Sunrise Records in Toronto literally right before they hit the highway.

iheartthemusic: Your band is made up of members of popular bands from the past, how hard was it to mold your own image as The Artist Life?

Ian: Music is something that I have been doing for a long time and it just took the right partner to work with and write with and when I met Dean it just kind of seemed natural. After that, fans and the band were secondary to the relationship that Dean and I have now. Finding Jake, and knowing Chuck from the past, it all just made sense. This band to me is just like four of the best friends. I find that it’s the easiest band to be in.

Dean: [Being in prior bands] helped us out too a little bit. As a new band and trying to get attention from people, it actually helped. If you’ve listened to Jersey or to The Full Blast before, you know you’ll like our band too. I think it was probably productive.

iheartthemusic: I guess that exposure’s been good leverage.

Dean: Exactly.

iheartthemusic: In September of last year AP magazine named you “Unsigned Band of the Month” and then a few short weeks later you were snatched up by Underground Operations. How did you form that relationship?

Dean: We’ve been friends with everyone over at Underground for a long time, but I think it took us a little while to build a band and get the song writing there. The Underground people were my first friends when I moved to the city, way back when. They were into the songs and it just went from there.

Chuck: We did an East Coast tour in June of 2008 and on the very last day we finally found an Internet connection and checked emails or messages and we had a message from the editor of AP saying they wanted to do a piece on us, which was amazing. It seemed like that tour was when we reached a point where the band was functioning as a cohesive unit, and from there it has just been a straight shot.

iheartthemusic: You have two videos out now and both seem to be very much band-focused, was this intentional?

Dean: I think it just kind of happened. I mean, it was the director who came up with the idea for “Sleep So Sound”. He came to us because he had an idea that he wanted to do and we just went with it. It was an awesome idea!

Ian: “Waiting Room” was different because it was a friend of mine who runs First Frame Media, and one day he was like, “we really want to do a video for your band”, and that video was just one of those videos that got thrown together by a bunch of buddies.

Dean: Much like the “Sleep So Sound” video, we are now friends with the director and we look forward to hopefully working with him again because we had a blast. It was the first time in front of a green screen for all of us. All the shots were actually shot on their own so that none of us were actually together. So it was really interesting for all of us not to be playing together.

iheartthemusic: And probably break each other’s concentration in the process with goofy faces, right?

Dean: [laughs] Yeah.

Chuck: It was a really interesting day because it was so opposite of what we were used to; performing as a unit, feeding off each other’s energy, things like that. It was literally a green screen, “go stand there”, “you stand on your mark”, and just before they say action its like, “ok rock out”. It was hard to warm up to at first, but then you just kind of start to have fun with it and embrace what it is.

iheartthemusic: So you guys seem like a fairly solid unit, I mean you mention that you are really close friends, which helps bleed over into your band. Do you find that there is a real sense of community between other Canadian bands?

Dean: Absolutely, just playing shows with friends for however long that we have, it’s been a lot of fun. Everyone is just bros.

Chuck: It’s really funny because we have our American friends that come to Canada that are in bands and stuff and there is this ongoing joke that every band in Canada knows each other. That’s a little bit of an overstatement, but at the same time there is an element of truth to that because I think at one time or another everyone kind of crosses paths up here. I don’t know if it has to do with the work ethic, and not to say that people in other places don’t work as hard because certainly they do, but it just seems like the bands that we know and are friends with are absolute work horses and always playing shows and living what they do.

Ian: I think we are sort of a generation of bands that have grown up together, and having played in other bands helps that too. Not being from even the same province, I mean Dean is from P.E.I. and I am from Ontario but now we are in a band together, we are in this generation with a lot of Southern Ontario sort of relic of other bands that have existed and I think we’ve carried that trend or trait. We like being friends with bands. It’s a lot more fun to go on tour with a band and be buddies and not be secluded to your van.

Chuck: There really is something to the ex-members thing in Canada, we just can’t seem to give it up. It’s like fragmenting, as soon as one band breaks up it turns into four bands and then one of those bands breaks up and it branches out into three more bands.

iheartthemusic: It’s a lot of band-on-band incest.

Chuck: Yup.

iheartthemusic: Let’s talk about the reason we are all here: International Record Store Day. With album sales slowly dwindling, how important was it for you to be here today?

Ian: It’s huge. I think it’s really important to spread awareness that bands are still making CDs and still selling records – holding something tangible is a wonderful thing. Seeing the artwork, reading the lyrics, it’s important to get people out and remind them that, yes these things are available on the Internet and we understand that, but vinyl is coming out again and getting huge. We are just proud to be here playing today! Friends of ours played last year and we were here supporting them and now it’s cool to be a part of it.

Chuck: I think it’s really important to remind people how important record stores are and that there’s a vibe here that doesn’t exist from online purchasing or downloading. I’m talking about the record store vibe, just being there and being around like-minded people. Everyone enters a record store for the same reason: because they love music. Even if you are in the rock section and someone is in the country section, it doesn’t matter because you are both there for the same reason. You are both there to explore music, and I think that is something that is lost on the Internet.

iheartthemusic: You are flying solo almost?

Chuck: Yeah exactly. There’s no room for building relationships [on the Internet. Whereas in a store], even if it is a pleasant glance across the store or finding this gem that hasn’t made it to iTunes yet, there is really something to be said for just hanging in the record store.

Ian: Jake liked to go to record stores before we were signed and would slide ours into one of the “A” spots. [laughs]

iheartthemusic: [laughs] That’s totally something that I would have done! How does that affect the way you approach writing?

Dean: Ian and I always talk about how we are such big fans of pop music. At the end of the day when we sit down we are thinking, “let’s try and write a really strong song, something that has a big chorus and has lyrics that are meaningful”. So it’s always going to be in the back in our minds to write something that people can grab on to and can get into. It’s very predominant when we write, totally.

Chuck: I think there would be problem if there was an absence of that thought. If you were writing and thinking that every time you wrote a song that this has to be good enough to be a single then you’re just writing fluff, filler. It should always be present in the back of your mind that this has to be good enough to carry the record. If you write 12 songs that are all good enough to carry the record, then you’ve got a great record.

iheartthemusic: I appreciate your honesty with that because I find that nowadays bands will say one thing, but clearly they want that hit as well because that’s what is going to get them noticed right away.

Ian: Back to the whole iTunes thing real quickly, a lot of bands have that problem where they are writing a couple of hits and the rest of the record is sort of dry. With us we want to write a record where every song is great and you feel good about every song. I think that’s really important, especially nowadays where you can just buy one song. So I’m not going to offer you one song, I’m going to offer you a whole album of great songs.

iheartthemusic: I think that’s a great mentality to have! After this showcase you guys are off on a little West Coast tour?

Dean: It’s the first time this band has gone out West, but we’ve driven the eastern run twice and been playing Toronto and Quebec like crazy. So this is the first time we’ll be going out West, it’s exciting and it’s great that it lines up really well with the release of the video so we can push that and we are looking forward to it!

iheartthemusic: After that what have you got planned?

Dean: I guess we are going to come home and keep writing. We are working on a full-length and that will take us right into the summer. We have another quick run in July throughout Ontario and also all the festivals.

iheartthemusic: Any ones in particular?

Dean: I don’t think we are on any at the moment but we will probably do S.C.E.N.E Fest – that’s usually the one that starts it all off – NXNE in June as well, and hopefully get on a few more.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add before you hit the stage?

Ian: Check out the new video on our MySpace and go to MuchMusic and vote for it as well!

photography provided by Carl Heindl

Having previously seen (and been blown away) by the Whitby-born band Bury the Bully, iheartthemusic decided it was about time we featured them. If their name sounds at all familiar it might be because they played the opening night party during CMW, or perhaps you were lucky enough to stumble upon their MySpace and were equally impressed by the sound that emanated from your computer speakers. Either way, there is no denying their talent and when we sat down with lead vocalist Rich McPherson and drummer Cala, we discovered that not only are they making great music, but these guys have hearts of gold as well.

iheartthemusic: So, from what I have read, you guys met in high school about 10 years ago?

Rich: We met in high school and that was 12 or 13 years ago and we’ve had the same lineup of guys since. It’s been a very interesting stint with four guys being in a band as friends and as professionals, so it makes for a lot of good music in the end.

iheartthemusic: Definitely! I mean, being together for so long it must have been easier to grow as a band?

Rich: It’s really tough to say. In the last year we released our full-length, which is really our first full-length since all we’ve ever done is just play and demo, and as soon as we put it out that’s when we really started to become a band and really came into our own. In those 12 years prior to that we did learn a lot as musicians and people, but I think it’s just been the last year and a half that it has really come together.

iheartthemusic: So going back to grade nine, were you guys the typical band class guys or did you just decide on your own that you wanted to form a band?

Cala: It wasn’t about getting the girls or anything, it was just something to do. At that time there was no extracurricular stuff so we decided to start a band. We actually did it before high school.

iheartthemusic: How did you decide on your name?

Cala: During high school we went by a different name and then when we put out this album, that’s when we knew that we had to step it up and wanted to start it fresh and we just based the name around the songs that we were writing.

Rich: We literally had a list of stuff that we were trying because we had been one name for 10 years, so it was a huge step to change names and identities. While we were doing the album we were trying to come up with a new name and that one just resonated with all of us because it spoke to so much socially. We consider ourselves positive individuals so it was definitely the right name for us.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of being positive individuals, you guys deal with charities quite a bit, including donating all your sales once a month to a charity of your choice.

Rich: We try and donate what we can. I mean, it’s not much as an indie band, but every season we made it so that we would donate to different charities whatever money that we made at that time. We try and link our websites to a lot of positive organizations.

iheartthemusic: What has the response been like with your album in a time when the economy is so bad?

Cala: Well, it’s tough because of the times that we are in right now but really the Internet helps so much. Also, the more we play, the better it is for us.

Rich: As an indie band, and having no real support financially to do things, we try and get ourselves in every social network we can and just make friends. The response from people worldwide through connecting through places like MySpace has been great. So in that sense having no one really supporting us, we’ve done really well for ourselves in the last year and half just doing everything.

iheartthemusic: It must be nice to be able to oversee everything.

Cala: It’s more intimate that way, especially interacting with fans and people who enjoy the music through places like Facebook.

Rich: I think every little achievement that comes along is more special just because we are doing it ourselves. You feel a sense of ownership that way.

iheartthemusic: Some bands consider themselves a live band only. How do you see your band?

Cala: I would say a bit of both. Lately, with the recording process with the new album, we are learning a lot.

Rich: We record a lot. We learn something everyday as musicians, as a live band or a recording band, they are two separate things but I love being in the studio, I love writing, I love recording.

Cala: And I love gigging.

Rich: Yah, we have both sides of the spectrum.

iheartthemusic: Who does most of the writing?

Rich: We are at a point now where we all collaborate with each other. It has taken us a long time to get to that stage but that’s where we are now and, especially going into a second album, you start to approach things differently and this time around everyone is putting their piece of the pie in.

Cala: And being together for so long really helps as well.

Rich: Everyone is inspired by everybody.

iheartthemusic: So you are writing a new album, when can we expect that out?

Rich: Our aim would be for mid summer to have a record out, but everything in music is always a couple of months behind. We are working hard at it right now and hoping to get into the studio and start laying it down at the beginning of the summer.

iheartthemusic: From the first album to this new one, do you notice any differences between your sound or writing style?

Rich: Totally. Every song that comes out is always something different and I think the exciting thing about writing a new album is the fact that when we go to record we are going to have a ton of songs to pull on and bring together. With that, it gives us the freedom to really write anything and not worry about it being the “right” thing.

iheartthemusic: You got the opportunity to play the opening night party for CMW, was that your first time playing CMW?

Rich: We played that eight years ago and I think that was the last time we played it.

Cala: It was an honour to be asked to play. The booker at Tattoo asked us to play and it was a great turnout. We met a lot of great people, like you!

Rich: It was one of those things where we didn’t think we were playing at all and then we got the call a couple of weeks prior to and it turned out to be the opening night.

iheartthemusic: You have also been able to share the stage with some heavy hitters such as Simple Plan and Gob!

Rich: We played with them right when “I Hear You Calling” came out. We hooked up with Simple Plan during Warped Tour. We played a date about eight years ago with them before they blew up, so we got to form a good bond with them.

photography provided by Carl Heindl

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