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

With two Juno nods under their belt, the guys from The Midway State have little to complain about these days. Having already toured with the likes of Shiny Toy Guns and others, including tours in both the US and Europe, it appears that there is no stopping them. They released their debut full length album Holes in July of last year and have been touring and promoting since (and getting amazing feedback in the process). They are currently on a cross-Canada tour with rock group The Envy, however as lead singer and all around great guy Nathan Ferraro told us, home is where the heart is and that home is right here in Toronto.

iheartthemusic: You have an interesting dynamic with your band because yourself and Daenen (drums) were best friends before the band started, and Mike K. and Mike W. were best friends as well, that must have made it easier to become a unit.

Nathan: It’s like a double date!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] You moved from Collingwood to Toronto to pursue music exclusively, was that a tough choice to make?

Nathan: Right out of high school a producer named Gavin Brown called me up and he said, “Nathan I got a demo of yours and I like what you are doing and I really want to work with you.” I was very excited and as soon as I graduated I canceled my plans to go to university and moved down to Toronto and started living with a friend of mine and working with Gavin.  We found Mike and Mike after that and it went from there.

iheartthemusic: How did Gavin Brown get your demo to begin with?

Nathan: A guy who is here tonight actually, who is the heart of our band named Jason Kimelman saw me and Daenen play in a bar when we were 17 in Toronto and just kept in touch with us. He had mutual friends and knew Gavin Brown and gave our demo to him.

iheartthemusic: That is pretty much fate right there!

Nathan: Exactly, and Jason went from discovering us to letting me move in with him and his fiancée when I moved out here. He also fed me and took care of me. He is a pretty amazing guy.

iheartthemusic: That’s so awesome! Well he must have seen the talent that still exists today as you were recently nominated for a Juno for your songwriting. You mentioned in an earlier interview that one of your dreams was to be recognized for your writing, so how did it feel to finally have that dream come true?

Nathan: It was absolutely insane! We were about to get on a plane and Daenen called me and he was really excited and told me. It was one of those things that actually meant something because since I’ve been 14 I’ve dreamed of being there for that award, so it was cool.

iheartthemusic: Your lyrics seem to be very love oriented. Do you draw from personal experience when you are writing?

Nathan: I’ve definitely been through my share of things but I just think that there is so much good in love and romance. It’s something that is so inspiring for me and I think really just rules everything. I want to tell people that it’s going to be OK – whether you are 10 or f40 or 50, whatever is going on in your life I want people to listen or come to our show and get filled up with that feeling that everything is going to be OK. That inspires me a lot, and so that’s what I like to write about.

iheartthemusic: This is your second tour with The Envy, what made you want to tour with them again?

Nathan: Shaun, the lead singer, is a great friend of mine now because we can relate on so many levels. I wrote a bunch of songs on their new record so we spent a lot of time together during that period. They are just an amazing band and amazing guys so we love to have them around.

iheartthemusic: How was it working with Stevo from Sum41 on your video for “Change For You”?

Nathan: Steve’s great! I grew up knowing him as the funny character from Sum41, but working with him you find out that he is very serious, very professional and very creative and artistic. It just meshed very well.

iheartthemusic: How did you come up with the concept for that video?

Nathan: Well, we didn’t have a lot of money to shoot the video so we had to come up with something that didn’t involve a lot of different settings. We still wanted something to move, so we thought wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make it look like magic where when you zoom in everything changes behind me, and when you zoom back out I’m in a different place. With music and videos it’s more about the feeling, the colours, and the vibe of it, that’s what you’re trying to get across. With music videos I want people to see what they are feeling, so it has a lot to do with the cinematography and the colouring and stuff like that.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of colours, I read somewhere that you hear colours and see music?

Nathan: It’s a thing called synesthesia. Whether it’s like a car engine or water running or one of our songs, I’ve always felt like my brain connects the sound to a colour. I’ve always kind of done that and I don’t know why. I would always talk to Daenen about it and he would be like, “oh cool, whatever”. None of us knew what it was and then one day Daenen heard of it and learned about it from his family doctor or something and was like, “oh my god Nate has that”, and we looked it up.

iheartthemusic: That’s amazing! I have two siblings and sometimes have a hard time with them, so I can’t imagine having eight siblings like you! Are any of them musically inclined as well?

Nathan: Yeah I have two little brothers, Dominic and Christian, and they are both incredible songwriters.

iheartthemusic: Well your parents must be very proud to have three songwriters in the family!

Nathan: I hope so!

iheartthemusic: You have been able to share the stage with some heavy hitters in the industry, who has been your favourite and why?

Nathan: I really like Jason from Lifehouse, we got along really well and now we are just good friends. He was a great guy to look up to and I learned a lot from him. Mika taught me a lot as well. He had a lot of really great advice. You can’t really get better advice than from the singers of other bands; they are the ones who know what it is like. Record labels and managers can give you ideas of what they think you need to do, but really it has to come from within. The only other people who know that are singers.

iheartthemusic: Favourite spot that you have toured?

Nathan: I love the countryside of France.

iheartthemusic: What was the response like there?

Nathan: Awesome! Our record is coming out in Europe in the next few months, in the summer or something, so I am really excited to get back there and get to those people again.

iheartthemusic: Are you aspiring to tour anywhere you haven’t been yet?

Nathan: I would love to go to Australia, I’ve never been there. Asia as well. I enjoy touring the American South a lot. I think it’s a great culture, I love the people down there because the people have really big hearts so I enjoy it a lot.

iheartthemusic: How about in Canada?

Nathan: I’m bias but I love Toronto. I’m always so happy to come home, I love this city.

iheartthemusic: Where in Toronto have you played that you loved?

Nathan: We played a show at Tattoo recently which was fun. I love The Phoenix and Koolhaus was cool, but mostly because I grew up going to shows there. I saw all my favourite bands play there so being on that stage is weird.

iheartthemusic: Favourite venue in Toronto to go see a show?

Nathan: I actually love this venue [Mod Club]. Have you ever heard of Jeremy Fisher?

iheartthemusic: No I haven’t.

Nathan: I came here a few weeks ago to see him and it always sounds amazing and is just small enough to feel connected. I don’t really like to go and see bands at places like the ACC, although I love bands like Coldplay and Kings of Leon where you have to go there for that.

iheartthemusic: What’s up next for you?

Nathan: The European release and then touring there. Whenever we are not on the road we are working on new songs just because we have a bit of time  so when the second record comes we aren’t scrambling.

iheartthemusic: You did some reporting for CHARTattack, so having been on both sides of the interview, is there anything that you wish you could ask yourself?

Nathan: I always just tried to keep the questions honest and asked what I wanted to know. Like when I was interviewing Simple Plan, I was thinking about when that song “Your Love Is A Lie” came on the radio because I remember thinking it was so catchy and different for them; I was always wondering what inspired that, so when I was interviewing them I asked them about that.

iheartthemusic: So there is nothing that you want to be asked?

Nathan: I don’t want to be asked about my hair, for one thing.

iheartthemusic: Well there goes my next question… I’m just kidding!

photography provided by Matt Vardy

If you haven’t already heard of The Envy don’t fret, it may be because when they played Toronto last they went by a completely different name: Crowned King.  Now under their new moniker they’re currently on a cross-country tour with good friends and label mates The Midway State. Having seen The Envy when they played under the name Crowned King, we were anxiously awaiting the new lineup and killer tunes that their recently released EP, Don’t Let Go, has been blasting from our stereos over the past few weeks. Their sound is a mixture of rock and pop and their live performance is anything but boring. These guys brought the house down at Mod Club on April 17^th and we were front and centre to get in on some of that action. Lead singer Shaun’s vocals were flawless, and with their rock star look and West Coast attitude, everyone appeared to be extremely excited to have them on stage.

iheartthemusic: So the band as The Envy has only been around for a few short months, but Shaun, you played in another band for quite some time, right?

Shaun: I played in another band for the last eight years called Crowned King, which taught me a lot about the music industry and touring. We toured all around the world -we went to Asia, Australia and all over North America – and I learned everything that I wanted to know about how to do this. Then when I started this band, it was just like here is what I learned and let’s take it to the next level. Some of the songs that I had written at the end of Crowned King are now The Envy songs. It’s a new band with hopefully a good future ahead of us!

iheartthemusic: You guys just released your debut EP as The Envy, that’s exciting!

Shaun: The EP came out about a month ago. We launched our EP by playing at a bunch of high schools in Toronto. It was really cool.

iheartthemusic: So how did you meet the rest of the band?

Shaun: Near the end of my old band I was doing a lot of songwriting and working with a producer named Gavin Brown in Toronto and he introduced me to Steve [guitar].

Steve: We’ve been working together for about two and half years now.

Shaun: We started working together way before The Envy, and then when it came time to start this band, myself and Steve just kind of headed it up and found some really amazing guys from Toronto. Our drummer Izzy just moved over from France and he’s a total prodigy on the drums and Bodan, our bass player, has played in bands forever. Johnny, our keyboard player, was in Crowned King with me so it feels like a really strong group. I’ve never had this much inter-band charisma.

Steve: We all have one goal.

Shaun: We all have our heads in the same place and I’ve never really been in any situation like that in my life, where everyone is like here is what we are going to do and let’s do it. Everyone is so on board.

iheartthemusic: That’s awesome! You are now on tour with The Midway State, which is your second tour with them. How did that relationship form?

Shaun: We are actually labelmates and I had been writing with Nathan a lot, so when it came time for a tour it just seemed like the obvious choice, and then when it came time for this tour we were like let’s do it again.

Steve: It worked really well before.

Shaun: This is our first tour as The Envy, though.

iheartthemusic: What do you hope people will get from your EP?

Shaun: I was saying to the guys the other day that right now I really love the new Kings of Leon record and everyday when I wake up I just want to turn it on, like I have to hear it. So I guess I hope that people out there who have our EP, or eventually our album, will, before they go to bed or when they wake up, have it in their head and they need to hear it because they just love it. That was the goal and hopefully it connects with people like that, which would be amazing!

iheartthemusic: You guys just came back from a trip to Vancouver for the Junos and apparently you had some bus troubles south of the border. What happened?

Shaun: We toured across Canada with The Midway State and went out for the Junos and did all the Juno fanfare stuff. Then they went to Halifax for this Death Cab For Cutie show and we decided to take the shorter route home, which is drop down over the border and head across the interstates. We ended up breaking down like five times and by the fifth time we broke down it was in Billings, Montana, which is this amazing little town. It’s about 200,000 people and is a total up and coming town with clubs and casinos.

Steve: Nurses, doctors, scientists.

Shaun: Just a weird, weird place and we knew right away when we got there that it was the friendliest place we’ve ever been. So when we found out that our bus repairs were going to be over four grand US, which is like five grand Canadian, we were like shit we’ve got to put on a benefit concert on to raise some money. So we called our manager and told him that we were going to throw a concert. We went to Kinko’s and made tickets and fliers and started to go around town distributing them. We went to all the happy hours at all the bars and started to talk to everyone.

Steve: People just started latching on all of sudden.

Shaun: The newspaper even ran an article, and then the next morning the main radio personality guy was pounding on the bus while we were sleeping. He told us to go with him and we ended up doing the morning show. By the next day every radio station was telling the story and promoting the show and when the show finally came around, it was packed!

Steve: While we were promoting it people were telling us that they were already coming to it.

Shaun: The whole town showed up and it ended up being this unbelievable show and we raised a ton of money to fix the transmission.

iheartthemusic: And get yourselves home!

Shaun: Exactly, and here we are!

iheartthemusic: Do you think it was easier because it was a smaller town?

Shaun: Absolutely, it was also a small town in North middle America, just starving for something to do. We stood out; I mean, we don’t look like the average Billings, Montana homeboys.

iheartthemusic: You guys also recently shot a video.

Shaun: Yes we did. We are still putting the pieces together and will be probably putting it out with the album. The album isn’t out yet, but should be out in the fall. The video is for a song called “Don’t Let Go”, which is on the EP and should be on the record.

iheartthemusic: Do you want to divulge anything about the video?

Shaun: It’s a really dark video. A guy named Frank Borin did it, he actually did some of The Midway State videos, but he also did Red Hot Chili Peppers, Good Charlotte, Eminem – some big bands. He came up with this idea and it’s all about how the band is lit. His videos look so slick and it was shot at night in this old abandoned shipyard, which has since been torn down. It was shot in North Vancouver so it’s a bit nostalgic for me because it’s where I am from.

iheartthemusic: What’s going to happen next?

Shaun: We are going to the Maritimes this summer, then to the middle of Canada for all of August, and then September we will be touring Ontario non-stop.

iheartthemusic: Out of everyone that you have been able to share the stage with, who has been your favourite and why?

Shaun: Well, as The Envy we have mainly played shows with The Midway State and on our own.

Steve: Mobile was pretty cool.

iheartthemusic: What is your favourite venue to listen to music and why?

Shaun: This venue, The Mod Club.

Steve: It has the best sound and the best vibe.

Shaun: I just heard The Midway State sound check and I can’t believe how good the sound is. For me, that’s such a big part of it.

Steve: So much impact.

iheartthmusic: Favourite bar in Toronto?

Shaun: I love The Gladstone, go out for some karaoke. I’m new to Toronto so I don’t know if that’s the cool answer. Where I don’t like is The Drake. We had the worst night there the other night.

Steve: In a matter of five minutes I was told that I couldn’t stand in a certain place because they will loose their license.

Shaun: It was also full of people who I wouldn’t normally want to hang out with. No more Drake for us.

iheartthemusic: No Hideout action?

Shaun: The Hideout, where’s that?

iheartthemusic: It’s across the street from Tattoo Rock Parlour and is probably one of the best grungy bars in Toronto and it plays live music most nights.

Shaun: Well thank you because that’s where we will go. I also went to Wrongbar the other night, which was pretty sweet.

iheartthemusic: If you could share the stage with any band, who would it be and why?

Shaun: I would love to open that Kings of Leon show on Tuesday night!

Steve: If we could open for U2 that would be pretty sweet as well.

Shaun: U2 has always been one of my staple favourites, I love Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, the new Kanye West record or have him do something on one of our tracks.

iheartthemusic: Any crazy fan moments?

Shaun: Sheri Love from Billings, Montana. I can’t really divulge too many details, but let’s just say that we hung out with her for a night and the next day we got a call from the Billings Police Department and she was claiming that we stole her wedding ring. Which was absolutely impossible, like how do you steal someone’s wedding ring?

Steve: She wrote this lengthy letter to the police.

Shaun: For a day she was telling everyone that we robbed her.

iheartthemusic: And she was a fan?

Shaun: She was someone we met, pretty much a 45-year-old cougar.

iheartthemusic: That’s crazy, you have to watch out for the cougars! Has the recession affected your writing style at all?

Shaun: When we made this record, it was made over the last two years, and every time we wrote we were trying to make what we wrote the best song. It was never about the fact that we needed an album track and I don’t know if I’m going to regret that, but it’s an album full of songs that were written to be singles.

Steve: We don’t like filler.

Shaun: There is a lot of pressure on bands these days and it’s tough to succeed nowadays. We have a really good team right now though: fans, friends and writers.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add?

Shaun: You can listen to our songs on the MySpace.

Steve: My favourite website is iheartthemusic.com!

Great tunes and clearly charmers as well! Be sure to check out their MySpace for tour dates near you!

photography provided by Matt Vardy

iheartthemusic was caught up with the foursome that make up We Are The Take – Erik, Craig, Andrew, and Kevin – when they played a recent gig at Tattoo. They continually amaze us with their pop-rock sound, so, if you haven’t yet, be sure to be amazed when they return to Tattoo this Saturday (April 18^th) when they will be bringing down the house with Thriving Ivory. In the meantime, check out our chat with WATT’s Kevin and Andrew.

iheartthemusic: Since we saw you last, you guys have been playing quite a few shows!

Kevin: Yah, a couple of weeks ago we were at Mod Club and last week we were at the El Mocambo. That was a lot of fun and was for another charity as well.

Andrew: We’ve had the fortunate habit of playing a few charity shows as of late and it’s been hard to keep track.

iheartthemusic: So how important is it for you to be a part of these events?

Kevin: We have a number of reasons for coming on board; I mean, we obviously support the charity. Morgan from Birds of Wales asked us to do the one tonight and we’ve known him for a while now. We are always happy to play and to play for a good cause is a bonus. Everyone has a great vibe about them tonight.

Andrew: That’s always the thing about charity gigs, you find that there are a lot of people with like minds in the room, which is always a plus. Everyone is here for the same reason and it’s nice to get them all in the same room and for us to be able to do what we do.

iheartthemusic: Your sound appears to have a bit of a Brit pop influence to it, is that right?

Kevin: We don’t generally fit into the Canadiana roots rock thing. We are all fans of that but that’s not what we are doing. We are a pop band that has been influenced by everything under the sun. We just want it to look good and we want to look clean.

Andrew: I think we are electric!

Kevin: We’re electric!

iheartthemusic: Any musical influences?

Andrew: Tons! The Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, The Tragically Hip.

Kevin: We love a lot of British bands like Kasabian and Coldplay, anything with good melody. I went to jazz school so [for me] it was pretty much everything that had a good melody and grooved and made people want to dance and feel good. That’s sort of what we want to do.

Andrew: We’ve been fortunate as of late to play with some good Canadian bands. We just played with the Arkells and The Waking Eyes. Once you’ve played with a band a few times you get kind of caught up in it and you aren’t as concerned with checking them out when they are playing because you are more worried about your performance, but after playing with them I am now a huge fan of both. I even bought both records and have been listening to them like crazy! So it’s nice to kind of pull things away from the bands you are playing with and take little pieces as you go along; that’s something that’s fun and helps with learning and growing.

Kevin: And stealing!!

Andrew: And stealing!

Kevin: I think Einstein said, well I’m not going to quote Einstein, but it was something like the best thing to do is to hide your influences.

Andrew: I think what you meant to say was that E=MC2.

iheartthemusic: [laughs] There you go! Speaking of playing with these two great acts, do you find that there is a real sense of community amongst Toronto bands?

Kevin: It’s been rather difficult for us. I mean, we have played with a lot of really great acts, but we haven’t found the same sort of fit. Recently, with the Arkells and The Waking Eyes, we felt that that was great. We are doing different things but it was great to play with bands that were kind of similar. In terms of a community, we have played with a bunch of nice people that are really successful at what they are doing. Like Lights, we played shows with her a few months ago. I mean, talk about way different types of music. At the end of the day we just aren’t picky, whoever will listen.

iheartthemusic: Any touring coming up for you guys in the near future?

Kevin: We’ve just been Ontario-based with the exception of Montreal and we really want to change that. We were lucky enough to have one of our songs get on a TV show that aired across the States. There was a lot of beautiful response from people all over the country and we haven’t been able to get there. We haven’t even been to B.C. or the East Coast. Erik speaks French and we would love to go to France. I mean, there is so much we want to do, but we are trying to be patient and get our live thing together. You only get one chance to make an impression.

iheartthemusic: I also know you aren’t a signed band. Do you have reservations to being signed at all?

Andrew: It’s been a personal choice and has a lot to do with what’s going on in the industry right now. We’ve seen a lot of close friends get major label deals and get their album shelved for a while and then get dropped. We’re not shying away from signing with an indie label or a major label, but we have to work towards what we want and what our personal plan is because we have been working hard for this.

Kevin: We’re focused right now on building it on a really grassroots level. We are just trying to do it ourselves from the bottom up. It’s been a blessing and a curse. A big part of us wants to sign to a label and get a video and exposure, but at the same time we lose a lot of control and right now that’s one thing we can use to our advantage.

Andrew: It’s all we have at the moment. I mean, we play everyday together as a group, writing and practicing, and everything we put out there is exactly what we want and that’s kind of nice. It’s all internal right now.

iheartthemusic: Tonight it appeared that “Montreal Love Song” was a song that everyone was pumped to hear. Do you think that that is indicative of the industry and how the single is taking over the album?

Kevin: I think it is really difficult to write singles and smash hits and it’s difficult to say, but I think writing, for us as a group, is an organic thing.

Andrew: No one knows what a single is.

Kevin: There have been a lot of surprises too.

Andrew: We have a five song EP out now, but we have recorded 12 songs, and when we did they were 12 similar but different sounding songs; not because we had any intention of the single, but because we are growing as a group and each song is a testament to that.

Kevin: The single always helps your casual listener get into you, though. You need that and if it’s “Montreal Love Song” that people need to listen to to see what we do, then who cares.

iheartthemusic: So Kevin, you have a jazz background, but does the rest of the band have some kind of musical backing?

Kevin: I think we all just said let’s pick up an instrument and play and impress the girls. That’s what you do when you are a 13-year-old boy.

Andrew: We all have different stories. For me personally, my mom sort of forced me into playing piano when I was little. That was the foundation of it and then I stopped and then picked up the bass at around 12 or 13.

iheartthemusic: When did the trumpet come in for you?

Andrew: I played the trumpet all through high school. I put it down as of grade 13thirteen and thought I was never going to be playing that instrument again. It’s back though, but I’m still working on it.

iheartthemusic: So what’s the next step for We Are The Take?

Andrew: We’ve done the festivals and we are hoping to get invited back to Virgin Festival again. It’s all about just getting our show tighter and tighter and hopefully get on a tour some time soon.

Kevin: We would love to go coast to coast. That’s a huge, huge goal for us soon. We would love to get on the radio, but that’s hard to do without a video. We shot a video but it’s having trouble getting finished and if it gets finished I think that it is going to be amazing. It’s for the song “Dreams”. In the meantime, we are going to just keep doing what we are doing and let the song writing and the music be first.

photography provided by Carl Heindl