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

We were lucky enough to get the chance to sit down and chat with the threesome that makes up Cute Is What We Aim For before their show at The Pheonix. Now we didn’t quite get them all (Shaant was missing), but guitarist Jeff Czum and bassist Dave Malillo managed to squeeze us in to their busy press schedule. Although we were one of the last interviews of the day, Jeff and Dave were a pleasure to speak with and showed us that fame has definitely not gone to their heads…

iheartthemusic: How did you guys come up with your band name?

Jeff: It was actually just a sarcastic joke between Shaant and his friends in high school. They were making fun of  people that were in the “scene” at the time. I guess, because I didn’t make it so I don’t really know, he just started saying cute instead of cool and it caught on as a high school trend.

iheartthemusic: So cool is what you are aiming for?

Jeff: I guess so, I mean we were all geeks at one point in high school.

Dave: Usually bands get stuck with names that they don’t necessarily want. I mean look at Green Day, they’ve said that they hate their name! Once you get stuck with it and people know it, that’s I guess what you want.

iheartthemusic: Let’s talk about this tour that you are on, it’s called Take Action. What is that all about and why did you want to get involved?

Dave: The Take Action Tour is all about making people aware of  the opportunities that surround them to make a difference. Its about trying to inspire people through our music and through our message to get out there and do something! Ironically enough dosomething.org are sponsoring the tour and they give people the tools to be able to influence their area and the people around them. So that’s what the tour is all about, we’re just trying to promote youth involvement. Also, 10% of the proceeds every night go to dosomething.org, so that’s pretty cool.

iheartthemusic: This tour just began but for the next two months you guys are playing back to back nights, how do you survive?

Jeff: It’s not really that bad. I love playing shows. Usually when we have days off it’s the worst feeling ever. We don’t do anything; we just sit on the bus and wish we were playing a show that night. As far as rituals go before shows, I know Dave will listen to music, I don’t really do anything. It’s just kind of a chill out period.

iheartthemusic: Rumour has it you have a pretty sweet tour bus and an interesting vacuum cleaner?

Dave: Are you talking about the Dyson? Shaant got this $200 hand vacuum that looks like a gun from Halo. But it’s beautiful. I mean it picks up everything. We also have a dog now too called Sergeant Sebastian. He’s a puglet and he’s Shaant’s. He  just got him a month ago, so we decided to bring him on tour and see how it works. It’s awesome.

iheartthemusic: You guys have done quite a bit of touring now, including sharing the stage with Fall Out Boy and Canada’s own Simple Plan. Is there anyone that sticks out for you?

Jeff: Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, Alkaline Trio. I grew up listening to them so it was awesome to be able to play on the same tour as them. I watched Bad Religion every day when they went on. It was crazy. That was the best summer of my life.

Dave: It was really special, not so much that we even got to share the stage with people, but that we got to be around those people and hang out with them. We hung out with Newfound Glory on a consistent basis, you just make friends with bands that you never thought you would. It’s really cool and really weird at the same time because, like Jeff said, we grew up listening to these bands and now they are completely accessible to us.

Jeff: I fucked myself up at the Toronto date.

iheartthemusic: What happened?

Jeff: I fell on a little pothole and I ended up popping out three ribs and bruising my shoulder.

Dave: Thank you Toronto!

iheartthemusic: Hey now, you can’t blame us for your bad luck! Didn’t Dave get into a little fumble last night while you weren’t in Toronto?

Dave: We were in Pittsburgh and this crowd were just rowdy, I mean you could tell people were looking for a fight. Someone threw a bottle at our bus – clearly they don’t recognize that it’s our home – so we just had to defend it and that’s what happened. I was defending the fort!

Jeff: I walked up later and everyone was like “you just missed it”, but I miss everything.

Dave: It’s probably a good you missed it because you would have gotten involved too.

iheartthemusic: Well we are sorry to hear that, but the scar does make you look tough Jeff! Do you guys have a favourite song to play?

Jeff: I think its probably “Hollywood” just because that’s my favourite song on Rotation and it’s the last one that we wrote. It’s a good time!

Dave: I agree with Jeff. It’s like some songs you play you are just on autopilot the whole time but that song is really fun to play.

iheartthemusic: Any crazy fan moments that you care to share?

Jeff: I can never think of any.

Dave: People are very nice, at least to us. They are very considerate, no one has ever attacked anyone as far as I know. No stalker situations. We got lucky.

iheartthemusic: That surprises me, especially for you Dave, considering your solo project has been garnering tons of hits on MySpace.

Dave: Yah, I guess so. I was doing that before I was in the band and that’s actually how I met these guys. It was our first tour together when I was doing my solo stuff  as Dave Malillo and then we toured like three or four times after that until it just made sense at one point to merge because we always got along really well.

iheartthemusic: What’s up next for you boys?

Jeff: After this tour we are probably going to do some international dates like Japan, Australia and the UK, I hope. We’ve been to the UK, which was amazing. Scotland was by far my favourite place. Glasgow was amazing! Honestly if I could play anywhere in the world it would have to be Glasgow. So we’re hoping to do that and then maybe write another record and get it out by the end of the year and do everything all over again.

iheartthemusic: And of course come back to Toronto!

Dave: Exactly! We’re just a hop, skip and a jump away.

www.myspace.com/cuteiswhatweaimfor

photography provided by Matt Vardy, www.mattvardy.com

How would you feel if you spent your Valentine’s Day all curled up and cozy with four young bands from the US and hundreds of screaming girls? Some of you might love it, but for me it was not my idea of romance! I spent Saturday night (February 14) at The Pheonix Concert Theatre for the Toronto stop on the Take Action Tour. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the Take Action Tour is an annual charity tour that raises funds (through ticket sales) and awareness of youth involvement in charitable actions. This is their eighth year and chose the not-for-profit organization DoSomething.org to be the recipient of this year’s funds. The 2009 lineup featured headliner Cute Is What We Aim For, along with Meg & Dia, Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue and Anarbor. I went to just check out the headliner and ended up catching some pretty amazing (and not so amazing) acts along the way.

The night (or dare I say afternoon) started with a young band from Phoenix called Anarbor. Unfortunately I ended up missing their set as it was dinner time for me and I figured the opening act wouldn’t start until well past 6pm! Don’t worry though, I  got to catch up with Slade Echeverria (vocals/bass) and Mike Kitlas (guitar) before the show where they threw me a sampler of their new album The Natural Way. It was a tease for their upcoming EP that is due out this year and has already been on constant rotation on my iPod! I know once you have a listen you will be hooked as well. Their sound far surpasses their age (being only 19…they made sure to mention that they were legal in Canada) and having signed to Hopeless Records as early as April of last year. This band is definitely one to watch! Stay tuned for my interview with them!

Next on stage came the fivesome Every Avenue. This band hails from Michigan and was one act that I was definitely excited to see and experience what they had in store for their audience. Well, it was quite difficult to make out what lead singer David Strauchman was saying amidst the screams of all the girls around me; however he did manage to “engage” the audience from my side stage perspective. At one point he got up and sang while balancing on the barricade separating the crowd from the stage. This might not have been the best idea as what seemed like two seconds later at least thirty prepubescent hands were grabbing at him until he fell over. If it had not been for the security guards holding on to him the outcome may not have been so pretty (though pretty hilarious from my perspective). I do have to admit; they know how to put on a show!

They used all angles of the stage and engaged the audience with both their moves (balancing on speakers) and their eyes (which in turn made the screams even louder). The vocals of David were bang on to their album, as was the musical rhythms of Josh Randall (guitar), Matt Black (bass), Michael Govere (drums) and Jimmie Deeghan (guitar). Definitely one that I would go see again!

The next act was one that I was a bit apprehensive about. Breathe Carolina is a two-piece, dare I say, “screamo” band from Denver made up of Kyle Even and David Schmitt (though they had other characters up on stage with them). They came on stage each decked out in different athletic team jerseys as the song “Get Ready for This” by 2 Unlimited came on. I don’t know if this is a Canadian thing, but that song just reminds me of hockey games and hockey was nowhere near what you got. The entire performance (if you want to call it that) seemed like a whole lot of jumping up and down, head banging and screaming. I just didn’t get it. Now I am sure there are tons of you who will disagree with me as their Myspace page alone gets around 20,000 hits per DAY, but it was just not my scene. I didn’t understand what they were saying and most of the time it looked like they were onstage partying by themselves.  I have to admit though, the crowd loved it (yet again) and seemed to be able to decipher what they were saying/singing/screaming. Despite this, the stage lights were pretty amazing and they knew how to sell themselves to the crowd (although I wasn’t buying). Either way, although it was not my cup of tea, it was well worth checking out for the experience.

There was one band that I unfortunately decided not to cover on this tour, but nonetheless will get a mention – Meg & Dia. This band ended up being quite amazing (from the one song I caught) and after their set I was kicking myself for not booking an interview with them as well!

Last but not least: Shaant Hacikyan, Jeff Czum and Dave Melillo of Cute Is What We Aim For took the stage and (if you can even imagine) the screams got even louder. Luckily I found a great spot at the DJ booth overlooking the stage so I didn’t have to have my ear drums ruined! Now I know I’ve been saying that every girl knew every word to every song for the past four bands now, but honestly, this time the band really didn’t even need to be there as EACH member (or, sorry, girl) in the audience knew ALL the words! Shaant had some inspiring things to say while on stage such as “fuck Valentine’s day”, “fuck Hallmark” and my personal favourite “you need to be comfortable in your own skin, its ok.” Alright Shaant, if you say so! The show was pretty amazing and they played all the audiences favourites including “Marriage to Millions” which apparently was written while they were driving down Bloor Street. I also enjoyed Jeff’s rendition of a Dave Matthew’s tune, although I am sure I was one of the only ones in the audience who even knew who that was as everyone seemed to be under 14! They played the party well and even took the time to thank the staff at The Phoenix and all the other bands on tour with them. One point to note is that they managed to mention that Toronto is their “home away from home”. It’s ok guys you had me at “you need to be comfortable in your own skin” or maybe it was “fuck Hallmark”…either way, I was impressed and they found a new fan in me.

Check back this week for our individual interviews with each band!

photography provided by Matt Vardy, www.mattvardy.com