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

Los Campesinos! are a seven piece indie pop band that formed in 2006 while attending Cardiff University in the UK. Since then, they have toured with Canada’s own Broken Social Scene, signed to Canadian label Arts&Crafts, and released two full length albums. They are currently in the process of recording their third album and are enjoying every minute of it. We caught up with vocalist Gareth when they stopped off in Toronto on April 1^st.

iheartthemusic: Welcome back to Toronto,  are you excited to be playing here again?

Gareth: Toronto is probably one of the cities we’ve played in the most, to be honest, because our record label is based out of here, we’ve had the pleasure of spending a lot of time in Toronto. It’s always nice, we always have nice audiences and seem to play at a different venue every time too. This one, [The Opera House], is particularly pretty.

iheartthemusic: Where did you play last time?

Gareth: Last time we played Lee’s Palace, we played Mod Club, and way back when we played at the Horseshoe. One thing about this place [The Opera House] is that we recorded a music video here. It was the first single we released, which was recorded on that stage, so it is surreal to be back and playing a proper show.

iheartthemusic: It must make it more comfortable for you.

Gareth: Yah, we knew where the toilets were and we knew where backstage was, so it’s just like coming home!

iheartthemusic: With no musical background, how did you decide to start a band?

Gareth: I think we were all just music fans and I think that, often, if you do come from a musical background or are a scholar in music, it is detrimental to making exciting original music because it kind of becomes a bit more like an occupation. With us, however, just being people who enjoy listening to music and going to concerts, we are coming from a really honest position. So rather than it being an occupation, it is just like a hobby that we have been fortunate enough to do full time.

iheartthemusic: You guys seem to have a close connection to Canada, where did this connection initially come from?

Gareth: I think, certainly at the time of us forming ,Canadian music was, well actually it still is now, getting a lot of exposure, like with Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire. At that time specifically, it was really really exciting, and then we had this opportunity to play with Broken Social Scene, and subsequently signed to Arts&Crafts, so it just worked out perfectly. Canada has been really good to us. We played our first ever North American show at Hillside Festival in Guelph, that was incredibly exciting, and since then we have come back and it’s been great. We also recorded our first album just outside of Toronto, so it always feels like a bit of a homecoming.

iheartthemusic: There was mention in a previous interview that you formed in reaction to the UK music scene at the time, what exactly did you mean by that?

Gareth: At the time, the UK music scene was a really watered-down version of US music. Everything seemed to be a version of like The Strokes or The Libertines, who are both good bands, but most of the bands coming out of London were so obviously indebted to those bands that it often seemed like a poor version of them. There was also a real revival of lad rock so lots of bands were being influenced by Oasis and things like that. Since then, I think it has caused a lot of bands to form and the UK music scene, at the moment, is incredibly rich;  there are so many great bands that we have had the pleasure of sharing gigs with.

iheartthemusic: You also had a really crazy year in 2008 with the release of two albums almost simultaneously – the second one being a “limited release.” What was the reasoning behind that?

Gareth: We didn’t ever really consider it to be an album as such. We went into the studio to record four or five tracks and release an EP, but once we got in the studio we worked a lot more quickly than we expected to and we were a lot more productive and we ended up with these 10 tracks. I think a lot of bands would have probably sat on them and waited for a year or so and then released it as a full album. However,  going back to the fact that we realized we were incredibly lucky to be doing this, we just wanted to release it as quickly as possible. The limited edition thing pays tribute to the fact that those 10 songs very much seem to represent a six-month period of the band’s life, so it seemed very much of-the-moment… I think the whole limited edition aspect just seems a lot more romantic, rather than this mass produced thing that is going to linger on shop shelves forever and nobody is going to really care about. We did a limited run and we put a heck of a lot of effort into our packaging; the design and the artwork and what we produced was something that was a bit more than just a regular CD release. It’s hard to have a sense of an event with downloading as it is now. People don’t really care about the full product, so we really put a lot of effort into that, hopefully as an incentive to make people want to buy it, rather than just download it in 20 seconds off of the Internet.

iheartthemusic: So with the single being so popular nowadays, has that affected your writing style at all?

Gareth: No, not at all. I think if it did then we would be compromising what we intended to do musically. That’s very much a product of the modern day and it would be slightly dishonest if we were to go and be, “like we have to write something that is going to be three minutes long that they can play on the radio.” We write the songs we want to write, rather than the ones that business sense-wise might, if we were going to critically think about it, be perhaps more successful.

iheartthemusic: Well that mentality has not hurt you so far!

Gareth: No, exactly. I mean, we are here in Toronto, we were in Montreal last night and this is our second US tour of the year, so it’s going well.  Most importantly, we are enjoying it and everything that we have done we have done exactly the way we have wanted to do it, rather than with a record label telling us how to do it, and that’s been really important to us.

iheartthemusic: How do you come up with your song and album titles?

Gareth: I like long interesting song titles. Going back to the whole download thing, if you do download an MP3 file, I personally would be far more likely to listen to  something if it had an interesting title than if it had a radio title that has been used 100 times before. I mean, with We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, that completely summed up the lyrical themes of the record and I think it acts as a good analogy for how Los Campesinos! feels. We are all aware that what we are doing is amazing and that’s the beautiful side of it, but inevitably, we know we aren’t going to be a band forever. There is going to be a time when the band will stop and we will have to get a proper job or whatever, so that’s the doomed side. We are aware of that, however, so it’s not really a sad thing, we are just enjoying it.

iheartthemusic: So what is your favourite song to play live and why?

Gareth: I think probably the title track off the newest record, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, is probably my favourite, or a song called “Miserabilia” off the same record. “Miserabilia” is great because there is lots of shouting and I play a little bit of floor tom on it as well so I enjoy pounding that. “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed” is incredibly cathartic and lyrically it’s my favourite song of ours. It’s also got this big release at the end and the bridge has this cute sing-a-long bit to it. I always enjoy playing that.

iheartthemusic: Doing so many interviews, I know that questions can get fairly repetitive, so what is the one thing that you wish you were asked or at least were able to talk about?

Gareth: The lack of extreme depth that often interviews go into has been one of the things that has caused us to start this blog, because if you’ve read it then you would probably be aware that it goes into far too much detail.

iheartthemusic: Like the wanking comment?

Gareth: That’s not me! That was a conversation that was had. We are seven very remedial humans and most of the conversation has always come down to toilets, sex and… just those two pretty much!

iheartthemusic: Keeps it interesting, I guess!

Gareth: It does! I think we are treading on similar ground constantly, but there’s always a new pun to make or a new insult to cast on someone. I’m not going to divulge who said that, but it might not have been someone in our band, which I think narrows it down a bit…

iheartthemusic: I think we can figure it out from there! Last question, when can we expect this third album to be released?

Gareth: I think we will start releasing things from it, like a single or two, by the end of the year, but I think the actual date for the full length album to drop would be the beginning of 2010, which seems like such a long time away. I think it’s going to be a little bit longer this time. I’m slightly worried that with releasing the last two albums so quickly that people are expecting it to come immediately, but this is the first time we’ve really recorded and given ourselves time to live with it. Previously it’s been that we’ve had two weeks to record 15 tracks and get it done. This time we are doing it over the course of two months and then mixing it a month later, so it’s going to be a lot better for us living with the tracks. We want to live with the songs and then it will be all the better for it hopefully – but that remains to be seen.

Photography provided by Carl Heindl

There have been some amazing acts hailing from Ireland that have passed through Toronto and knocked the Canadian talent out of the water. Well, Walter Mitty & The Realists are no exception. Having won Indie Week in Toronto in the Fall, these boys came back to showcase their talents once again during Canadian Music Week. The band consists of Niall MacTaidhg (vocals/guitar), Conor MacTaidhg (guitar), Colin Bartley (bass) and Paul O’Shaughnessy (drums). iheartthemusic caught up with them during their first show in Toronto at the Horseshoe and they explained why Canadian crowds rock.

iheartthemusic: Welcome back to Canada boys! You were here in the Fall and walked away winning Indie Week. How did you find out about that?

Niall: We knew someone who won it the previous year and so we applied and kind of got invited over and that was it. 

iheartthemusic: Did you get to explore the city at all?

Paul: We were here for five days and ended up playing six gigs so we didn’t get to see much that time.

Colin: We got up to the CN tower and that was about it.

iheartthemusic: That’s too bad that you couldn’t see more of 

Toronto!

Conor: We have a few days off this time so we are really looking forward to seeing a bit more of Toronto and Canada. Hopefully we will get to see Niagara Falls and all the tourist stuff.

iheatthemusic: Are there any bands that you are hoping to check out this week?

Niall: I want to see Holy Fuck and Bloc Party for sure.

Conor: We are looking forward to celebrating St. Patty’s day in Toronto as well. The parade is on Sunday and that should be good. I’ve already bought green skinny jeans for it!

iheartthemusic: You must have played at some amazing venues last time you were here. What was your favourite?

Niall: Probably Reverb or Rok Boutique.

Conor: We really enjoyed playing in Toronto the last time. Every single venue we played in the crowd was brilliant, which made it exciting to play and the crowds seemed to be really interested. It was very exciting to see everyone out and so we are really looking forward to playing again in Toronto.

 iheartthemusic: Is there anything that you notice about Canadian crowds that is different than back home?

Niall: They’ve got Canadian accents!

Colin: They enjoy it a lot more and it seems to be more full-on over here. You play a gig in Ireland and the crowd is sometimes tough but here everyone is really into it right away. I suppose it is a bigger city, so more people will come out and in Limerick there is only a select crowd that will come out.

iheartthemusic: How would you define your sound?

Colin: I don’t know how I would define our sound really. Some people say James Brown [laughs].

Niall: I listen to a lot of fucking rock and dance so it’s always varied.

iheartthemusic: You have an album coming out in the Spring as well, right?

Niall: When we go home we will be getting a fully mastered copy. We recorded it with Fergal Lawler from The Cranberries before we left. We got a call from them today, actually, so it will be ready when we come back. 

iheartthemusic: Have you come up with a title for it yet?

Niall: Green Light Go is what we are thinking at the moment because it’s our debut. There is going to be about 11 songs on the album.

iheartthemusic: After you release the album what’s next for you guys?

Niall: We are thinking of doing some more touring in Ireland and the UK and then we are back over here in October for Indie Week again.

Conor: We are headlining Indie Week as a part of what we did last year,  so will be happy to get back here and play for the crowds again!

If you didn’t get a chance to check these boys out while they were in Toronto, don’t worry they will be back and in the meantime check out their MySpace: www.myspace.com/waltermittyandtherealists

 Photography provided by Matt Vardy

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

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