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

Considering it was “technically” day three for NXNE, you may find it odd that I should call this post “day 2″. The reason is that “day 1″ was such a write-off (for me it consisted of the opening night party and watching one of the worst acts ever at The Drake, which I refuse to name, before I decided to pack it up and call it a night). Thursday, June 18th was PEACE DOT LOVE, a festival promoting and supporting local anti-violence initiatives in Toronto that consisted of a plethora of amazing Toronto acts. This festival also happened to be  sponsored in part by iheartthemusic, so it was lots of work (but we always have room for pleasure). Thus bringing me to Friday, June 19th, the official start to my NXNE experience. The night went something like this: Yonge & Dundas Square – Hard Rock Cafe – Yonge & Dundas – Lee’s Palace – home. Not that much travel, but I needed to ease into the week slowly.

I decided to start the evening with heading to Yonge and Dundas Square to catch East Coast sensation In-Flight Safety perform. After releasing their latest album, We Are An Empire, My Dear, back in January, I was stoked to be able to see them perform live in Toronto. The crowd in attendance was definitely full of fans and it was nice to see people from all walks of life and ages out to see the show.

Next it was a mad rush across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe (a venue that I was entirely not familiar with) to see Ottawa pop/rock group Benefit of a Doubt perform. These guys just recently came off a tour with Norglen and are a band that I have been personally loving for quite some time. Having not been able to catch them during CMW in March, I made sure I was in attendance for their NXNE appearance. Unfortunately for them (and the rest of NXNE attendees) the venue was a huge hindrance. It was like the Hard Rock was the uncool kid that no one wanted to go near. The only people present were clearly there for the food and not the music. This did not, however, faze the foursome on stage as they rocked out harder than most bands we saw that week who played to sold out shows. They opened the show with what I was told was a band favourite to play, “We Are The Broken”, which saw lead vocalist Chase’s voice hit notes that I wouldn’t dare attempt. The overall feel in the room shifted as they began to play. People became mesmerized by their stage presence and forgot about their plates. Chase played barefoot, the band headbanged in unison and they all looked like they were having an awesome time! This band shows no signs of slowing down and I predict they will only get better and bigger.

After their set we didn’t have to venture too far to see the next act, which was Wintersleep who was playing back at Yonge & Dundas Square. This was a show that could not be missed as they rarely venture to Toronto (since they are too busy touring the world). Although my height caused viewing difficulties, I managed to take note of their keyboardist literally balancing on one leg while he playing (impressive to say the least). Everyone was singing along to the well-known tunes and I literally have nothing else to say except that there could have been a bit more stage presence. After seeing the first two bands of the night perform, Wintersleep was a bit of a let down in that regard. However, it was still great to see them live and we managed to grab some awesome shots for your enjoyment!

The last stop of the night was Lee’s Palace to catch one of the hot ticket acts of the week – L.A. duo No Age. Before they were about to go on we managed to catch the last few songs of Seattle group The Dead Science. They are described as “creative experimental pop” and honestly, that is precisely what you get. With a drummer, a guitarist and a guy that appears to play the cello like it is a guitar, their sound is anything but conventional. The lead singer alternated from a high pitched soprano-type voice to a soft whisper (which was a little bit distracting at times) and managed to sing on his toes! The highlight was their technical skill. The drummer banged on the drums without a hitch and the cello player literally rocked out as hard as anyone could on a classical instrument. I would suggest checking them out if only to see (perhaps) where the future of music is taking us!

There was so much hype surrounding the two guys that make up No Age that I was pretty excited to see what it was all about. I know that this band has a very loyal following so I don’t want to piss anyone off… but, I must confess that I did not enjoy it one bit. Although they were engaging as an act, I could hardly make out what Dean was saying and Randy appeared to be in his own world on the guitar. The crowd were clearly MASSIVE fans and they created probably the biggest mosh pit that Lee’s has seen, which continued for the entire duration of their set. I believe that at one point Dean revealed that he just puked in his mouth and then swallowed it. I’m not sure if that is what turned me off the most or if it was the amount of kiddies around me snorting lines. Two thumbs down from me.

Black Hat Brigade is an eclectic fivesome homegrown right here in the GTA. And homegrown they truly are, with audible influences of Canadian greats Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and an unnamed touch of East Coast sound that ties it all together. The band is made up of Rob Haughey (Keys/Guitar/Bass/Vocals), Justin Myler (Bass/Keys/Guitar/Vocals), Adam Peterson (Lead Guitar/Bass/Keys/Glockenspiel/Vocals), Dan Hurst (Drums) and Bryan Ward (Guitar/Percussion/Glockenspiel/Bass) – listing out the band members and the instruments they play appears a little confusing, but it all makes sense once you see them play live. To watch a BHB show is to witness a complicated yet fluid dance of instrument swapping, mixed vocals and old school rock ‘n’ roll. It’s the type of music both hipster kids and grizzled sea captains alike would enjoy stomping their feet and clinking their pint glasses to. iheartthemusic was able to talk with Justin and Bryan before BHB tookthe stage at the El Mocambo on the night of the release party for their sophomore EP, Fathers.

iheartthemusic: Where are you guys from, are you local Toronto boys?

Justin: Well, originally, I’m from Brampton, and so are Rob and Adam, who aren’t here right now.

Bryan: I’m from Pickering, that’s where I grew up. And Dan is from Burlington so we’re all kind of suburb kids.

iheartthemusic: You guys are from all over the place, how did you come together to form the band?

Justin: Myself, Rob and Adam played together in university. We all went to high school together, and I’ve known Adam since I was about five. Bryan and Adam were working at the CBC, and met over there. Bryan came out to one of our shows. We knew that he played a bunch of instruments so we invited him up on stage to play tambourine in one of our songs. We were all pretty inebriated and just asked him to join.

Bryan: …and I met Dan in College, a friend of a friend.

Justin: About a year after Bryan joined we had an amicable split with our old drummer. The next day Bryan bumped into Dan, and asked if he was still drumming. Dan said, “Ya, why…are you looking for a drummer?” He came to a practice and we hit it off.

iheartthemusic: So it seems like it was fate that brought you guys together.

Justin: That’s what we like to call it.

Bryan: It was written in the stars.

iheartthemusic: I like that a lot. So one thing that I thought was really interesting in reading your bio was this section here: “It could be said that the drug-induced children’s programming of the early 1980’s, overexposure to video game soundtracks, and the years spent partying in the bowels of dead end suburban cul-de-sacs might have had an influence on their song writing.” First of all, who wrote that?

Bryan: That’s the English Major, Rob.

Justin: Yeah, he threw together the bio, but we all sort of grew up in the ’80s playing video games, and you can see it in our music. We all have a little bit of ADD, which probably has to do with the video games. It’s why we have to switch up our instruments all the time. We get bored.

iheartthemusic: Any particular video games?

Justin: I was a Nintendo guy, Bryan’s a Nintendo guy.

Bryan: I still have a Nintendo hooked up to my TV. Normally after shows we all end up at my place and play Mario 3 at three o’clock in the morning. We’ll throw on other games, but it always goes back to Mario 3, that’s a staple.

Justin: We do have a song called “Castlevania”, which was not named after the video game, because I tried it, and I suck at it [laughs all around].

iheartthemusic: “Castlevania” is on your second record, the new one that’s out today.

Justin: Yeah, Fathers.

iheartthemusic: When was your first record released ?

Justin: It was almost exactly a year ago today. It was recorded at Sleepytown Sound in December, and it took six months to release. We were doing it all ourselves: artwork,  printing, mastering, and collecting money to be able to afford to do it.

iheartthemusic: Today is the CD release party for the new record, Fathers. How does this record feel different from the first?

Bryan: The new one is longer ['cause] it’s got more songs on it. A couple of songs on this album have been around since we wrote the last one. We felt that these songs all fit well together, and they all had a certain tone and feel to them, which is why we put them on this other EP. Also, I think the songs sound a lot fuller, and more thought out. When we recorded the last one, it was the first thing we’d ever recorded, and the first time we’d ever stepped into a studio. We just did it for ourselves. We thought, cool, now we’ll have something to listen to. With this record we know people other than ourselves and our parents are going to hear it. I think it’s also pretty true to our live sound.

iheartthemusic: Another cool aspect about the show tonight is that it’s part of the Pitter Patter Festival. How did BHB come to take part in it?

Justin: Keith Hamilton, who’s running Pitter Patter, we played show for him about a year ago, at the Boat [in Kensington], and kept in touch with him. We weren’t even supposed to be on Pitter Patter, because we were looking for a night to do our release. So Keith said if we wanted to put on our show as a part of the festival, then that would be great.

iheartthemusic: Let’s talk instruments, your bio lists the glockenspiel one of the instruments you play…

Bryan: Well a Glockenspiel is basically a metal xylophone. It’s got metal pieces instead of the wooden blocks. It’s a mallet instrument… Adam had a dream that he was Moon Walking across a glockenspiel and it played the craziest song he’d ever heard. The next day he came to practice with a glock. None of us had ever played it before.

iheartthemusic: So after this Pitter Patter tour you’re going to be playing NXNE.

Justin: We played it last year, but it was more lowkey. We didn’t have a lot of push behind our name at that point. We’re doing a show at The Drake with The Balconies, The Urban Aesthetics and a couple of others.

Bryan: That’s on June 18th. The next night we’re playing a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square, Mill Street Brewery is the sponsor. There’s going to be two stages, the Mill Street Stage and the main stage. Wintersleep, The Cliks and In-Flight Safety are on the main stage.

iheartthemusic: Do you have a current favourite Canadian band you want to tell our readers about?

Justin: Lots. I find what I’ve been listening to a lot lately is a lot of Canadian stuff, especially out of Toronto. Timber Tambre is someone that we’ve recently started listening to. Bryan actually turned me onto them.

Bryan: It was after one of our shows I think. I was like, “Justin, you need to hear this song.”  It was “Lay Down in the Tall Grass”.

Justin: Chad Vangaalen, Constantines, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, Think About Life, Holy Fuck, The Besnard Lakes, Born Ruffians, Islands, Frog Eyes, Slim Twig, Women, Bruce Peninsula…Yeah, there’s lots of great bands out there right now.

iheartthemusic: Do you find that there’s a lot of support within the Canadian music industry? I’ve heard of it described as one big happy family, has that been your experience?

Bryan: We’re always helping each other out. Like if someone gets a gig, or a good slot at a show, we always try to get one of our friends’ bands on there. We’ll try to get younger bands (that aren’t as well known) really good opening slots. That’s kind of what’s pushing the scene right now; everyone’s helping each other out.

iheartthemusic:Do you have a favourite venue in the city, that you’ve played which holds a place in your heart?

Justin: I’d say for most of us, and for me anyway, Rancho Relaxo. We love playing there.

Bryan: We had our first sell out show at Rancho, which was the best thing ever.

iheartthemusic: And, as a final question, care to explain the Soylent Green comment from your bio? That your music is the “aural and visual equivalent to that final scene from the dystopian classic Soylent Green, when Charlton Heston’s character finally realizes that they’ve been eating each other all along”?

Bryan: Our music eats people.

Justin: At the end of one of our shows you realize your brain’s been eating itself the whole time.

Black Hat Brigade will be playing NXNE June 18th at the Drake hotel, and a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square on June 19th.

Interview by Nadia Elkharadly

Pictures by Omar Elkharadly