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

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