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

Question: What happens when musically-minded students serendipitously find each other at McMaster Univeristy and proceed to form a kickass band? Answer: the Arkells. In 2006 Max Kerman (lead vocals/guitar) found himself a froshman with the desire to be in a band and – whether through the hand of Fortuna or Max’s gift to pick out musicians – he stumbled upon Nick Dika (bass), Mike DeAngelis (guitar/vocals), Tim Oxford (drums) and Dan Griffin (keyboard/guitar/vocals). Since their inception they’ve ridden to success at a rapid rate. Despite the swift route to renown, the boys are still down to earth (and even have day jobs!). While on the Toronto leg of the cross-country tour, which they’re co-headlining with The Waking Eyes, iheartthemusic had a chance to sit and chat with Max at the Horseshoe Tavern.

iheartthemusic: Your first full length album, Jackson Square, was just released in October of last year, have you started to put thought into the next album yet?

Max: We are always writing stuff. We have a great label and management and they’re taking care of the logistics so all we [have to do] is try to write good songs. Naturally our inclination is to write songs, but it’s a long process of how they get put together, but whether we were on a label or not we would still be trying to write music.

iheartthemusic: How have you guys stayed so level headed amidst what seems like instant success?

Max: We’re all friends and we know this is a really great opportunity that other bands don’t have so we always remember that. I remember when we played with Matt Mays at The Commodore in Vancouver. What was great about that place was that they have a really cool backstage room. Most of the places we play at are just dumps, the backstage room is like a closet or something, but The Commodore was great. Before the show we said to each other, “you know, six months ago we would have come to this show and said ‘man that fucking opening band, we should be them’.“ And now we get to do it. But we always try to keep things in perspective because it’s been a really positive [experience] so far.

iheartthemusic: And you guys haven’t been doing this for very long, that’s amazing!

Max: Yah, its great. We all still work day jobs though. Like we played last night in St Catharines and I had to be back at work for 9am in Hamilton. It’s just an office job filing shit, but I definitely hated the fact that I had to work the next day. Lately we’ve been getting a lot of coverage, you know, doing interviews and people mentioning our name in different places and it’s flattering, but we also know that we have to be at work at 9am. But now we are going on tour and get a few weeks off of work and hopefully we won’t get fired when we get back.

iheartthemusic: What’s next on the horizon for you guys?

Max: We’d love to go do shows in the UK or the US. That seems to always be the logical next step for a band and since we’ve been playing in Canada for a while. Its great, you know, because we’re young we don’t really have a jaded perspective on it yet so all these opportunities that come our way we are like, “we get to go see places!” So on top of playing shows we are getting to see the country… I think that the next step is to just keep playing and getting the gospel out of the Arkells.

iheartthemusic: Well that is definitely something that I am sure the rest of Canada would hope for! If you haven’t checked them out yet then get on their MySpace and look out for them in your town!

www.myspace.com/arkellsmusic

Friday night was alright (for fighting)… your way through the sweaty pushy crowd who packed themselves like sardines into the legendary Horseshoe Tavern. Groping and humidity aside, it was totally worth it as all three acts were awesome!

The night began with We Are the Take who totally took the show. These Toronto boys made their hometown proud when they came out rocking hard and set the bar for the rest of the evening. We didn’t know they were on the bill but were very pleasantly surprised when we heard what they had to play. We loved the layers in “Dreams” and their new song “Better Awake” made us thirst for more. Excited whispers of “who are these guys?” could be heard throughout the crowded house. The fact that it looked like you could slip and slide across their sweaty bodies was proof of the full force with which they released their sound on the eager crowd. And this was just the opening act…

Next up were The Waking Eyes who did not drop the pace (you never woulda guessed their van had just been towed. Bummer guys!). Prior to the show Rusty (guitar and lead vocals) told iheartthemusic that this was their first sold out show. Well, if there were any cold feet they certainly melted before the band took to the stage (and we’re not just saying that because the room was like a sauna, but because they started strong and didn’t waver in momentum). These Manitobans were able to be consistent in their lively performance while still maintaining the variety of sounds to their songs that adds to their uniqueness.

Making sure the electric atmosphere didn’t waver was no problem for the Arkells whose vigorous performances are becoming well known. These boys from Hamilton have been crisscrossing Canada, leaving in their wake a bevy of newfound fans. The tracks from their most recent record, Jackson Square, are injected with extra oomph when performed live. Raw and rampant, their music is infectious and compounded when on blasted from the stage.

It was an exhilarating night of music that left us totally exhausted but fully satisfied. Stay tuned for interviews with each of the bands coming soon to iheartthemusic!