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

It’s always nice to discover some amazing raw talent, and during CMW it came in the form of Calgary band The Fast Romantics. These boys combine Brit-pop influences with a sound all of their own to make sweet, sweet music. They have already released their self-titled debut album, showcased during both Virgin Festival and CMW, and are now about to embark on a West Coast tour. Did we forget to mention that these boys aren’t even signed to a label yet? When we got the opportunity to speak with lead vocalist Matthew Angus and lead guitarist Matthew (Matt) Kliewer, we were more than thrilled. Here’s how that chat went down:

iheartthemusic: For those of us out there who don’t yet know, why don’t you share with us how you all came together.

Matt: We actually tracked each other down through a classified ad. We were looking for lovers of the musical caliber and we ended up not loving each other but we both liked each other’s music!

Matthew: You’re a dick.

Matt: Somehow it all worked out in the end.

iheartthemusic: That’s crazy! I have yet to hear of a band that is as talented as you guys and who have started out that way!

Matt: It was music personals.

iheartthemusic: Since you formed you got to be a part of V-Fest. Any highlights from that?

Matthew: There were so many people that we liked. We met Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots that Matt had an altercation with I believe.

Matt: When Scott Weiland came on to the main stage to watch Flaming Lips play, he wouldn’t talk to anybody but for some reason he wanted to talk to me. So I put my arm around him and chatted and got a photo. The whole time we chatted he had these crusty white things on the corners of his mouth and we talked for about four minutes and I still don’t know what he said. After that we went to the Gibson guitar booth where you can play new products, so a few of us were jamming out and Scott came down and got a massage while he listened to us try to do covers of Stone Temple Pilots songs.

iheartthemusic: Was he impressed at all?

Matt: No.

iheartthemusic: [laughs] You just released a debut album and were able to work with some big names in the industry such as Mike Fraser. What was it like working with him?

Matthew: It was really an amazing time. We actually got to go out there and spend time with him. During that time he was mixing an AC/DC record and a Franz Ferdinand album in between ours! He was the nicest guy and he genuinely liked what we were doing, which made us feel really good. He becomes a buddy when he is working with your project and he is so talented at the same time. I don’t think our record would sound the same without him.

iheartthemusic: How would you define your sound?

Matt: I think a lot of the bands that we follow you can of hear it in the music. We aren’t going to limit ourselves and say we’ve got a Brit pop vibe or an indie rock vibe, we just play what comes out of us and it just happens to be what it is. It’s our own thing and it’s happy.

iheartthemusic: So is it a collaborative effort when you write?

Matthew: It’s collaborative, but generally things start with Matt and I. We see something and work on it for a bit and then the whole band takes a crack at it and makes it good.

iheartthemusic: The opening track on the album, “Spooning the Gorilla”, please explain how you came up with that name? There’s got to be a great story behind it!

Matt: I don’t know if we can reveal that!

Matthew: Who is spooning who?

Matt: You were totally spooning me and I had no idea! You drugged me up and spooned me!

Matthew: That’s pretty much it, I drugged Matt up and spooned him the end.

iheartthemusic: I guess we could say that you are a very “close” band! When can we expect this album to come out?

Matthew: I guess we could say it’s out right now on iTunes. The hard copy is going to be released probably in June. It will be available on MySpace, the website, shows and I guess probably through stores.

Matt: We are shooting for June.

iheartthemusic: After doing a cross Canada tour, including a stop in Toronto for CMW, do you have any crazy tour stories from the trip?

Matthew: A lot of spooning going on.

iheartthemusic: Well that’s a given! Where was the best crowd for you?

Matthew: Believe it or not I would have to say Brantford.

Matt: We have to give a shout out to Brantford because they promoted the crap out of the show and they came out to see us play in Toronto as well. The opening band and the bar owner in Brantford came to Toronto and knew the words to our songs and stuff and were really into it. When we got there it was plastered with posters for our show. So it was a sold out crowd, packed wall-to-wall with people and they were right in your face. It was really cool.

iheartthemusic: Do you find it a lot easier to play when the crowd is really loving you and you can feed of each other?

Matt: Oh yeah. We’ve played shows where it hasn’t been promoted properly and there aren’t as many people there. We still put on a good show no matter what because we are just really happy to be doing it, but it certainly helps when the crowd is truly dancing and doing whatever they need to do, enjoying the music. We can feel that energy and it helps us.

iheartthemusic: You played at two venues in Toronto while you were here, what did you like about each?

Matt: We played Kathedral and Cadillac Lounge. Cadillac Lounge was on St. Paddy’s day so that was pretty easy to get everyone drunk and green. That was a lot of fun. Kathedral was fun for different reasons. It was kind of an industry night for CMW,where we met some really nice media, people like iheartthemusic!

iheartthemusic: Flattery WILL get you everywhere! Anything else you want to add?

Matthew: Poutine!

iheartthemusic: What is this obsession with poutine that your band seems to have?

Matt: Well, we are from Calgary and so everything there is beef and when we headed East and got past Saskatchewan, every menu had poutine on it. In fact, when we hit Sault Saint Marie there was an entire menu of different kinds of poutine. We had a guy with us from Wales, who is our sound technician, and he had never heard of it before so we had to try every different kind of poutine and each of us came home with a poutine belly. So we are going to spend the next few weeks working that off. It is tasty stuff!

iheartthemusic: That stuff is amazing when you are hungover or drunk for sure!

Matt: We were hungover and drunk throughout the entire tour so poutine was a welcome addition.

iheartthemusic: So what’s the plan for the future?

Matt: We are going to do a Western Canadian tour in June. We are doing a show with The Von Bondies and then we are going to head out to B.C. and do three days out there and then we are going to do a big tour, like Southern Canada/Northern US, in September.

iheartthemusic: Back to Toronto again?

Matt: Oh yah, we love it [in Toronto]!

Ten Second Epic is a band that hails from Edmonton, Alberta and have been creating a stir within the rock/punk scene for quite some time now. Together, Andrew Usenik (vocals), Dan Carriere (guitar), Craig Spellisey (guitar), Sandy Mackinnon (bass) and Patrick Birtles (drums) recently released their third album, Hometown. iheartthemusic decided to venture out to Kathedral during CMW to check out what all the hype was about. Here’s what they had to say:

iheartthemusic: So, Ten Second Epic?

Sandy: I actually had a weird dream where a naked Zeus was fixing me a grilled cheese sandwich and he said, “from this day forward you shall be known as the Ten Second Epic,” and I ate it in less than 10 seconds. Zeus was wearing kind of like a loin cloth; it was a very erotic dream.

Dan: Zeus had tie-dyed it, it was a like a psychedelic loin cloth.

Sandy: It was wonderful, and you know, I never forgot it, it was a really, really erotic dream.

iheartthemusic: Your style as a band is fairly eclectic. Do you feel that this is a reflection of your sound as well?

Dan: We don’t like to define our sound in relation to what we look like. It’s kind of like what you see is what you get. I could say one thing though; we don’t look like any kind of trend, before or after, we just kind of enjoy playing tunes and writing catchy songs.

Sandy: I mean I don’t look a thing like our singer. I think that’s something to embrace, we have a lot of fun with it. It’s not a costume it’s just our thing.

Dan: We aren’t that theatrical.

iheartthemusic: You recently released your third album, Hometown. Did you choose that title as a homage to Edmonton?

Dan: If you want to get into it, it’s kind of paying homage to where ever you are. The first track on the record is appropriately titled “Welcome To Wherever You Are” and a lot of times that becomes your home. We spent about nine or 10 months of last year in a van and even if we were in a place we didn’t like, at least we had the van there. So it’s just kind of whatever is comfortable for you. It’s a homage to having that.

Sandy: Having your rock.

iheartthemusic: So with all this touring, you must have shared the stage with some amazing bands?

Sandy: We did an American tour with a band called Cartel that was unbelievable. We were like the hick boys in big New York City, having a great time, getting wasted, riding the subway. In Canada, we did the Hedley tour and those guys are awesome dudes. We had a ball hanging out with them. It was a lot of fun.

Dan: A lot of these bands that people will naturally turn their nose up to, as I would when I was younger, can really surprise you. When we started touring with Hedley, they started covering rock songs and they were incredible musicians. That’s what people forget about. It sounds like simple pop music, but a lot of times these guys are top of their game for any song.

iheartthemusic: What has been your favourite place to play?

Sandy: I like playing just about anywhere in Canada. It’s up to the band to bring the party, when the party’s brought and everyone is getting wasted, slamming beers on their head, and kicking holes in the wall, you know it’s a success!

Dan: You know the worst is when you are at a show and there are people who are there who don’t know why they are at a show. So whenever you get the vibe that people like being there, then that’s the whole point of it all.

Sandy: Really, at the end of the day I still love getting on stage and I love in my heart knowing that we’ve got something to prove. Even if these people have seen us a million times, and they’ve probably seen us at our worst and seen us at our best, every night we’ve got something to prove.

iheartthemusic: You also have a video out for your single “Lifetimes”, which recieved heavy rotation on MuchMusic.

Dan: The idea of the song is kind of a cheesy point, but it is that you wait forever for that person to say I love you to you. So we decided to put a different spin on that concept and we thought what can’t say I love you? First we thought maybe we will have an animal, but that didn’t work, so we thought of having a baby and just went with that because they can’t talk. It was a blast hanging out with a baby all day.

Sandy: There are two babies, actually. The one baby was so pretty and the other one was, like, missing teeth and carrying a knife on its side and loved drinking and shit.

iheartthemusic: [laughs] That was the stunt baby right!? What’s been your favourite place in Toronto to play?

Sandy: I love The Opera House. I think The Opera House is, bar none, one of my favourite places.

Dan: I like playing Mod Club.

iheartthemusic: What did you love about them?

Sandy: What I liked about The Opera House was that it was just, like, in your face; you could interact with the crowd. It almost felt like someone could grab you. It’s just got that vibe to it.

iheartthemusic: Any crazy fan moments?

Dan: There is tons of weird stuff. One time I showed up at this show and this girl had gotten my face airbrushed on both the front and back of her cell phone, like on the casing.

Sandy: I don’t really find that fans do creepy stuff, I think it’s awesome. If I was meeting Iron Maiden I would probably be doing some weird shit too. I love it when kids are so into it.

iheartthemusic: What’s up next for you guys?

Sandy: We are going down to California to do Bamboozle where we will be playing with 50 Cent. Then we are going to announce some dates soon and rip shit across Canada for over a month and have a fucking ball.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add for your fans?

Sandy: We have a new video coming to MuchMusic right away for “Welcome to Wherever You Are,” which is the opening track off the record. It will be hitting MuchMusic pretty soon so request the living shit out of that!

Ten Second Epic has JUST announced their first headlining tour in support of their new record, Hometown. The “Welcome to Your Hometown” tour kicks off next month with a stop in Toronto on May 30th at The Mod Club. Check out their website for dates in your city!!

Photography provided by Matt Vardy