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

If you haven’t already heard of The Envy don’t fret, it may be because when they played Toronto last they went by a completely different name: Crowned King.  Now under their new moniker they’re currently on a cross-country tour with good friends and label mates The Midway State. Having seen The Envy when they played under the name Crowned King, we were anxiously awaiting the new lineup and killer tunes that their recently released EP, Don’t Let Go, has been blasting from our stereos over the past few weeks. Their sound is a mixture of rock and pop and their live performance is anything but boring. These guys brought the house down at Mod Club on April 17^th and we were front and centre to get in on some of that action. Lead singer Shaun’s vocals were flawless, and with their rock star look and West Coast attitude, everyone appeared to be extremely excited to have them on stage.

iheartthemusic: So the band as The Envy has only been around for a few short months, but Shaun, you played in another band for quite some time, right?

Shaun: I played in another band for the last eight years called Crowned King, which taught me a lot about the music industry and touring. We toured all around the world -we went to Asia, Australia and all over North America – and I learned everything that I wanted to know about how to do this. Then when I started this band, it was just like here is what I learned and let’s take it to the next level. Some of the songs that I had written at the end of Crowned King are now The Envy songs. It’s a new band with hopefully a good future ahead of us!

iheartthemusic: You guys just released your debut EP as The Envy, that’s exciting!

Shaun: The EP came out about a month ago. We launched our EP by playing at a bunch of high schools in Toronto. It was really cool.

iheartthemusic: So how did you meet the rest of the band?

Shaun: Near the end of my old band I was doing a lot of songwriting and working with a producer named Gavin Brown in Toronto and he introduced me to Steve [guitar].

Steve: We’ve been working together for about two and half years now.

Shaun: We started working together way before The Envy, and then when it came time to start this band, myself and Steve just kind of headed it up and found some really amazing guys from Toronto. Our drummer Izzy just moved over from France and he’s a total prodigy on the drums and Bodan, our bass player, has played in bands forever. Johnny, our keyboard player, was in Crowned King with me so it feels like a really strong group. I’ve never had this much inter-band charisma.

Steve: We all have one goal.

Shaun: We all have our heads in the same place and I’ve never really been in any situation like that in my life, where everyone is like here is what we are going to do and let’s do it. Everyone is so on board.

iheartthemusic: That’s awesome! You are now on tour with The Midway State, which is your second tour with them. How did that relationship form?

Shaun: We are actually labelmates and I had been writing with Nathan a lot, so when it came time for a tour it just seemed like the obvious choice, and then when it came time for this tour we were like let’s do it again.

Steve: It worked really well before.

Shaun: This is our first tour as The Envy, though.

iheartthemusic: What do you hope people will get from your EP?

Shaun: I was saying to the guys the other day that right now I really love the new Kings of Leon record and everyday when I wake up I just want to turn it on, like I have to hear it. So I guess I hope that people out there who have our EP, or eventually our album, will, before they go to bed or when they wake up, have it in their head and they need to hear it because they just love it. That was the goal and hopefully it connects with people like that, which would be amazing!

iheartthemusic: You guys just came back from a trip to Vancouver for the Junos and apparently you had some bus troubles south of the border. What happened?

Shaun: We toured across Canada with The Midway State and went out for the Junos and did all the Juno fanfare stuff. Then they went to Halifax for this Death Cab For Cutie show and we decided to take the shorter route home, which is drop down over the border and head across the interstates. We ended up breaking down like five times and by the fifth time we broke down it was in Billings, Montana, which is this amazing little town. It’s about 200,000 people and is a total up and coming town with clubs and casinos.

Steve: Nurses, doctors, scientists.

Shaun: Just a weird, weird place and we knew right away when we got there that it was the friendliest place we’ve ever been. So when we found out that our bus repairs were going to be over four grand US, which is like five grand Canadian, we were like shit we’ve got to put on a benefit concert on to raise some money. So we called our manager and told him that we were going to throw a concert. We went to Kinko’s and made tickets and fliers and started to go around town distributing them. We went to all the happy hours at all the bars and started to talk to everyone.

Steve: People just started latching on all of sudden.

Shaun: The newspaper even ran an article, and then the next morning the main radio personality guy was pounding on the bus while we were sleeping. He told us to go with him and we ended up doing the morning show. By the next day every radio station was telling the story and promoting the show and when the show finally came around, it was packed!

Steve: While we were promoting it people were telling us that they were already coming to it.

Shaun: The whole town showed up and it ended up being this unbelievable show and we raised a ton of money to fix the transmission.

iheartthemusic: And get yourselves home!

Shaun: Exactly, and here we are!

iheartthemusic: Do you think it was easier because it was a smaller town?

Shaun: Absolutely, it was also a small town in North middle America, just starving for something to do. We stood out; I mean, we don’t look like the average Billings, Montana homeboys.

iheartthemusic: You guys also recently shot a video.

Shaun: Yes we did. We are still putting the pieces together and will be probably putting it out with the album. The album isn’t out yet, but should be out in the fall. The video is for a song called “Don’t Let Go”, which is on the EP and should be on the record.

iheartthemusic: Do you want to divulge anything about the video?

Shaun: It’s a really dark video. A guy named Frank Borin did it, he actually did some of The Midway State videos, but he also did Red Hot Chili Peppers, Good Charlotte, Eminem – some big bands. He came up with this idea and it’s all about how the band is lit. His videos look so slick and it was shot at night in this old abandoned shipyard, which has since been torn down. It was shot in North Vancouver so it’s a bit nostalgic for me because it’s where I am from.

iheartthemusic: What’s going to happen next?

Shaun: We are going to the Maritimes this summer, then to the middle of Canada for all of August, and then September we will be touring Ontario non-stop.

iheartthemusic: Out of everyone that you have been able to share the stage with, who has been your favourite and why?

Shaun: Well, as The Envy we have mainly played shows with The Midway State and on our own.

Steve: Mobile was pretty cool.

iheartthemusic: What is your favourite venue to listen to music and why?

Shaun: This venue, The Mod Club.

Steve: It has the best sound and the best vibe.

Shaun: I just heard The Midway State sound check and I can’t believe how good the sound is. For me, that’s such a big part of it.

Steve: So much impact.

iheartthmusic: Favourite bar in Toronto?

Shaun: I love The Gladstone, go out for some karaoke. I’m new to Toronto so I don’t know if that’s the cool answer. Where I don’t like is The Drake. We had the worst night there the other night.

Steve: In a matter of five minutes I was told that I couldn’t stand in a certain place because they will loose their license.

Shaun: It was also full of people who I wouldn’t normally want to hang out with. No more Drake for us.

iheartthemusic: No Hideout action?

Shaun: The Hideout, where’s that?

iheartthemusic: It’s across the street from Tattoo Rock Parlour and is probably one of the best grungy bars in Toronto and it plays live music most nights.

Shaun: Well thank you because that’s where we will go. I also went to Wrongbar the other night, which was pretty sweet.

iheartthemusic: If you could share the stage with any band, who would it be and why?

Shaun: I would love to open that Kings of Leon show on Tuesday night!

Steve: If we could open for U2 that would be pretty sweet as well.

Shaun: U2 has always been one of my staple favourites, I love Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, the new Kanye West record or have him do something on one of our tracks.

iheartthemusic: Any crazy fan moments?

Shaun: Sheri Love from Billings, Montana. I can’t really divulge too many details, but let’s just say that we hung out with her for a night and the next day we got a call from the Billings Police Department and she was claiming that we stole her wedding ring. Which was absolutely impossible, like how do you steal someone’s wedding ring?

Steve: She wrote this lengthy letter to the police.

Shaun: For a day she was telling everyone that we robbed her.

iheartthemusic: And she was a fan?

Shaun: She was someone we met, pretty much a 45-year-old cougar.

iheartthemusic: That’s crazy, you have to watch out for the cougars! Has the recession affected your writing style at all?

Shaun: When we made this record, it was made over the last two years, and every time we wrote we were trying to make what we wrote the best song. It was never about the fact that we needed an album track and I don’t know if I’m going to regret that, but it’s an album full of songs that were written to be singles.

Steve: We don’t like filler.

Shaun: There is a lot of pressure on bands these days and it’s tough to succeed nowadays. We have a really good team right now though: fans, friends and writers.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add?

Shaun: You can listen to our songs on the MySpace.

Steve: My favourite website is iheartthemusic.com!

Great tunes and clearly charmers as well! Be sure to check out their MySpace for tour dates near you!

photography provided by Matt Vardy

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

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

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