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

We are offering one lucky winner:

-a CD from each of the bands playing

-a mini screen printed poster

-an Exclaim! t-shirt courtesy of Third Estate

-TWO tickets to the show

In order to enter the contest please email: contest[at]iheartthemusic[dot]com with your first and last name.

The winner will be notified on Thursday, December 10th by 5pm. Good luck!

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ABOUT THE BANDS:

OH NO FOREST FIRES
You say you like rock and roll? You say you like sugar coated pop? Say no more. -If you go to rock shows in Toronto then you will likely come face to face with the raucous guitar pandemonium and explosive sing-a-longs that is Oh No Forest Fires. And when it happens, be warned. You may be transformed into a very sweaty young child that substitutes a sugar binge for a forgotten Ritalin dosage. Amidst juicy and dynamic pop songs, Oh No Forest Fires find a home for epic post rock guitar frenzies. With too-catchy-too-be-true choruses tying the beautifully messy songs together, anything can happen while the four piece is on stage. This year the band nearly topped the CBC Radio 3 and campus charts with their debut EP, The War on Geometry. They were also featured at this year’s NXNE, Over the Top Fest, Pop Montreal and Halifax Pop Explosion festivals!
MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/ohnoforestfires

MAKE YOUR EXIT
You could try to describe the sound of the five eclectic musical backgrounds melding together to become what is Make Your Exit with fancy words and hyperbole… but the overbearing fact of their music is that it’s simply honest. And honest music isn’t always easy to come by. It’s stripped down, yet amped up, it’s noisy and abrasive, yet quiet and modest. It’s the sounds of five extremely talented twenty somethings just letting it all out. Lucky for us, their post-rock release lands somewhere between familiar and completely unfamiliar. Four part vocal harmonies akin to Fleet Foxes, with the addition of jazzy saxophone parts, and just the right tasteful amount of Canadiana twang – Make Your Exit is unlike anything you’ve heard before, yet it won’t be hard to wrap your head around. This year the band released their second EP,Remind Me the Reason I Came to a sold out Sneaky Dees. Often referred to as the best EP released this year, expect to hear much more from these young and restless musicians.
MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/makeyourexit

CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
Clothes Make the Man is like a group of loud mouthed kids yelling into microphones alongside cranked up amplifiers and pounding drums… except with beards and deeper voices. The band manages to maintain the same level of wide eyed enthusiasm with every set they play. CMTM are masterful songwriters, almost unbeknownst to themselves. In dark bars, parties, or bright festival stages CMTM transform into raucous punk rock and rollers, yelling about the economy and its endless digression, schizophrenia, alcohol and of course, girls. Fist pumping in the form of group sing-a-longs so huge and juicy it could make you sick. And yet, in the midst of all this aggression and rage, emerges some of the biggest hearted songs this culturally confused city of Toronto could bear to emit. In between the dripping sweat and guitar heavy choruses, the band opens their collective 8 arms and hugs the audience with their vicious wall of sound. And whether you like it or not, you’re getting a big wet one! Their raging rock anthems on their debut self titled release brought them to venues across the country, sharing stages with Cancer Bats, Moneen, The Dears, Malajube, Attack in Black. 2009 saw them holed up in the studio with producer Julius “Juice” Butty (Alexisonfire) working on their second LP, Distance, to be released in 2009 with a bang!
MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/clothesmaketheman

THE BALCONIES
The Balconies are not your normal Canadian indie-rock band. They are a family collective, a super group, and the most infectious three some out of Ontario right now all at once. Co-vocalists Jacquie Neville and Stephen Neville are siblings! And drummer Liam Jaegar is dating Jacquie! They are made up of members from Ottawa bands Jetplanes of Abraham and For the Mathematics, and formed in Ottawa while studying music at Ottawa U. Their debut album, released this year, has been raising quite the commotion. The songs are well-written pop masterpieces, highlighted by the girl/boy vocal trade-off. All with extensive music backgrounds, the Balconies have a knack for writing songs that are timeless and memorable instantaneously. Having played alongside Mother Mother, Dog Day, and at this year’s NXNE, Pop Montreal, and Ottawa Bluesfest, keep your eyes peeled for what’s next from this truly unique outfit.
MYSPACE http://www.myspace.com/thebalconies

ABOUT AUDIO BLOOD INC.:

Audio Blood is a full service artist development company based in Toronto, Ontario. Audio Blood has been existing in some sort of medium since 2006. What started out as an online magazine that later turned in to a small circuited print zine, and a production company (putting on shows in Barrie and Toronto) soon grew in to a marketing and publicity company. Now Audio Blood Inc. includes Audio Blood Booking, Audio Blood Media (public relations, marketing, and radio promotion), and Audio Blood MGMT. Audio Blood has built longstanding relationships with labels including (Nevado Records, Wax Records, and Wind-Up Records)  and has helped jump start careers for some of Canada’s favourites (Still Life Still, Green Go, Fox Jaws). Audio Blood’s current roster includes: Dinosaur Bones, Elias, Modernboys Moderngirls, The Junction, and more.
http://www.audioblood.com

ABOUT THIRD ESTATE INC.:

Third Estate is a full-service music merchandising company based in Toronto, Ontario. Our services include Product Development & Design, in-house production, and online store fronts; all designed to make sure our clients have the right products at the right price, on time, every time. So whether it’s a matter of getting the right product, a lightning-fast turnaround, or a globally accessible online storefront, we’ll be there so that the last thing you have to worry about is your merch.

http://www.third-estate.com

Releasing an album can be nerve wracking and exciting for anyone; releasing an album and doing it independently magnifies that feeling even more. But for the guys in Toronto-based band Arietta, they appear to have a calm, cool and collected attitude towards the whole process. Meeting and chatting with the six-piece at The Hideout on a Sunday afternoon left everyone laughing out loud and excited for what’s to come for this young group of guys. The band is made up of Tyler Johnston (vocals), Sean Ramesbottom (guitar), Brian Craig (guitar), Kyle Smith (bass), Shehzaad Jiwani (drums) and Patrick McCormack (multi-instruments). Their sound is something that really can’t be defined, nor do they want it to be. Having formed a tight-knit relationship with fellow Toronto musicians, these guys have surrounded themselves with a musical community that consists of some of the best talent this city has to offer. Arietta is on the forefront of many music critics’ radars. iheartthemusic spoke with all six (yes ALL six) members about the release of their debut album, Migration (which is out TODAY), and how they are one of the hardest working bands out there.

iheartthemusic: How did Arietta come to be?

Sean: A few of us grew up in Scarborough, and Brian, Tyler and I more or less started the band because we knew each other in high school but we were never in the same friend circle – we were just acquaintances. In the latter years of school we started to play and jam together and thus formed the start of Arietta.

iheartthemusic: How long have you been this six-piece for?

Sean: This six-piece is pretty new; I’d say just over a year.

iheartthemusic: So with six people in the band what is the writing process like?

Tyler: Originally, when we first started, Sean brought the main chunk of a song to the table and then we all kind of welded it down, switched some stuff around and everyone put in their parts. With reviews for the album so far, everyone is saying that it sounds really eclectic with regards to instrumentation and genre. I mean, we’ve got so many different instruments on this album, and I think with the new members, and a lot of them being song writers from different bands, that’s going to be good and a little tricky. But we will have a lot more to work with and I think it might come a lot quicker than we would think it would at this point.

Shehzaad: It’s also kind of cool because everyone plays, or at least attempts to play, different stuff. The last few times we’ve jammed, we’ve all done switches. It’s a lot more fun!

iheartthemusic: That’s so cool!

Sean: I think it has helped my writing style a lot, having other guys to depend on who can fill in the gaps and that I trust because their writing is just on par. I know that if I’m stuck, they are right there to fill out the space. We work really cohesively.

iheartthemusic: That’s pretty incredible that you guys are all on the same page in that way.

Shehzaad: It also helps that we are not on the same page a lot of the time. It sometimes takes a while to kind of make everybody see.

Tyler: I think we understand where everyone comes from, yet we all come from different places. Whereas one guy might play a riff to one drum beat, another guy may sound totally different playing to the same riff and it all depends on who picked up the guitar.

Shehzaad: It’s like a gradient from being Sean, on the one hand, who is really technical and then me and Pat being the opposite and having no musical theory background.

iheartthemusic: With this album, you spoke about how the reviews have been all over the place with regards to trying to fit you into a certain genre or sound, but what would you like people to take from this album musically?

Shehzaad: The big thing is equal balance of melody and technical musicianship. The reviews so far have nailed that and everyone who has heard the record has honed in on that too, which we were surprised with.

Tyler: Yeah, that was surprising because it’s quite easy to write it off as pop. We come from a place where being slightly different or technical goes a long way. A lot of us listen to music that isn’t even in the pop genre at all. We listen to all that kind of stuff and have such an appreciation for it, but at the same time we also have a very big appreciation for pop music all the way up to Fall Out Boy. So I think trying to mesh really technical parts where everyone [listening] is satisfied as a musician, with parts where we’ve taken it to a level that has challenged them, has worked for us and a lot of people are picking up on that. They hear that we’re testing our own limits, but at the same time we aren’t catering to one specific market.

iheartthemusic: Do you think catering to all these different sounds and styles will confuse people or turn them off?

Sean: I think right now we’ve definitely come across a long road of proving to people that we can have a very wide spectrum of songs and influences and I think, at first, it is one of those things that a lot of people don’t know how to take. Then once they do, they really enjoy it. So I think people may be hesitant at first, but so far with reviews we couldn’t be happier and people have understood that we are a progressive pop/rock band. Since we started doing this, people were finding it hard to swallow and not really getting it. However, with [the release of] this record, people are falling into it right away and understanding it. If things go the way they have been, I don’t think we’ll have a problem.

iheartthemusic: I was told by a close source that I am supposed to ask you about Weezer?

Shehzaad: We don’t know what you are talking about!

iheartthemusic: All I heard is that I have to ask you about Weezer, so come on, spill it!

Patrick: The Waking Eyes were coming through town and they are known for every now and then playing the Blue album in its entirety. So, Travis Porter came to us and said that they were going to come this night and play and asked us if we wanted to do Pinkerton. For quite a few of us, that is one of our favourite albums, so there was no question that we were going to do it.

Tyler: However, we had how many days of practice before we were going to perform!? Travis called us and expected Arietta as a band to go up on stage and play the Pinkerton album. Well, instead of doing that, we kept it a secret and decided that four of us in the band would, instead of coming out and playing the instruments we normally play, switch instruments and learn the album front to back in three days with only three three hour practices. We’ll say we had about 10 to 12 hours of learning an album on instruments we don’t play.

iheartthemusic: That seems like a really smart idea! [laughs] Did people enjoy your rendition?

Shehzaad: People liked us more than The Waking Eyes.

Tyler: Not me!

iheartthemusic: Well good for you for braving that crowd! You guys aren’t signed to any label, so what was the process like getting this album out without any major backing?

Tyler: Hard and extensive. We had help from different sources; from ourselves and the bank, but at the same time it also benefited us. There are positives and negatives to being on a label or not being on a label.

Patrick: Part of it is money and part of it is legwork.

Tyler: Right now we are self-sustaining; we book all our own tours, we get press, we’ve done everything ourselves, which isn’t as hard when you have six guys in the band. We are our own label, band, management company – essentially we are everything.

Sean: It makes you understand the industry and the process. We’ve been doing this for a little while now and, through different bands, have been part of the industry. Without everyone’s hard work and determination it never would have happened. That literally is the only thing that got us through. With finances, if you work hard enough you will find it and you can work with someone that will support you. If you don’t do it yourself then it’s not going to happen.

Shehzaad: Right now, more than ever, there have been opportunities for bands to do that, whereas before it was really hard to succeed without a label.

iheartthemusic: It seems like you almost don’t need one now.

Shehzaad: Yeah, exactly. You can totally just do it on your own. Bands that we know can get by on their own with maybe just a publicist or a booker for tours.

iheartthemusic: Are you striving to get signed though?

Tyler: Yeah totally. It helps when you have a lot of friends in the industry too. So we do have an advantage in that way in terms of hookups with a lot of promoters, bookers, publicists, managers, a lot of these people who may not necessarily be able to help us at this point in time, but will point us in the direction or put in a good word for us, whatever they can do which is really great.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of friends, there seems to be a love triangle going on between Arietta, Dinosaur Bones and Great Bloomers. Where did that come from?

Tyler: And Oh No Forest Fires!

Sean: We are trying to start a new community.

iheartthemusic: Actually?

Patrick: It’s not a conscious effort.

Tyler: Essentially, what’s happened is this city has had for a while now this cross-armed, look at the ground, unless-you-make-it-big-somewhere-else-piss-off kind of attitude, which is fine because it happens in big cities and you can’t let it get to you. At the same time, through having a lot of friends in bands that are very talented and seeing them push really hard and getting no response, we’ve almost created this community. Usually these communities start where it’s like five bands and they are all hardcore or metal or punk rock. But with us you’ve got like a prog/pop band, you’ve got a country/alt band, all these different bands that are doing very well in their respective genres, which is very odd to see.

iheartthemusic: Did you guys all know each other before the bands started?

Tyler: Yeah, I’ve known Branko, the bassist in Dinosaur Bones, since I was about three years old. That’s probably the oldest friend I have. I met Ben, the singer, through him years ago because we used to go to concerts together.

Sean: Two of the Great Bloomers members, the drummer Andrew and the bassist Ty, used to be in our band. They were our original members.

iheartthemusic: No way! So that’s why there is so much love there! Do you think that sense of community is a Toronto thing?

Tyler: I think it’s a big city thing. The whole idea of making it somewhere else and then coming back rings very true, especially in this city. I’ve seen bands play here for years, pushing tons and then all of a sudden someone in Japan likes their band so they go over there and tour for a few months and then come back and they are the biggest band ever here. We are a very ‘turn your back on your own kind until someone else shows some interest’ city, which is a very vicious thing to say, but I think Toronto has been like that for a while now. So we will be going to the UK for a few weeks!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] I was going to say that! Have you guys had any performance mishaps?

Sean: This band is notorious for faulty gear. Brian’s amp blew up once!

iheartthemusic: What do you do when that happens? Smile and hope no one notices?

Tyler: He sings all the guitar parts!

Sean: We’ve had friends lend us gear. I couldn’t even tell you the number of times that we’ve had to share gear. We run a pretty large pedal board, so if something goes wrong with that you are spending like 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out where the problem is. When you have a band with six people and a lot of gear, it poses a lot of issues!

iheartthemusic: I can imagine! So you guys play Horseshoe this Thursday for your CD release, will this be your first time playing at Horseshoe?

Tyler: Yeah, actually it is.

iheartthemusic: That’s amazing! After the album drops what’s up next?

Tyler: Ontario/Quebec/East Coast tour in the summer. We are pretty much ongoing for the rest of our lives.

iheartthemusic: Where can people get the album?

Tyler: All those online retailers like iTunes or Amazon. You can also get it at Sunrise Records and all the local stores. Hopefully you come out to a show and see us and then you can get it there. That’s the best way to do it and you can get it cheaper and a high five!

iheartthmusic: I’m sold on the high five! If there was one thing we should know about Arietta, what would it be?

Tyler: We are very handsome.

Patrick: When you’ve got six guys in a band there is probably more than one thing you need to know!

Brian: You have to know your Simpsons references!

Well there you have it! Be sure to check them out this Thursday, May 7th at the Horseshoe, pick up the album and of course get that high five!

photography provided by April Day