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

What started with a bunch of friends coming together to play in support of the launch of a magazine, Blues in D have grown into something so much more than an “opening band”. With the tragic loss of band member Dylan Ellis in the early stages of the band’s existence, the remaining members were pushed to continue on their musical path finding even more motivation to continue to do what they do best: bring blues-inspired tunes to the mainstream. Frontman and founder Ben McPhee sat down with iheartthemusic before their set at the PEACE DOT LOVE music festival: a festival that is in support of local anti-violence initiatives that work towards preventing random acts of violence – a cause that is important to the Toronto five-some.Ben shared with us the inspiration behind the group that is Blues in D today…

iheartthemusic:  How did you come to be?

Ben: Myself, Dylan and Oliver ran an online magazine for a couple of years called 2point0 and to raise money to try and get it to print, we started to throw parties. We had this one party in February 2008 that we knew we needed some music for. I had been playing with Dylan and his brother Cody for a while, just dicking around on the guitar and we were like “why don’t we just play”. So we found a drummer and opened up for this band and ended up playing a bunch of blues tunes for fifty people at this party. We named ourselves The BDC Blues Band and that went really well with people suggesting that we play another show. Unfortunately shortly after that we lost Dylan and that gave us more motivation than ever to keep it going. We got a new bassist, another guitarist and started hitting the stone really hard; practicing a lot and doing a lot of regular gigs and charity shows. Now we are Blues in D.

iheartthemusic: Is the “D” an homage to Dylan?

Ben: Absolutely! Our signature stuff is a bunch of blues tunes and we always close the show with the first song we ever played together that we wrote. We started off as blues and now we are doing a lot of our original rock stuff.

iheartthemusic: Where did the blues influence come from?

Ben: I had been playing guitar for a while and when Dylan started to pick it up, the first stuff that I started playing with him was blues music. He kind of gravitated towards that, so whenever we would sit and jam in his basement it was blues stuff. Then when he started teaching Cody how to play it was blues as well. So when that first show came around it seemed like an obvious fit or choice for us to play. I also just happened to have a voice that suited that genre and so that’s where it all started.

iheartthemusic: Any musical influences then?

Ben: I’ve got a bunch; Led Zeppelin, Soundgarden…

iheartthemusic: Soundgarden has not been a name I have heard in a while!

Ben: I love complex music and melody and lyrics that actually, when it all comes together, sound fairly straightforward. I think they are the geniuses of that.

iheartthemusic: Do you all come from different musical backgrounds?

Ben: Yeah. I’ve had training on piano and drums and am self-taught guitar and singing. Cody is self-taught guitar. Andrei and Tura are self-taugh bass and drums. The only one person that has formal training on the instrument they are playing is Nick, our other guitarist. The musical background is the coolest part of the band because I’m really into rock and alternative rock and hip hop and funk. Nick is really into hippy-shit. He’s into Grateful Dead. Cody is into straight blues, Andrei is into alternative rock and Tura is into to funk and Caribbean stuff.

iheartthemusic: We’ve got no punk in there!

Ben: Yeah, there’s no punk!

ihearttthemusic: Maybe I should join the band with the cymbals! [laughs]

Ben: I’ve had a couple of offers to play emo punk stuff for fun and it got shot down pretty quickly. It’s the one genre we can’t agree on!

iheartthemusic: Is it tough for an unsigned band to get noticed?

Ben: It is for a number of reasons. I mean we aren’t really going full bore into being popular, we just want people to enjoy our music.

iheartthemusic: Okay, but is this something that you hope to do as a career?

Ben: I would depending on how much of a pain in the ass it really was. The problem isn’t how easy it is to get your music in the world, it’s just how much noise it creates on the shitty end of the stick. There is so much brutal stuff out there and I hate to put people down who are working really hard, but it’s an industry with a lot of great talent but also a lack of talent. A lot of bad noise gets out there and people hear that and sort of get disenchanted with the entire music genre as a whole. Like, a lot of people base what’s happening with music on what’s on the radio. There isn’t anything that sets people apart which is why you find sex symbols at sixteen years old; selling all the records because that’s an easy sell. The other thing is our genre, we are very very classic rock- we don’t want to sound like anybody else. When we recorded our EP over the summer last year we were so happy to hear the guys in the recording studio be like “we can’t pinpoint who you guys sound like”. That was it for us- mission accomplished. I don’t care if it makes us not sell a lot of records because the idea is that we want to sound like our sound and we want to bring originality to music. I think that right now the instinct is to go with what is easy to hear or popular, and we are going with what we love and think would be original for peope to listen to.

These guys are planning to release a full album by the end of August/beginning of September.

photography provided by Matt Vardy & Carl Heindl

SUNRiSER are asking many questions these days, but the one that stands out the most corresponds with their recent album titled Is This a Good Life?.  Having had the opportunity to do tours across Canada, the UK and Ireland (which was made easier by bandmates actually being from that part of the world) the title of their recent album appears to be fitting for this up-and-coming act. They just played an amazing set at the PEACE DOT LOVE Music Festival during NXNE and are currently travelling to promote the recent addition to their musical accolades.

iheartthemusic: Your band consists of a bunch of guys from all over the world, how did you all meet then?

Davey: It was a lot of things happening at the right time really. We’ve all got our own stories of how we all met; some guys are online, some guys are friends of friends, some guys through other bands. Just the fact that we managed to stick it out this long together, we take pride in that.

Declan: I was online. I came here in 2001 and went online and the  lads were advertising for a bass player so I met the guys and then that was it.

iheartthemusic: You guys got very lucky then! So let’s talk a little bit about this album- what was the recording process like?

Declan: It was recorded in Toronto.

Saam: We did the drums and bass in Toronto. Most of the vocals were done in preproduction.

Darryl: It took about a year and a half- it was a long process!

iheartthemusic: Often times bands find the recording process very  strenuous. Are you a band that are more partial to playing live than recording?

Darryl: I am totally live as opposed to recording. These guys love it, but I love live.

iheartthemusic: In the age of digital downloads; were you apprehensive at all to come out with a new album?

Davey: Yes.

iheartthemusic: So why not just do the download thing?

Sean: Well we have both. I think just old school wise it’s nice if you are going to  a show that you have something to take home with you.

Darryl: At the end of the day you might as well just have both!

Declan: You can’t go home with an MP3! [laughs]

iheartthemusic: How was it touring overseas?

Declan: It’s different in every country for me. In Canada there are so many places  and so the advantage of touring in Ireland and the UK is you can play in a lot more places in a faster time. Canada is just geographically massive and so is incredibly different.

Darryl: St.Johns, Newfoundland is the best place in Canada!

Declan: iTunes and MySpace have made it so accessible for fans from all over the world to research you and get in contact with you which is great!

iheartthemusic: So I am assuming you’ve jumped on the twitter bandwagon too!

Darryl: Yeah we have.

Davey: There are only so many hours in the day to update all these social networking tools! It’s like an hour out of your day sitting at your computer!

iheartthemusic: What has been your favourite venue to play at in Toronto?

Davey: We have a really good relationship with The Horseshoe and the vibe and history of that place is awesome. It’s a great room. We also really enjoy The Mod Club. You know it’s a newer place but its really band friendly which is cool.

iheartthemusic: I love seeing shows at The Mod Club, so its nice to hear that a band enjoys playing there too!

Davey: Yeah, I mean the “dives” are cool and you can’t turn your back on that but when you show up at a really posh place it’s a nice treat too.

Saam: Supermarket is nice as well because it is a more intimate vibe and you get a nice connection with the audience.

Declan: But the history of The Horseshoe is pretty intense- I mean you can feel it when you walk into the place.

Darryl: Everyone gets treated the same too. It doesn’t matter if you are The Rolling Stones or  us- we are all in the same room, walking up the same stairs and getting treated the same.

iheartthemusic: Absolutely! Has there been anyone that you were able to play with that blew you away?

Darryl: French Kicks from New York were pretty cool.

Davey: We are certainly hopeful that with the release of this new album we will be able to play with some of these bands that we idolize. That’s sort of where we are at and the place that we want to go.

iheartthemusic: What made you guys decide to play for  PEACE DOT LOVE?

Saam: A friend of mine had been to a few shows and enjoyed them and her friend was actually organizing the festival and then it turns out that a couple of our friends knew the two guys that got killed. So they basically got in touch with us to play.

Davey: It’s also got some other great bands playing, its at the Kool Haus and we’ve never played there before so that is cool. We are pretty honoured to be a part of it. We feel pretty lucky.

Darryl: It’s one of the best things that musicians can do. They are always the first to answer the call, I think. I believe that musicians have a pretty good social conscience.

iheartthemusic: Tell us something that people woudn’t know about SUNRiSER.

Declan: I think musically we are kind of diverse. There are different elements to our sound that other bands don’t usually have.

iheartthemusic: You have to have some stories along your travels that you can share?

Darryl: Well in Manchester we ruined our rental van.

iheartthemusic: Partying?

Declan: Yeah, you could put it that way! It was the most expensive tour ever!

Darryl: We will just say that we had a band member that decided to get the party going in the van before we got home. The cleaning bill was huge and let’s just leave it at that!

iheartthemusic: After this album release what’s the plan?

Declan: We will be going out East supposedly in July.

Davey: We aren’t able to do it all at once, so we are going to handle the East coast in July and then Ontario/Quebec in August and then take it as it comes for September.

Darryl: Hopefully we can head back to the UK at the end of September.

The first ever Peace Dot Love music festival took place during NXNE at the Koolhaus. It was a musical tribute to Dylan Ellis and Oliver Martin who were gunned down in a parked car in June 2008, a horrible crime that has yet to be solved. The fest was put on by 102.1 the Edge, D.O. It! (an organization formed to raise funds for youth violence prevention groups), LOVE and Peacebuilders International in partnership with NXNE (as well as some other sponsors, including iheartthemusic).

It began with DJ duo TMDP. Despite their early start time they had the crowd that was there grooving to their tunes. It wasn’t a large crowd, but that didn’t seem to affect the tunes coming off the turntables as these consummate professionals performed with the same energy as when iheartthemusic witnessed them spin to an at-capacity Circa crew. (If you missed them you can see them at the TIME Festival at Sound Academy on July 25.)

Stereos were met with a plethora of pre-pubescent screams from the throngs of teenyboppers who rushed the stage. Personally I thought it sounded like watered down radio dribble with too much auto-tune. However, I also think the latest album from Black Eyed Peas had too much auto-tune and Stereo’s song “Summer Girl” was number one on iTunes so they mustn’t be doing much wrong (but I’d be hard pressed to pick out what they were doing exceptionally right). In any case, the PG-13 prepubescent portion of the Koolhaus seemed to dig it as they screamed and sang along to every song, including “She Only Likes Me When I’m Drunk” (love the title). Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste… or lack thereof.

Feeling Stereo-ed out, I popped through the rabbit hole into the side room where I discovered a polar bear playing bass, an Elton John-looking lead singer and a percussion apparatus that resembled a mix between Dick Van Dyke’s instrumental outfit in Mary Poppins and a medieval torture contraption. The band sounded like a lot of fun… unfortunately no one was able to tell me who they were (if you’re reading this and you know the answer, let us know).

True to form Down With Webster gave a high-octane performance. This large ensemble band is an amalgamation of high energy electro with large doses of rap and rock. One of the highlights was the when the drummer had a fun video game soundtrack solo (the low light was when one of the silly members threw beer on our photographer, not cool dude!). Even when they experienced some technical difficulties they kept the crowd entertained by busting out a freestyle. And they were entertaining, I even spotted some parents grooving to their tunes.

Simultaneously We Are the Take had a work out on the stage next door. These boys played so hard they were quite literally dripping with sweat. The passion in playing engaged the crowd who seemed fully immersed (or should I say “taken in”) by the band. These guys always put on a good show and are clearly garnering a devout fan following.

Dragonette was nothing less than awesome. iheartthemusic had the pleasure of speaking to the husband and wife team before the show and learned that they were truly there to support the cause, which they spoke very well of [stay tuned for that interview, we talked music, fashion and spilling sauce on sneakers in Japan... apparently a no-no as it takes a while for the smell to go away]. Their performance was dynamic and a highlight for many of the festival goers. One word: awesome!

Closing out the night was USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker). Phew, if you weren’t tired already you would have been by just watching these two guys fly around stage, doing handstands and bouncing with the crowd. Lots of energy and a wonderful way to end a wonderful festival. With so many great performances I look forward to see how they top this next year.

Written by Emer Schlosser

Photography by Carl Heindl

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