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

The Phoenix Concert Theatre here in Toronto usually attracts some big name shows and this particular April evening was no different. On the bill were some pretty popular American bands: Shiny Toy Guns, All American Rejects and Ace Enders and A Million Different People – but it was Ace Enders that iheartthemusic was interested in. The band is headed by vocalist “Ace”, who may look familiar as he was the lead singer for pop rock group The Early November. After Early Novemeber ended, Ace took on a new project, which comes in the form of Ace Enders and A Million Different People. With the recent release of their debut record, When I Hit the Ground, notable press coverage for their cover of The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”, and touring with huge pop rock act All American Rejects, it appears that Ace Enders are on the right track to success.

iheartthemusic: You guys have been on tour for quite some time now, how do you maintain a healthy lifestyle while being on the road?

Ace: Healthy? I wouldn’t call it healthy at all. In some cases it gets easier, especially the more successful you get, because you are able to stay at nicer places, sleep more, have buses and whatnot. When you drive your own van, it’s just a mess all the time.

iheartthemusic: What do you like the most about touring?

Ace: I guess just playing the shows and its always great playing in a new place. After the first time you feel young again like this is why you are doing what you do. It’s exciting!

iheartthemusic: You did tons of touring with The Early November and are now embarking on more touring with this band, has it been tough to create this new identity as Ace Enders after the success of your group?

Ace: It hasn’t been the easiest, but definitely easier than some bands have had. I had something to build off of and am thankful for that, but it has been a struggle because now the music business is in such a weird place. It’s been difficult but good.

iheartthemusic: You released your first album free for download, was there any reasoning behind that move?

Ace: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who had been supporting me for so long and do something nice for my fans.

iheartthemusic: You also started your own label called Regular Music.

Ace: Trying to do but unfortunately, financially, everything is on hold right now.

iheartthemusic: Damn the recession! Where do you see the biggest struggles?

Ace: Album sales have been really bad for everyone. You even see the impact at the merch tables. I mean things used to sell a whole lot more when times were a little bit better and you could afford it. Now you buy a ticket to the show and if you want to take the train home then you won’t be able to buy a shirt or a CD. You see that a lot where people are only able to pay for the ticket or even sometimes not even come.

iheartthemusic: Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Ace: Everything. It’s personal and also from just seeing what ’s going on in the world. I don’t really like to do “what sounds good”, I like for everything to at least have something behind it. Not that we are the most artsy bands but I do view it as an art and there needs to be some integrity behind it.

iheartthemusic: Who are the other members of your band?

Ace: Sergio, who plays bass played in my last band, The Early November, and the other two guys are from another band who were on The Early November’s last tour. Both bands kind of broke up at the same time and they weren’t doing anything and decided to come on board with me. It just started like they were going to help me and they ended up sticking around.

iheartthemusic: You get along then?

Ace: There’s definitely a friendship and it’s different from The Early November because we started at such a young age and it was all new to us. Now we have sort of seen it and we know not to be as dramatic and take everything so personally. You know being in close quarters that’s bound to happen, so its been good to play with people who are sort of like you and understand that things get weird a lot so you have to just deal with it.

iheartthemusic: Do you guys have any crazy stories from this tour?

Ace: I’m sure there are some in there. Right now this tour has been non-stop work for us; get to the venue, unload, drive. We’ve been doing a lot of morning shows and in-store appearances during the day and then we drive to the show at night and then leave. So if you consider driving exciting, then yes we’ve got crazy stories.

iheartthemusic: [laughs] How is it with the rest of the bands on this tour?

Ace: They are great! Everyone has been super nice and friendly and supportive. Hanging out a lot-everyone is really close.

iheartthemusic: You recently did a cover for The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”. Why that song?

Ace: Its one of those songs that no matter what kind of mood I’m in it will always put me in a safe place and because of that its been one of my favourite songs ever. I wanted to share that with people. Its very rare that you can have a song that has been around that long that you know is a safe place. Everyone has that song or that movie or whatever that makes you feel better.

iheartthemusic: That cover garnered a lot of positive feedbaks, but were you apprehensive about doing it?

Ace: Yeah, I have never really been big on covers.

iheartthemusic: Well at least your fans appreciated it! So what’s up next for you boys?

Ace: Well after this tour we will be heading out again on our own headlining tour and that will take up most of the summer for us. We are really excited about that and it should be a great time.

photography provided by Carl Heindl

**stay tuned for our shots from the show which include: Shiny Toy Guns & All American Rejects!!

With two Juno nods under their belt, the guys from The Midway State have little to complain about these days. Having already toured with the likes of Shiny Toy Guns and others, including tours in both the US and Europe, it appears that there is no stopping them. They released their debut full length album Holes in July of last year and have been touring and promoting since (and getting amazing feedback in the process). They are currently on a cross-Canada tour with rock group The Envy, however as lead singer and all around great guy Nathan Ferraro told us, home is where the heart is and that home is right here in Toronto.

iheartthemusic: You have an interesting dynamic with your band because yourself and Daenen (drums) were best friends before the band started, and Mike K. and Mike W. were best friends as well, that must have made it easier to become a unit.

Nathan: It’s like a double date!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] You moved from Collingwood to Toronto to pursue music exclusively, was that a tough choice to make?

Nathan: Right out of high school a producer named Gavin Brown called me up and he said, “Nathan I got a demo of yours and I like what you are doing and I really want to work with you.” I was very excited and as soon as I graduated I canceled my plans to go to university and moved down to Toronto and started living with a friend of mine and working with Gavin.  We found Mike and Mike after that and it went from there.

iheartthemusic: How did Gavin Brown get your demo to begin with?

Nathan: A guy who is here tonight actually, who is the heart of our band named Jason Kimelman saw me and Daenen play in a bar when we were 17 in Toronto and just kept in touch with us. He had mutual friends and knew Gavin Brown and gave our demo to him.

iheartthemusic: That is pretty much fate right there!

Nathan: Exactly, and Jason went from discovering us to letting me move in with him and his fiancée when I moved out here. He also fed me and took care of me. He is a pretty amazing guy.

iheartthemusic: That’s so awesome! Well he must have seen the talent that still exists today as you were recently nominated for a Juno for your songwriting. You mentioned in an earlier interview that one of your dreams was to be recognized for your writing, so how did it feel to finally have that dream come true?

Nathan: It was absolutely insane! We were about to get on a plane and Daenen called me and he was really excited and told me. It was one of those things that actually meant something because since I’ve been 14 I’ve dreamed of being there for that award, so it was cool.

iheartthemusic: Your lyrics seem to be very love oriented. Do you draw from personal experience when you are writing?

Nathan: I’ve definitely been through my share of things but I just think that there is so much good in love and romance. It’s something that is so inspiring for me and I think really just rules everything. I want to tell people that it’s going to be OK – whether you are 10 or f40 or 50, whatever is going on in your life I want people to listen or come to our show and get filled up with that feeling that everything is going to be OK. That inspires me a lot, and so that’s what I like to write about.

iheartthemusic: This is your second tour with The Envy, what made you want to tour with them again?

Nathan: Shaun, the lead singer, is a great friend of mine now because we can relate on so many levels. I wrote a bunch of songs on their new record so we spent a lot of time together during that period. They are just an amazing band and amazing guys so we love to have them around.

iheartthemusic: How was it working with Stevo from Sum41 on your video for “Change For You”?

Nathan: Steve’s great! I grew up knowing him as the funny character from Sum41, but working with him you find out that he is very serious, very professional and very creative and artistic. It just meshed very well.

iheartthemusic: How did you come up with the concept for that video?

Nathan: Well, we didn’t have a lot of money to shoot the video so we had to come up with something that didn’t involve a lot of different settings. We still wanted something to move, so we thought wouldn’t it be amazing if we could make it look like magic where when you zoom in everything changes behind me, and when you zoom back out I’m in a different place. With music and videos it’s more about the feeling, the colours, and the vibe of it, that’s what you’re trying to get across. With music videos I want people to see what they are feeling, so it has a lot to do with the cinematography and the colouring and stuff like that.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of colours, I read somewhere that you hear colours and see music?

Nathan: It’s a thing called synesthesia. Whether it’s like a car engine or water running or one of our songs, I’ve always felt like my brain connects the sound to a colour. I’ve always kind of done that and I don’t know why. I would always talk to Daenen about it and he would be like, “oh cool, whatever”. None of us knew what it was and then one day Daenen heard of it and learned about it from his family doctor or something and was like, “oh my god Nate has that”, and we looked it up.

iheartthemusic: That’s amazing! I have two siblings and sometimes have a hard time with them, so I can’t imagine having eight siblings like you! Are any of them musically inclined as well?

Nathan: Yeah I have two little brothers, Dominic and Christian, and they are both incredible songwriters.

iheartthemusic: Well your parents must be very proud to have three songwriters in the family!

Nathan: I hope so!

iheartthemusic: You have been able to share the stage with some heavy hitters in the industry, who has been your favourite and why?

Nathan: I really like Jason from Lifehouse, we got along really well and now we are just good friends. He was a great guy to look up to and I learned a lot from him. Mika taught me a lot as well. He had a lot of really great advice. You can’t really get better advice than from the singers of other bands; they are the ones who know what it is like. Record labels and managers can give you ideas of what they think you need to do, but really it has to come from within. The only other people who know that are singers.

iheartthemusic: Favourite spot that you have toured?

Nathan: I love the countryside of France.

iheartthemusic: What was the response like there?

Nathan: Awesome! Our record is coming out in Europe in the next few months, in the summer or something, so I am really excited to get back there and get to those people again.

iheartthemusic: Are you aspiring to tour anywhere you haven’t been yet?

Nathan: I would love to go to Australia, I’ve never been there. Asia as well. I enjoy touring the American South a lot. I think it’s a great culture, I love the people down there because the people have really big hearts so I enjoy it a lot.

iheartthemusic: How about in Canada?

Nathan: I’m bias but I love Toronto. I’m always so happy to come home, I love this city.

iheartthemusic: Where in Toronto have you played that you loved?

Nathan: We played a show at Tattoo recently which was fun. I love The Phoenix and Koolhaus was cool, but mostly because I grew up going to shows there. I saw all my favourite bands play there so being on that stage is weird.

iheartthemusic: Favourite venue in Toronto to go see a show?

Nathan: I actually love this venue [Mod Club]. Have you ever heard of Jeremy Fisher?

iheartthemusic: No I haven’t.

Nathan: I came here a few weeks ago to see him and it always sounds amazing and is just small enough to feel connected. I don’t really like to go and see bands at places like the ACC, although I love bands like Coldplay and Kings of Leon where you have to go there for that.

iheartthemusic: What’s up next for you?

Nathan: The European release and then touring there. Whenever we are not on the road we are working on new songs just because we have a bit of time  so when the second record comes we aren’t scrambling.

iheartthemusic: You did some reporting for CHARTattack, so having been on both sides of the interview, is there anything that you wish you could ask yourself?

Nathan: I always just tried to keep the questions honest and asked what I wanted to know. Like when I was interviewing Simple Plan, I was thinking about when that song “Your Love Is A Lie” came on the radio because I remember thinking it was so catchy and different for them; I was always wondering what inspired that, so when I was interviewing them I asked them about that.

iheartthemusic: So there is nothing that you want to be asked?

Nathan: I don’t want to be asked about my hair, for one thing.

iheartthemusic: Well there goes my next question… I’m just kidding!

photography provided by Matt Vardy