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

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

Having previously seen (and been blown away) by the Whitby-born band Bury the Bully, iheartthemusic decided it was about time we featured them. If their name sounds at all familiar it might be because they played the opening night party during CMW, or perhaps you were lucky enough to stumble upon their MySpace and were equally impressed by the sound that emanated from your computer speakers. Either way, there is no denying their talent and when we sat down with lead vocalist Rich McPherson and drummer Cala, we discovered that not only are they making great music, but these guys have hearts of gold as well.

iheartthemusic: So, from what I have read, you guys met in high school about 10 years ago?

Rich: We met in high school and that was 12 or 13 years ago and we’ve had the same lineup of guys since. It’s been a very interesting stint with four guys being in a band as friends and as professionals, so it makes for a lot of good music in the end.

iheartthemusic: Definitely! I mean, being together for so long it must have been easier to grow as a band?

Rich: It’s really tough to say. In the last year we released our full-length, which is really our first full-length since all we’ve ever done is just play and demo, and as soon as we put it out that’s when we really started to become a band and really came into our own. In those 12 years prior to that we did learn a lot as musicians and people, but I think it’s just been the last year and a half that it has really come together.

iheartthemusic: So going back to grade nine, were you guys the typical band class guys or did you just decide on your own that you wanted to form a band?

Cala: It wasn’t about getting the girls or anything, it was just something to do. At that time there was no extracurricular stuff so we decided to start a band. We actually did it before high school.

iheartthemusic: How did you decide on your name?

Cala: During high school we went by a different name and then when we put out this album, that’s when we knew that we had to step it up and wanted to start it fresh and we just based the name around the songs that we were writing.

Rich: We literally had a list of stuff that we were trying because we had been one name for 10 years, so it was a huge step to change names and identities. While we were doing the album we were trying to come up with a new name and that one just resonated with all of us because it spoke to so much socially. We consider ourselves positive individuals so it was definitely the right name for us.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of being positive individuals, you guys deal with charities quite a bit, including donating all your sales once a month to a charity of your choice.

Rich: We try and donate what we can. I mean, it’s not much as an indie band, but every season we made it so that we would donate to different charities whatever money that we made at that time. We try and link our websites to a lot of positive organizations.

iheartthemusic: What has the response been like with your album in a time when the economy is so bad?

Cala: Well, it’s tough because of the times that we are in right now but really the Internet helps so much. Also, the more we play, the better it is for us.

Rich: As an indie band, and having no real support financially to do things, we try and get ourselves in every social network we can and just make friends. The response from people worldwide through connecting through places like MySpace has been great. So in that sense having no one really supporting us, we’ve done really well for ourselves in the last year and half just doing everything.

iheartthemusic: It must be nice to be able to oversee everything.

Cala: It’s more intimate that way, especially interacting with fans and people who enjoy the music through places like Facebook.

Rich: I think every little achievement that comes along is more special just because we are doing it ourselves. You feel a sense of ownership that way.

iheartthemusic: Some bands consider themselves a live band only. How do you see your band?

Cala: I would say a bit of both. Lately, with the recording process with the new album, we are learning a lot.

Rich: We record a lot. We learn something everyday as musicians, as a live band or a recording band, they are two separate things but I love being in the studio, I love writing, I love recording.

Cala: And I love gigging.

Rich: Yah, we have both sides of the spectrum.

iheartthemusic: Who does most of the writing?

Rich: We are at a point now where we all collaborate with each other. It has taken us a long time to get to that stage but that’s where we are now and, especially going into a second album, you start to approach things differently and this time around everyone is putting their piece of the pie in.

Cala: And being together for so long really helps as well.

Rich: Everyone is inspired by everybody.

iheartthemusic: So you are writing a new album, when can we expect that out?

Rich: Our aim would be for mid summer to have a record out, but everything in music is always a couple of months behind. We are working hard at it right now and hoping to get into the studio and start laying it down at the beginning of the summer.

iheartthemusic: From the first album to this new one, do you notice any differences between your sound or writing style?

Rich: Totally. Every song that comes out is always something different and I think the exciting thing about writing a new album is the fact that when we go to record we are going to have a ton of songs to pull on and bring together. With that, it gives us the freedom to really write anything and not worry about it being the “right” thing.

iheartthemusic: You got the opportunity to play the opening night party for CMW, was that your first time playing CMW?

Rich: We played that eight years ago and I think that was the last time we played it.

Cala: It was an honour to be asked to play. The booker at Tattoo asked us to play and it was a great turnout. We met a lot of great people, like you!

Rich: It was one of those things where we didn’t think we were playing at all and then we got the call a couple of weeks prior to and it turned out to be the opening night.

iheartthemusic: You have also been able to share the stage with some heavy hitters such as Simple Plan and Gob!

Rich: We played with them right when “I Hear You Calling” came out. We hooked up with Simple Plan during Warped Tour. We played a date about eight years ago with them before they blew up, so we got to form a good bond with them.

photography provided by Carl Heindl