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

A few weeks ago iheartthemusic spoke with a VERY young band from Barrie, Ontario, and when we say young, we are referring to the fact that half the band is still in high school! Despite the age of these young gentlemen, Final Thought put on a show that left us feeling like they were industry veterans. Playing for a mixed crowd at a benefit concert, Punk 4 Parkinson’s, Dustin (vocals), Emmett (guitar), Brandon (bass) and Tom (drums) rocked the house and won us over with their honesty, innocence and sense of onstage presence. With the recent release of their EP, Take This Home, and a bunch of upcoming tour dates in Quebec, it appears that school may have to take the back seat for a while (sorry mom and dad).

iheartthemusic: Your band seems to be made up of a bunch of guys of different ages, so how did you all meet?

Dustin: We met just being friends really. Brandon and myself are the two original members and we are the youngest. We met pretty much from hanging out and going to shows together and then we ended up going to school together. We started being friends about a year and a half ago and then we found Tom, he’s the newest member, we recruited him in September from shows.

Tom: It was December, actually.

Dustin: November. Anyway, around then we were recruiting our new drummer.

Tom: Let’s just say late Fall!

iheartthemusic: Being so young, I was surprised to read that you’ve already shared the stage with Silverstein! How did that come about?

Dustin: Yeah, we did that a long time ago. We won a show and it was at The Playdium in Toronto; there was a bunch of bands there and we ended up getting to pretty much play with Silverstein. It was fun.

iheartthemusic: That’s awesome, and a huge claim to fame! Speaking of fame, how did Gene Simmons hear about you guys?

Tom: He called me up! [laughs]

Dustin: What happened was, basically, one of our friends has a friend who is Belinda Stronach’s son and they [Gene and Belinda] know each other. Belinda was working with Gene Simmons and the demo, in one way or another, got into his hands; he listened to it and liked it. He ended up staying an extra day in Canada because he wanted to see us play so we got this call that we had to play for Gene Simmons in Toronto. We were like, “OK.” That’s not a phone call you get everyday! He’s a good guy and talked to us for about 15 minutes after we played. It was neat and fun to do.

iheartthemusic: Well, he is trying to start a label here in Canada so maybe he will scoop you guys up!

Emmett: That’s what that show was for. He’s making like a reality TV show.

Dustin: I know he’s tried to restart that label more than once, so I don’t know where he is with it, we haven’t really heard back. We just take it as it comes and if we end up hearing from him one day then sweet!

iheartthemusic: Is getting signed the next step for you?

Dustin: Yeah! We are looking to tour this summer and trying to put that together and also work to getting a non-profit organization on board. We are just trying to do everything we can; playing town shows as much as possible. We’ve got our hometown covered.

Emmett: We don’t want to be a local band that just opens shows all the time. We want to take it as seriously as we can while still having fun and let as many people hear our music as we possibly can.

iheartthemusic: You mentioned that you would like to get a charity on board and tonight you guys are here supporting Punk 4 Parkinson’s, why did you want to play this show?

Dustin: I don’t think Parkinson’s has really affected us as a band, but any charity show we try and play as much as possible.

Dustin: You try and link yourself with good publicity as much as possible.

Tom: We do it because we are in a position where we have the power to help something so then we want to do.

Emmett: That’s a quote from Spider-Man, ”with great power comes great responsibility.” [laughs]

iheartthemusic: In terms of your stage performance, what do you hope the audience will get from it?

Dustin: Ideally, I want people to be really stoked about the songs and want to listen to them all the time. Obviously I would love for us to be everyone’s favourite band, but that’s not the case… I think our live show is where it’s at. We do love jamming in the studio, but live is where the most fun happens.

Emmett: I think, especially with a show like tonight where we aren’t necessarily playing to our crowd, if someone comes to the show and gives respect to us – that’s one of our main goals. Also, if you leave the club and have one of our songs stuck in your head I think we’ve done our job.

iheartthemusic: Who is your crowd?

Emmett: Twelve to 21-year-olds are our target market.

iheartthemusic: I don’t make it then, sorry guys! [laughs]

Dustin: [laughs] It tends to be a little bit of a younger crowd, even if it is gentlemen coming out to the show. I think that’s [what's happening] with all pop rock music.

iheartthemusic: Who are some musical influences for you?

Dustin: New Found Glory.

Emmett: Dustin and I are into U2 and The Police and stuff too. I listen to a bunch of different music. As a band, mainly pop rockish bands and even some older bands. We try and pull things from all different genres that influence us.

iheartthemusic: If you could share the stage with any Canadian band right now, who would it be?

Dustin: Ten Second Epic again, maybe. They are good guys.

Emmett: I would be stoked to play with either Living with Lions or if Daggermouth got back together and toured again. Actually, I would love to play with Sum 41 just because they were the reason that I started playing guitar and that was the first show that I ever went to. Not the lineup that it is now though, they would only play songs from their first four albums.

iheartthemusic: Now we are getting specific! [laughs] So you have an EP out now, when was that released?

Dustin: January 27^th of this year. We are now working on shooting a music video for “Take You Home” in June.

iheartthemusic: What’s the concept behind the video?

Dustin: Just a performance video. Us having fun with all our friends and it will be shot in Barrie.

iheartthemusic: That’s exciting! So what do we not know about you?

Brandon: We love McDonalds! Every interview we do we always talk about McDonalds!

iheartthemusic: What’s the typical order?

Emmett: Usually all of us get double cheeseburgers. Can we also talk about how they got rid of orange pop! What’s up with that? See he [Brandon] works at McDonalds and he has a 50% off card so he gave his old card to Tom to use, so we are now working on making fakes for everyone in the band so that when we go on tour we all get almost free food! The only thing that is kind of bullshit is you need a new sticker every month.

iheartthemusic: That’s how they get you!

Emmett: [laughs] We do love McDonalds!

Not only are they super nice guys, but they also lend a hand to charities whenever they can – you can’t beat that! You can check them out next week here in Toronto when they play The Edge Steam Whistle Indie Club on Saturday, May 23rd at 229 Yonge at 9pm!

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