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

Originally from Manotick, Ontario and currently living in Montreal, Hollerado is a fun group of guys making a fun kind of music. The four-piece band is comprised of Menno (guitar), Dean (bass) and brothers Nick (guitar) and Jake (drums). Seeing one of their shows or hearing the album makes you want to smile and dance… ihearthemusic learned that having dinner with them has kind of the same affect when we all met to feast at New Ho King in Toronto, the night before they left for their tour of China.

iheartthemusic: How did you guys get together as a band?

Jake: Over beers…

Menno: Summer 2007…0r 6… One of those summers living in Manotick, we were all just kinda living on our street. They were our neighbours.

iheartthemusic: Where did the name Hollerado come from?

Menno: It’s imaginary. We had a moving company called Haulerado, it’s true, and that’s where it came from.

iheartthemusic: Your iTunes genre tag is alternative, what’s with that? If you could create a genre tag that speaks specifically to your music, what would it be?

Menno: Alt.Alternative

Jake: Lame. Purple Monkey Dishwasher, classic answer.

Menno: Progressive Christian Rap… or…

Dean: Newskool Funk Opera

iheartthemusic: So who does the songwriting for you guys?

Menno: It’s collaborative. Nick and I do the most, but there are different ways we go about it. No two songs are the same.

iheartthemusic: Do you guys want to talk a little about your album, Record in a Bag?

Nick: We’d love to. We made it last summer…

[At this point we were interrupted by the waiter who came to take orders: a couple Tsing Tao's and a round of waters. Then Menno takes charge and orders up a Chinese feast; his eyes were bigger than his stomach. We ended up with seven dishes! Luckily there were four hungry band boys to meet the challenge]

iheartthemusic: So, you were telling me about recording your album last summer.

Menno: We recorded it in a bunch of different places, so we got to travel a lot. That was awesome! Recording is like the funnest thing in the world. Better than touring.

Nick: Really?

iheartthemusic: Well, you have been doing a lot of touring lately.

Menno: And that’s also fun.

iheartthemusic: Tell me about the Residency Tour you guys just finished.

Menno: We played a different city every night of the week and did that for four weeks. We basically lived in the van.

iheartthemusic: Who came up with it?

Menno: That was us…

[Everyone laughs]

Jake: Sorry to interrupt, but does your recorder have a built-in lie detector? No way we came up with that idea.

iheartthemusic: Would you do it again?

All: Yeah!

Nick: We want to real bad!

Menno: We are actually toying with the idea of doing it in Hamburger…I just said Hamburger… I meant to say Hamburg. In the fall; but just in the one city, and play three sets a day.

Nick: Just to be more like The Beatles. We love them.

iheartthemusic: Do you have other musical influences?

All: Nope… [laughter]

iheartthemusic: Alright then… You were recently at SXSW, how was that?

Menno: Awesome… We were just talking about that in the van on the way over here. It was quite debaucherous….

Dean: But we don’t need to go over it again.

Jake: But we will. There’s this band we were hanging out with there called Magneta Lane; they’re cool and they’re girls. They put up our pictures on the website for SXSW, but the album title was Drunk by More Drunk. I guess that’s how it was for them… It may or may not have been the same for us.

iheartthemusic: So did you find some time to play at all, what with all this debaucherousness?

Dean: Yeah! We got to play three times.

Nick: So that was really fun, and we played a PopMontreal showcase and that was really fun too. We played with some really great bands.

Menno: Really great bands. I love Gentleman Reg, The Boats too.

iheartthemusic: And your next trip…

Nick: China. It’s certainly the furthest away we have ever gone.

Menno: It’s our first time on an airplane as a band.

Jake: I am getting bumped up to Business Class. I am calling that right now.

Menno: That’s fine, as long as you send back that free champagne… [in his best british accent] “excuse me, can you send these flutes back to that scraggly blonde guy, the dark haired gentleman… and Dean.”

iheartthemusic: You’re going with The Stills right?

Menno: No, that’s not happening, they just pulled out last week. They’re all too tired from jet-setting around the world. We’ve played with The Stills a lot in Canada, and it would have been fun, but it will be fun to make new friends while we are in China.

[At this point someone elses dinner goes by.]

Menno: Whoa, pineapple full of beef! Why didn’t we get that? We should have named our album Pineapple Full of Beef. Maybe the next one.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of which, will the next one come in a bag like your EP did and first album?

Menno: No, we’re thinking of moving on.

Nick: …but we’re not sure yet.

Menno: Maybe we’ll put it in a pineapple… with beef.

iheartthemusic: Is there a particular brand of bag you like using best to package the discs?

Nick: Ziploc, seriously… Ziploc are the best. We go to dollar stores some times and we believe that sometimes we’ll get a good batch of dollar store baggies. But they’re never as good.

iheartthemusic: Are you seeking out some kind of sponsorship?

Menno: We would really be down. If anyone out there reading this who works for either Cold-FX or Ziploc, come talk to us.

You can listen to Hollerado’s album Record in a Bag or download it COMPLETELY FOR FREE on their website www.Hollerado.com

Interview by Sam Banack

Photography by Justin Cutler

Toronto indie/new wave band The Framework made a huge impression on iheartthemusic with their witty banter and uber-cool look. Interviewing them was like talking to the coolest group of kids in high school. There was the quiet but mysterious one (Chris), the chick in school that all the boys liked but who was also so down to earth that all the girls liked her too (Rayanne), the super smart dude with wicked style that everyone in school tried to emulate (Ryan), the easy going guy who was friends with everyone (Scott), and the class clown (Tobias).  Put these five cool kids in a room with instruments and they are magic!  iheartthemusic sat down with the band to talk about their influences, traveling, their new album and everything in between.

iheartthemusic: I was reading your MySpace page and noticed that you are influenced by a lot of bands. If you could choose, what artist would you want saying that they were influenced by your music?

Ryan: That would be tough because I think a lot of people that we list are like, 30 years old or 20 years old. I think the reason why it’s so wide and there are so many influences listed is because it’s sort of who we are.  We all come from different musical backgrounds and what we like and dislike is also different, so I don’t think there is any way to fully answer that.  They’ve given us so much and we hope we’re going to inspire future bands.

Tobias: I still think we got a shot at The Beatles.

Ryan: Definitely The Beatles and the Stones.

iheartthemusic: You guys are also noticeably influenced by the UK scene.  Evidence to that logic would be having a song entitled “London”, which I’m sure is not about London, Ontario. What do you love about the UK and how does that love transcend into the music?

Chris: I don’t think we actually did it on purpose, it just so happens that a lot of the bands we like come from there. We have bands that we all listen to from Canada, but I think a lot of the UK music is really big sounding and really well written songs;  there’s a history there of that. You can even look at a band like Oasis, they are all about great songs and a big show.

iheartthemusic: What were you all doing before forming the band in 2006?

Tobias: Everyone was mostly doing the same thing when we started, all working various jobs and such, but we were all musicians.

Chris: I actually retired from music for about a day.  I had a solo career and I was like, “I think I’m going to take a break”, and the next day Ryan calls me up and he was like, “let’s do a band”.

Ryan: Yeah, we were all in various bands over the years and a couple of us were solo artists and it kind of came together through that;  the whole music community in Toronto. We had a direction and a sound we wanted to achieve and we knew a couple of guys in the rhythm section and we pieced it together from there. It was like magic right from the start for us.

Chris: If you talk to any singer/songwriter they love their band.  The reason for that is when you’re on your own, it’s nice with the acoustic guitar and stuff, but you’re always feeling like there is more to the song than just that. Now it’s like that all the time.  It’s a way more powerful feeling when you’re on stage and the songs are so much bigger.

iheartthemusic: Yeah, because wasn’t it like three months after you guys formed you got recognized?

Ryan: Yeah, pretty much right after.

Chris: We didn’t play our first show until nine months later.

Ryan: But the reality was that we did have careers before this band, we didn’t start from point zero. We already had a lot of people who knew about us and stuff like that.

iheartthemusic: Traveling is a huge part of being in a band.  Rayanne, how do you like being on the road with all these gentlemen?

Rayanne: It’s actually great.  I get along with these guys amazingly well and you know women are a little different than men in some ways, but we make it work and it’s fun. It’s also definitely cool to work with guys that closely because you really  learn about another perspective.

Chris: We treat her like one of the guys.

Rayanne: Exactly.

Tobias: One thing though, it’s really nice having her, but we just wish there were more women. She’s great and all, but the more the merrier so if you have any interest in coming on the road.

iheartthemusic: With my musical talent, absolutely nothing would really help out!

Tobias: Writing lyrics??

iheartthemusic: Perhaps…we’ll talk later! This is my first time seeing you perform live,  if you could review your show like us reporters do, what would you say about your live act?

Chris: A lot of things have been written about us already that we’re like, yeah that’s exactly what we think and what we want to project like, “ energetic frontman, really catchy songs”, everyone says that.

Tobais: We’ve been cut down for that as well: “catchiness”.

Rayanne: We want it to be really high energy, a show that the audience can engage in as well. We really try to do that.

Chris: And before our first show we played for like nine months to make sure that right from the get go we were hitting it and it was polished and I feel that right now we’re hitting our stride and every show feels good.

Ryan: And when it really comes down to it, we just put on a damn good rock show.

Chris: We are definitely not tree gazers.

iheartthemusic: In touring the world, what differs in the audience reactions from let’s say North America and Europe?

Tobias: We have not gone overseas yet, but we do have a tour booked overseas.  We’ve done several US shows and they have actually always been really good.

Rayanne: The audiences in New York are always pumped up and energetic and always ready to party, which is great because we totally feed off that.

Chris: In Cincinnati they like chili.

Tobias: And cinnamon.

iheartthemusic: I saw that on your YouTube video and thought what does that mean?  Is that what they eat there?

All: Yeah!

Chris: And they are very proud of the mechanical bull.

Tobias: Even the Republicans know how to party.

iheartthemusic: Well that’s a shock! So is there a new album in the works?

Ryan: You can expect a pretty good translation of what we do live and it’s called Before Tonight. It’s our debut full length record.  Up until now we’ve only released two EP’s. Before Tonight is what we’ve been working on for about a year and we’re super proud of it, it’s really a great translation of what we do.

Rayanne: We tried to keep it that way so that anyone who comes to see us perform can take home part of that experience with them.

iheartthemusic: When will that be out?

Rayanne: Mid-July.

Chris: The other thing that we’re proud of too is that we did it totally ourselves from start to finish.

Tobias: 130 bucks!

Rayanne: Everything we did ourselves even down to the artwork, which is done by Ryan,and the band and Chris did all the recording,  mixing and engineering.

iheartthemusic: Very impressive!

Tobias: I did all my own drumming!

Chris: It will feel good once we release it, we feel that it does stack up to other albums that are out there in terms of the quality and we know that we put it together ourselves.

iheartthemusic: Lastly, how do you want your fans to feel after they see you perform live?

Tobias: Elated.

Chris: That’s the only joke you could come up with?

Tobias: It’s not a joke!

Ryan: Definitely, like they had a good time. People like to dance at our shows.

Rayanne: We want them to feel tired, like they had such a great time at the show that they are  so tired afterward.

Chris: We really like the shows where when we play there is a DJ, because we do kind of promote that it is a party.  Generally, I think it’s a good night if you get home at like, four in the morning.

Tobias: And you go get pizza afterward.

iheartthemusic: What kind of pizza?

Tobias: I always enjoy the pepperoni, what do you like?

iheartthemusic: Anything if it is after three in the morning!

Tobias: We definitely want to keep the audience interested enough so that they stay for the entire set, we usually do 45 minute sets at this point, but in the future, as a headlining act, you envision yourself doing an hour and a half set. For me, when I go out to shows I want to see a band that I enjoy seeing for an hour and a half instead of looking at my watch five songs before the end, if I’m at that point saying to myself, “I really want to get out of here”, that’s not what we want people to think.

Chris: We do put pressure on ourselves in that we don’t want people to leave disappointed. I think all the way through our careers, in anything we’ve been doing, we feel like we want to give everything we can in every regard, in recording and the show. It’s kind of been built into us that you need to do a good job and you never half-ass anything that you’ve done.

interviewed by Kristen Tignanelli

photography provided by Carl Heindl

iheartthemusic was caught up with the foursome that make up We Are The Take – Erik, Craig, Andrew, and Kevin – when they played a recent gig at Tattoo. They continually amaze us with their pop-rock sound, so, if you haven’t yet, be sure to be amazed when they return to Tattoo this Saturday (April 18^th) when they will be bringing down the house with Thriving Ivory. In the meantime, check out our chat with WATT’s Kevin and Andrew.

iheartthemusic: Since we saw you last, you guys have been playing quite a few shows!

Kevin: Yah, a couple of weeks ago we were at Mod Club and last week we were at the El Mocambo. That was a lot of fun and was for another charity as well.

Andrew: We’ve had the fortunate habit of playing a few charity shows as of late and it’s been hard to keep track.

iheartthemusic: So how important is it for you to be a part of these events?

Kevin: We have a number of reasons for coming on board; I mean, we obviously support the charity. Morgan from Birds of Wales asked us to do the one tonight and we’ve known him for a while now. We are always happy to play and to play for a good cause is a bonus. Everyone has a great vibe about them tonight.

Andrew: That’s always the thing about charity gigs, you find that there are a lot of people with like minds in the room, which is always a plus. Everyone is here for the same reason and it’s nice to get them all in the same room and for us to be able to do what we do.

iheartthemusic: Your sound appears to have a bit of a Brit pop influence to it, is that right?

Kevin: We don’t generally fit into the Canadiana roots rock thing. We are all fans of that but that’s not what we are doing. We are a pop band that has been influenced by everything under the sun. We just want it to look good and we want to look clean.

Andrew: I think we are electric!

Kevin: We’re electric!

iheartthemusic: Any musical influences?

Andrew: Tons! The Beatles, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, The Tragically Hip.

Kevin: We love a lot of British bands like Kasabian and Coldplay, anything with good melody. I went to jazz school so [for me] it was pretty much everything that had a good melody and grooved and made people want to dance and feel good. That’s sort of what we want to do.

Andrew: We’ve been fortunate as of late to play with some good Canadian bands. We just played with the Arkells and The Waking Eyes. Once you’ve played with a band a few times you get kind of caught up in it and you aren’t as concerned with checking them out when they are playing because you are more worried about your performance, but after playing with them I am now a huge fan of both. I even bought both records and have been listening to them like crazy! So it’s nice to kind of pull things away from the bands you are playing with and take little pieces as you go along; that’s something that’s fun and helps with learning and growing.

Kevin: And stealing!!

Andrew: And stealing!

Kevin: I think Einstein said, well I’m not going to quote Einstein, but it was something like the best thing to do is to hide your influences.

Andrew: I think what you meant to say was that E=MC2.

iheartthemusic: [laughs] There you go! Speaking of playing with these two great acts, do you find that there is a real sense of community amongst Toronto bands?

Kevin: It’s been rather difficult for us. I mean, we have played with a lot of really great acts, but we haven’t found the same sort of fit. Recently, with the Arkells and The Waking Eyes, we felt that that was great. We are doing different things but it was great to play with bands that were kind of similar. In terms of a community, we have played with a bunch of nice people that are really successful at what they are doing. Like Lights, we played shows with her a few months ago. I mean, talk about way different types of music. At the end of the day we just aren’t picky, whoever will listen.

iheartthemusic: Any touring coming up for you guys in the near future?

Kevin: We’ve just been Ontario-based with the exception of Montreal and we really want to change that. We were lucky enough to have one of our songs get on a TV show that aired across the States. There was a lot of beautiful response from people all over the country and we haven’t been able to get there. We haven’t even been to B.C. or the East Coast. Erik speaks French and we would love to go to France. I mean, there is so much we want to do, but we are trying to be patient and get our live thing together. You only get one chance to make an impression.

iheartthemusic: I also know you aren’t a signed band. Do you have reservations to being signed at all?

Andrew: It’s been a personal choice and has a lot to do with what’s going on in the industry right now. We’ve seen a lot of close friends get major label deals and get their album shelved for a while and then get dropped. We’re not shying away from signing with an indie label or a major label, but we have to work towards what we want and what our personal plan is because we have been working hard for this.

Kevin: We’re focused right now on building it on a really grassroots level. We are just trying to do it ourselves from the bottom up. It’s been a blessing and a curse. A big part of us wants to sign to a label and get a video and exposure, but at the same time we lose a lot of control and right now that’s one thing we can use to our advantage.

Andrew: It’s all we have at the moment. I mean, we play everyday together as a group, writing and practicing, and everything we put out there is exactly what we want and that’s kind of nice. It’s all internal right now.

iheartthemusic: Tonight it appeared that “Montreal Love Song” was a song that everyone was pumped to hear. Do you think that that is indicative of the industry and how the single is taking over the album?

Kevin: I think it is really difficult to write singles and smash hits and it’s difficult to say, but I think writing, for us as a group, is an organic thing.

Andrew: No one knows what a single is.

Kevin: There have been a lot of surprises too.

Andrew: We have a five song EP out now, but we have recorded 12 songs, and when we did they were 12 similar but different sounding songs; not because we had any intention of the single, but because we are growing as a group and each song is a testament to that.

Kevin: The single always helps your casual listener get into you, though. You need that and if it’s “Montreal Love Song” that people need to listen to to see what we do, then who cares.

iheartthemusic: So Kevin, you have a jazz background, but does the rest of the band have some kind of musical backing?

Kevin: I think we all just said let’s pick up an instrument and play and impress the girls. That’s what you do when you are a 13-year-old boy.

Andrew: We all have different stories. For me personally, my mom sort of forced me into playing piano when I was little. That was the foundation of it and then I stopped and then picked up the bass at around 12 or 13.

iheartthemusic: When did the trumpet come in for you?

Andrew: I played the trumpet all through high school. I put it down as of grade 13thirteen and thought I was never going to be playing that instrument again. It’s back though, but I’m still working on it.

iheartthemusic: So what’s the next step for We Are The Take?

Andrew: We’ve done the festivals and we are hoping to get invited back to Virgin Festival again. It’s all about just getting our show tighter and tighter and hopefully get on a tour some time soon.

Kevin: We would love to go coast to coast. That’s a huge, huge goal for us soon. We would love to get on the radio, but that’s hard to do without a video. We shot a video but it’s having trouble getting finished and if it gets finished I think that it is going to be amazing. It’s for the song “Dreams”. In the meantime, we are going to just keep doing what we are doing and let the song writing and the music be first.

photography provided by Carl Heindl

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