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

Black Hat Brigade is an eclectic fivesome homegrown right here in the GTA. And homegrown they truly are, with audible influences of Canadian greats Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and an unnamed touch of East Coast sound that ties it all together. The band is made up of Rob Haughey (Keys/Guitar/Bass/Vocals), Justin Myler (Bass/Keys/Guitar/Vocals), Adam Peterson (Lead Guitar/Bass/Keys/Glockenspiel/Vocals), Dan Hurst (Drums) and Bryan Ward (Guitar/Percussion/Glockenspiel/Bass) – listing out the band members and the instruments they play appears a little confusing, but it all makes sense once you see them play live. To watch a BHB show is to witness a complicated yet fluid dance of instrument swapping, mixed vocals and old school rock ‘n’ roll. It’s the type of music both hipster kids and grizzled sea captains alike would enjoy stomping their feet and clinking their pint glasses to. iheartthemusic was able to talk with Justin and Bryan before BHB tookthe stage at the El Mocambo on the night of the release party for their sophomore EP, Fathers.

iheartthemusic: Where are you guys from, are you local Toronto boys?

Justin: Well, originally, I’m from Brampton, and so are Rob and Adam, who aren’t here right now.

Bryan: I’m from Pickering, that’s where I grew up. And Dan is from Burlington so we’re all kind of suburb kids.

iheartthemusic: You guys are from all over the place, how did you come together to form the band?

Justin: Myself, Rob and Adam played together in university. We all went to high school together, and I’ve known Adam since I was about five. Bryan and Adam were working at the CBC, and met over there. Bryan came out to one of our shows. We knew that he played a bunch of instruments so we invited him up on stage to play tambourine in one of our songs. We were all pretty inebriated and just asked him to join.

Bryan: …and I met Dan in College, a friend of a friend.

Justin: About a year after Bryan joined we had an amicable split with our old drummer. The next day Bryan bumped into Dan, and asked if he was still drumming. Dan said, “Ya, why…are you looking for a drummer?” He came to a practice and we hit it off.

iheartthemusic: So it seems like it was fate that brought you guys together.

Justin: That’s what we like to call it.

Bryan: It was written in the stars.

iheartthemusic: I like that a lot. So one thing that I thought was really interesting in reading your bio was this section here: “It could be said that the drug-induced children’s programming of the early 1980’s, overexposure to video game soundtracks, and the years spent partying in the bowels of dead end suburban cul-de-sacs might have had an influence on their song writing.” First of all, who wrote that?

Bryan: That’s the English Major, Rob.

Justin: Yeah, he threw together the bio, but we all sort of grew up in the ’80s playing video games, and you can see it in our music. We all have a little bit of ADD, which probably has to do with the video games. It’s why we have to switch up our instruments all the time. We get bored.

iheartthemusic: Any particular video games?

Justin: I was a Nintendo guy, Bryan’s a Nintendo guy.

Bryan: I still have a Nintendo hooked up to my TV. Normally after shows we all end up at my place and play Mario 3 at three o’clock in the morning. We’ll throw on other games, but it always goes back to Mario 3, that’s a staple.

Justin: We do have a song called “Castlevania”, which was not named after the video game, because I tried it, and I suck at it [laughs all around].

iheartthemusic: “Castlevania” is on your second record, the new one that’s out today.

Justin: Yeah, Fathers.

iheartthemusic: When was your first record released ?

Justin: It was almost exactly a year ago today. It was recorded at Sleepytown Sound in December, and it took six months to release. We were doing it all ourselves: artwork,  printing, mastering, and collecting money to be able to afford to do it.

iheartthemusic: Today is the CD release party for the new record, Fathers. How does this record feel different from the first?

Bryan: The new one is longer ['cause] it’s got more songs on it. A couple of songs on this album have been around since we wrote the last one. We felt that these songs all fit well together, and they all had a certain tone and feel to them, which is why we put them on this other EP. Also, I think the songs sound a lot fuller, and more thought out. When we recorded the last one, it was the first thing we’d ever recorded, and the first time we’d ever stepped into a studio. We just did it for ourselves. We thought, cool, now we’ll have something to listen to. With this record we know people other than ourselves and our parents are going to hear it. I think it’s also pretty true to our live sound.

iheartthemusic: Another cool aspect about the show tonight is that it’s part of the Pitter Patter Festival. How did BHB come to take part in it?

Justin: Keith Hamilton, who’s running Pitter Patter, we played show for him about a year ago, at the Boat [in Kensington], and kept in touch with him. We weren’t even supposed to be on Pitter Patter, because we were looking for a night to do our release. So Keith said if we wanted to put on our show as a part of the festival, then that would be great.

iheartthemusic: Let’s talk instruments, your bio lists the glockenspiel one of the instruments you play…

Bryan: Well a Glockenspiel is basically a metal xylophone. It’s got metal pieces instead of the wooden blocks. It’s a mallet instrument… Adam had a dream that he was Moon Walking across a glockenspiel and it played the craziest song he’d ever heard. The next day he came to practice with a glock. None of us had ever played it before.

iheartthemusic: So after this Pitter Patter tour you’re going to be playing NXNE.

Justin: We played it last year, but it was more lowkey. We didn’t have a lot of push behind our name at that point. We’re doing a show at The Drake with The Balconies, The Urban Aesthetics and a couple of others.

Bryan: That’s on June 18th. The next night we’re playing a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square, Mill Street Brewery is the sponsor. There’s going to be two stages, the Mill Street Stage and the main stage. Wintersleep, The Cliks and In-Flight Safety are on the main stage.

iheartthemusic: Do you have a current favourite Canadian band you want to tell our readers about?

Justin: Lots. I find what I’ve been listening to a lot lately is a lot of Canadian stuff, especially out of Toronto. Timber Tambre is someone that we’ve recently started listening to. Bryan actually turned me onto them.

Bryan: It was after one of our shows I think. I was like, “Justin, you need to hear this song.”  It was “Lay Down in the Tall Grass”.

Justin: Chad Vangaalen, Constantines, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Arcade Fire, Think About Life, Holy Fuck, The Besnard Lakes, Born Ruffians, Islands, Frog Eyes, Slim Twig, Women, Bruce Peninsula…Yeah, there’s lots of great bands out there right now.

iheartthemusic: Do you find that there’s a lot of support within the Canadian music industry? I’ve heard of it described as one big happy family, has that been your experience?

Bryan: We’re always helping each other out. Like if someone gets a gig, or a good slot at a show, we always try to get one of our friends’ bands on there. We’ll try to get younger bands (that aren’t as well known) really good opening slots. That’s kind of what’s pushing the scene right now; everyone’s helping each other out.

iheartthemusic:Do you have a favourite venue in the city, that you’ve played which holds a place in your heart?

Justin: I’d say for most of us, and for me anyway, Rancho Relaxo. We love playing there.

Bryan: We had our first sell out show at Rancho, which was the best thing ever.

iheartthemusic: And, as a final question, care to explain the Soylent Green comment from your bio? That your music is the “aural and visual equivalent to that final scene from the dystopian classic Soylent Green, when Charlton Heston’s character finally realizes that they’ve been eating each other all along”?

Bryan: Our music eats people.

Justin: At the end of one of our shows you realize your brain’s been eating itself the whole time.

Black Hat Brigade will be playing NXNE June 18th at the Drake hotel, and a free show at Yonge and Dundas Square on June 19th.

Interview by Nadia Elkharadly

Pictures by Omar Elkharadly

If you haven’t already heard of The Envy don’t fret, it may be because when they played Toronto last they went by a completely different name: Crowned King.  Now under their new moniker they’re currently on a cross-country tour with good friends and label mates The Midway State. Having seen The Envy when they played under the name Crowned King, we were anxiously awaiting the new lineup and killer tunes that their recently released EP, Don’t Let Go, has been blasting from our stereos over the past few weeks. Their sound is a mixture of rock and pop and their live performance is anything but boring. These guys brought the house down at Mod Club on April 17^th and we were front and centre to get in on some of that action. Lead singer Shaun’s vocals were flawless, and with their rock star look and West Coast attitude, everyone appeared to be extremely excited to have them on stage.

iheartthemusic: So the band as The Envy has only been around for a few short months, but Shaun, you played in another band for quite some time, right?

Shaun: I played in another band for the last eight years called Crowned King, which taught me a lot about the music industry and touring. We toured all around the world -we went to Asia, Australia and all over North America – and I learned everything that I wanted to know about how to do this. Then when I started this band, it was just like here is what I learned and let’s take it to the next level. Some of the songs that I had written at the end of Crowned King are now The Envy songs. It’s a new band with hopefully a good future ahead of us!

iheartthemusic: You guys just released your debut EP as The Envy, that’s exciting!

Shaun: The EP came out about a month ago. We launched our EP by playing at a bunch of high schools in Toronto. It was really cool.

iheartthemusic: So how did you meet the rest of the band?

Shaun: Near the end of my old band I was doing a lot of songwriting and working with a producer named Gavin Brown in Toronto and he introduced me to Steve [guitar].

Steve: We’ve been working together for about two and half years now.

Shaun: We started working together way before The Envy, and then when it came time to start this band, myself and Steve just kind of headed it up and found some really amazing guys from Toronto. Our drummer Izzy just moved over from France and he’s a total prodigy on the drums and Bodan, our bass player, has played in bands forever. Johnny, our keyboard player, was in Crowned King with me so it feels like a really strong group. I’ve never had this much inter-band charisma.

Steve: We all have one goal.

Shaun: We all have our heads in the same place and I’ve never really been in any situation like that in my life, where everyone is like here is what we are going to do and let’s do it. Everyone is so on board.

iheartthemusic: That’s awesome! You are now on tour with The Midway State, which is your second tour with them. How did that relationship form?

Shaun: We are actually labelmates and I had been writing with Nathan a lot, so when it came time for a tour it just seemed like the obvious choice, and then when it came time for this tour we were like let’s do it again.

Steve: It worked really well before.

Shaun: This is our first tour as The Envy, though.

iheartthemusic: What do you hope people will get from your EP?

Shaun: I was saying to the guys the other day that right now I really love the new Kings of Leon record and everyday when I wake up I just want to turn it on, like I have to hear it. So I guess I hope that people out there who have our EP, or eventually our album, will, before they go to bed or when they wake up, have it in their head and they need to hear it because they just love it. That was the goal and hopefully it connects with people like that, which would be amazing!

iheartthemusic: You guys just came back from a trip to Vancouver for the Junos and apparently you had some bus troubles south of the border. What happened?

Shaun: We toured across Canada with The Midway State and went out for the Junos and did all the Juno fanfare stuff. Then they went to Halifax for this Death Cab For Cutie show and we decided to take the shorter route home, which is drop down over the border and head across the interstates. We ended up breaking down like five times and by the fifth time we broke down it was in Billings, Montana, which is this amazing little town. It’s about 200,000 people and is a total up and coming town with clubs and casinos.

Steve: Nurses, doctors, scientists.

Shaun: Just a weird, weird place and we knew right away when we got there that it was the friendliest place we’ve ever been. So when we found out that our bus repairs were going to be over four grand US, which is like five grand Canadian, we were like shit we’ve got to put on a benefit concert on to raise some money. So we called our manager and told him that we were going to throw a concert. We went to Kinko’s and made tickets and fliers and started to go around town distributing them. We went to all the happy hours at all the bars and started to talk to everyone.

Steve: People just started latching on all of sudden.

Shaun: The newspaper even ran an article, and then the next morning the main radio personality guy was pounding on the bus while we were sleeping. He told us to go with him and we ended up doing the morning show. By the next day every radio station was telling the story and promoting the show and when the show finally came around, it was packed!

Steve: While we were promoting it people were telling us that they were already coming to it.

Shaun: The whole town showed up and it ended up being this unbelievable show and we raised a ton of money to fix the transmission.

iheartthemusic: And get yourselves home!

Shaun: Exactly, and here we are!

iheartthemusic: Do you think it was easier because it was a smaller town?

Shaun: Absolutely, it was also a small town in North middle America, just starving for something to do. We stood out; I mean, we don’t look like the average Billings, Montana homeboys.

iheartthemusic: You guys also recently shot a video.

Shaun: Yes we did. We are still putting the pieces together and will be probably putting it out with the album. The album isn’t out yet, but should be out in the fall. The video is for a song called “Don’t Let Go”, which is on the EP and should be on the record.

iheartthemusic: Do you want to divulge anything about the video?

Shaun: It’s a really dark video. A guy named Frank Borin did it, he actually did some of The Midway State videos, but he also did Red Hot Chili Peppers, Good Charlotte, Eminem – some big bands. He came up with this idea and it’s all about how the band is lit. His videos look so slick and it was shot at night in this old abandoned shipyard, which has since been torn down. It was shot in North Vancouver so it’s a bit nostalgic for me because it’s where I am from.

iheartthemusic: What’s going to happen next?

Shaun: We are going to the Maritimes this summer, then to the middle of Canada for all of August, and then September we will be touring Ontario non-stop.

iheartthemusic: Out of everyone that you have been able to share the stage with, who has been your favourite and why?

Shaun: Well, as The Envy we have mainly played shows with The Midway State and on our own.

Steve: Mobile was pretty cool.

iheartthemusic: What is your favourite venue to listen to music and why?

Shaun: This venue, The Mod Club.

Steve: It has the best sound and the best vibe.

Shaun: I just heard The Midway State sound check and I can’t believe how good the sound is. For me, that’s such a big part of it.

Steve: So much impact.

iheartthmusic: Favourite bar in Toronto?

Shaun: I love The Gladstone, go out for some karaoke. I’m new to Toronto so I don’t know if that’s the cool answer. Where I don’t like is The Drake. We had the worst night there the other night.

Steve: In a matter of five minutes I was told that I couldn’t stand in a certain place because they will loose their license.

Shaun: It was also full of people who I wouldn’t normally want to hang out with. No more Drake for us.

iheartthemusic: No Hideout action?

Shaun: The Hideout, where’s that?

iheartthemusic: It’s across the street from Tattoo Rock Parlour and is probably one of the best grungy bars in Toronto and it plays live music most nights.

Shaun: Well thank you because that’s where we will go. I also went to Wrongbar the other night, which was pretty sweet.

iheartthemusic: If you could share the stage with any band, who would it be and why?

Shaun: I would love to open that Kings of Leon show on Tuesday night!

Steve: If we could open for U2 that would be pretty sweet as well.

Shaun: U2 has always been one of my staple favourites, I love Coldplay, Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, the new Kanye West record or have him do something on one of our tracks.

iheartthemusic: Any crazy fan moments?

Shaun: Sheri Love from Billings, Montana. I can’t really divulge too many details, but let’s just say that we hung out with her for a night and the next day we got a call from the Billings Police Department and she was claiming that we stole her wedding ring. Which was absolutely impossible, like how do you steal someone’s wedding ring?

Steve: She wrote this lengthy letter to the police.

Shaun: For a day she was telling everyone that we robbed her.

iheartthemusic: And she was a fan?

Shaun: She was someone we met, pretty much a 45-year-old cougar.

iheartthemusic: That’s crazy, you have to watch out for the cougars! Has the recession affected your writing style at all?

Shaun: When we made this record, it was made over the last two years, and every time we wrote we were trying to make what we wrote the best song. It was never about the fact that we needed an album track and I don’t know if I’m going to regret that, but it’s an album full of songs that were written to be singles.

Steve: We don’t like filler.

Shaun: There is a lot of pressure on bands these days and it’s tough to succeed nowadays. We have a really good team right now though: fans, friends and writers.

iheartthemusic: Anything you want to add?

Shaun: You can listen to our songs on the MySpace.

Steve: My favourite website is iheartthemusic.com!

Great tunes and clearly charmers as well! Be sure to check out their MySpace for tour dates near you!

photography provided by Matt Vardy