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

Releasing an album can be nerve wracking and exciting for anyone; releasing an album and doing it independently magnifies that feeling even more. But for the guys in Toronto-based band Arietta, they appear to have a calm, cool and collected attitude towards the whole process. Meeting and chatting with the six-piece at The Hideout on a Sunday afternoon left everyone laughing out loud and excited for what’s to come for this young group of guys. The band is made up of Tyler Johnston (vocals), Sean Ramesbottom (guitar), Brian Craig (guitar), Kyle Smith (bass), Shehzaad Jiwani (drums) and Patrick McCormack (multi-instruments). Their sound is something that really can’t be defined, nor do they want it to be. Having formed a tight-knit relationship with fellow Toronto musicians, these guys have surrounded themselves with a musical community that consists of some of the best talent this city has to offer. Arietta is on the forefront of many music critics’ radars. iheartthemusic spoke with all six (yes ALL six) members about the release of their debut album, Migration (which is out TODAY), and how they are one of the hardest working bands out there.

iheartthemusic: How did Arietta come to be?

Sean: A few of us grew up in Scarborough, and Brian, Tyler and I more or less started the band because we knew each other in high school but we were never in the same friend circle – we were just acquaintances. In the latter years of school we started to play and jam together and thus formed the start of Arietta.

iheartthemusic: How long have you been this six-piece for?

Sean: This six-piece is pretty new; I’d say just over a year.

iheartthemusic: So with six people in the band what is the writing process like?

Tyler: Originally, when we first started, Sean brought the main chunk of a song to the table and then we all kind of welded it down, switched some stuff around and everyone put in their parts. With reviews for the album so far, everyone is saying that it sounds really eclectic with regards to instrumentation and genre. I mean, we’ve got so many different instruments on this album, and I think with the new members, and a lot of them being song writers from different bands, that’s going to be good and a little tricky. But we will have a lot more to work with and I think it might come a lot quicker than we would think it would at this point.

Shehzaad: It’s also kind of cool because everyone plays, or at least attempts to play, different stuff. The last few times we’ve jammed, we’ve all done switches. It’s a lot more fun!

iheartthemusic: That’s so cool!

Sean: I think it has helped my writing style a lot, having other guys to depend on who can fill in the gaps and that I trust because their writing is just on par. I know that if I’m stuck, they are right there to fill out the space. We work really cohesively.

iheartthemusic: That’s pretty incredible that you guys are all on the same page in that way.

Shehzaad: It also helps that we are not on the same page a lot of the time. It sometimes takes a while to kind of make everybody see.

Tyler: I think we understand where everyone comes from, yet we all come from different places. Whereas one guy might play a riff to one drum beat, another guy may sound totally different playing to the same riff and it all depends on who picked up the guitar.

Shehzaad: It’s like a gradient from being Sean, on the one hand, who is really technical and then me and Pat being the opposite and having no musical theory background.

iheartthemusic: With this album, you spoke about how the reviews have been all over the place with regards to trying to fit you into a certain genre or sound, but what would you like people to take from this album musically?

Shehzaad: The big thing is equal balance of melody and technical musicianship. The reviews so far have nailed that and everyone who has heard the record has honed in on that too, which we were surprised with.

Tyler: Yeah, that was surprising because it’s quite easy to write it off as pop. We come from a place where being slightly different or technical goes a long way. A lot of us listen to music that isn’t even in the pop genre at all. We listen to all that kind of stuff and have such an appreciation for it, but at the same time we also have a very big appreciation for pop music all the way up to Fall Out Boy. So I think trying to mesh really technical parts where everyone [listening] is satisfied as a musician, with parts where we’ve taken it to a level that has challenged them, has worked for us and a lot of people are picking up on that. They hear that we’re testing our own limits, but at the same time we aren’t catering to one specific market.

iheartthemusic: Do you think catering to all these different sounds and styles will confuse people or turn them off?

Sean: I think right now we’ve definitely come across a long road of proving to people that we can have a very wide spectrum of songs and influences and I think, at first, it is one of those things that a lot of people don’t know how to take. Then once they do, they really enjoy it. So I think people may be hesitant at first, but so far with reviews we couldn’t be happier and people have understood that we are a progressive pop/rock band. Since we started doing this, people were finding it hard to swallow and not really getting it. However, with [the release of] this record, people are falling into it right away and understanding it. If things go the way they have been, I don’t think we’ll have a problem.

iheartthemusic: I was told by a close source that I am supposed to ask you about Weezer?

Shehzaad: We don’t know what you are talking about!

iheartthemusic: All I heard is that I have to ask you about Weezer, so come on, spill it!

Patrick: The Waking Eyes were coming through town and they are known for every now and then playing the Blue album in its entirety. So, Travis Porter came to us and said that they were going to come this night and play and asked us if we wanted to do Pinkerton. For quite a few of us, that is one of our favourite albums, so there was no question that we were going to do it.

Tyler: However, we had how many days of practice before we were going to perform!? Travis called us and expected Arietta as a band to go up on stage and play the Pinkerton album. Well, instead of doing that, we kept it a secret and decided that four of us in the band would, instead of coming out and playing the instruments we normally play, switch instruments and learn the album front to back in three days with only three three hour practices. We’ll say we had about 10 to 12 hours of learning an album on instruments we don’t play.

iheartthemusic: That seems like a really smart idea! [laughs] Did people enjoy your rendition?

Shehzaad: People liked us more than The Waking Eyes.

Tyler: Not me!

iheartthemusic: Well good for you for braving that crowd! You guys aren’t signed to any label, so what was the process like getting this album out without any major backing?

Tyler: Hard and extensive. We had help from different sources; from ourselves and the bank, but at the same time it also benefited us. There are positives and negatives to being on a label or not being on a label.

Patrick: Part of it is money and part of it is legwork.

Tyler: Right now we are self-sustaining; we book all our own tours, we get press, we’ve done everything ourselves, which isn’t as hard when you have six guys in the band. We are our own label, band, management company – essentially we are everything.

Sean: It makes you understand the industry and the process. We’ve been doing this for a little while now and, through different bands, have been part of the industry. Without everyone’s hard work and determination it never would have happened. That literally is the only thing that got us through. With finances, if you work hard enough you will find it and you can work with someone that will support you. If you don’t do it yourself then it’s not going to happen.

Shehzaad: Right now, more than ever, there have been opportunities for bands to do that, whereas before it was really hard to succeed without a label.

iheartthemusic: It seems like you almost don’t need one now.

Shehzaad: Yeah, exactly. You can totally just do it on your own. Bands that we know can get by on their own with maybe just a publicist or a booker for tours.

iheartthemusic: Are you striving to get signed though?

Tyler: Yeah totally. It helps when you have a lot of friends in the industry too. So we do have an advantage in that way in terms of hookups with a lot of promoters, bookers, publicists, managers, a lot of these people who may not necessarily be able to help us at this point in time, but will point us in the direction or put in a good word for us, whatever they can do which is really great.

iheartthemusic: Speaking of friends, there seems to be a love triangle going on between Arietta, Dinosaur Bones and Great Bloomers. Where did that come from?

Tyler: And Oh No Forest Fires!

Sean: We are trying to start a new community.

iheartthemusic: Actually?

Patrick: It’s not a conscious effort.

Tyler: Essentially, what’s happened is this city has had for a while now this cross-armed, look at the ground, unless-you-make-it-big-somewhere-else-piss-off kind of attitude, which is fine because it happens in big cities and you can’t let it get to you. At the same time, through having a lot of friends in bands that are very talented and seeing them push really hard and getting no response, we’ve almost created this community. Usually these communities start where it’s like five bands and they are all hardcore or metal or punk rock. But with us you’ve got like a prog/pop band, you’ve got a country/alt band, all these different bands that are doing very well in their respective genres, which is very odd to see.

iheartthemusic: Did you guys all know each other before the bands started?

Tyler: Yeah, I’ve known Branko, the bassist in Dinosaur Bones, since I was about three years old. That’s probably the oldest friend I have. I met Ben, the singer, through him years ago because we used to go to concerts together.

Sean: Two of the Great Bloomers members, the drummer Andrew and the bassist Ty, used to be in our band. They were our original members.

iheartthemusic: No way! So that’s why there is so much love there! Do you think that sense of community is a Toronto thing?

Tyler: I think it’s a big city thing. The whole idea of making it somewhere else and then coming back rings very true, especially in this city. I’ve seen bands play here for years, pushing tons and then all of a sudden someone in Japan likes their band so they go over there and tour for a few months and then come back and they are the biggest band ever here. We are a very ‘turn your back on your own kind until someone else shows some interest’ city, which is a very vicious thing to say, but I think Toronto has been like that for a while now. So we will be going to the UK for a few weeks!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] I was going to say that! Have you guys had any performance mishaps?

Sean: This band is notorious for faulty gear. Brian’s amp blew up once!

iheartthemusic: What do you do when that happens? Smile and hope no one notices?

Tyler: He sings all the guitar parts!

Sean: We’ve had friends lend us gear. I couldn’t even tell you the number of times that we’ve had to share gear. We run a pretty large pedal board, so if something goes wrong with that you are spending like 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out where the problem is. When you have a band with six people and a lot of gear, it poses a lot of issues!

iheartthemusic: I can imagine! So you guys play Horseshoe this Thursday for your CD release, will this be your first time playing at Horseshoe?

Tyler: Yeah, actually it is.

iheartthemusic: That’s amazing! After the album drops what’s up next?

Tyler: Ontario/Quebec/East Coast tour in the summer. We are pretty much ongoing for the rest of our lives.

iheartthemusic: Where can people get the album?

Tyler: All those online retailers like iTunes or Amazon. You can also get it at Sunrise Records and all the local stores. Hopefully you come out to a show and see us and then you can get it there. That’s the best way to do it and you can get it cheaper and a high five!

iheartthmusic: I’m sold on the high five! If there was one thing we should know about Arietta, what would it be?

Tyler: We are very handsome.

Patrick: When you’ve got six guys in a band there is probably more than one thing you need to know!

Brian: You have to know your Simpsons references!

Well there you have it! Be sure to check them out this Thursday, May 7th at the Horseshoe, pick up the album and of course get that high five!

photography provided by April Day

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