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

On our third night of CMW team “MKAY” ventured out to the Sound Academy to chat and listen to the amazing sounds of Montreal based band Mobile. These guys have been blowing up the charts lately and are currently on tour with our good friends Inward Eye and Bend Sinister. Mobile were not headlining the show (which was a bit of a surprise) but nonetheless managed to outshine their competition. Lead singer Mat’s vocals were incredible and proved that he is a true performer (especially when he was able to continue to play despite some minor mic stand difficulties). The crowd was definitely into it and showed their support when they played “The Killer” and everyone  sang along. They also introduced a new member to their band: Martin Lavallee on drums. He proved to be a great addition as his skill and stage presence that night were unmatched by anyone else. It really felt as though he had been with the band from the very beginning. Mobile ended their set with another popular song off their first album (the one that got them the Juno) called “Out Of My Head.” Once again, everyone in the audience was into it, there were even some mutters in the audience from people who recognized the song but had no clue what the band was called.  Stay tuned for our chat with them!

After Mobile’s performance, team “MKAY” hightailed to Lee’s Palace to catch Matt Mays & El Torpedo. This is a group that have garnered MUCH buzz within the indie rock scene so we were looking forward to seeing what all the hype was about. We arrived in time to catch the end of The Novaks‘ set (another incredibly talented and diverse band). The guitar skills of these guys are out of control and if that was any indication of what’s to come on their album (which comes out next month), we will be the first in line to pick it up!

After The Novaks were our favourite guys: The Waking Eyes. Having previously reviewed and interviewed them, we knew what to expect and 

were (yet again) blown away by their sound and stage performance! These boys just get better and better each time and the fans in the audience all agreed that that was one of their better performances.

Matt Mays & El Torpedo were last to take the stage. As soon as they started to play you could tell that the crowd were comprised of followers and fans and we were right in there with them. We have heard so many great things about these East-coast boys and they definitely did not disappoint. After watching them live and seeing the skill of both Matt Mays and the rest of his band, there is no doubt in our mind as to why they won the Indie award on Saturday. One thing that is quite difficult to do and is often a huge mistake, is when bands take on the challenge of performing a cover song of some amazing classic rock legend. Well these boys were up for the challenge and played a rendition of “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones.  We were so pleasantly surprised by their rendition that it felt as though we were hearing that song for the first time as performed by the original writer. At the end of their set (which lasted TWO straight hours) they invited all the acts from the night up on stage to sing with them one last time. It was great to see Rusty from The Waking Eyes play acoustic with Matt Mays and it was an experience that everyone in the audience knew would be hard to beat. It was an incredible show and definitely a highlight of our week. After this night, we can honestly say that we have seen some of the best talent in Canada.

photography provided by Matt Vardy

They may share a name with Leonard Cohen’s second album, but the band Songs from a Room claim that though they’re fans of the great artistic Canadian, the name actually came from a friend’s suggestion and is not an homage. Before Songs from a Room took the stage at the Horseshoe Tavern, iheartthemusic got to chat with brothers Brayden and Dustin who help form the rocking hard pop, punkish quintet with David, Nicholas and Craig.

iheartthemusic: How did Songs from a Room form?

Brayden: Me and him [pointing beside him to his brother Dustin] have been playing together for forever. We played in lots of bands in Windsor and toured a lot in the States. After 9/11 hit we slowed right down on going over because of all the security reasons and things so we decided to move to Toronto; that was about two years ago. We met up with these guys [pointing across to the bench where the rest of the band was sitting], funnily enough, a lot of them were from Windsor originally. We never really hung out with them there but kind of fell into them along the way and the rest is history.

iheartthemusic: There was momentum building for you guys, and then tragedy struck…

Brayden: The weekend of Virgin Festival [where they were to be the first act on the Oh Henry! Stage] I decided to have myself offered up to the gods or something and was hit by a Sea-Doo which took me off my feet. It’s been six months now, so I’m glad to be back and playing and not in a wheelchair the rest of my life. I try to stay positive that way. It can be a little tricky with your mind when you go through something like that; to stay positive and keep your main goals in mind. When you become crippled and can’t work anymore all you think about is how to survive, so music sometimes was put on the back burner when you know you have to pay a bill. But luckily enough my wife makes enough money to keep me going.

iheartthemusic: You have a sugar mama!

Brayden: [Chuckles] Yah, I do. The tables have turned. It’s good that way, I’m lucky.

iheartthemusic: You have a second EP out now, did you record that before the accident?

Dustin: Yah, that was before the accident. It was actually supposed to just be demos but we ended up releasing it.

iheartthemusic: Can you tell us a little about the album?

Dustin: We did it all ourselves in our rehearsal space and recorded it ourselves. As far as sound goes it’s a collaboration of ideas, there was no real theme or vibe, we were just going with it.

iheartthemusic: I liked the quote on your MySpace, “it’s always been about writing a solid rhythm and melody.” Is that still the case?

Dustin: Exactly. We weren’t trying to nail a certain genre or a certain sound. Whatever worked we went with.

iheartthemusic: Do you have a favourite place in Toronto to play?

Brayden: You’re sitting in it right now. The sound is always great, it’s a good vibe and there’s parking out back, which is huge for a band with a massive van.

iheartthemusic: Hopefully it won’t get towed like The Waking Eyes‘ a few weeks back.

Brayden: Yah, I heard about that, that was a bummer.

iheartthemusic: Have you had any interesting stories or mishaps while touring?

Brayden: Probably our biggest one wasn’t even while touring. We’ve always had a studio, always recorded ourselves; we enjoy that whole experience of writing the music and having nobody over our head looking at their watch and charging by the hour. So anyways, we get back to the studio space and the doors are totally beat down. We had no insurance at the time so took a huge loss and bye-bye studio. It was one of the last major things for us before we left for Toronto. You tend to lose your spirit quite a bit. The last thing you want to do is steal from a starving band, you know? It’s like taking money from a homeless guy on the street, you just don’t do it!

iheartthemusic: Oh dear, you guys have certainly had your run of bad luck, but hopefully everything’s on the up and up.

Songs from a Room have two CMW shows so try to check them out either when they hit Tattoo Rock Parlour on March 11 with Inward Eye, Isle of Thieves and Bury the Bully or at the Bovine on March 14 with Ubelievers, Sinkin’ Ships, Hell Yeah Fuck Yeah, Farewell to Freeway and The Artist Life.

Photography by James Blake

Question: What happens when musically-minded students serendipitously find each other at McMaster Univeristy and proceed to form a kickass band? Answer: the Arkells. In 2006 Max Kerman (lead vocals/guitar) found himself a froshman with the desire to be in a band and – whether through the hand of Fortuna or Max’s gift to pick out musicians – he stumbled upon Nick Dika (bass), Mike DeAngelis (guitar/vocals), Tim Oxford (drums) and Dan Griffin (keyboard/guitar/vocals). Since their inception they’ve ridden to success at a rapid rate. Despite the swift route to renown, the boys are still down to earth (and even have day jobs!). While on the Toronto leg of the cross-country tour, which they’re co-headlining with The Waking Eyes, iheartthemusic had a chance to sit and chat with Max at the Horseshoe Tavern.

iheartthemusic: Your first full length album, Jackson Square, was just released in October of last year, have you started to put thought into the next album yet?

Max: We are always writing stuff. We have a great label and management and they’re taking care of the logistics so all we [have to do] is try to write good songs. Naturally our inclination is to write songs, but it’s a long process of how they get put together, but whether we were on a label or not we would still be trying to write music.

iheartthemusic: How have you guys stayed so level headed amidst what seems like instant success?

Max: We’re all friends and we know this is a really great opportunity that other bands don’t have so we always remember that. I remember when we played with Matt Mays at The Commodore in Vancouver. What was great about that place was that they have a really cool backstage room. Most of the places we play at are just dumps, the backstage room is like a closet or something, but The Commodore was great. Before the show we said to each other, “you know, six months ago we would have come to this show and said ‘man that fucking opening band, we should be them’.“ And now we get to do it. But we always try to keep things in perspective because it’s been a really positive [experience] so far.

iheartthemusic: And you guys haven’t been doing this for very long, that’s amazing!

Max: Yah, its great. We all still work day jobs though. Like we played last night in St Catharines and I had to be back at work for 9am in Hamilton. It’s just an office job filing shit, but I definitely hated the fact that I had to work the next day. Lately we’ve been getting a lot of coverage, you know, doing interviews and people mentioning our name in different places and it’s flattering, but we also know that we have to be at work at 9am. But now we are going on tour and get a few weeks off of work and hopefully we won’t get fired when we get back.

iheartthemusic: What’s next on the horizon for you guys?

Max: We’d love to go do shows in the UK or the US. That seems to always be the logical next step for a band and since we’ve been playing in Canada for a while. Its great, you know, because we’re young we don’t really have a jaded perspective on it yet so all these opportunities that come our way we are like, “we get to go see places!” So on top of playing shows we are getting to see the country… I think that the next step is to just keep playing and getting the gospel out of the Arkells.

iheartthemusic: Well that is definitely something that I am sure the rest of Canada would hope for! If you haven’t checked them out yet then get on their MySpace and look out for them in your town!

www.myspace.com/arkellsmusic

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