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