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

Tis the season for giving- well at least it almost is and in the world of music, that is no exception. Fucked Up are one such band who are doing their part this holiday season by raising awareness for a group that often go unnoticed in the media. Following their Polaris Music Prize win, the band, which consists of Damian Abraham (vocals), Jonah Falco (drums), Mike Haliechuk (lead guitar), Sandy Miranda (bass guitar), Josh Zucker (rhythm guitar) and Ben Cook (backing vocals), have decided to put together a benefit single to help support the Aboriginal community out west. iheartthemusic spoke with Damian before their Polaris win where he explained what we can expect from what will definitely be in our stockings this Christmas.

iheartthemusic: First off I have to say that I love your shoes!

Damian: Well thank you, I designed them myself!

iheartthemusic: No way! Well I can see that you really dressed for the occasion! [laughs]

Damian: I was like what is the dress code? And they were like “casual” and I guess we all have different definitions of casual. But yeah, I designed these myself and they even say “drug free” on the side! [shows me the letters spelling out "drug free"]

iheartthemusic: Well at least the kids out there will get the message! So I believe a double congratulations is in order-one for tonight and one for the baby!

Damian: Well thank you, he’s here actually! The baby is downstairs right now. I brought him for the “sympathy” vote! I am going to go by the jury room and hold up my son and be like he’s hungry, you have to pick me!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] So where were you guys when you found out you had made the shortlist?

Damian: We were in Croatia actually. It was a great experience. It’s crazy because that’s why we missed the press conference, because we were literally crossing the border into Croatia. It was really bizarre because we were all like celebrating and all the Croatian people were like “what’s a Polaris?” and we were like “it’s a Canadian award, you wouldn’t understand”! [laughs]

iheartthemusic: What does it mean to you as musicians to make the shortlist?

Damian: I think it is validation of a record that you made. I’m not saying that I agree with all the choices. I think that there are great records that weren’t on there, but it seems that everyone that has won so far, have been real artistic achievements in Canadian music and I think being among that elite group is really flattering.

iheartthemusic: Absolutely. I mean you guys are kind of considered the “rebels” amongst all the nominees.

Damian: Yeah, we are the only band to get frisked coming in and out of here. 

iheartthemusic: Well I can somewhat understand where they are coming from based on what you did last time you were here! [at the Masonic Temple]

Damian: I know! I don’t blame them and I’m not trying to be like “poor us” because you reap what you sew but at the same time it is funny to see other bands walk by while you just stand there and get patted down. I made sure they didn’t frisk the baby![laughs] All I could get were some cigarettes in.

iheartthemusic: Where is the rest of the group?

Damian: We don’t really talk! [laughs] I’m the chatter box, everyone else in the band is downstairs or probably eating dinner somewhere. I am the one who has to…

iheartthemusic: You are the face!

Damian: I’ve got the look!

iheartthemusic: You mentioned earlier that you were surprised that a few albums didn’t make it into the list. What albums would you have included?

Damian: I thought that Japandroids Post Nothing was going to make it in there and Bison B.C. could have been in there. Also Women, I was surprised they didn’t make it.  Even more than that there are a lot of  hardcore bands, punk bands and metal bands that have never made it in years past. All these great bands that are kind of underrecognized and its funny because you go over to Europe and there are kids wearing these band’s shirts coming to your show and you are like ” that’s so weird because noone in Canada knows about them”. It’s always been like that in Canada so if anything our nomination, I hope that means that more records like ours are going to make it. I mean we are on an indie label, we are indie dressers, maybe we will open the door for a little more of an aggressive look and sound.

iheartthemusic: What will you do with the prize money?

Damian: I would love to take everyone out for dinner that made this album possible. Like all of the people that guested on it and came on, that we thanked obviously, but we never had a formal celebration for what they had done. I’d love to do that. We are putting on a benefit single for Christmas time and we are going to donate all the money to an Aboriginal Youth Charity in Canada. So we are getting all these guests to go on it and so I think we are going to pay for that. Right now, I don’t think you have heard about the Highway of Tears, but there are tons of Aboriginal women who go missing every year in Canada that are not reported and are just totally ignored by the media. The Pickton case is really interesting because when they reported that in the press, they never really talked about the fact that a lot of those women were Aboriginal women. They are marginalized in these situations, so there is a racial issue to this violence and I think that is so important. If anything else we have a lot of people on this record that are going to surprise people that hopefully can raise more awareness.

photography provided by Sara Collaton

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