Cancer Bats

On April 13th, Toronto’s Cancer Bats are set to released their third album upon an unsuspecting world. Dubbed Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones, the album is the cumulating of years or touring, member change, growth and maturity – all packed into one cohesive explosion of fiery metal. A few weeks before the album dropped, Dwayne caught up with lead singer Liam Cormier to learn more about the album and what people should expect from it – plus, some more explanation behind their choice to cap the album with a spastic cover of The Beastie Boys‘ Sabotage.

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Dwayne: I guess first off your name and what you do with the band?

Liam: My name is Liam and I sing in the Cancer Bats

Dwayne: You’re currently on tour with Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, Against Me!; how is everything going so far? I always want to say Rise Against when I think of Billy Talent im not sure why (laughs).

Liam: Tours going awesome. It is funny how you said Rise Against they are kind of lumped in with this whole crew as well. We have all toured with Rise Against before and we kind of joke that they are unofficial Canadians. We met them because the Alexis guys and Billy Talent have toured with them all over the place as well.

Dwayne: So last time I talked to you, you guys were just getting ready to get ready to get into the studio to record a new album. Now the new album is done and ready for release on April 13th. It’s titled Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones; how about a little insight behind the title.

Liam: The big thing with this record was that when we recorded Hail Destroyer we recorded it as a three piece, we didn’t have a bass player at the time. We had Jay join the band right after that record. So recording this record was so much easier. Everything is heavier, everything is working, all of us are working better together and we are actually like a full band at this point. So I wanted a title that reflected that be like now Cancer Bats is a actual band. Not just like scab members because we have had some member changes. There is now a different drummer from the beginning and then we had some bass players. Now I couldn’t imagine the band without these four people. So that’s where I wanted to with that.

Dwayne: So how does the new album progress the Cancer Bats sound?

Liam: I think there was a huge growing period between Birthing the Giant and Hail Destroyer, a lot of kids really noticed that because we were really trying to figure out what we wanted to do as a band. I think now that we have that established and we were figuring what we wanted Hail Destroyer has now become kind of our benchmark as what we wanted to do as a band. So everything from there is now building on that and pushing ideas harder and just trying to out do that album. It’s like our main goal with this record, and working with the same dudes as last time, it was like we had everything dialled in. When it’s the same studio two years later, its just like lets crush this. We are all better musicians and we are all better at working in this band and you know Jay came in with a whole new approach to bass and gear and just everything. Its just like everyone is going to have to step their game up 100% and that was the goal for this record.

Dwayne: Do you think you surpassed that benchmark you set for yourself with Hail Destroyer?

Liam: I definitely think so. I think what we started with Hail Destroyer – this new album is finishing those ideas. We are getting things figured out. Now we are sure and we have that confidence as a band, we understand what we want to do. We understand what we liked about Birthing The Giant and Hail Destroyer and what we want for our band to be and what were the best parts of those albums. As we were writing the new record everyone was on that same page. It was awesome having Jay as kind of an outside perspective like “this is what I like about the band” or what he liked about the previous records. Sometimes you can be too close to it so it’s nice to have that.

Dwayne: You guys have recorded this and have been sitting on it for awhile. Are you at all looking forward to what you will be progressing to be and what the next step is?

Liam: I would say no because we haven’t thought of a new record yet we are just so stoked about this one. I know that that progression is going to come just because I feel like the new record was so positive and everyone just had such a good time in the studio. I know we are going to be touring this for two years but I know that everyone is stoked to work on something new again too because we finished on such a good note. We aren’t in any rush to go back because we all love touring. When we finally have to get off the road and go back in, I know everyone is going to be excited.

Dwayne: Before the release of the new album you released an EP with Sabotage and Dead Wrong on it why the decision to release a EP just before the full length?

Liam: Basically we wanted to take advantage of this tour. The fact that we would be playing for so many people and maybe to hype up the new record a bit. The EP has a new song but on iTunes it has all the singles from the other albums. So that was that plan. There are all these people that have never heard our band before I want to say like 80% of the people at the show tonight have never heard us; maybe 50 because there are a lot of Alexisonfire fans that know who we are. So for all those kids that are coming or for the people that have been just found out about us.

Dwayne: Before you guys released this EP I know you were playing Sabotage live. Where you trying to kind of keep it on the down low that you were going to put this cover on the new album?

Liam: We had never planned to do it. It was always just something that we had talked about. While we were getting everything figure out we thought we would do it if we had extra time; we did that with the last record as well. It is always good to have extra stuff. So we had some extra time so we decided to record the cover and the thing that we were doing was recording video blogs and putting them up week by week when we were in the studio. The reason we wanted to do Sabotage was because we would have a teaser up and be like hey check out what we are working on and say hey we might do this cover… So we looked online about and all the comments from the kids about us doing the Sabotage cover was insane. So we kept getting all this feedback on myspace and emails and facebook so we were just like having all these little teasers on the video blogs and the response was just so crazy that we were like “oh maybe this is more than just a fun thing, maybe we should do something with this.” So many people seemed to be psyched on it. Not only because we were just doing a cover but because we were covering that Beastie Boys song. For some reason it made sense for kids, the connection between our two bands. Like “OH ok this is wicked.”

Dwayne: Since hip hop and hardcore are kind of similar as they both kind of have a certain flow to it I was just wondering how hard it was to so the musical arrangements for the song?

Liam: Aside from Scott trying to figure out what he was going to do on guitar because there is just a ton of scratching on that song. The bass and the drums are exactly the same we just play our bass lines just a lot more fuzzed out and heavy. So it was just Scott trying to sort out what he was going to do on guitar which was wicked. In the first 2 or 3 times together we were jamming, it was just like this is working awesome and then when we were playing it live it just sounded so comfortable alongside the other songs.

Dwayne: Do you know if they have heard it?

Liam: Nooo actually. My friend Timmy though is friends with them and I was trying to ask him if they had. Or send them a video clip through their management. I mean the Beastie Boys are such a huge influence for all of us. So I would love to hear what their response is on it.

Dwayne: Whose idea was it to recreate the video?
Liam: It was basically the director Mark and I that came up with the idea. It is the same director that we have used for all our videos so he kind of knows the band. We have a great relationship and he is also a huge Beastie Boys fan as well and a big Spike Jonze fan. So we wanted to do something that was at least inspired by the original video but we didn’t want to just recreate it. It was like “we are already not being original already by doing the cover,” so we wanted to do something that was kind of our own. We didn’t want to be just “like hey we are stealing your thunder,” we wanted to show that we can hold our own as well. That was our approach.

Dwayne: You guys recently signed a deal with Good Fight Entertainment, in the US how did that deal come about?

Liam: They have been fans of the band for awhile and we had met Carl when we played with their band back in 2005 and have always kind of been in contact with him and tried to work stuff out but it had always just kind of been never the right time and or place. So when he found out that we didn’t have a US label for the new album he was just like “let me hear the album” and was stoked that he could finally do something. Then he heard the record and he was like “this fucking rules!” We were actually signed to Ferret before they started Good Fight. So then about a month later they told us that they were no longer doing Ferret anymore instead they were all doing Good Fight and that’s the only difference. So that’s the only difference the whole staff of Ferret now works for Good Fight.

Dwayne: Are you hoping that being backed by them brings you a little more US exposure?

Liam: Yea it would be great. I mean its close and we would like to tour there more but I mean I am not really holding my breath. I know those guys are going to do a good job but at the same time I know that there are a million bands in the US and we are just a million and one down there. We have had success in other parts of the world already. So I don’t look at the US as the be all and end all, I would be just as happy touring Canada and the UK and Australia and Europe and everywhere else.

Dwayne: That kind of leads into this question… Do you guys feel any pressure to crack into the US market?

Liam: We do from other people, but for us at the end of the day you want to enjoy your life and it is way more fun touring everywhere else then just the US. I’m not saying that as beef to kids in America or that the kids there suck but the US is just really big and its just really tough to get around and shows can just be really hit and miss. The geography is just really brutal so for all intensive purposes it is a really tough place to tour

Dwayne: Going into the studio did you feel a lot more focused knowing the type of record you wanted to record?

Liam: Yeah! I mean the big thing was that we had the whole record finished before we even hit the studio versus you know you don’t have enough time or you are trying to write a record in-between touring and stuff like that. So with Hail Destroyer and Birthing the Giant we were going in with relatively unfinished songs. So for us it was always like scrambling to get everything done. Where with this record we had 15 songs finished and we said we were going to practice these for the next 2 weeks none stop before we go in. We were essentially recording the album over and over and over again before we even got in the studio to make sure all the problems were worked out and sorted. Our big thing was we wanted it to sound as live as possible. That was where Eric and Kenny, the two producers, were like “if you guys want that we need to essentially record a live record.” You need to be tighter then you have ever been in the studio.

Dwayne: Do you think that is something you would ever attempt? A live album?

Liam: Yes and no? I mean in recording it in that sense there is a certain degree of you can’t get it to sound clear if you are recording a live record. At the end of the day you will have to track guitars separately if you want it to sound crunchy and huge. I mean there are bands that are able to do that but I mean just with our sound it’s a lot tougher. When we mixed drum tracks he was playing to us, not a click track and I was singing. We then went to an isolated spot to record guitars to those live drum tracks. In a lot of cases we kept those vocal tracks that I had done initially right off the bat.

Dwayne: You guys have kept getting heavier and crunchier from album to album is there a definite sound you want to work towards?

Liam: Yeah, because I think we always thought we were a lot heavier band live then we were on album. Especially on Birthing the Giant, we were not bummed on that record but just like shit we are a much heavier band now; and even with Hail Destroyer, its like we recorded that and then we stepped up our game. We just really wanted to have something as heavy as we are. We have just invested so much money in gear for our live shows we need to make that translate into this a recorded setting.  There were always people that said our band is so much heavier live than on recordings, so that also kind of drove us as well.

Dwayne: You had said that without Grade there would have been no Ontario Screamo scene. Are you pretty stoked now that they are putting out new stuff?

Liam: I think it’s wicked! I mean those guys were in a hardcore band called To the Lions which didn’t do anything other then just play local hardcore shows until the last few years. So its rad to know that those guys are still making music for the right reasons, just hanging out and having fun and not in it being like we were these big giants. I definitely will give credit to a band like Grade almost in a way; like to bring it up so maybe younger kids can get into it because it was such a important band to all of us growing up. I don’t think a band like Alexisonfire is directly influenced by Grade but Grade made it where there is a screamo scene where people are excited about it.

***And as if cued by a stage hand Dallas Green from Alexisonfire sits down at the table to join in on the Grade conversation**

Liam: Dallas Green wants to make a Grade comment

Dallas: I am supposed to do a interview with you next.  Because George is busy so I am taking his spot.

Liam: So you can just seamlessly go into the Alexisonfire interview then.

Dallas: Is that ok?

Dwayne: Yea that’s fine with me!

Dallas: I am not as “punk”

Liam: If more than anything that just makes you more punk doesn’t it?

Liam: It’s like the toughest guy…. the toughest guy in the room doesn’t talk about what fights he has been in.

Dallas: He just wins them.

Liam: Yea, he is just the toughest guy.

Liam: I can give you the punkest. Dallas Green he is with a little band called City and Color and toured by himself. Now that’s fucking punk!

Dallas: Just toured by myself.

Liam: Mini van Chris Crunk (laughs)

Dallas: Yea and he didn’t have his license….. Sorry you guys can continue.

Liam: We were just talking about Grade and how they are putting out new stuff and I think its rad.

Dallas: I was never really a fan but I still think it’s cool.

Liam: I made that comment too; about how I didn’t think Alexis was directly influenced by Grade .

Dallas: No, but we did get written about once in a review of one of our record in AP they said that Grade must be rolling in its grave. Then in the same issue another band was praised because they sounded like Grade even though we don’t sound a thing like Grade.

Liam: I don’t think you sound like Grade but I do think that Grade raised the awareness of Screamo as a genre in Southern Ontario

Dallas: For sure, absolutely!

Liam: And maybe in Canada in general.

Dallas: I think we were inspired more by the first Taken record. They were essentially a Canadian band even though they were from southern California. Goodfella records put them out and they were bigger in Hamilton then they were in their own city.

Liam: But I also gonna give Grade that credit they would have 400-500 kids at a show.

Dallas: Oh yea for sure! There are bands that would exist with out Grade. Silverstein?

Liam: Yea Silverstein, Boys Night Out, and those guys were then in the scene with you guys that kind of made that whole southern Ontario scene just kind of blow up!

Dwayne: So back on track here what do you guys have coming up next here after this tour?

Liam: Canada wise or world wise? I guess if this goes on the internet it doesn’t matter. After this we go into a headlining tour in Europe with a band called Ghosts Of A Thousand. Which will be pretty cool. Best drummer in post hardcore currently! Memdizel.

Dallas: Quick photo….. Mem and his brother Jag – both not their real names! There real names are very long. Neither of them have ever called me Dallas, they only call me Mr Green. (laughs) Mr Green! No matter what…. That’s the photo right there (shows me picture on his Black berry)

Liam: I will also say this. They call you Mr. Green. They call Scott Mr.Mayor.

Dallas: You have to call Jag The Sultan.

Liam: The Sultan? Ok I will bust it out! So is that it?

Dwayne: Yea unless you have something else you would like to add?

Liam: Nope (shakes my hand) fist bumps Mr. Green and skates away!