IllScarlett

After doing a successful in-store signing at West Edmonton Mall and before hitting the stage to play to a sold out crowd at the Starlite Room, the four members of IllScarlett took a few minutes out of the hectic schedule to answer a few questions for me. While we touched on some the more general topics like their sudden rise in popularity across Canada and the fact that their song was chosen to be the official theme song for FIFA’s U-20 World Cup, we also discussed the dangers of touring, the best show they never played and hair extensions. Thanks to the band for doing and to Anthony for setting it all up.

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Bobby: You guys did an in-store signing this afternoon, how did that go?

Will: It was insane.

Swav: Yeah, it was pretty wild.

Will: It was crazy.

Bobby: Is it fun to go and meet all your fans at autograph signings and stuff like that?

Swav: Oh yeah, it’s very cool when people want to take the time out and go to malls to get you to scribble on a piece of paper; it’s pretty cool.

Bobby: Do you do autograph signings before every show or is it more dependent on the day?

Swav: After every show, we like to go to our merch area as soon as we get off the stage. Say what’s up to our fans, sign some autographs, stuff like that. It’s part of our routine.

Bobby: I saw you guys back in May at the Virgin Fest in Vancouver. I’ll be honest and say I had never heard of you guys before, but I heard a friend talking about you so I figured I’d check you out and I was impressed. A month later you guys blew up. All my friends knew who you were, you had a couple successful radio singles – were you surprised with this instant rise in popularity from the past couple months?

Alex: Yeah, I mean, we’ve been working hard for like six years and it just seems like it’s a steady progression, it’s organic. I mean, yeah, we have radio support in Vancouver and we play a big show like Virgin and we play the Warped Tour. Unless you’re terrible, you have to do something, you have to get more popular. I think it’s all healthy. *John walks in and joins us* This is John by the way. John, do you want to state your name for the recorder?

John: John, I play the bass.

Bobby: Thank you. Like I said, you guys are starting to blow up in Canada and become pretty popular, have you been able to break into the American market or overseas yet?

Will: America, we’re getting there. We did some touring down East. We played Michigan and New York with Plain White T’s. Those have been helping. Warped Tour dates the last couple of years out East, so it’s getting there.

Bobby: Last November, when you guys were touring Canada, you were driving from Winnipeg to Saskatoon. You hit some black ice, spun into a ditch and had to cancel the tour because all your stuff was stuck in the snow….

Alex: Cancel the show.

Bobby: Cancel the show, my mistake. Has this winter tour been better compared to last November?

Alex: Yeah, there’s no snow.

Swav: There’s no snow!

John: The weather has been less apocalyptic, which is good.

Alex: But we still have the mountains to go through.

John: We have to conquer Mordor!

Bobby: Is that one of the biggest dangers of touring Canada in the winter? The snow and the ice?

Will: So dangerous.

John: I guess so.

Alex: All the time, driving is the most dangerous part of our job, definitely. If it’s not snow and ice, it’s drunks and women.

Swav: Touring is an extreme statistic.

Alex: He’s right, statistically, the more you drive the car the better your chances of getting into a car accident. But we’ve already had one, so I guess that resets our counter.

John: Yeah, I would say that.

Bobby: Now you have a clean slate, you’re good to go for the next couple of years.

Alex: And then the big one!

Swav: Never say that again.

Bobby: Your single, Who’s Got It, was the official song for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, how did that all happen?

Alex: I guess someone from FIFA had called someone at our label and said “we need a song and since the tournament is in Canada, we’d like a Canadian band.” So Sony just said “IllScarlett’s making a new record right now, let’s send you some tracks from that and see what you like.” They picked Who’s Got It to be the official theme, although it didn’t really do anything for us.

Bobby: Are you guys big soccer fans? Were you able to see any of the games?

Alex: We did go to a game; we went to Uruguay and America.

Swav: It was good.

Alex: It was really cool man.

Swav: Great snacks, great snacks.

John: Great sushi. Love football, love soccer.

Alex: But yeah, we got to a game, it was pretty exciting.

Bobby: You guys were supposed to play on Canada Day at one of the games right?

Alex: Yeah we were.

Bobby: Why didn’t that go through?

Will: It interrupted our touring schedule. We had to be out West doing Warped Tour dates and just the production behind it – it didn’t synch up properly.

Bobby: The record, All Day With It, came out in July and it featured N.T.F. – next time forever – and Pacino which were previously released on the EPidemic EP, why did you decide to re-record and re-release those songs?

Will: Well, actually when we did those songs on EPidemic, they were planned on being fully recorded and actually full songs but due to budgets at the time we just did them acoustically and really numbed down. We always planned to put them on the record, they were always meant to be all of us playing.

Bobby: Okay, now you have three different versions of Next Time Forever out there. You have the acoustic version of Clearly in Another Fine Mess, the EP version and the album version with strings. Do you think now that Next Time Forever has run its course or will it be making any more odd appearances on further releases?

Will: Definitely not. Maybe live.

Swav: Maybe live on DVD or something, but we’re never gonna record it again.

Bobby: You guys have been known for covering Rihanna’s Umbrella song live. What made you decide to start covering that?

Alex: It’s a good song.

John: Alex used to play, or, Alex plays some bar gigs by himself at times and he covers a lot of songs that we wouldn’t normally play; but that one just stuck. People liked it and we brought it to the show.

Bobby: During one interview at the Orange Lounge on Toronto’s Queen Street you guys talked about the “best show you never played.” Where you did a benefit show for a magazine in Mississauga and you (Alex) went out to get water, security wouldn’t let you back in so Will encouraged everyone to start breaking stuff and a riot ensued. What was the club owner’s reaction after that?

Will: Oh, he was pissed.

Swav: He was happy, what are you talking about?

Will: *laughs* He loved it; he was very excited about it… He ended up losing the bar a few months later anyway so what’s the difference?

Swav: I heard that he was throwing the gear out of the back door. Just throwing amps and guitars and drums.

Will: Along with me. I got thrown out by a monster that’s like two times the size of John, he just grabbed me and *makes a throwing motion with his arms*

John: I beat up eleven bouncers that night and took their girlfriends home.

Alex: It was crazy though. They tried to arrest us. They called the cops and everything.

Bobby: Have you guys ever started any other riots at shows where sinks got pulled out?

Will: At shows? No. We’re off that, we’re good boys now.

Bobby: All grown up now?

Will: All grown up.

Bobby: After that show do you always bring your own water now?

Alex: *laughs* You know what, that’s the only time I’ve ever really had a problem with that. Usually it’s provided water or if not, I should be able to bring me own God damn water. I’m not going to drink tap water or bar water or whatever. Other than that, it’s not been an issue.

Bobby: You guys formed in 2001 but you only really started to get out of the greater Toronto area these past couple years so there’s not a lot of information about you guys out there. So when I was doing research for this interview, I read a lot of interviews and watched a lot of interviews and they always touched on the same issues: you guys playing the line-up at Barrie’s 2004 Warped Tour, the FIFA song – which even I’m guilty for asking you some things about that – and your sudden rise in popularity across all of Canada. So unless it’s about some random facts like your (Alex) three poodles or Johnny’s accusation that he (Will) makes porn movies and that his hair is fake… *they all laugh*

Will: It’s all lies!

Swav: *Pulling on Will’s hair* This is real.

Will: This is real.

Swav: It ain’t coming off.

John: I thought it would be a joke and obviously they’re real dreads. If you’ve ever been to a show or read any other interviews before, it’s obviously real.

Bobby: But does constantly always having the same questions start to become annoying after a while?

Will: You want to shoot yourself in the head.

John: You just get creative answers, you start making stuff up.

Will: You just start lying in interviews. You start talking shit.

John: But you give great interviews.

Alex: Yeah.

John: So far it’s all good.

Bobby: Thank you. Well, I guess this is your chance to change that. Is there anything you would like to be asked about in future interviews, random stories and the like? So when other people are doing research for you next time. Is there anything they should ask you instead of the Warped Tour questions, the FIFA questions?

Alex: *Sarcastically* What are you doing next? What’s next for you guys?

Swav: Where do you want to be in ten years? *laugh*

John: I don’t know. Just “how are you doing John?” “What did you have for breakfast?”

Will: “Did you have a good sleep?”

John: Just talk.

Alex: I really don’t know, that’s a good question though.

Will: “Would you like a foot message?”

Alex: What would I like to be asked? I like when people ask about songs, when they ask about song content or the writing process or recording process. Those are always kind of interesting things; they’re always a little different.

Bobby: So, I guess, how was the recording process? You guys recorded it in California with Matthew…

Alex: Matthew Wilder.

Bobby: It was over winter, which would have been freezing up in Canada but you guys were in California. How was that?

John: It wasn’t freezing, that’s for sure.

Swav: It was beautiful.

Bobby: I guess we’ll just end with a few more weird questions that I like to end all interviews with. First off, when you guys were growing up, whose poster did you have on your wall?

Will: White Zombie.

John: Terminator 2. I had Terminator 2 up there – with the gun with the beam on it.

Swav: Jenny McCarthy and Nirvana.

Alex: Um… Batman.

Bobby: Did you hear their making a second Batman to the prequel?

Alex: Oh yeah, I know, called The Dark Knight. I’ve seen a couple little teasers.

Bobby: It should be pretty good. Okay, one more question, if you guys were stranded on a desert island, with no food and nothing to eat, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

Will: John.

Swav: He’s the biggest.

John: I’m cuddly. *Everyone laughs*

Will: We’d always feed on John.

Swav: Will would be the last one.

Will: Yeah, I got nothing.

Alex: Probably whoever died first.

Swav: To be honest, yeah.

John: I’d eat a toe. I’d eat anyone’s toe… That came out all wrong.

Swav: I’d go for the plants first.

Will: Ass. I’d eat an ass.

John: Go for the butt cheek.

Swav: Chew on a toe and some ass. I don’t know, that’s a pretty interesting question. I’d become a vegetarian.

Bobby: Eat all the plants on the island?

Swav: Until I poison myself to death. He’d (John) have too much toxins in his body that I’d probably eat it and get fried.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it, thanks a lot. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Alex: Thank you.

John/Will: Hey hey!

John: Smoke weed every day.