The Artist Life

You know when you just get so overwhelmed with work, the Christmas season and life in general? Well that’s what happened to me this past month and why this interview is going online so late. My huge apologies to Katie and everyone at Underground Operations as well as The Artists Life who were nice enough to sit down and talk to me and here is what resulted….

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Dwayne: I guess first of all, what are your names and what do you do with the band?

Dean: I’m Dean and I play guitar

Jake: I’ m Jake and I play the drums

Dwayne: How’s the tour going with Stereos so far?

Dean: It’s been a blast. We have found ourselves playing shows for fans that have definitely never heard us before. We’re having tons of fun every night. It’s been a different tour for us.

Dwayne: The new video was directed by Jason Mewes, what was that like working with him?

Dean: It was amazing. We met him a few weeks before we shot the video and kind of instantly built this friendship with him. He was doing a few PR things with the Degrassi film so we went to a few events with him and he took us out and took really good care of us. The entire day we were just cracking jokes the entire time and sometimes you shoot a video and it’s a lot of business and a lot of hurry up and wait; which we never really experienced this time around. It was just such a blast with Jason; I mean the guy is a total riot. We were always laughing and one of the funnest things we have done as a band to date for sure.

Jake: Yea he is a really cool guy.

Dwayne: So it wasn’t at all intimidating working with someone of that caliber?

Jake: He is really high on IMDB – he has a really high star rating. He’s a super cool guy, really down to earth, he likes his cheeseburgers just like everyone else.

Dean: Like I said we got to hang out with him for acouple weeks before we shot the video so we built that friendship with him. So it was just like hanging out with your buddies shooting a fun video. I mean sometimes you kinda step back and think “holy shit that’s Jason Mewes and hes acting like my best friend right now” but it was a really cool experience.

Dwayne: You guys stripped down “Let’s Start a Riot” into a acoustic track “Let’s Start a Campfire” who’s idea was that and why did you do it?

Dean: It came about when we were doing some acoustic shows. Sometimes we do that stuff for radio and we do it for different promo reasons. We thought the songs were really translating themselves well in an acoustic setting and we though since we were between records at the time to put something out between eps and before the full length happened and at the same time try to re-invent the song and explore them up a different avenue. So yea it just kinda came about through some acoustic performances.

Dwayne: You guys write songs collaboratively when a lot of bands have one singular songwriter. How does that dynamic make you different?

Dean: The way the song writing works is either myself or Ian will come up with an idea and show it to the rest of the band and sometimes Ian will have the core of the song but the chorus is lacking or it doesn’t have that money note we are looking for. It usually starts with Ian or myself having the structure. At that point we take it to the rest of the group so that drums and rhythm can do their thing. I think it’s a pretty solid method that we are able to demo the songs before we show it to the rest of the band so that everyone can get a picture of where the song’s gonna go. I think it’s a useful tool so that everyone can get a good idea of the song before we take it to the jam space.

Dwayne: I read an interview with Ian and he had said that Rancid and Blink 182 were basically the soundtrack to his youth. Would you think it would be realistic to pursue either Mark Hoppus or Tim Armstrong to head up a new record?

Dean: We thought about that. Absolutly. We looked at the budgets behind the next record and what we are able to di as a Canadian band that has put out a 5 song EP to date. I’m not sure if that’s quite realistic but again we grew up on those bands and we look up to them and everything that they have done has been amazing. That would be a dream come true, we have never worked with either of those guys. They are Jake’s favorite bands.

Jake: Yeah, both those bands are totally my favorite bands. Actually Ian’s sister just got signed to Hellcat so maybe there is a bit of a connection there maybe we can work something out there. (laughs)

Dean: I don’t think its something feasible for the next album because January/February/March we are going to figure it out but absolutely in the future it would be amazing to work with those guys.

Dwayne: Do you have any ideas who you want to pursue for the next album?

Dean: Yeah, we have been talking to some producers but nothing is set in stone. Something that is certain though is that we will be working with Jesse Colburn who played in Closet Monster and does a lot of work with Underground Operations. So we really hope he will be involved. Beyond that we aren’t really sure where it’s going to go yet.

Dwayne: Signing to Underground Operations was obviously a pretty big deal. They are kind of one of the premier labels in Canada, how has that helped advance you as a band?

Jake: They are the best!! (laughs) The best family we could ever have. The opportunity just comes from there.

Dean: One of the coolest things about Underground is as a label and a management companym, they have a really strong family philosophy behind them. I mean not only do we work with them in the business sense but they are our really close friends. So everyone from Katie to Mark over there have given the band a lotta great ideas and put us in the right direction. We are really excited. We are a year into the first release with them and we see a really positive future in working with them.

Jake: Plus, we want to bring them up just as much as they want to bring us up so that really shows the family unity.

Dwayne: Underground has a firm hold up here in Canada but are you looking to expand in the US maybe through a licensing deal?

Dean: Yea we aren’t too sure what’s happening with the EP as far as that goes. One thing that you find in Canada that is a challenge is when you have some success here, it’s sometimes tough to break into the US market. So that’s something that is important for the new album; or what is going to happen in the future is that Underground has that vision for things to break in the US and to go beyond what some Canadian bands have limited themselves to. I think there is the drive to go beyond just a “Canadian” band and go internationally I mean look at Protest the Hero and Lights who are just exploding internationally they did that for a lot different reasons, specifically they did it a little different then most other bands.

Dwayne: You guys are also making an appearance on the New Degrassi High Movie. How did that all come about and what are you guys doing in the movie?

Dean: Ian used to act on a TV show called Instant Star which was part of the same production company that does Degrassi so Ian has built a excellent relationship with them and we were actually at a party with Jason Mewes and it was for the first Degrassi film and we were hanging out with some of the producers and I think shortly after that we got a call to be on the new movie. For the rest of that Jake can tell you because I wasn’t actually on set for filming.

Jake: Basically, we are a backing band for a few different female vocalists and the storyline is that one vocalist is part of the band and she gets asked to leave while another member is dating another girl and they break up and the former girl turns into the singer of the band again it was pretty cool. It involved some really cool people. We just had to learn 3 songs and just jammed out on the set of Degrassi and it was like the coolest thing. Snake was the director and everyone who used to watch Degrassi knew him and it was just the coolest thing to watch him walking around and directing.

Dwayne: You can hear the obvious pop punk influences in your music, but what other music might people find interesting to know that influence you?

Dean: When you talk about pop. Im a big Taylor Swift fan I think she is an amazing song writer. That’s something that is out of the punk world

Dwayne: How about Kanye West

Jake: 100% love Kanye , Love Jay Z.

Dean: I love Ryan Adams.

Jake: Every Time I Die, Sick Of It All is my favorite band of all time.

Dean: Last town Chorus…. For me it comes down to song writing. If I think there is a band out there that can write a really good song they get nothing but respect from me. Phoenix … has been the album of the tour so far.

Jake: We listen to a lot of pop punk as well.

Dwayne: Which is kind of weird because a lot of bands do not listen to their own genre that much at all. So that is kind of cool that you still listen to pop punk bands.

Dean: At the same time I think song writing is very important to this band so if we can learn and get inspiration from bands outside the punk genre we will. Like Ryan Adams or Butch Walker where, at the end of the day, the song writing is undeniable.

Dwayne: As a song writer yourself, who do you look up to. Who is one of the top ranked songwriters according to you?

Dean: That’s a good question. Again we talked about Ryan Adams. How personal his lyrics are I don’t think I would want to delve that deep but I can totally put on an album and feel what he was feeling. Bryan Adams as well.

Jake: I’m not going to say she writes it but whoever writes for Kelly Clarkson, they are great as well.

Dean: Jesse McCartney wrote that song for Leonna Lewis “Bleeding Love.” That song could very easily be a Alkaline Trio song if you listen to the lyrics. I would really love to see Alkaline Trio do a cover of that song.

Dwayne: You guys are just getting started as a band but looking into the future what do you hope to contribute to the scene?

Dean: I think at the end of the day when I was growing up as a teenage there were a number of bands who helped me find my indentity. One of them was a band called D.B.S. from Vancouver and they did an album called “I is for Insignificant” and that album absolutely changed my life in a million different ways. One of them was that I was a new student in a new school – a little fish in a big pond you could say. That album made me realize that I wasn’t the only one to feel insignificant in a big way. So if I could ever have and impact on someone the way that D.B.AS. did for me and help them through a difficult time or even inspiring someone, if I could ever make that impact on someone else’s life, that would just be huge. As a musician we want to make a career out of this and getting a gold or platinum record would be great and they are not unreachable goals and I think if you’re in a band, you have to have some kind of ambition and those things are something great to reach for. In the end you want to be as successful as possible and I don’t think those goals have to be unattainable.

Dwayne: So what do you have coming up after this tour?

Dean: After this we go home for afew days before Christmas. Then we are going to spend three months in the jam space and do some pre production and rehearse some songs and we are not going to do another tour until the new record is out. We have about 20 or so songs written already. We are going to definitely write some more during the Christmas break and then come January/February/March hopefully make a full length album.

Dwayne: Any final words?

Dean: Not really, check us out. We are on twitter, myspace, facebook all that stuff. Just stay tuned for the full length record that will be out in the spring or summer of 2010!