SET IT OFF For years, Set it Off has been projecting themselves through the alternative pop-rock world, bending genres and entrancing people with their purposeful aesthetic and narratives of hard-ship. While the band is already notable for the intensity of vocalist, Cody Carson’s voice and epic moments in his songs, it should not go unnoticed the sheer amount of determination and ambition that drives this group of people. Even before we were able to sit down with the band, they had experienced some troubles with their vehicle in North Dakota. With how cold it had gotten in their travels the Diesel fuel had gelled up, leaving them no choice but to stay the night at the truck stop that they had been towed to. Luckily, the generator still worked enabling them to have a more comfortable time in an uncomfortable situation. While this meant that they would have to miss out on the Winnipeg date of their tour, they still were able to make it to Calgary on time for their set, including their VIP. There’s nothing that would stop them from continuing on, something that the band as a whole continues to prove time and time again. One of the first times that Set It Off had come to Calgary, it had been at a small upstairs venue. I had brought this to the attention of the guys noting their ability to push forward considering Carson had been unable to make it across the boarder. While for many this would mean that they would just turn around, for Set It Off it just meant the rest of their members continued the tour in Canada while Carson waited to finished the rest of the American dates. What they had in Carson’s absence was fans would come up and have a bit of a Karaoke, or what guitarist Zach DeWall, called a “Sing Roulette.” Different people would come up and sing to the songs, and DeWall remembers one in particular where a younger girl came up on the stage, “[She] came up while we were playing ‘Dream Catcher,’ and it was during the epic
part of the song, and she came up and [whispers] ‘Today!’” Everyone in the room laughed in the sweet nostalgia before Carson commented, “Everyone stepped up in my absence,” even noting that this present time across the boarder finally took down the red flag that’s been looming over Set It Off for years. A monumental visit to the country this time around! On the day of the interview, we were able to celebrate the day of release for the EP, After Midnight. Originally, the songs off of this EP were meant to be on Midnight but due to contractual obligations they would have to cut them out of the record. It had been decided that they would keep them as B-Sides of a sort. “Rather than creating an arbitrary release, we created a theme around it, showing the era is coming to a close, and that was our chance to do so,” Carson explains. This made a series for the band when it comes to the Midnight Blue styling. It’s no secret, that Set It Off has a huge brand presence, even having fans take on the midnight blue colour, wearing it like a badge of honour, something that Carson notes is both intentional and really heartwarming to see. It’s as if their fans are all members of their sports team and can make a note to Set It Off that they genuinely like their band. When asked about the move into this era from the diamond to the hourglass Carson explains, “We had a band meeting about this and Max was leading the entire creative process on how this would change. We wanted to show we were back and meant business while also being relevant to before [and] realized with the diamond you could easily turn it into an hourglass. The hourglass was really important to us because we realized you need to take advantage of every second in a minute.
