Issue #20 | Fall/Winter 2014 ft. Dannic

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The Team founder & head of design winnie surya managing editor & communications tiffany lam copy editors savoula stylianou karmin yu content contributors brandon newfield, daniel hadfield, alex downham, toni rose castillo, daniel pryce, chloe hoy, jennie tan, kaleb hart, erin holdbeck, nancy chu, oscar rodriguez, ken nayyar, daniel bosco, tiffany lam, winnie surya, savoula stylianou, karmin yu INTO THE CROWD MAGAZINE is a Toronto and US central online music magazine dedicated to showcasing the world of music, media, and pop culture. We strive to promote and share the beauty of music and help music artists, big or small, reach out to greater audiences, old and new, and all around the world stay connected. www.intothecrowdmagazine.com www.twitter.com/intothecrowdmag www.facebook.com/intothecrowdmagazine www.instagram.com/intothecrowdmag www.issuu.com/intothecrowd www.youtube.com/user/intothecrowdtv contact: info@intothecrowdmagazine.com

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Table of Content VELD MUSIC FESTIVAL (PHOTOS)

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COVER INTERVIEW: DANNIC

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THE TECHNICOLORS

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ALEX & SIERRA

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FEATURE INTERVIEW: MATOMA

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THE ORWELLS

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RUSH MIDNIGHT

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TEMPLES (PHOTOS)

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THIS CENTURY

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PARADISE FEARS

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SKATERS (PHOTOS)

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THE DOWNTOWN FICTION

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THE 1975 (PHOTOS)

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THIS LEGEND

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VELD Music Festival August 2nd & 3rd, 2014 | Downsview Park, Toronto, ON | Tiffany Lam

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DANNIC

Interview & Photos by Tiffany Lam

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ICKING OFF DAY 1 OF VELD MUSIC FESTIVAL, we had the honour of interviewing Dutch DJ/producer DANNIC just before he took the festival main stage. Check out the interview Tiffany did with Daan Romers (aka Dannic) below!

HI DAAN! HOW WAS HOSTING ONE OF VELD’S PRE-PARTY SHOWS YESTERDAY? Yeah that was awesome! I played Uniun Nightclub two or three times before, with Dyro. I’m pretty familiar with Toronto; it’s one of my favourite cities.

HAVE YOU DISCOVERED ANY SPOTS HERE YET?

FAVOURITE

You know what, I don’t have that much time to see the city, which I totally hate. I love sightseeing, I love seeing the city where I’m traveling to. But in the end, it’s all about work. I’d rather sit in my hotel and make new music than to go outside...

SO CONSIDERING YOU’VE TRAVELED TO SO MANY PLACES ALL OVER THE WORLD, HAVE THERE BEEN ANY PLACES THAT YOU KIND OF WISHED YOU HAD MORE TIME THERE OR WOULD LOVE TO TRAVEL BACK TO FOR MORE PLEASURE OR PERSONAL TIME? Yeah, for sure. [Speaking of] Canada, last year we did the Canadian Bus Tour – we were driving for thousands of miles across the country... not only seeing cities but also the beautiful landscapes, so I definitely want to go back to Canada, but not to DJ, maybe for like a month and just tour the country. That would be great.

DO YOU PREFER GOING IN A TOUR BUS AND DRIVING AROUND OR DO YOU LIKE FLYING FROM CITY TO CITY? I prefer the tour bus because flying, it takes a lot of time. It sounds really weird but in a bus it’s much more comfortable [and] relaxing; you can sleep in the bus, you can work in the bus... it’s like a driving hotel room. That’s better than all the cues at the airport, waiting in line, etc. You have to get up early sometimes and with the tour bus you can just sleep in the bus. It’s less exhausting.

SO YOU STARTED YOUR CAREER AT AROUND THE AGE OF 17 WHEN YOU WERE PLAYING BARS

8 AND STUFF LIKE THAT. AND NOW YOU’RE MUCH OLDER AND GAINED A LOT OF EXPERIENCE AND STUFF LIKE THAT...

Yes I’m an old guy, hahaha. ...WHEN WAS IT THAT YOU KIND OF REALIZED, LIKE, “I MADE IT”. WHEN WAS YOUR “I MADE IT” MOMENT? I haven’t had that moment yet. I don’t think I made it yet... I mean, everything that’s happening now is going so fast – I’m super happy, it’s going in the right direction, but I still have goals in my mind.

THAT’S GOOD. WHAT HAS PROUDEST MOMENT SO FAR?

BEEN

YOUR

Actually, this year we started doing more solo tours and solo gigs. For instance, yesterday at Uniun... my timeline was exploding with people who really came to the club just to see me. I find that really... I don’t know, it’s just crazy. I’m a regular guy [who’s] making music and playing music, and people actually really love it. It’s great.

WHAT’S THE BEST FEELING YOU GET WHEN ON STAGE PLAYING A SHOW? I SAW SOME VIDEOS WHERE AT FESTIVALS YOU’D RUN INTO THE CROWD AND SPRAY THEM WITH A WATER HOSE... THAT LOOKED LIKE A LOT OF FUN. IS IT SMALL MOMENTS LIKE THAT YOU LIKE INCORPORATING INTO YOUR SHOWS, OR IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL YOU LIKE DOING? I always try to. I love interacting with the crowd.

It’s one of the most important reasons I do this, to see those smiles on people’s faces and enjoy the moment with them. I love doing club gigs because they’re more intimate. For festivals like today, I’m playing main stage so I’m really far away from the crowd, but yeah, sometimes I just go into the crowd and go mental with them anyway.

I ALSO HEARD THAT YOU HAVE A RADIO SHOW NOW. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT FRONT OF HOUSE? Yes, it started this year, once every two weeks. It’s been really good, I always try to add that signature Dannic sound in it, so a little more house-y. And then upfront tunes; I always try to come up with new mashups, new tracks... just keep it genuine [and] unique.

SO WITH ALL YOUR EXPOSURE ONLINE, ON SOCIAL MEDIA, MEETING FANS, ETC., WHAT HAS BEEN THE CRAZIEST RUMOUR YOU’VE HEARD ABOUT YOURSELF, OR BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION? About myself? Hmm... That I had a wife and kids.

Seriously, and that I was married. [Fans] were like “Why didn’t you tell us?!” And I’m like, “Huh?! Guys I don’t have kids, I’m not married!”

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED FOR IN THE NEXT MONTHS OR IN THE NEXT YEAR? I’m always excited about a lot of things, I’m excited for this [summer] tour I just started, I’m doing a lot of solo club gigs and playing festivals so that’s awesome. A lot of releases coming up on Revealed. The followup for “Dear Life” is finished, it’s a collaboration with Shermanology on vocals called “Wait For You”. I’m constantly working on music. That’s the only that will keep me going, that’s what it’s all about – the music.

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The Technicolors

Interview & Photos by Winnie Surya

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11 IGHTY ONE TWENTY THREE FANS ARE WELCOMING an additional member to their family, The Technicolors with full of excitement. The Arizona based pop band has recently join the Long and Winding Road Tour and we got the chance to sit and chat with vocalist Brennan Smiley.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER LISTENED TO YOUR MUSIC BEFORE, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SOUND? We’re rock n’ roll band. We really likes British bands. I don’t know. We draw from a lot different styles of rock n’ roll and trying to find the balance between pushing the limit of our music and what we’re doing, but also capturing the moment that we are in. It’s cool. You should check it out!

I REALIZED THAT YOU GUYS HAVE THIS BLACK AND WHITE THEME GOING ON... FROM INSTAGRAM PHOTOS TO YOUR EP ALBUM COVER. FOR SOMEONE WITH THE NAME “THE TECHNICOLORS”, WHAT’S WITH THE MONOCHROME? It’s a thing that we started doing then just kept doing it because it was kind of ironic at first... but [then] we just kept going with it [laughs] SINCE YOU GUYS HAVE RECENTLY BECOME A PART OF THE EIGHTY ONE TWENTY THREE FAMILY NOW, HOW HAS THE RECEPTION FROM THE EIGHTY ONE TWENTY THREE FANS HAS SO FAR? Really great! It’s been cool. We really don’t know what to expect and everyone been really nice and supportive. I’m looking forward for the next year. I can’t wait to release more music and keep moving forward.

WHY DID YOU GUYS DECIDED TO BE A PART OF EIGHTY ONE TWENTY THREE? It’s naturally happened. We have a lot of mutual friends in that community and we were going through some stuff as a band and trying to figure out the next step. It made sense; they’re in Arizona, we’re in Arizona and it naturally happen and it was very nice.

SINCE YOU’RE PERFORMING SOLO ON THIS TOUR, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENT IN BETWEEN PERFORMING SOLO AND WITH THE FULL BAND? It’s interesting, it’s good. I had a lot of fun with it. When I started writing songs, it’s always been on the acoustic guitar so it’s nice to kind of get back to that. It’s challenging because you don’t have the band, the drums to fall back on, the other guitar... You don’t have that kind of thing to really pop out the energy of what you’re doing and you’re kind of forced to work with the dynamic of the room that you’re in. I honestly feel like there can’t be that much tension within that as you would have within the full band and you can have the same moments that you would have but they would be really loud. I really enjoy it, it just a little different.

YOU GUYS JUST RELEASED A BRAND NEW SINGLE ENTITLED “PLEASE DON’T SAY YOU TOLD ME SO” WITH EIGHTY ONE TWENTY THREE, ARE YOU GUYS PLANNING TO RELEASE MORE NEW MUSIC SOON... PERHAPS A FULL-LENGTH ALBUM? We’re working on an EP right now. We’ve got a batch of tunes we’re almost finished with so I’m not so sure when it’s going to come out... probably early next year. I mean we’re always writing and making music.

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HOW HAS THE TOUR BEEN SO FAR? Really great! We’ve been having a lot of fun. It’s a lot of work because we don’t really have that many days off but it’s been [with] such a group of guys and we’re having a lot of fun with each other. It makes all of the bad things and all of the inconsistencies fun because you’re with funny people. Its just a bunch of guys hanging out.

ARE YOU GUYS PLANNING TO GO ON TOUR ANY TIME SOON AS A FULL BAND? Yeah, we’ll be touring around when we put out an EP. That probably is going to be early next year. I don’t know if there’s anyt [touring] before that but pretty soon! We’re getting there.

WILL YOU BE FINISHING THE REST OF THE EP ONCE YOU’RE BACK IN ARIZONA THEN? Yep. We’re going to finish up the EP, probably keep writing and get ready to tour.

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCE? There’s so many different people. I kind of jump between people. I really like the bands from the Britpop era of the ‘90s and almost more so then [than now]. The bands were so fascinating because I’m such a fan of that movement of itself, and it’s such a unique time for music and all of those bands, and for that country! It’s fascinating to me. I’m making my way to somewhere more obscure band of that world.

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RIGINALLY FROM FLORIDA, pop darling duo Alex and Sierra have had the chance to tour with a star-studded list of performers including Colbie Caillat and Train. After championing te final season of The X Factor USA, the only group to win the show has released their first album called It’s About Us. The singing sweethearts talked to us about how they first got started, what they miss the most about being part of the talent competition, and what their future is looking like.

YOU GUYS RECENTLY GOT BACK FROM TOUR, HOW WAS THAT?

Interview by Karmin Yu

ALEX & SIERRA

AK: It was awesome!

SD: We went on tour with Colbie Caillat and that in itself is really cool for us because we used to cover her songs.

So, getting to tour with someone that we’ve musically looked up to was an honour for us. Her entire crew and herself and her band – they all were really welcoming to us! We had no idea what we were doing because we had never toured before and it was a really awesome experience! We’re so glad that was our first tour because they taught us a lot and we had so much fun.

AK: We also got to play three shows with Train – we used to cover their songs as well. So, it was just really surreal to think that these people that we used to do a lot of their songs, we’re now opening for and getting to watch from side stages.

WHEN DID YOU GUYS REALIZE YOU WANTED TO DO MUSIC TOGETHER? SD: It happened really gradually. Alex would play gigs where we’re from and I would normally go and watch. I entered at a radio station in Orlando and my thoughts knew that Alex would play music and every once in a while, I would sing harmonies in the back.

So, they asked us to play outside of the Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran concert and that made us learn a bunch of covers together. So, I think that really set it off, whereas before, we knew one or two songs and from that, we had to play a few hours. We got some really good reception and we had fun with it and it just kind of happened!

HOW HAS FAME AFFECTED YOUR RELATIONSHIP? DO YOU FIND IT HARD TO KEEP YOUR RELATIONSHIP PRIVATE WHEN YOU WANT TO?

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15 AK: I don’t think it’s really affected much – I mean granted, yes, people are definitely more interested in what goes on between the two of us. But, we just have fun together and when we get a chance to go on a date, we go on a date. It’s really neat because we get to share something [that] we share together, which is being on stage, playing music and being able to do something really amazing. I think it’s done nothing but enhanced our relationship.

SINCE YOU GUYS WON THE X-FACTOR, WHAT IS ONE THING YOU MISS ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THE SHOW? SD: We miss, I mean a hundred percent [and] I think I can speak for [the] both of us, everyone that we were with on the show. We had so much fun! It was kind of like a weird musical summer camp that was really stressful. Going through really stressful things like that with those people was what bonded us and put us really close together because the only people that know exactly what it was like to be on that show at that time are the other contestants and the people we worked with. So, definitely hanging out with them and laughing at all the really stressful things and celebrating the fun times is what we miss.

YOUR ALBUM, IT’S ABOUT US, HAS BEEN OUT FOR A COUPLE MONTHS NOW, HOW HAS THE RECEPTION BEEN? AK: I think pretty positive! We’re pretty happy! We had a number 8 album on Billboard in the first week that it was out. I think it’s pretty good; we’re really stoked!

The fact that it was on Billboard at all – a top 10 album on Billboard is absurd! It’s just absolutely crazy!

CAN YOU TELL ME THE RECORDING PROCESS BEHIND THE ALBUM? SD: After the show was done, we had ten days off; we went home and then we went straight back out to L.A. We actually stayed at the house of our producer from X-Factor and we brought out ten songwriters and producers that we knew from the show. We had known them for months and months, so there was no awkward “Hi, nice to meet you! Let’s pour our hearts out and write songs together now.” Before that, we were pretty nervous [because] we didn’t really know how it was going to work. For the first five days, we wrote twenty songs and a few of them ended up on the album. So, it was a really productive week. It was

really laid back: we would wake up in the morning, get some food and try to start writing a song. If it didn’t work, we would go for a hike or see a movie – it was just so relaxed that it helped us get into the groove of writing and being comfortable with ourselves and figuring out the best ways that we work together and the best ways that we write together.

WHAT’S THE MOST PERSONAL SONG ON THE ALBUM? SD: They’re all kind of personal because they’re about us…“Little Do You Know,” “Back to You”…The sad songs are all in a way personal, I suppose. But we wanted other people to relate them to their own relationship as well and make the meanings personal to them too.

NOW YOUR DEBUT SINGLE “SCARECROW” HAS BEEN SUCH A HIT, CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE STORY OF THE VIDEO? AK: The music video is a funny situation because we actually went through two or three different versions of it; we actually did a whole music video and then redid the whole music video again. So, the inspiration was a compromise between us and the label: what they wanted it to be and what we wanted it to be.

They wanted it to be a little more intimate than what we wanted it, but to us, it’s fun being able to do this, whether exactly it’s the vision that we came up with or whether it’s a compromise – it’s pretty amazing that we’re in a position that we can make a music video.

The inspiration behind it though, it was just to tell a story of the song and allow people to interpret it however they might feel or however they might relate to it best.

WHAT ARE YOUR UPCOMING PLANS? AK: For the rest of 2014, we’ve got some shows here and there; we’re playing a couple things locally and trying to take some opportunity to relax and recoup because this tour that we were just on, it was about a month and we did promo because the album came out, so we were gone and on the road and travelling.

So, it’s really nice to be home for a little bit and spend some time with family because we know that next year, it’s really going to take off. We’re going to try and get on tour next year, but we don’t really have any plans set in stone yet. For right now, we’re just trying to take a breather and make sure our minds are right before we really hit hard next year.

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M AT O M A Interview & Live P hotos by Tiffany Lam

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N LESS THAN A YEAR, 23-year-old music producer and pianist Tom Stræte Lagergren known as Matoma - has become an international name in deep house music.

Sharing countless remixes of various styles over Soundcloud & HypeMachine, most recently hip-hop/ rap mixes with tropical house tweaks, Matoma’s unique sound continues to gain popularity fast. Two of his remixes have just made HypeMachine’s Top 40 Tracks of 2014 list. He is often compared to Kygo and Thomas Jack.

Last month, Matoma made his Canadian debut through an exclusive 8-date Canadian Fall Tour, with stops in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Sudbury and more. ITC’s Tiffany sat down with Tom in Toronto just before his show with Thomas Jack at the Hoxton to chat about all things music and uncover the story of Matoma. Check it out below!

MATOMA’S LATEST AND MOST POPULAR SOUND TODAY CAN EASILY BE DESCRIBED AS TROPICAL HOUSE MUSIC MIXED WITH HIP HOP. HONESTLY, I HAVE TO ADMIT THAT’S A PRETTY INTERESTING PAIRING THAT SURPRISINGLY WORKS OUT SO WELL. WAS THERE ANYTHING PARTICULAR THAT GAVE YOU THIS CREATIVE DIRECTION? I was at a pre-party about a year ago in my hometown where I was studying, Trondheim, and we were going to a Calvin Harris show. We listened to a lot of deep house at the pre-party and suddenly there was a guy who put on some new disco stuff by Oliver Nelson, Oliver Heldens, etc. All the cool guys. And I kept thinking, if you mix those two together and put on some hip-hop, what do you end up with? It was also around that period where Thomas Jack was blowing up and I really liked the whole tropical sound, so I tried to implement that in my music and it worked.

SO I WAS SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION ABOUT YOU ONLINE, AND I REALIZED THERE REALLY WASN’T THAT MUCH ABOUT YOU. WHO IS MATOMA? TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU GOT INTO MAKING ELECTRONIC MUSIC? I started playing the piano when I was 9 years old, and right before that I played the guitar. I tried to play some drums because I was so inspired by my brother

playing, but it didn’t suit me. That didn’t work out so I tried the keyboard and my music teacher said to me that I had really good keyboard harmony. He played Fur Elise and I just sat down on the piano and started playing, and he said “Tom, you have to start playing piano”. So I did classical piano for 8 years, but then I got really tired of it. Actually, I had a scholarship and I was playing a lot of concerts and stuff, but it didn’t suit me at the time when I was 15-16 years old so I bought my own computer and yeah, here I am today mixing music and doing what I like to do.

ANY GOOD CHILDHOOD MEMORIES GROWING UP INVOLVING MUSIC THAT KIND OF INFLUENCED WHO YOU ARE NOW? I started listening to hip hop maybe 8-9 years old, my brother introduced it to me. Icecube, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Warren G, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg... Old school hip-hop, they have so much soul and passion, and they rap in a different way than the hip-hop music made today. I didn’t start listening to electronic music until I was like 15-16 years old. I listened to a lot of blues and piano rock n roll before that. But when I was 1617 years old, I started listening to a lot of deep house, house, Swede house like Axwell and Eric Prydz. Armin Van Burren has also been a big inspiration for me, he’s a really good producer and I have a lot of respect for him. On the DJ side, I have to say Carl Cox. I’ve been to a show with Carl Cox in Oslo and he played for 5-6 hours. Techno, you get really tired of it after 2-3 hours but his passion and how he develops the sound around his sets and builds them, is so cool.

HOW ABOUT ANY MUSIC GUILTY PLEASURES? I really like Barry White and Tina Turner. When I was 18 years old and I got my first car, I listened to a track that Tina Turner and Barry White made called “In Your Wildest Dreams” and it’s crazy. The bass is just all over the place. And classical music. I don’t think people see or recognize Matoma to classical music, but I listen to a lot of it. Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, etc.

THAT’S VERY NICE BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, CLASSICAL MUSIC AND HIP HOP ISN’T SOMETHING THAT YOU NORMALLY SEE PAIRED TOGETHER IN ONE PERSON. SO YOUR REAL NAME IS TOM STRAETE, BUT YOUR ARTIST NAME IS MATOMA. WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT YOU?

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18 The background is quite funny. I had a really shitty name before MATOMA, like so bad it was embarrassing.

I was at a party with my brother and some friends, having a lot of fun drinking, and my brother said to me, “Tom, your name is shit. I’m just being honest with you, you’re my brother love, so we need to figure out a new name”. We just sat at the party, getting more and more drunk, trying different names. My good friend Hendrik said to me, “Tom, you’re a sweet guy, you take life chill – like Timon and Pumba, you take life like hakuna matata” [...] and thirty seconds after, my brother said “What do you think about Matoma?!” We had a lot of fun with these words and suddenly Matoma came.

And you have ‘Tom’ in it, so I think it’s a good name.

AND YOU’RE CURRENTLY DOING A WHOLE CROSS-CANADA TOUR. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON CANADA IN COMPARISON TO HOME, NORWAY? Canadian people are so nice, like, they are humble, they say hello... One time I was on the street and I bumped into a guy... and he said sorry. So, yeah, the people are really nice and so sweet, and I really like the Canadian landscape. It reminds me a bit of Norway, but at the same time it’s a little different, and the country is so big so it’s a lot to see. The cities are so much bigger than in Norway and you have these skyscrapers. And people here have so much energy and are smiling all the time. The funny part about being on the other side of the Atlantic is that in Norway you get treated like a normal person, but here I’m like, MATOMA. So that’s quite cool. I really enjoy seeing all the fans and I’m really privileged to have the opportunity to travel from one side of the world to another and just play and do what I like to do.

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DISCOVERED YOUR TALENT FOR MUSIC? OR HAVE YOU ALWAYS HAD THIS VISION? I wanted to be a classical pianist really early in my childhood, like when I was 10 years old I really looked up to [some] Norwegian pianists. But I got tired of practicing and just playing classical music so when I bought myself a computer, downloaded a program and started making some beats and doing some samples, I really enjoyed it. It was around 20-21 years old that I really wanted to live for music, so I applied to the music technology school in Trondheim. Now I have a bachelor’s degree and traveling the world.

HOW WOULD YOU SAY, IF YOU WEREN’T MATOMA TODAY, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’D

BE DOING? I would probably take a master in music. When I just finished my bachelor, Matoma just blew up and I got so many offers to play everywhere that it gave me the opportunity to try and live my music, so I took the chance. But I’ve always wanted to work with music; if not traveling and doing my stuff, maybe teaching music or do something with music because it’s a big passion for me. It’s everything.

WITH SO MANY PRODUCERS AND DJS TODAY, HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO STAND OUT AND KEEP YOUR CONTENT FRESH? I always try to be original and doing new stuff, that’s why I’m doing a lot of new disco, tropical house... soon I’ll be coming out with an official remix for a big English band... It’s cold now like we’re moving into the snowboard and ski season and I felt like it was cool to make something different, so in the future there will be a lot more stuff. I really like the tropical sound and new disco feeling so I’m just trying to do what I like to do.

DESCRIBE MATOMA IN ONE WORD. Happy. Or Love.

LIST 6 THINGS YOU COULD NEVER LIVE WITHOUT. Family, friends, fans, my music, a piano... yeah, just 5 things. Family, friends and the music is very important for me.

SO YOU DON’T EVEN NEED SIX THINGS, JUST FIVE. And just to spread the love.

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF ONE YEAR FROM NOW? TOUGH ONE, I KNOW. These last six months have just been mind-blowing and incredible; I can’t imagine just to travel to Canada and have a Canadian tour when you’re 23 years old and seeing people on the other side of the globe like your music. At the show in Vancouver, 3 guys said they came from Japan just to see me play, so it’s just mindblowing.

I don’t know where I’ll be in one year from now because everything is perfect as it is right now, but I hope to maybe have influenced more people with my music and that I can be ain inspiration for others to start making music.

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THE ORWELLS Interview & Photos by Winnie Surya

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YOU GUYS JUST RELEASED A NEW ALBUM, DISGRACELAND, CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT? It’s the best we can do!

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND CALLING IT DISGRACELAND? It just sounded cool. You could relate it to wherever you grew up or whichever town you came from.

HOW DID YOU COME ABOUT TOURING WITH SKATERS? We chose them; we played a bunch of radio festivals with them over the summer and then became friends with them. So, we figured [doing] a fall thing, to actually play proper club shows with them.

WHAT HAS YOUR FAVOURITE SHOW BEEN SO FAR ON THE TOUR? Boston was cool; Seattle was great. They’ve all been pretty good! Really! Except for a few ones here and there. Montreal was kind of cool last night!

WE HEARD YOU VOMITED AT THE SHOW! WHAT HAPPENED?

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puberty.

It was just screaming and getting hair in my throat that triggered it.

AILING FROM ELMHURST, Illinois, The Orwells sat down with Into the Crowd to discuss their latest album, vomiting on stage, and the trouble with going through

PROS AND CONS OF TOURING NORTH AMERICA VERSUS YOUR HOMETOWN? You get to see friends that you made across the country – that’s a big bonus! We get to establish homies in different areas; it’s fun to have little posses!

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YOU GUYS RECENTLY HAD A CAMEO ON ADAM DEVINE’S HOUSE PARTY. COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE? He’s a really nice guy! We met him on The Weezer Cruise and he’s just a good dude. So, it was nice of him to ask us.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING TO DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT TOURING? Get drunk and listen to sad songs.

YOU GUYS STARTED THE BAND WHEN YOU WERE REALLY YOUNG, SO WHAT WAS THE STRUGGLE OF STARTING AT THIS AGE? Trying to grow pubes.

WERE THERE ANY PARENTAL PROBLEMS? No… The only issue we ran into was venue issues, where if you’re not 21 or 18, then you have to play the 6 o’clock show. It also makes you feel not that great when you’re allowed to perform for people and make the venue money, but you’re also not allowed to hang out in your green room or something. We had to sit in a van outside the venue because we weren’t allowed in.

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Interview & Photos by Winnie Surya

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ROOKLYN, NY-BASED MUSICIAN Rush Midnight, a.k.a. Russ Manning, is bringing 80s funk, circa the Talk Talk days, back to the electronic music scene. We had the chance to speak to him about his tour with Canadian darling Lights and his upcoming new album.

HOW IS THE TOUR SO FAR WITH LIGHTS? It’s very good: very big crowds and mostly sold out! Good cities! And the other band is so sweet; we haven’t had that much hanging time but at some point we hope to because everyone’s so busy.

ANY CRAZY MEMORIES FROM TOUR SO FAR? Halifax was dope! I would say Halifax stood out because there were other bands at this festival, Pop Explosion. So, there were things to do after the show. With your pass, you could go see Tokyo Police Club… Unfortunately, we couldn’t get to see all the rappers or Twin Shadow or Ryan Hemsworth because we had to leave. But being in that mix is pretty cool!

SO, IS THIS YOUR FULL CANADIAN TOUR? Yeah! From Toronto, East and then North East in the States.

HOW’S CANADA SO FAR? Canada’s really good! So far, better than the States, but we’ve only played two shows in the States.

HOW IS YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH TORONTO CROWDS? It’s always a little different. I think New York is the toughest. People are not as willing to dance, but once you’re a developed artist, it’s a great place to play. But when you’re up-and-coming, it’s sometimes a challenge. Toronto has always been super positive every time we’ve been here.

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ANY

HANG-OUTS

IN

We’ve been to a bunch of bars, like this place called The Beaver – we once saw this crazy drag queen performance there. The Drake is nice; I like the Horseshoe Tavern. Kensington is cool during the day for food.

YOU JUST GOT SIGNED BY LAST GANG RECORDS EARLIER THIS YEAR. SO, WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING INDEPENDENTLY AND WORKING WITH A LABEL? Well, I had another label before out of New York and they’re great. Last Gang is just like a whole other market and it’s a bigger world because the roster is kind of crazy! Jesse from Death from Above is one of my managers; Chris Taylor, the head of the label, is a legend in Canada!

SPEAKING OF JESSE, HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH HIM? He’s really good when it comes to just musical advice and honest opinions, like when you send him demos, he has favourites. I’m always trying to get as much as I can out of him!

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO COVER A LYKKE LI SONG? My girl, Anya, she is a big Lykke Li fan and kind of got me into it. Eventually, I was messing around with all these covers (like twenty different covers), and one day, when I was messing around with that one [“Little Bit”], it felt really good. The opening was strong and we tried to keep it as stripped down as possible. My college roommate produced it for me and it was just a new direction. We never really played that kind of song.

basslines are crazy. That and some new wave elements, like Talk Talk. And it’s all just bedroom recordings: me in my bedroom. Then, eventually, afterwards, you involve other people to help mix it. It has all these stages – it’s like a mobile recording process.

WHAT MAKES THIS DEBUT DIFFERENT FROM YOUR EP?

ALBUM

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR DEBUT The new album that I’m handing in is way different! But those two to me – we played some ALBUM? of each album tonight, they kind of blend in with The inspiration is mostly this band, Change, each other. It’s disco, funk R&B, a little new from Minnesota. They’re an 80’s funk band. The wave… It’s pretty straight ahead.

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Temples October 21st, 2014 | Virgin Mobile Mod Club, Toronto, ON | Winnie Surya

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THIS CENTURY

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A

LOT HAS HAPPENED THIS YEAR for This Century.

With a member leaving the band and the vocalist getting vocal surgery, things have not been easy. Nevertheless, there obstacles did not stop them from completing their third album and touring this past autumn. In this interview, vocalist Joel Kanitz spills everything you need to know about their upcoming LP, tour, and the future of the band.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE THE SOUND OF THE NEW ALBUM WITHOUT REVEALING TOO MUCH? Well, I would say it’s a little closer to the sound that we had on our first record, Sound of Fire; it’s a little more organic bandsounding and a little less digital like our record Biography of Heartbreak was, but it certainly doesn’t sound like Sound of Fire in my opinion.

SOUNDS REALLY COOL! LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. WHAT INFLUENCED THE SOUND OF THE NEW ALBUM? I think just us getting older and our taste in music changing, and experiences that we’ve gone through; it’s kind of directed where we’ve been wanting to go with this third record. I don’t know if there’s anything specific that I could put my finger on but it’s just a collective of things, you know, life and just our taste is maturing.

HOW WILL THE NEW ALBUM SOUND DIFFERENT THAN ANY OF YOUR PREVIOUS ONES? The new album is going to be darker, I think. People are going to see the side of us that they haven’t. We’ve written a lot about relationship stuff but this kind of goes past this stuff and a little bit more self-reflective; the battle that goes on within itself and I guess a little bit darker so that’s obviously different than previously, and there’s obviously a contrast in between Biography of Heartbreak and this new one but it’s still going to be the same This Century vocal-melodies and that kind of stuff.

HOW HAS THE WRITING PROCESS CHANGED FROM BIOGRAPHY OF HEARTBREAK? It didn’t really change much. I mean, the biggest different was that we had a lot less time. We intentionally limited ourselves with the amount of time. We gave ourselves two weeks to write the entire record so we got together at Ryan’s place back in January/February and we just spent two weeks everyday just in a room writing songs and working things out. So that was kind of interesting and probably was the biggest difference, and the other one we obviously don’t

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34 have Alex [Silverman] in the band anymore so it was a little bit different in that sense but it didn’t feel too much different.

SINCE YOU MENTIONED ALEX, ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO MOVE FORWARD AS A TRIO OR WILL YOU GUYS BRINGING A NEW FORTH MEMBER? I don’t think there is a plan to bring in another member at this point. It’s a really complex thing to be in a band and to actually make it work. Playing music is probably the easiest part and going on tour is easy. Then dealing with another personality and so- we’ve been doing this for a long time and we kind of figured out each other’s personality so if you threw a new one into the mix, that’s actually a part of your band and they’re going to be around all the time. It’s like picking a family member; if you don’t know the person really well, it can go south pretty quickly but I don’t know for now, I don’t think we’re going to do any kind of replacing. It’s just going to be us three and we’re probably going to get people to help us out on tour- we might have a touring “member” to help us out, play some of the parts we wrote.

ANY PLANS TO TOUR ANYTIME IN THE FUTURE? PERHAPS SUMMER TOUR OR INTERNATIONAL TOUR? As now, summer- that’s a long time away. Right now, we’re taking things one step of a time mostly impart due to vocal issues I was having so we’re in the process of getting everything back together so we’re just looking forward to recording this album and finishing it and then we’ll see what happens after that so that’s the only goal right now.

HOW ARE THINGS AFTER THE SURGERY? Things have been good. It was a long summer and I’ve kind of had some ups and downs but thing’ve been holding up quite well. I’m very happy to be singing again.

WHY DID YOU CHOSE TO RELEASE “TALK TO TALK” FIRST? “Talk to Talk” was one of the songs we wrote when we were writing for the record and Sean and I talked about doing something before this tour to kind of show people that we’re still here. “Talk to Talk” would sound

really cool if we stripped it down and gave an acoustic version of it; like the piano version so we just did itbooked some studio time and just went ahead with it and kind of finished like in a week’s time. We have a buddy named Troy who helped us out with piano so, yeah we finished it in a week and just released it. It’s not really a single or a big statement. Here’s a songbecause we’re still here and doing stuff.

HOW’S THE FANS RESPONSE WITH THE SONG? Amazing! I thought people would be like “oh, so slow!” for the song but not really; people really liked it and were really happy that we’re releasing music again so it’s been a really good response and a lot of people have been saying that they’re excited for the record to come out.

HOW WAS THE COLLABORATION YOU DID WITH JULIA LAUREN? Julia is the girl that Sean had worked with a couple months back. He wrote with her for her latest release. So the plan originally was to have a female vocal on “Talk to Talk” but we weren’t so sure who would do it.So we’re kind of wracking our brains and [Sean] was like “hey I can have this girl to do it or this girl” and it kind of fell through and then he said Julia [Lauren] could do it too. I mean, she’s got a really great voice and it went really well so it worked out perfectly. So we just hit her up and she was like “totally”. She recorded it in New York or something and kind of tracked it and sent us the audio file and we just put it together.

ARE YOU GUYS PLANNING TO DO ANY MORE COLLABORATION FOR THE ALBUM? No, not really. We haven’t really thought of collaboration. Maybe I think it’s because of the time limit; it’s like us three writing this record and focusing on that. I think that could happen- that things could happen if we had things laid out like “oh this sounds cool” or if we feel like something is missing. As if now, nope, it’s just us.

IF YOU COULD DO COLLABORATION WITH ANYONE, WHO WOULD IT BE? It would be Brandon Flowers from The Killers.

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Interview by Jessica Pascarella | Photos by Winnie Surya

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PA R A D I S E FEARS - Into The Crowd Magazine -

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E CAUGHT UP with Sam Miller of Paradise Fears in Toronto while the band was on their first headlining tour called “Live Forever.”

We chatted about touring, their new single “You To Believe In,” an upcoming LP release, and of course, Toronto’s favourite musician, Drake.

PARADISE FEARS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON SOMETHING NEW THIS PAST COUPLE OF MONTHS, CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE NEW MUSIC AND WHAT FANS CAN EXPECT? I think it’s quite a bit more experimental in terms of anything we’ve ever done before. We’re reaching a little bit further in the realms of understanding why pop music is so connective for people, and trying to create instrumental and lyrical hooks that will be grabby enough to be accessible for people whereas our previous music wasn’t quite accessible enough but also still retains the identity. We like writing songs that our thoughtful, personal, we like writing songs that means something and don’t say nothing. I think with our newer music, for people who have been listening for a while, can kind of expect us to try to refine and shake it down to our purest elements, figure out exactly what is us and getting rid of the rest, and you know trying to really create good alternative pop music.

DO YOU FIND THE MUSIC TO BE VERY DIFFERENT AS OPPOSED TO THE DEBUT ALBUM? Yes, I think it’s kind of the story of any band, musically at least, kind of constantly. I think the story of any band’s music is that it’s constantly evolving, as in people in the band kind of change, and certainly their tastes change, and certainly our debut was more rocky than anything we have put since then. We tried a lot in our last record to be more orchestral, symphonic, and theatrical with it and that was really, really cool, and we really liked that. It will be a departure from both of those things, but the hope is, as with any musician and with any of the great bands and artists that I love, is that they try new things, they experiment with different styles and different ways of connecting musically, all while the key elements remain and that’s what ties the projects together. The songs are coming from the same place; they are still written by the same people, it’s not going to lose its true identity in that sense.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE STORY BEHIND YOUR LATEST SINGLE “YOU TO BELIEVE IN” AND WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU? “You To Believe In” is a song about where I was at a place in my life where I was very disengaged to what was

going on in the world at large, like the larger government system, and the larger problems that were overwhelming to me because I was so disappointed that humanity has reached this place of incredible possibility. I was so overwhelmed by the overarching problems and massive amounts of suffering that exists in the world, and even just outside of my life and I kind of realized that in those moments that it’s the human beings that I know and have connected to that ultimately are what creating meaning, even in the larger systems aren’t working, you could still be in relationship with other people and that’s the best thing we do as human beings. There was one person in particular that I was thinking about and the idea comes from a Sting song where talks about all the things he doesn’t believe in and all the things he’s not okay with, because he believes that world is screwed, but he says, “as long as I got my faith in you, I’ve got nothing to lose.”

On an even greater level than that, you’ve got someone to believe in that can pull you through the all the bullshit.

HOW HAVE FANS RESPONDED TO THE SONG? Really, really well! It’s been unbelievably exciting, it’s kind of reached a lot of different new audiences, like I was talking about how pop music is quite a bit more accessible for people and so I think people have grabbed on to the hook a little bit more, and it’s introduced a lot of new people. Certainly, just on a pragmatic numbers wise, the numbers on the single are higher than any previous single we have ever put out before, so I think it must be a sign where we have people reacting and we’re really excited about it.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE HEADLINING THE SUMMER TOUR? It’s really exciting! It’s different because we’ve never done a full US headlining tour. Since music is changing so rapidly, our music is changing so rapidly and our career paths are changing in some trajectory so it definitely feels like a first step on a new journey in a lot of ways. What’s been most exciting is that there are people who are coming that give a shit which is why it’s so exciting that every night we’re playing for kids who know so much of the music so when it gets to the most connective moments in our set you can really feel it in the room. I think it’s always weird to go from supporting to headlining because supporting is always quite a bit bigger and you’re playing for supporting bands that are bigger than you are, that’s kind of the theory. But now this opportunity to really play and make it our show, it’s really really cool because it feels like a first step on a new exciting journey and we get a chance to look at the people we’re making the journey with.

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ON THIS TOUR YOU HAVE WILLIAM BECKETT, HOLLYWOOD ENDING, AGAINST THE CURRENT, AND NICK THOMAS. HOW DID THIS COME TOGETHER? It happened kind of last minute, kind of haphazardly as I feel like support for headlining tours always go. All of these bands were ones we have been talking to for a long time about touring together. We love Against The Current’s music, William Beckett has been an idol of ours for a long time, Nick Thomas was in The Spill Canvas and we really love The Spill Canvas, and we’ve been great friends with Hollywood Ending for a very long time. There were bits and pieces that other people couldn’t do and there was a whole week long puzzle where we were jumping on and off the phone with all of them. Finally it all worked itself out, and we’ve got William Beckett on the entire tour which is amazing, and Hollywood Ending, Against The Current, and Nick Thomas playing respective dates. It’s really cool because I feel like it gives the tour different identities in different markets because there are so many different identities and different personas that we’ve been a part of: the pop-rock world of Against The Current, the teen-pop world of Hollywood Ending, the more adult rock alternative world of William Beckett. Paradise Fears is all of those things and so it really showcases the better pieces of us by reflecting off of all those artists who are doing those genres really well.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT FOR THIS TOUR? So far, after getting the shows under our belt. I’m most excited to keep playing and keep seeing what the markets are like. We’ve played a lot of smaller shows right in a row; we’re playing in Ohio and Buffalo where those are our smaller markets and they were incredibly cool. In terms of most excitement, I’m kind of excited to go out and see what the smaller markets that we don’t usually play and where we’ve never even played before, and see what’s that like. It will be really fun to see the result of all of this and how it turns out you know since our last years of support touring, it’ll be fun to see who’s there, who’s still there with us in those markets in which we haven’t played in a very long time. Of course, New York City, Boston, Philly will always be fun.

PARADISE FEARS ALSO SPECIALIZES IN PRODUCING GREAT COVERS. WHAT IS THE SONG SELECTION PROCESS LIKE, AND HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT RECREATING YOUR COVERS/MASHUPS? I think for the most part, we try to keep engaged in the world of music and what’s happening in the world musically. When we hear a song that we feel like could be reimagined in a certain way, I like to think that all

our covers come from a zero-point idea. Rather than being like, “Alright, we gotta do something top 40 now. Let’s scroll the charts and see what’s on here, this one? Cole, can you play that on the acoustic guitar? Good.” Instead with Royals, we thought about it as, “Hey, I just heard this “Royals” song, and I love the ‘screw you pop culture’ that Lorde is doing and the ‘screw you fame and excess.’ With her second single, we knew it was gonna be really big too and it’s got some really cool lines about where she came from and I think that idea behind those songs is very similar, and very similar to us. She’s coming from a small town where she feels very removed from pop culture at large and she doesn’t understand why people are treating excess the way that they’re treating excess. So we decided to take that on a little bit, see if we can combine the songs in a way that musically makes sense, and make an arrangement that tells that story of both her and us, the idea the culture of selfobsession is a bad and damning thing for a society. It all came from that single idea, and we moved forward in all of our different directions. Cole starts putting the arrangement together; I start writing a different verse; Jordan, Michael and Marcus are enjoying life.

ANY ALBUMS ON HEAVY ROTATION RIGHT NOW? We’ve been listening to a lot on the Bad Suns album, The Bleachers record recently came out it’s really good.

Grant, our tour manager, is listening to a lot of Real Friends - I haven’t had a chance to give that record a try yet, but I’m sure I’m gonna love it because if Grant loves it, chances are I probably will. My biggest thing right now is listening to other people’s Spotify playlists.

I love that I can search for keywords, certain moods I’m in, and I’ll find people who made playlists for those moods which is amazing way to discover new music. I can’t tell you how many amazing bands I’m finding and I’m really falling in love with as a result of going out and experimenting with other people’s tastes.

CAN FANS EXPECT SOMETHING FROM PARADISE FEARS AFTER THE TOUR? We’re kind of talking about later fall touring plans. I think we definitely want to take a little bit of time to just go back and make sure that we’ve completely figured out what it is we want to do with our next album. We’ve got four or five songs that we’re pretty sure about, but we’re rounding out the other six or seven and picking from the other songs that we have written. There is a lot of potential there, so we’re gonna take a little bit of time to finish that up, and then we’ve got a record coming out in early 2015. No official release date or anything like that but it’s big things!

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Interview by Toni Rose Castillo | Photos by Daniel Pryce - Into The Crowd Magazine -

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SKATERS October 11th, 2014 | Virgin Mobile Mod Club, Toronto, ON | Winnie Surya

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e h n T ntow w n o o i D Fict Interview & Photos by Brandon Newfield

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AIRFAX, VIRGINIA NATIVES Downtown Fiction sat down with Into the Crowd to tell us about their latest album Losers and Kings and paying it forward for the musicians they loved to see live by making every performance of theirs worthwhile for their fans.

CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM? We worked on so many songs I was writing for a very long time, we had so many demos that didn’t even make the record. What we ended up doing was, and it’s a little bit different from prior where we would sorta just bring demos into the studio and do them, figure it out when we got to the studio, this time it was very very deliberate hours a day rehearsing the songs and trying to make them sound like they would live before going into the studio so we could capture that sound, so when we played live it would be the same thing, we really wanted it to be the same thing. Thematically, a lot of this stuff is always semi-autobiographical, but you know, I think it’s just about growing up and sort of facing yourself and your flaws in order to better understand yourself, accept yourself but also sort of accept others.

I don’t know where exactly it falls thematically, I’m not even sure what the whole records about now, looking back it’s more just the natural progression from the last one but more than anything I think it sounds like a band, it sounds like us and I’m happy that we went through that whole process to get to that sound as opposed to just laying it down then using a computer, we sort of had a very laid out game plan before we even went into the studio. It only took us about a month to finish the entire thing but it was over a year of writing WHEN YOU’RE WRITING THESE SONGS, ARE YOU SUPER EAGER TO GET OUT THERE AND PERFORM THEM LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME? Yes, It was definitely a waiting game of just wanting so badly to share it and i’m sure that’s the way any band feels when they’ve got a bunch of new material, you always feel so much more close and you identify so much more with your recent stuff, just because it’s what speaks to you now. So as an artist I think that i’m always the most excited about the new stuff, because it’s what hitting me on that level on that very moment.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO WRITE/ PERFORM? I really had a good time working on “Santa Cruz.” It’s a song about my skateboard, well my longboard technically.

It was just very natural, just one of those songs where I sort of sat down and it all just came together without

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even thinking. I just like those sort of songs, those always seem to be the most honest feeling, so I really liked that one. We closed with a song called “Big Mistakes” tonight and I really like that one to for just the verses are very driving, but at the same time they’re very empty feeling and the vocal gets to sort of, come up and be the center focus and then the choruses are very big and emotional.

Yeah, I really like those songs but I think that the album as a whole is what I was always more focused on. I know it’s a bogus answer cause you gotta pick favourites but the album as a whole, we really tried to make it feel like one sitting could feel like one experience, we wanted all of them to sort of tie together and I hope we succeeded in that, that was our goal.

HAVE THERE BEEN ANY EMBARRASSING MOMENTS OR MISHAPS WHILE ON TOUR? You know, I think the most embarrassing is when we go into other countries and act like idiots, last time we were in Canada we were pushing each other around in shopping carts and our merch guy got so drunk that he got in a tiff with someone and pushed him into a tree, that’s pretty embarrassing. But you could say that that’s the most fun part about touring too, is the most embarrassing parts, there’s something really fun about those moments. There’s not so many embarrassing moments as there are trying moments where you’re saying to yourself “god, It’s really cold today, am I gonna sound okay tonight?”, those are the things going through my head during the day.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT TOURING/BEING PART OF A BAND? I think it’s just, when things are on tour, when things are again trying each day and you’re so tired you really have to try to find what’s great about it and focus on the positive and I think the positive is that every night I get to talk to someone who was at the show who was watching who said “Man, I really had a great time tonight” and it makes me feel like we gave someone their ticket money’s worth, which for me as a previous concert goer, growing up and going to so many shows, nothing was more important to me than a good show and if somebody succeeded in performing well and entertaining me than I loved those people because that’s what it’s all about, it’s entertainment, it’s about escape for a moment. If I can get people to get outside of their normal mindset and sort of escape and just enjoy themselves and have a different experience. Having someone come up to you after a performance and say something like “great set” or anything like that, It’s like “I did it I did it, now let’s go skate”, It’s the best.

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The 1975 November 2nd, 2014 | Kool Haus, Toronto, ON | Daniel Hadfield

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THIS LEGEND

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P AND COMING pop punkers This Legend brought their fresh enthusiasm and entrancing beats to Boston this week

Just finishing up their North American tour, This Legend gave a great performance at the Brighton Music Hall this past Wednesday in support of their debut album, It’s in the Streets.

The album combines profound lyrics and fun musical hooks with intense drumming that really set the standard for the rest of the band. Drummer Longineu “LP” Parsons III showcased an ability to drum that was lively and interesting. He was hard where the music called for it, but also had a tasteful touch to his playing, using light cymbal accents and dynamics in tension that were made all the more impressive by the intensity of the beat.

While the crowd was not very active in the beginning of their set (as is unfortunately the case with many opening acts) it didn’t stop the band from putting their all into the performance. Lead guitar player Ben Harper and bass player Steve Neufeld’s thrashing dancing gave the performance a very raw intensity, and by the end of the set, the crowd

did start to get into the action with prompting from vocalist Chris Castillo.

Admittedly, I don’t really listen to any pop punk, but I was really impressed by their musicianship and stage presence and I thought they put on a fantastic set. I was lucky enough to sit and chat with the members of the band after their set to talk about lyrical content, messages, and future tours.

SO GUYS, TELL ME ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM, WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT IT? CHRIS CASTILO: It’s uplifting, it’s fast, there’s some really bad ass drum fills - actually we just got told the other day that we have some blast beats in there right?

LONGINEU PARSONS III: Uh yeah, I guess we do.

STEVE NEUFELD: Blast fills I NOTICED THAT TONIGHT! YOU GUYS HAVE SOME SERIOUSLY HEAVY PARTS, I WAS REALLY DIGGING SOME OF THE TRACKS FROM THE NEW ALBUM, LIKE THE TITLE TRACK IN THE

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47 STREETS AND REGRETS IN PARTICULAR FOR THEIR LYRICAL CONTENT. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT WHEN YOU WROTE IN THE STREETS - IT’S A REALLY SOCIALLY CHARGED SONG, WHAT IS IN THE STREETS? CC: Well I mean I had this song for a while, and one day Steven came over to my apartment and we reworked it for a long time because it wasn’t working, but for the lyrics, it was just one day I was pulling off the freeway and there’s this dude asking for money and you know, you’re sitting there thinking, “should I give this guy my last five bucks? He might put it towards alcohol, he might not-” whatever, you pull away, and as I drove away, I’m just like “Shit. Literally, I could count the amount of times I’ve given help on this one hand. And I felt really bad about it, you feel really bad every time, you don’t know where the money’s going to, but you want to help. So you know, that’s it. It’s the people living in the streets every day, who don’t get help and I just wanted to talk about that. And you know, I just read the other day something like, if we took all of the food that is thrown away by Americans every year, it’d be enough to feed the world ten times over.

SN: Yeah, you know, it’s pretty messed up, the economy isn’t recovering like people thought it would, and things are still really up in the air. It’s not just all light-hearted songs about chicks on the album, there are definitely some deeper underlying themes, even though it’s fun and uplifting. It’s meant to be fun, but also we’re trying to say something like you know, “this is where the problem is” and get people talking about it.

YOU GUYS HAD A LOT OF REALLY RIGHTEOUS LYRICS, LIKE THE WHOLE THING YOU DID, CHRIS, BEFORE REGRETS, ASKING IF ANYONE HAD ANY REGRETS, AND I SAID TO MYSELF, “NO, FUCK THAT, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE REGRETS” AND THEN YOU SAID THAT RIGHT AFTER AND I WAS LIKE “RIGHT ON!” CC: Yeah, man, that’s what it’s all about! You can’t have regrets.

TELL ME ABOUT THAT CONCEPT, WHEN DID YOU FIND IN YOUR LIFE THAT YOUR REGRETS ARE A PART OF YOU?

I think we all regret those kinds of things we did up to a certain point before you just realize, you know I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t made those mistakes and learned those lessons, and you know I love the dude I am, I’m sure Ben loves the dude he is and LP and Steve and you too and we are the people we are because of what we’ve been through. That’s where Regrets came in, you know, it’s partly about my dad, you know I don’t want to grow up to be the guy he is.

SN: Honestly, I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on, personally. I feel like I do have regrets, and you know, you have to redirect your life and you have to grow and make yourself better as you get older, and without that, you have nothing, if you’re stagnant, what else is there? You have to keep moving and developing, so you know, I think about it differently than Chris, but I feel that song a lot too.

BEN HARPER: You just gotta belief in yourself, that’s what it all comes down to.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO LET THE WORLD KNOW ABOUT THE BAND? CC: LP, go!

LP: Me? Uhh… Just everybody, keep an eye and ear out for us, we’re going to be coming near you real soon, keep an eye on our tour dates, we plan on touring and staying on the road as much as possible! We’re going to try to hit as many places as we possibly can SN: We’re going to try to hit all 50 states LP: So yeah, we’re looking forward to touring more, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of you guys, and please, if you haven’t already, check out our new record, it’s called It’s In The Streets, and be a supporter man, get out there and support the groups you like, buy the music, buy the CDs, buy the vinyls.

CC: We need to bring the vinyl’s back!

LP: Just keep being you and keep believing in yourself. (pointing to my Slayer, Reign in Blood t-shirt) and hey man, that’s a really bad ass t shirt!

Interview by Dan Bosco

CC: You know, I kind of felt that way early on. In high school my dad had to whoop me a couple times, and

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