By: Pam Nichol

Late last year you had a major change with replacing drummers. What’s different about this dynamic compared to the old one?
Ross: Well, Phil’s a redhead.
Ryan: I think we make music more quickly now. Since Phil joined, it sort of signified that it’s time to make a new album or EP. The whole dynamic has changed; we’ve been all about new songs, recording them, and moving forward with new music.

Phil, how do you feel about this new adventure?
Phil: Ah…good!
Ryan: Phil’s really excited to be playing with guys this serious. He’s been in some really good bands; I am paraphrasing because I know he’s said this before, but we work harder than most bands and we do more stuff independently. Phil came in at an interesting time, where we were doing higher-profile gigs. His second gig was Virgin Festival. I mean, that must have been neat.
Phil: V-fest was interesting. It was different from what we expected, I think.

How would you describe your music to people that have never heard it before?
Ryan: Pop rock. It’s like the shit you have to check out. That’s usually how I describe it. I don’t know how do you talk about your own music? How do you talk about your own painting or your own book? We think it’s great and that’s all that matters. I do tell people that they should check it out. We’re alternative pop. We’re adult contemporary.
Scott: Or Regional Mexican?
Ryan: How does that get its own category on Myspace?
Scott: Why not just Mexican? Regional? It’s like calling it Regional Canadian.

What’s the inspiration behind the music (lyrically, melodically)?
Scott: Relationships with people.
Ryan: A lot of it’s cathartic; like a diary, or like trying to create a tale out of real life. Melodies, whatever sounds good with a guitar riff. That’s hard to describe. Where does a melody come from? It’s pretty interesting; it’s something that comes from nowhere. That’s pretty heavy for an interview. You can really go a long way with that, when you realize a song comes from nowhere. It’s something that comes from nothing.

What has been your most memorable performance to date, and why?
Scott: Probably our Windsor show. It was like our third show there in 2 months. We had a really good crowd at the first one and our second one was at a smaller club and it was so-so. The third time, a girl who had been at a show in Toronto and her boyfriend had shown up and we played for just them.
Ross: 2 people.
Scott: 2 people. I know that for Ryan, it was a show that helped him finally get over being nervous in front of people. That was a turning point for him.
Ryan: We had driven 3 hours and then 2 people showed up, so it was like, ‘well, what are we doing this for?’
Ross: It was a great show for 2 people, too. We bought them some drinks in between songs.
Scott: It was a really genuine performance.
Phil: Amherst was the highlight for me, because it was so wacky.
Ross: It was Halloween, so we played in dresses, painted up to look a little bit like zombies.
Ryan: What’s funny about that Windsor show was that a week later we played to like 1,400 people.
Scott: We opened for Lifehouse at the Kool Haus.

What would you say has been your biggest accomplishment over the past year?
Ross: We toured 3 times and played a shitload of shows.
Scott: All on our own, on our own terms. I’d say just finally doing it and not waiting for it happen. We played close to 80 shows last year.
Ryan: Making it home alive from Newfoundland. Canada’s insane to tour in, in the impending winter months.
Ross: I think that just driving the entire country is really cool and playing in every province. You can check it off the life list.
Scott: We’ve been to 2 islands.
Ross: 3, we played 3 islands this year.
Scott: 3? What’s the third?
Ross: Newfoundland, PEI, Toronto Island.
Scott: And Les Iles De La Madeline.
Ross: 4 Islands we’ve played!
Scott: We’re an island band. We like islands and ferries. We like drinking on ferries. That’s our biggest accomplishment, playing 4 islands.’
Ryan: The interview headline: “We only play islands, a bands tale.”

Are you planning on releasing a new album this year?
Ryan: Yes, we are currently building a team to work with.

What can we expect from the new album?
Scott: Songs?!?
Ryan: There’s going to be drums on this one for sure. We’re thinking about adding bass…
Scott: It’s just an extension of us growing and getting better.

Lately you’ve been developing more buzz, what would you say are the biggest contributing factors?
Ross: Just playing a lot more shows and working our asses off.
Ryan: Networking more, paying attention to the other side of the game.
Phil: I think that’s key. You can play all day for most of your career but still go nowhere.
Ryan: To try and get people to just hear it and to get them to try and take it as seriously as we do.
Scott: That can get hard when you’re involved in selling your own stuff.

How do you feel about the Myspace revolution?
Ryan: I love it.
Scott: I’m totally into it.
Ross: I think that it’s really cool for indie bands because you can get someone to listen to your stuff all around the world.
Scott: It’s just great for finding music. Music enthusiasts love it.

Do you think that you’ve been using it to best of its promotional abilities?
Scott: I’d have to say, absolutely not.
Ross: We don’t whore out on Myspace. We’re not constantly on there, sending stuff to strangers. Or at least, I don’t.
Ryan: It’s not that. We just shy away from spamming people, which is a lot of what you’re talking about, bands that say, “Hey check out our thing,” and they’ll send it to everyone. They probably are generating fans but it seems kind of douchey. I think that is a tricky game.
Ross: Though we certainly use it.

Tell some funny anecdotes from the road?
Ryan: Phil was bitten by a snake.
Ross: We peed on him too, that’s what you do for sting rays, and he was in shock so he let it happen.
Phil: I was supposed to get peed on as initiation into the band. It worked out that I actually needed to get peed on.
Ross: Ryan broke my finger in Saskatoon.
Scott: You broke your own finger. That’s more factual.
Ryan: We played a show in Montreal for 3 people and because of that we got the Virgin Festival gig. The promoter that put on that show happened to be there and he just happened to be the promoter for Virgin Festival.

If you could make everyone in the world listen to one CD other than your own what would it be?
Scott: Probably our first full length
But it can’t be your own CD.
Scott: …Probably our first full length
Ryan: I’ll start with Be A Man by Macho Man Randy Savage.
Phil: Zeitgeist
Ross: Maybe Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits, but then everybody has probably already heard it. So…
Scott: Zeppelin I
Ryan: So that everyone knows what sweet guitar riffs are.
Phil: Is that really what you want everyone to listen to?
Scott: No, it would just change on a daily basis, depending on my mood, and my mood right now says Zeppelin I.

What’s next for the band?
Ross: Tour the country again.
Ryan: Try to get out of the country. Head over to Europe, play the US. We also have a show coming up. We are playing a Nu Music Night at the Horseshoe Tavern on February 26.

http://www.clothesmaketheman.org
http://www.myspace.com/clothesmaketheman

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm.