By: Lidia Vila
In previous interviews you’ve mentioned how Toronto can be hard on a band, “In Toronto (and I even see this in myself), you’re not necessarily there to see the band, you’re there to judge the band.” Can you cite examples of this?
It’s true I have mentioned that sort of thing in interviews before and to some extent I still believe it. However I’m starting to think that these sorts of things exist in varying degrees almost everywhere you go. What Toronto lacks in enthusiasm at shows it makes up for in a lot of other ways and can be very nurturing to artists and musicians. I am genuinely excited for my friend’s new records and maybe that doesn’t sound like it would count for a lot, but when it comes back to me it is encouraging to know that someone I love and respect as an artist is also excited for my work. Someone told me that they wouldn’t really enjoy visiting Toronto, but that they love living here. For me, there’s a lot to that because this city is really about the people, and the small social networks that make it exciting to go out at night and bump into someone you know.

In February of this year, you announced on your MySpace blog about your working relationship with Black Box Recordings; what does this mean to you now? How will this change things for you?
That’s an interesting question and one that’s hard to pin down because with any working relationship things are constantly changing. Up until now we have been trying to figure out what kind of relationship will benefit both parties and now that those pieces are falling into place I’m excited to see the results. I have expectations, as I’m sure they do, and hopefully we’ll work together to make those happen.

Your music sound is a combination of alt-country and a tortured man with a spirit of hope in his heart, where does this come from?
I have a hard time with the term ‘alt-country’ because I really don’t know what it means. I love country music, I got into it by working at a country music radio station and then found out about people like Gram Parsons and Hank Williams. These kinds of artists seem to be a common gateway for a lot of people, which is great because from there it’s an easy step to someone like Townes Van Zandt or even Mississippi John Hurt. It’s hard to say where a sound comes from - when we started this band I really wanted to sound like Nirvana Unplugged, now I just want to try new things and see where they’ll take us.

You’ve gone through band member change, a name change, what more can we expect from you in the coming year?
Seems like things these days are changing pretty fast. What I can say for sure is that we’re going to be working on a new record, and I’ve been talking to a few people whose work we love about helping us make it.

Image: Andy Schmidt

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