Sonic Avenues is the kind of band that writes such good songs they can afford to not release them on their LP’s as evidenced by Sixteen Wires that was released/uploaded on bandcamp in March. They write power pop that has equal importance on both power and pop. A mix of Buzzcocks, Pointed Sticks, Powerpearls and the Cheap Rewards re-issues LP’s blended into a fine music cocktail. Currently, the band is finishing up writing their third LP and looking to play the world.
Interview by Ed Stuart
Who’s
answering the questions?
Max
Where
is the band from?
Montréal, La
Belle Province, Canada.
Who
is in the band and what instrument do they play?
I play guitar and I do lead vocals, Seb
plays lead guitar, Chance is the guy on bass and JC beats on the old pots and
pans.
How
did the band start?
A couple of years ago, I used to live in a
house with three roommates. We used to throw EPIC parties in that place. I had
a room in the basement, which had drums, and amps set up. It was perfect for
not studying while bugging the shit out of my roommates and neighbours.
Needless to say that my room quickly became the scene of many late night
drunken trashy jams. My buddy Jamie was a regular. He’d come over with a bunch
of beers a couple of nights every week and we’d just bash it out for a couple
of hours. After a while, we had a couple of (pretty shitty) original songs.
That’s when we decided to take the idea of starting an actual band a bit more
seriously. But it’s mainly because of him that Sonic Avenues saw the light of
day. I was very lazy while he was motivated and insistent about it. So, I
figured we might as well give it a shot and see what happens. At that point,
drunken jams progressively turned into actual rehearsals. And once we had a few
presentable songs, we approached a few people to see if they wanted to be in
the band. That’s when JC and Seb joined the group. That was in 2006.
What
bands did you have in mind when starting this band?
We were really going after the garage 60‘s
movement initially. Bands like The Kinks, The Zombies, The Who, The Litter,
etc, were dominant driving influences. Basically, we were punks trying to do
60‘s; all those punk and powerpop records were never far during that time. I
always loved bands like The Real Kids, Barracudas, Adverts, Buzzcocks, Pointed
Sticks, etc... These were always
an underlying influence no matter what we were trying to do. And eventually,
they became predominant and took over the main direction of our song writing.
How
is the recording the third LP coming along? Any schedule release date?
We haven’t started to record it yet. We’re
still in the process of writing the last few songs. So far, we have gone
through a LOT of songs that we decided not to keep. It sounded too much like
the old stuff. We just want to keep things fresh and interesting; not just for
the people out there who like our band, but also for us. I’m very happy with
the songs we have now. It’s most definitely our strongest material to date. At
least it feels that way. Variety - while remaining true to our style - is what
we are trying to achieve this time around: dark, bright, long songs, shorter
songs, different tempos, etc. I can’t wait to start recording it. Studio time
will start this spring and if all goes well, the album should be released later
this year.
Do
you think music can still be a vital force in such a disposable age?
Of course! I do realize that there are
thousands of records being released every year and that it has become really,
really hard to keep track of it all. Lots of good stuff just keeps flying right
under our noses all the time… That to me is where the downside of that
situation is. These days, people go through a lot of records real fast without
looking back because of the rate at which they come out. But every now and
then, there’s a record that’ll just stand right out of the bunch. That one will
just stick to the turntable and for a while, there will be no other ones! Those
are the records that you actually come back to. Luckily, music like this is
still being released these days and this is very reassuring. So yeah, most of
it is disposable nowadays but there’s still great music out there that will
keep coming looking for you. The search of mind-blowing tunes may prove to be
harder in this era but the reward of finding them is certainly well worth the
effort in the end!
It
seems like Sonic Avenues and Steve Adamyk Band have toured a lot in the past
and have released a split 7”. Is there any future tours planned with the two
bands? How did this band friendship come about?
Initially, we were introduced to the Ottawa
scene by local Ian Manhire (Going Gaga Records, Sedatives, White Wires,
Voicemail) when he invited us to play a basement show a few years ago. I think
it was one of the first White Wires show, too... It was awesome. It was a shock
for us to see how great and ‘together’ that scene was (and still is). It was
the best thing I’d seen since the Spaceshits reign over Montreal more than 10
years ago. It was the real thing; a bunch of kids hanging out, drinking beers
and partying to some bands in a basement. It can’t get any better than that.
So, shows after shows in Ottawa, we started to become real good friends with
some of the people there. They made us feel like we belonged to their awesome,
growing scene. It was a good feeling. Especially after having spent
months/years in a city (Montreal) that was experiencing a bit of a lull in
terms of punk scene activity, where most bands were operating essentially on
their own which sucked. Luckily, that is changing I think. Anyways, Steve and his
bandmates were some of the people we felt really connected to and we quickly
became solid buds. Both our music goes really well together. We’re all on the
same wavelength and that makes life on the road not only easy, but a lot of
fun. Steve has also filled in for our bassist on a few occasions and Seb, JC
and I were his backing band at SXSW last year. And now we officially share one
member: Seb. About future touring plans, Steve and I were very recently talking
about it and it looks like the bands are gonna hit the road together once again
in the nearish future. We have no official details yet, though.
First
of all the song “Sixteen Years” that was just released sounds like a power pop
gem. How did this song not make the Television Youth LP? I like Television
Youth, but “Sixteen Years” is a cool song.
Thanks! That’s one of the first feedback I
get about that song. To be honest, I kind of regret not putting “Sixteen Years”
on Television Youth. I think it would have been a good counter weight to
balance the darker side of the album. The only reason why it didn’t make the
cut was primarily because we were just sick of it and we collectively started
to think that it wasn’t good. We also wanted a 10-song album. So, some of the
material had to be cut. Two other songs found their way into the garbage bin...
Maybe I’ll throw them all on a 7” one day. One of them was called Bored With Love and it was meant to be
the song used for the Steve Adamyk Band/Sonic Aves tour split. That 7” was
gonna be called the Bored With Love
split. It would’ve been cool. But then that song suffered the same fate as
Sixteen Years; we thought it sucked and preferred new material over it. So I
picked Fadin’ Love instead for the
7”. I’m probably gonna remix Bored With
Love eventually though… it had a pretty cool noisy surf-style part played
on a classical guitar. We’ll see...
Exclaim stated when
describing Television Youth
“distilling old-school punk and garage rock into a joyous racket. The
arrangements are more complicated, but the hooks, which are what matter most
when we're talking about this kind of music, remain firmly in place.” While
writing the second LP was this a conscious decision or maturation or the band’s
song writing?
I’d say it was a bit of both. On TV Youth,
we consciously wanted to show our darker side, which wasn’t really reflected by
our first album. We tried to write songs that would take a few spins in order
to fully “get”. To me, this happens when the structure of a song is a bit less
familiar or intuitive. But at the same time, you don’t want to become plain
weird in the end. It’s a delicate balance. But as far as conscious planning
goes, that was it. The rest seems to have happened on its own. So, I guess we
did maybe mature a bit as a band.
Dusted Reviews wrote “Sonic
Avenues’ really excellent album Television
Youth is an anachronism, not just in its musical references – The Jam, The
Clash, The Only Ones and certain harder-edged elements of The Kinks – but in
its way of looking at the world. It’s just not the same being a punk kid in a
dead-end town anymore. No matter where you live, no matter how far away the
nearest rock club or comic book store, there are kids just like you at the
other end of your Wi-Fi connection.” Do you agree with that; it’s not the same being
a punk kid in a dead-end town? What about that statement from Television Youth about being an
anachronism? Do you still think this term is applicable today?
I think that being a punk kid has always
been the same wherever, whenever, technology progress or not. It’s essentially
always been about music and DIY. Being punk is about the love for an honest,
unpretentious style of music. A music that beats to the rhythm of an agitated
excited heart: 150-200+ beats per minute. Being a punk musician is about writing,
playing, rehearsing and recording songs, organizing tours, supporting the
community. All of that on top of an (often shitty) 40-hour/week job. That is
what being a punk is all about.
Now, about that statement... First, I have
to admit that when I first saw that review I was amazed to find out that some
people actually read or thought about our lyrics! I think the subject tackled
in TV Youth still absolutely applies
today. More so than ever if anything. In fact, smart phones and all those
modern gadgets ARE the new TV’s. TV’s on mega steroids. I mean, they’re amazing
machines. I love the social and informative aspects of them. But they epitomize
what TV’s have always been about to most people: easy access entertainment. I
don’t think that the critic who wrote the review knew I was actually going
after this very specific thing, that TV’s are just an image used to represent
it all. In short, that song was written about the fact that a lot of people
born with amazing creative potential seem to let it erode with time to the
profit of hours (days or even years) spent in idle mode. Some people let their
brains get filled with a constant influx of shitty information instead of
activating their own neurones and become what they were meant to be. I know
there’s waaaay more to intellectual potential being wasted than just ‘idle mode
entertainment’ but that would’ve turned Television
Youth into a shitty and lyrically overloaded punk opera. Another the reason
why I decided to name the song “Television Youth” was also based on phonetics.
It just sounded good to my ear. “Television” was a better, cooler word than
many other options I was playing with at the time.
So, yeah anyways, I do love TV and I think
I’m gonna go watch Point Break after
this. Word.
50
years ago people used to buy music and get their water for free, now people pay
for water and get their music for free. How do you think this affects music in
any way?
Well, I think some people are definitely
getting richer but it’s definitely not your average musicians! It’s incredibly
hard to live off your art. In fact, it’s nearly impossible, especially with the
genre of music we play. I think that never changed. The only difference is that
now the artists’ products cover more grounds way more easily. I think artists
like us don’t profit financially from it but we do benefit in some ways because
of the increased exposure and easy access.
Where
can people hear the band?
Online - http://sonicavenues.bandcamp.com/
Live - we don’t have a lot of shows booked
for the next few months as we’re going to be busy recording. Go on our facebook
page to keep track of show scheduling: https://www.facebook.com/SonicAvenues.
What’s
next?
Recording the new album! Also, we wanna
play everywhere: US, Europe, Japan, Canada, etc. So LOTS of shows are going to
follow the release of the new record. We also want to do a bunch of 7”’s this
year. So, as early as this summer we’ll get going with this series of singles
project.
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