Taylor
How are you?
Rachel
I’m good, how are you?
Taylor
I’m good, thank you! Jumping right into things, you’ve released three singles from your upcoming album “When The Night Comes In”. “Not Yours To Take”, a heavier punk track with tones of the 1970s, “Not There Yet”, a soft rock track that felt very 1990s and “Abattoir” a track with a strong indie-rock feel. All three tracks are vastly different from each other, showing the bands range and musical strengths. What were the main inspirations you were drawing from for this album?
Rachel
A lot of the album was inspired by the concept of stepping into the night and the unknown. it’s almost serving like some sort of a soundtrack to the night. A lot of it’s coming from some personal experiences, but also reflecting on experiences of those around us. Everything’s coming from so many different places, and it’s coming from years ago, before the songs were even written. It’s reflecting on those times, and then it was reflecting on times throughout the pandemic and just pre pandemic. So it’s kind of a mishmash of that.
Taylor
This is your first release in three years, nine years since the release of your last full length album. How did that time away help you as a band and do you feel having an extended amount of time to focus on the creation of the album helped form a body of work you were envisioning?
Rachel
It definitely gave us time to nurture the songs and continue to gel as a band. It gave us more time to get out on the road and continue to just practice as musicians and our bond and how we communicate through music, but also how we communicate as a chosen family.
Taylor
The single covers all have a matching theme. Very muted colors and heavy contrast in the tones. What were you envisioning when creating the artwork?
Rachel
The artwork came together as a series of happy and not happy accidents. It was playfulness and trying to really capture the moods. One of the songs on the record we talk about a lot of the themes of stepping into the night and neon lights. There’s a direct reference to this little spot in Toronto called the Red Light that we all frequented, especially my brother and a bunch of our friends. It was a bit like personal space and it was quite literally that. It was lit by red light, so having black and grays and reds kind of come together, definitely helped to just embody what the whole vibe is, if you will. It’s got a little bit loungy and swanky, but it’s also dark and moody and mysterious, so it all just kind of plays in all together.
Taylor
I think the ones you matched up with each song all fit very well. You had mentioned that a lot of the album is inspired by the night time. Did this concept follow into the music videos that you filmed for the singles as well?
Rachel
It was for “Not Yours to Take” , our first video that we released. That one was quite literally following Michael into the night. It was sort of touching on this idea of misconnections where he would be moving throughout the city and I’m playing on a street corner and he happens to walk by the corner but I’m no longer there when he reaches it. So that’s even a bit like pandemic times. I feel like the message was fully realized within that video and I think it suited it very well. “Not There Yet” was filmed in Colorado and that song is a bit about timing and connections to people and places. Where it was filmed in Colorado means a lot to my brother and I and our family. We were able to spend some time out there with our grandmother and our uncle who we haven’t seen in quite a long time. I shot the video on my Super 8 and with some extra cameras that I was able to bring with me. That was very meaningful and it has a bit of weight to it, the emotion kind of carried out in the album as well. “Abattoir”, the latest single, the video is still yet to come. We have shot most of it so far, but it will contain eerie scenes with 70s inspiration. We had access to a basement that has not changed since the 70s. It’s all original. My brother and I played a lot with lighting in that one. We were able to film our original drummer, Evan, before he moved to Lithuania. So we shot the scenes of me on an old organ. All we have to shoot is Zack, and then it’s pretty much good to go into the editing stage. That one really captured a lot of darker, moody, but really warm kind of vibes.
Taylor
Do you guys film the videos yourselves?
Rachel
We try to. There have been times where we’ve hired our friends, and we feel so lucky to be able to offer that opportunity to our friends and have working relationships, but my brother and I are very, very creative, as is the rest of the band, and we get really excited to be able to collaborate in new ways. Being able to put visuals to the song ourselves has been really special. I think we’re learning a lot from our friends who have been helping us through the video making processes, but we’re learning new techniques and new ways to play each time we make something new.
Taylor
You and your older brother grew up in New Brunswick. Did you face any challenges when relocating to Toronto and do you have any advice for young musicians who may be apprehensive about moving out of their small town to the big city to pursue music?
Rachel
We did for a brief amount of time. We didn’t have too hard of a time transitioning because we were still pretty young, but the differences were definitely noticeable. Even in the way that some people carried themselves. There’s more of a calmness in the East Coast. Ontario is a little bit quicker, and even in the kids, you can feel that. If you are planning to move to a different city, I would just say just follow your gut and trust yourself. Try to find the scene that you most connect with and keep showing up.
Taylor
How do you feel the band has grown musically since you first started out?
Rachel
We’ve definitely grown a lot just in the language of how we play together. The skill sets have also grown and the ways in which we kind of handle the business. Things are a lot and we now run it like a tighter ship, if that makes sense. We understand things more now. These things take time and to anyone trying to start a new band, you really just have to hang in there and just keep going. I think the amount of shows that we’ve played together, and the cities that we’ve played in, and the parking lots we’ve slept in, and the floors that we’ve slept on, have really helped bond us. the people we’ve met, yeah, you just gotta like, just keep going. As you move through new ages you almost keep collecting all of these different inspirations. My bandmates and I were actually just talking about this recently, like when you hear a certain album or a couple songs, does it take you back to a special place or a certain time in your life? They almost act as a soundtrack. I feel like we’re making soundtracks together, it’s like an unspoken musical bond, if you will.
Taylor
Top 5 desert island albums?
Rachel
“Dark Side of The Moon” by Pink Floyd, “74 Jailbreak” by AC/DC, “Thank God for Mental Illness” by The Brian Jonestown Massacre, “Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous” by Big L and Repeater by Fugazi.
Taylor
If you could collaborate with any musician, who would it be and why?
Rachel
I feel like it could really be cool if the band had a moment with David Bowie. Because we have this new energy about us, I feel like gelling with him would really bring out some of the dance-y themes that we’ve had like hidden in the tracks and just bring that little bit of extra razzle dazzle. It would also be cool to have a moment with Kurt Cobain because he was also a visual artist when he was younger. It would have been really cool to see where he would have taken his art practice and how he would balance those two things. I feel like it would be fun to have that as the personal side, but also the musical side because he did a really good job of mixing punk and grunge and rock, all these different things with the idea of a pop song which makes it more accessible to many people. We just want people to have a good time with our music. I feel like there would be a lot of really great conversations to have with him. He had some really wicked tones and I feel like it’d be really cool to dirty up some of our songs.
