On August 3^rd, we were happy to hang out with The Break Down, a 5-piece Toronto-based Funk/Jazz/Soul band comprised of Jay Jones, Lilly Mason, Demetri Petsalakis, Rich Itzkovitch, and Jay Sussman.  We chatted about what their music is like, what they’re doing now, and how they feel about the current state of the Toronto indie music scene.  Coming from completely different backgrounds, they pull five different performance and writing styles together to deliver a rich musical experience to mainly Toronto audiences.  As a self-proclaimed DIY band, they’ve played at all sorts of events.  They’ve also released a new CD, which they funded primarily through earnings made from shows, merch and previously released CDs, they’ve submitted music for an upcoming release of Rock Band, and this year they also organized a mixed media festival called SunFunk where people could go to enjoy stand-up comedy, improv, visual artists’ work, dancers and music.  Thankfully they were blessed with a very large turnout… so much so that they’re considering organizing another SunFunk for 2011.  Below is a condensed version of the interview.  Enjoy!

ES:  Based on your own experiences, how have you found the scene in Toronto, from networking with other musicians, to meeting or working with bookers and promoters, and the general vibe that you’re getting from other artists out there?

TBD:  Wow, that’s a good question.  We find that people are saying that they don’t find Toronto to be a very musically appreciative city, and that people don’t really go out to see live shows, so we can definitely feel the effect of that, but at the same time, we’ve had great experiences during shows where everyone really put in a lot of energy and made it a great show, so we think it really depends on the people, the atmosphere of the place, and the elements in general.

As far as booking agents go, well, most of our shows help us create excellent relationships with the venue owners.  Whenever we want to do a show, we can work it out with the people who run Clinton’s, or the Rivoli… it’s kind of hard to get someone to go out and book shows for you in Toronto unless you’re catering to a larger audience or making more money.  Most of the time it’s harder for a booker to work on finding shows for a smaller band.  Most of the places too that you try to connect with, they’re not very open to new artists, and they just assume that they can find (or they already have) a band of slightly lesser quality that will play for free.

It would be nice, actually, if promoters looked at independent bands instead of just working for the big name bands.  There’s nobody out there as far as promoters go who try to bring together the ultimate indie show.   There’s also no connection [in between the indie scene and the major scene] really, it’s either an indie showcase put together by an indie promoter trying to get where he wants to go, or there are the guys who are more well-off who promote for major bands but instead of looking at the indie scene to find a band to open, they bring bigger acts in from wherever they can find them.  Even if you put all your effort into connecting with the big promoters who do huge shows, you can’t even get through to them – you talk to them, give them CDs, and they tell you, “I’ll keep you in mind,” and they promise you big things, but that’s about it.  They have the power to help indie artists, but they don’t do it because it’s all about the big moneymaking show, so it’s really hard for indie bands to progress into that world.

The good thing about the Toronto music scene though is that there’s a lot of talent, and it’s so easy to connect with other talent.  If you have an idea, it’s up to you to collect members and do what you want to do.  But now because of so much competition [to play], the places start asking [to pay you] less, and then they ask the band to essentially rent the venue from them.  That’s the one big element that’s changed – instead of them hiring us to fill the place, we’re hiring them… consequently, it makes things harder for us.  We have to put on these larger events to make the shows worth it to everyone, but we’ve realized that it makes it a much bigger success when you bring other talent into the show.  Plus it’s really great for networking.  It’s unfortunate because some bands don’t realize the potential in doing shows with other acts because they’re not doing very well and they’re more concentrated on helping themselves as opposed to joining in with other groups.  It would be nice though if artists supported artists more.

We’ve noticed too that in smaller towns, there are only a few things that anyone can do on a Friday night so the support is a lot better, where in Toronto, it’s kind of like when you have too many options, you don’t want to do anything – you can go here and see these guys, or you can go there, or there, so you just decide to stay home.

To add to that, cities like New York are full of activity, like people are always out so in a way it almost has something to do with the architecture of Toronto.  It seems like it was designed to be a commerce city, so there’s a certain energy that goes along with that, which makes people want to make money.  It doesn’t have the kind of energy of a place like Montreal, where lifestyle is number one.  Here, making money is number one.

ES:  Out of all the promotional stuff that you’ve done, what did you find worked the best?

TBD:  In order for promotion to work, you have to do absolutely everything.  Putting yourself in every possible situation to play, Facebook, e-mail lists, updates, free listings, flyers… if you have all of these things together, it works.  E-mailing works really well though because it’s a way to connect directly with the people who want to hear from you.  The plus side to that is that they tend to pass the word on as well, and they may not always attend, but sometimes you pass them on the street and they say, “Hey!  I got your e-mail!  Sorry I couldn’t be there!”  Not everyone notices event postings on Facebook, and most people are willing to part with an e-mail address more than anything else.  It’s more personalized too.  You can’t just send one email either – you have to send them strategically, like keep on sending them so that it reminds people.  The biggest success is to make it an event, not a show.  Our CD release party was packed because it was an event.

ES:  So what are you working on right now?

TBD:  We’re recording a song called “So Real”, and our goal is to record song by song and come out with a smaller EP.  We kind of want to focus on polishing our new songs, and releasing them as singles first, and then maybe put out a full-length album.  We want it to be the best that it can be.  Maybe then someone will listen to it and then give us a chance.

ES:  Do you have an idea of when you’d like to release something else?

TBD:  We’d like to have maybe at least three songs by the end of the year.   We recorded a DVD too and it’s just us playing in our element, doing our thing, and there’s also an interview in there where we talk about the creation process.  We want to sell that and we want to use it to our advantage as well in doing business.  It’s the live feeling that will hopefully put the viewer in the crowd.  We think we’ll have a party too for the release of the next Rock Band.

We encourage you to check them out live, and on their websites too at www.myspace.com/thebreakdownband, or www.thebreakdownband.com.

Vassil, Curtis and Tom of the Toronto-based punk-rock band, City Sweethearts, graced us with their presence (and matching tattoos!) on Tuesday, August 3^rd to give us their take on the current state of the Toronto indie music scene, as well as some insight into how they came together and what they’ve been up to. Below you’ll find the shorter version of the interview, but you can hear all the stories in the full interview at the bottom of this article.

Since February of 2009, they’ve gone from recording demos on cassette tape (remember this, all you musicians out there?) to touring the East Coast, Brooklyn and Chicago for two weeks, sharing a stage with DOA, releasing two records, and releasing their latest LP called “Sleeping Through Modern Times” with the help of their record label, P Trash Records. Their LP can be found through ptrashrecords.com, as well as a list of record stores in Toronto, which can be found on their website, www.myspace.com/citysweethearts. You can also pick it up by e-mailing them directly at citysweethearts@gmail.com.

ES: How do you find being indie musicians? What’s that like for you guys?

CS: We’re pretty underground. Pretty much everything we do, we do ourselves. It’s all DIY and networking and stuff. It’s really hard, but we get help from the record labels so we don’t have to pay for the actual record. They make it, then they send it to us (minus the shipping) and stuff.

ES: How did you hook up with them?

CS: Past bands that they released some records for, we just talked to them. We recorded with Ben Cook from Fucked Up, [formerly a member of No Warning]. He really knows his shit.

ES: How long did it take you to record?

CS: Two days (laughs). When we first went to record he was like, “So how many songs are we doing? Two? Three?” and we were like, “Nine songs,” and he was like, “What?! That’s going to take like a month!” but we did it in two days. We tracked everything separately… it probably took like ten hours in total, and we only did like one or two takes each. It’s really raw but that’s what we wanted for this album. I think we’re going to record another 7-inch in like two weeks on an analog recorder… we have two songs. We’ve started writing songs for our next LP but we’re going to take more time on it, shoot for better quality and stuff.

ES: I love asking this question: The Toronto live scene is kind of screwed up, because fans in Toronto are notoriously the worst, hip hop guys call us the “screwface capital of the world” because people are very unsupportive… How do you work around that?

CS: Yeah, you’d think that Toronto would have a vibrant scene but everyone’s in their own little world… we are kind of intertwined with a couple punk scenes and that helps. But if you’re a new band and you don’t have friends, or you don’t have your niche, there’s absolutely no one showing up, especially promoters, because they won’t do small shows – they’re after the bigger ones. You basically have to have a great network underneath you. The hardcore scene is really vibrant, and they’re very good within the scene – they promote themselves and other bands and they push each other up… but it’s a bit harder for us because we’re playing 60’s, 70’s oriented punk.

ES: What would you say are the top Do’s and Don’ts for touring?

CS: For a tour, find a decent promoter, NOT a booker. A booker will book your show, but they won’t promote it, and they’ll tell you that you get whatever’s at the door. But if nobody is promoting it, then what’s the point? Number two: Have a good roadie!!! Interview them, even! Number three: Try to get somewhat of a guarantee [on shows]… somehow we ended up breaking even… and probably most importantly, having merchandise – having actual things you can sell – if we didn’t have merch, we definitely wouldn’t have made as much money back as we did. Especially on a DIY tour, you never know if you’re going to get paid $10 or $100 [by the venue], so the merch helps a lot.

ES: What’s the craziest story you have from your tour?

…. Well for this story, and a bunch of other awesome stories involving border cops, crying ex-girlfriends, and awkward phone calls with the bands’ mothers, you’ll have to listen to the whole interview! Come on, you know you want to anyway.

On Tuesday, August the 10^th, we sat down for a very chill interview with Stephan and Eric of The Clearing, a two-year-old Toronto-based two-piece acoustic soft-rock duo (what a mouthful!) to talk about what they’re up to, what they’ve done, and how they feel about the state of Toronto’s indie music scene.   They grew up together and toured in rock bands for months at a time, which led them to begin writing together.  They ended up falling in love with the “after work” relaxed vibe that they felt from doing acoustic music, and not long afterwards, The Clearing was born.  They’ve taken their own act on tour, doing covers and original songs, they’ve busked on the streets of many places, and they’ve been busy playing shows in Toronto and promoting their new EP.  They were kind enough to bring us a copy of that, which is called “Comfort In A Sound”, to enjoy at the studio as well!   Rest assured, boys, you’ve won over quite a few hearts here at Euphonic Sound.  Below is the short version of the interview.  We hope you like it!

ES:  What are your influences for this style of music?

TC:  It comes out really naturally, but it probably comes out naturally because we grew up listening to a lot of C.C.R. and Blue Rodeo, and there are some newer guys out there now, Frank Turner and Mumford & Sons to name a few… but influences are hard to pinpoint.

ES:  What were the music communities like where you guys came from?

TC:  Incredible.  We learned from so many musicians, but a lot of them were just doin’ it because they loved it and that’s where we’re at with our music.  In the towns we grew up in, people would have parties at their houses, and play and sing songs repetitively until the morning.

The cool thing too about smaller towns is that there’s a lot of opportunity being in a small pond, because you can just take the reins and do whatever you like.  It’s not like you can’t do that in a big city, but it feels like a bigger challenge.  There are so many talented musicians in Toronto and it’s really inspiring, but it also really makes you bring your “A” game.

ES:  What do you think of the live circuit in Toronto?

TC:  It’s so competitive and there are so few audience members to draw from.  It can be really hard on you as a performer to go somewhere to play when you know that you’re lucky to see 20 or 30 people there even though you’ve been promoting that show for a month.

ES:  Why do you think that is?  Why do you think that even though this city has over 2 million people in it, it’s so hard to bring a crowd to a show?

TC:  I don’t know man, I was in Vancouver last week and I went to an open jam, and it seemed like there was such a vibrant thing going on there, like the place was packed and people were playin’ and there weren’t any big names or any trends… there are awesome places here in Toronto that are packed regularly, but that’s more of a social scene and I don’t think it’s really because of the music – the music is a part of it but it’s secondary to the social aspect.

What we need to see is a bunch of artists that get together and work together as a group and make something bigger, but musicians are so shy in Toronto.  That competitive spirit that some musicians have is the reason why they’re shy about connecting with other artists.

We think the reason why there’s no real audience to go around to these live venues too is that the music might be good, but the atmosphere’s not fun, like it’s not a party.  If you want a good time, you go listen to DJs at the Wrongbar.  There are always beautiful people everywhere dancing and sweating, and that’s what live music used to be and that’s what it still is to a bunch of places but here in Toronto, it’s different.

Also, when musicians are all living next door to A&R people working for major labels, the carrot is dangling in front of everyone’s face, and it’s not as obtainable as it seems, and it isn’t even as desirable as it seems – they’re having just as much of a hard time as we all are, and it’s a completely different ballgame.  You’re not going to get there by chasing them anyway – you’ve got to build your own thing first.  There is no real “them” anymore anyway, there are companies and they’re doing their thing, trying to survive – they have no need for any of us [indie bands], they’re good!

ES:  It just kills me that so many indie artists still want that record deal with a major label.

TC:  Yeah, there are people that are just doing their own thing and they’re doing very well for themselves.

Even for us, as small-town dudes playing music, we used to play to a couple hundred people all over the place, and we toured Toronto and thought we were doing so well, and we found that playing in the city and living in the city are two different things.  When you live in the city, your writing and the way you think and do things can be affected and your music can change – it’s the energy and the atmosphere that’s in the city that does that.

ES:  You just released “Comfort In A Sound”.  What are you doing to promote this?

TC:  Our web presence has been our main focus, so we’re on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and the album is available on iTunes, and right now?  We’re playing shows, talking it up…  Basically, if an opportunity presents itself to promote ourselves, we take it. We have a few gigs coming up, but we keep our website up to date so people can just check that out.

You can follow these guys on any of the links above, as well as on their main website, www.theclearingmusic.com.

Technorati Tags: interview, The Clearing

Companero Jack here with another interview that I didn’t do. Emma and Shawn sat down with Roguesix, a Toronto pop/rock band. The audio interview is, as always posted below.

Quick note: Be sure to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. Just search “Studio Manifesto” and you’re good.

Click here to download the MP3.

So you guys have recorded? What do you have out there?
Joe: Well, right now we just have a 4 song demo EP that we recorded last year at Wellesley Sound Studio that we give out for free at shows It’s kind of hard to sell, and I think it’s better just to get the promotion out there and get people listening to our music. I’ve done a little survey myself and I’ve noticed that if I say, “Hey do you want to check out this CD?” people would say “Ah, I dunno…” But once I say, “I’m giving it away for free,” they love it. We took those 4 songs and a friend of ours had approached us last year about recording a song, because he went to the Metalworks Studio for Recording and Producing, and his T.A. happened to hear the song we were recording and he loved it, and he asked for our demo and goes, “Anytime you guys need to record again, come to me.” So we went to him and we did our 8 song album that we should have done. We started recording it in January, and then we went back and decided that we wanted to put 8 songs together, with the first 4 that we did previously, so we’re remixing those and then we’re repackaging everything.

What do you guys sound like? How would you define your sound?
Ashley: We’ve been compared a lot to Paramore, and in our writing, our new writing especially, we’re trying to get away from that. Not that it’s a bad thing, but we just want to come up with something more original.
Joe: Exactly. I think it’s hard to have a female-fronted band and not be compared to either Paramore or Metric, and it’s kind of hard to capture your own sound. The first 4 songs, we were just kind of being genre-specific, like “This is what we are.” But the stuff that we’re writing now is kind of more like you’ll hear our songwriting and our actual influences.

Upcoming
“Victory, Sweet Victory” Album Release Party
August 13, 2010 @ The Poor Alex Theatre
772 Dundas Street Weas

The album will be available on iTunes on August 10.

For more info about Roguesix, and to check out some of their music, check out their Facebook and MySpace pages.

Technorati Tags: Euphonic, indie, interview, Manifesto, pop, recording, Rock, rogue, roguesix, six, Sound, Studio

Companero Jack here. You guess it [collective groan] with another mini-interview. Three of the four members of The Cosimc Eye came in to chill for a bit.

Click here to download the MP3.

How are you guys finding the indie scene in Toronto, both from the perspective of a being a part of is as well as from the perspective of a fan?
Mark: It’s cool, Steve and I were talking about it earlier today, it’s like the music industry right now is kind of at this state where it’s not failing, it’s just not as big as it was and it’s kind of changing. So bands are being able to do it themselves. They’ve got the luxury of doing that. Bands can now just record and put out albums, make their own merch and run their own show.

In terms of being an indie band, what sort of do-it-yourself or guerrilla style production have you guys done?
Mark: The way we’re doing our record, we’re really lucky. There’s this studio in London called The OIART which is a recording school. They needed bands to record, so we went down there, and we were able to get a bunch of free sessions. So our rhythm tracks are all being done at this studio, and the rest of it is going to be done in a barn. We’re not paying much money to do it, we we’re lucky enough to stumble upon this. We’re kind of throwing our record together.
Kevin: We’re producing it too. I’ve done other recordings in other bands, this guy Greg Dawson sort of produces all the stuff he records. It’s a different sort of thing because producers always have this kind of stamp. They know what works and that’s what they want it to sound like. I’ve found that by doing it ourselves, it’s a different thing because we can kind of just be as weird and quirky as we want.

As far as events go, The Cosmic Eye is playing with two of other bands, Sound One and Glory Glory Man United, at Rancho Relaxo on June 30th. Click here for the Facebook event page.

For more from The Cosmic Eye, check them out on MySpace, Twitter and their website.

Technorati Tags: cosmic, Euphonic, eye, indie, interview, jack, Manifesto, music, podcast, recording, Sound, Studio, wilson