The eighteenth Episode of the Winnipeg Music Project with returning indie rock band Summer Dwellers to talk about their upcoming "New Light" album release at the Goodwill April 7, 2016 at 8:00pm. Tickets are 10$

This episode is also the radio premiere of their two new songs "We Got What They Want" and "Grow and Change". Two songs releasing on the "New Light" album.

Set List:

Summer Dwellers "We Got What They Want" New Light 

Summer Dwellers "Best In Me" New Light

Summer Dwellers "Grow and Change"

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Apr 6, 2016 at 6:04am PDT

Support the Summer Dwellers!

The eleventh episode of the Winnipeg Music Project where I met up with Tristan Zaba for the second time to talk about his upcoming show called "The Zabathon". This is definitely one of the weirder but extremely entertaining interviews I've ever given.

Saturday February 6, 2016 @ 7pm (Doors open 6:30)

Eva Claire Hall, University of Manitoba Campus

Set List:

Tristan Zaba "Nothing" from In the Round

Tristan Zaba "Altercations"

To read the first interview with Tristan Zaba (and the first interview of the Winnipeg Music Project EVER!) CLICK HERE

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Feb 3, 2016 at 9:40am PST

Support Winnipeg Musician Tristan Zaba!

The Ninth Episode of the Winnipeg Music Project is actually two shorter interviews with two of the five Uniter Fiver finalists Zack and Shane from Fox Lake and then Jeremy from Deep Dark Cave.

Set List:

Fox Lake "Darkslide"  from 441 Ep

Fox Lake "The Grove" from 441 Ep

Set List:

Deep Dark Cave "All I think about" 

Deep Dark Cave "Higher" 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jan 13, 2016 at 7:33am PST

Support Winnipeg Band Fox Lake!

Support Winnipeg Band Deep Dark Cave!

Did you miss this episode of the Winnipeg Music Project? That's okay! Or did you just want to hear it again? That's okay too! Here it is!

The Sixth Episode of the Winnipeg Music Project where I got to meet Mal Magorel a talented soul and funk singer. We talked about her beginnings as a songwriter and singer and how her most recent album Malfunction was born. A super fun interview and a definite interesting listen. 

Set List:

Mal Magorel "Malfunktion" from Malfunktion

Mal Magorel "Hey Rockstar" from Malfunktion

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Dec 9, 2015 at 7:54am PST

Support Winnipeg Music Mal Magorel!

Did you miss this episode of the Winnipeg Music Project? That's okay! Or did you just want to hear it again? That's okay too! Here it is!

The Fifth Episode of the Winnipeg Music Project where I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with William Prince to talk about his Winnipeg Music Career and upcoming CD release on December 7th for Earthly Days at the West End Cultural Centre!

If you loved William Prince's songs "The Carny" and "Earthly Days" as much as I did, you NEED to be there.

Richard Inman is going to be playing too, which is always a treat so I highly recommend checking it out! 

Set List:
William Prince "The Carny" from Earthly Days
William Prince "Earthly Days" from Earthly Days

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Dec 2, 2015 at 6:28am PST

Support Winnipeg musician William Prince!

Instruments: Guitar, Voice and Theremin

Genres: Folk, Adult Contemporary

I had the amazing opportunity to meet with Keri Latimer from Leaf Rapids, a Juno-award winning singer and I am very proud to say I didn’t completely freak out. Keri is a kind and extremely talented musician and I had so much fun listening to her talk about her experiences and life filled with music. We talked about songwriting and the Theremin and just had a great time. 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing music?

Keri: Well I started playing piano when I was really young, I was about seven or eight but it was just for fun. I wrote my first song when I was 10, we moved from Calgary and I was really say about leaving all my friends and I Was looking at the back window as we were driving and I was just reflecting on how sad I was so it was something like losing your happiness and how it would always be behind me, something like that. I can’t really remember but that’s how it started?

Ashley: And how long have you been playing in leaf rapids?

Keri: It’s a new one actually; it’s only been a couple years for Leaf Rapids. We got offered a record deal and couldn’t really pass that up.

Ashley: So where does the name Leaf Rapids come from?

Keri: Leaf Rapids is a place my husband grew up in northern Manitoba and we would go there visiting and I always thought it was such a beautiful names. I think because the town is so small and isolated up north; it’s almost the end of the road and I just always loved that name. When we were thinking about band names I asked what my husband thought about it, he was a bit a torn about it because he grew up there.

Ashley: How did you get a record deal? Did they approach you specifically?

Keri: I was doing a solo album before that, Nathan is really hard on the road and I just needed a project to keep working on. So I played a showcase as a solo artist and one of the musicians in the showcase who was backing up Jill Barber and I knew him and I knew he was an amazing guitar player. I said “ Well since you’re sitting beside me, you might as well join in on my songs and of course he plays like he’d known the songs for years. He’s just one of those people and it was amazing. Afterwards we were talking and it turned out he had a record label and he was a producer and he offered us a project. We were looking for something because we love traveling.

Ashley: Why did you decide to learn to play the Theremin. 

Keri: We were making a Nathan record and we had four days until it was going to get mastered so the mixes were done and there was this one song that for the solo part we just thought that sci-fi instrument that was in all of the science fiction movies would be great but what the hell was it? We did some research and for some reason I found one at Mother’s Music in the corner gathering dust for half price. It just got left there because no one knew what it was, I think. It was a stroke of luck because they were hard to find so I bought it and I practiced and practiced it and now I’m completely obsessed with it.

Ashley: How do you learn an instrument like that? Is there a book?

Keri: It comes with a little book with a few suggestions on finger movements because I think the main thing about the Theremin is when you are figuring out a melody the tiniest knuckle movement is like a semi tone so you just need to get used to the tiny little increments takes a lot of work and shaking your hand to get vibrato. There isn’t really a way to play it, it’s very intuitive; it’s basically a leap of faith and trusting you’re muscle memory. In fact you have to turn your brain off, I find, it’s like meditation. You’d like it!

Ashley: What is a practice to jam session like?

Keri: For Leaf Rapids it’s basically me writing the songs and then Devin and I coming together and figuring out the bass parts.  I guess it’s primarily my song writing; with Nathan Shelley wrote a lot of the songs and now Mike who is apart of the band is a great writer and musician. IT’s more collaborative for Nathan but for [Leaf Rapids] it’s just mostly myself.

Ashley: So then what is your songwriting process?

Keri: It’s kind of embarrassing; this is lately. Sometimes I’ll get into a writing flurry and I’ll just put music to that. But more often than not it’s just melody and some gibberish which I record into my album and I’ll go through them and see if some imagery comes up and I’ll start piecing it together. But Mainly I’ll get struck with a melody but if anyone gets ahold of my iPhone, it just has the most embarrassing stuff.

Ashley: So who inspires your music? Or when you first started how did you find your voice and style?

Keri: Well I actually went to art school thinking I would be a visual artist and I took graphic design. It was so intense that I think on the side as a release of some tension I would just start songwriting. Ani Difranco at the time was just getting big and she was just an explosion that went off. When I heard of her, it was my first introduction to a really raw singer-songwriter and a guitar. She plays very percussively and she’s very poetic. You have to check her out. That idea of just be a songwriter with a guitar and have a message, that sparked me to just play a little bit. Then unfortunately my studies suffered because I was hooked by songwriting by full force.

Ashley: How do you go on tour when you have kids?

Keri: IT’s funny because Devin plays bass in the band with me so that’s handy. We bring them with us. In April we spent two weeks in western Canada and took our kids with us and toured with Slow Leaves. We practiced together and I learned a lot of backups for him, then he played guitar and sung backups for us too so it was a really feasible way. Part of the reason we paly music is because we both we love to travel so this is a way to subsidize our travel.

Ashley: Do they come with you to the show or do they stay in the apartment?

Keri: It depends, one of the festivals we did was 16 and over so we couldn’t bring them so we hired a sitter or nanny for those. But they’re starting to sell merchandise because they’ve started learning math.

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Keri: Right now I’m really excited to play Theremin for the WSO for the new music festival this January and that’s completely terrifying which is the sign that you should do because you should do what terrifies you so I’ve already started practicing for it.

Ashley: So what advice would you give to beginners who are starting to perform and get their music out there?

Keri: I would say always keep an iPhone or some kind of recording device and write whatever comes to your mind even if you think it’s stupid. Don’t censor yourself. IF you start censoring yourself you’re going to accidentally filter out a lot of really good ideas. And you have to get through all the stuff because you can start getting to the new stuff. Then you start editing things and take away. And practice, practice, practice; which everyone knows. It’s hard because you get so sick of yourself. My husband is really good at making us practice a lot. I’m always fighting him but I’m always so thankful when we play live.

Ashley: You mentioned this before but how do you balance your music with you other obligations?

Keri: I think it’s just a natural thing. Other than having to just turn out the music, which is a hard one but the consequences are not worth it. Also bring the kids on tour is a lot. I know a lot of musicians who don’t bring their families on tour with them and it’s really hard on them so I’m very grateful.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you’ve started in the music?

Keri: I think, it’s to not censor yourself too much. Not to worry about whom you think you’re writing for. The songs that have affected me the much in a real emotional way, hadn’t written for a mass. There’s something particular in the details in a really profound way. Don’t’ be afraid to put those ideas out there that terrify you. 

Support Winnipeg Band Leaf Rapids

The second episode of the Winnipeg Music Project Featuring Bassist Nick Friesen from Future Kids promoting their upcoming album release show on November 21st at the Windsor Hotel at 10pm for $10 entry.

Set List:
Future Kids "White Girl in a Wu-Tang Shirt" From This Is Everything

Ashley Bieniarz and Nick Friesen

Support Winnipeg Band Future Kids!

Here is this awesome behind the scenes, making of the song "This is Everything"! 

Genres: Everything (Grungy, Folky, Funky, Rock stuff)

Eli’s Instruments: Voice, Guitar

Evan’s Instruments: Bass, Voice

I met with Eli and Evan in their jam session this summer and we had an awesome chat about None The Wiser and their experience performing and song-writing. I can honestly say I learned a lot from these guys and am super thankful for them letting me interview them! Read it now~!

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Ashley: So you play everything, how do you decide what to play at a show?

Eli: For shows we have been keeping it to out up-tempo dance-y songs. It depends on the venue. I was even reading in this David Burn book that people write songs for venues.  They have a venue in mind as a musician and you write a song that’s geared toward that. It’s a different given or take with the audience. It’s more intimate when you are playing those quieter show but when you see people dancing and having fun, that’s what really does it for me. I guess that’s how we decide on what we play at shows, it’ where we are playing.

Evan: We often also don’t know ahead of time. We’ll have a general idea of what we’re doing and depending on what the crowd likes and we’ll change what we are playing. We play the crowd.

Ashley: So you have brass instruments in the band, how do you incorporate that when you’re playing rock music?

Eli: It’s just another layer or texture that you can add. Like I said, we don’t like to pigeonhole ourselves. We like to put together a good song with a catchy hook on the horns; they can do things [others can’t]. They can do melodies and add so many different things. It’s just nice to have them there.

Evan: I think it’s a great throwback to some of the funkier Motown that we are all kind of into. We are a band that for all intensive purposes rock band but a big brass section behind it adds this entire new layer of music.

Ashley: Where does the band name come from?

Eli: I’ll give my brother Zach credit for that one [back in 1999 or 2000], we just hadn’t come up with anything new since. It’s been so long that I haven’t really thought about changing it. I tried once, I did a solo op and just ended up being another None the Wiser [project].

Evan: I think too few bands are honest about how arbitrary their name is. Some bands have really cool or awesome history about their name but I think most bands are just “we need a band name and this sounds cool.” 

Ashley: So how often are you guys practicing together?

Eli: We practice at least once a week. We do Wednesdays at the jam space, leading up to bigger shows we will squeeze in a couple more. We also break it down into sectionals so I’ll go jam with the horn players so they can work out their harmonies to not waster everyone else’s time. Sometimes we’ll have practices where we just work out vocal harmonies, break it down into sections.

Ashley: What do you listen to for inspiration for music?

Eli: Oh lots of fun stuff! I like everything from the Spice girls to the Beatles.

Evan: We actually do a couple covers of Spice girls at shows.

Eli: I want to say the Beatles, Dave Matthews band, Sublime, KT Tunstall. I’ve been really into Max Martens’ writing lately, he wrote all pop songs on the 2000s. I’m into pretty much everything. I’m wearing a Fela Kuti shirt right now. I love afro beats stuff. That really helps bringing in the horns actually.

Evan: I think one of the nice things about sitting down and jam is that we come from different backgrounds with some overlap. I come from a really big metal background. I listen to metal bands and played in a lot of Winnipeg death metal bands and stuff that is very different from what we play; it also a slightly different perspective. It brings things that only once person would necessarily think of. Josh plays a lot of country, Jordan is really into weird art rock kind of stuff.

Eli: Cary is really into blues and funk and soul, so it’s a really cool mash up . Really the inspirations are infinite.

Ashley: How do you think death metal helped none the wiser?

Evan: I think if anything, I might occasionally play things a bit more aggressively than maybe other people might have thought of. I think we have a few songs where things have dropped a bit lower and a bit heavier.

Eli: I love a good solo with a gritty bass that probably comes from some metal stuff.

Evan: Cool things happen when you put a different perspective on something that’s relatively normal.

Ashley: So what is the overall songwriting process?

Eli: Up to now, we are starting to write more because we are jamming more often, but usually it always starts with a guitar and the sounds come before the words. We fill in the words to the sounds. To be perfectly honest, I don’t really know where it comes from, it’s kind of that I just lucked out and something cool popped into my head. I think that’s really common with all songwriters. They don’t really know where it comes from; every now and then they tap into the cloud of songs and just get lucky every now and then. For the most part, up until now that we are starting to write stuff together, I would come up with a song and more often than not we would have a solid first verse and chorus and whoever didn’t come up with that would help finish the words and the story and the idea and concept.

Evan: I feel with this these fairly frequent lineup changes, like any good musician would listen to the songs and learn the notes and once they start jamming without really thinking about it, they starting playing things a little differently with different inflections. The arrangements are just different.

Ashley: How do you go deciding your set list for a show?

Eli: Again it’s really venue dependent. If we’re playing at a restaurant we usually start quieter and gradually get louder and more energetic. If it’s a theatre thing even like the Pyramid where everyone is paying attention, you really want to hit them hard with your two favorite songs then pull back and draw people back in by building it back up. I feel that’s what set lists are usually like, two really high energy songs off the bat, and then a chill song to draw people in, not lull them but bring them down so it has more effect when you bring the high energy songs back.

Evan: You aren’t going to throw in the songs you’ve only jammed a couple times and don’t sound the greatest.

Ashley: With None the Wiser, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Eli: For me the albums are some good accomplishments because they are just a lot of our songs out there in the world for people to hear. Some of our festival shows like Shine On, the first year we played we did a John Lennon song and everyone sang alone; just the little things.

Evan: The whole reason we’re doing this is for us to have fun and express that fun and have the other people who are watching have fun. Everyone’s excited; everyone’s having a moment together. That’s more important.

Eli: That’s kind of the goal. Just to do that with as many people as possible.

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who might be nervous about starting their bands?

Evan: Don’t be nervous. Just go out and play. You’re probably going to suck the first few times you play so just go out and suck and you’ll get better. Even if you suck you’re going to have fun.

Eli: You’re only going to get better the more you play.

Evan: Don’t be scared and don’t care about what other people thing about you. If you really believe that the music you are playing is good or you like it or you have fun and people can see that you are having fun and you believe it, then there is going to be a crowd for it. Maybe you aren’t playing the right places, don’t get discouraged if you have a bad show, or people hate you, or no one shows up or anything of those things. I wouldn’t worry about it because you can just play another show and maybe next time people are super into it. Play for free, play for fun; eventually you’ll start making money and that’s not what it’s about anyways. IT’s about having fun; ideally you want to be making money so you can work less and play more.

Ashley: So if people have gathered this courage but they are missing a band member?

Evan: Go to jam nights?

Ashley: Where do you find jam nights?

Eli: Wee Jonny’s and the cavern had one fore awhile.

Evan: Go to open mics

Eli: It’s also easy to just post ads online. I have friends who have found two hardcore band members that took their band to the next level by posting an ad online. They were in their 30s and they got this kid who was 18 who was ready to go.

Evan: I lived in Ottawa for a few years and I wanted to make sure I played music so I found any music forums online and posted “ I play bass and I want to play anything you want me to play.” And I found something in less that a month. It helps if you’ve had past experience that you can cite to people but even without that it’s not going to take that long. People are always looks for people to play with.

Eli: Another thing is just asking you best friend. Maybe they don’t play the bass or the drums together, but if you start together you’ll get better together. You don’t need to be the best musicians; you just need to be good as a group. If you’re already friends to begin with you’re going to be tight as a group.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Eli: My favorite song right now is probably Magic All the Time or Back Behind the Blue. Back Behind the Blue is kind song sexy song, pretty psychedelic and Cary does kickass guitar solos. It’s a like a jam. The live performance is many minutes longer than the recorded one. It’s really energetic and fun and it’s new.

Evan: Probably Beale Street Beer it’s just a very straightforward easygoing vibe that’s easy to play. It’s not hard to play at all and it just feels good.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Nov 9, 2015 at 6:58am PST

Support Winnipeg Band None The Wiser!

Did you miss the first episode of the Winnipeg Music Project on the radio? That's okay! You can hear it here:

The debut episode of Winnipeg Music Project features guest Dustin Harder & Diamond Joe Dutame who were set to release their new records (Thursday November 5 2015) at La Scala on Corydon Avenue.

Set List:
Dustin Harder "Miss You" from Prairie Soul
Diamond Joe Dutame "A Good Day" from Patience - Live performance featured in episode

Ashley Bieniarz, Diamond Joe Dutame & Dustin Harder

Support local music-makers!

Genre: Indie Pop

Instruments: Voice and Guitar

I sat down with Chantal from French Press and we talked about her exciting upcoming tour with Micah Visser (For the Winnipeg Music Project interview with him, click here). She also gave some really great advice about starting as a solo musician or finding a band to play with; and shared her experiences with becoming versatile as a musician and finding ways to get or create what you feel is important to you (like a tour or a new album). I loved meeting Chantal, she was an absolute sweet heart, read it all here!

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Ashley: How long have you been playing in French Press?

Chantal: French Press is my own creation so it’s something that I started as soon as I finished music school in 2009. It was kind of in the scheming phases at that point because I hadn’t been seriously songwriting at that point. I took some time, I was over seas doing some cover band stuff, thinking and developing songs; starting to put the project together at that point. It really started getting serious in 2011 when I came back to Winnipeg and just worked on it everyday as much as I could.

Ashley: What did you go to school for?

Chantal: I went to Humber College in Toronto and I studied [jazz] music.

Ashley: When you first started working on [French Press], where you performing as French Press over seas?

Chantal: No, I guess it was only incubating at that point, it was kind of an idea and I had to decide what I was doing. Was I playing jazz, I didn’t know if I was staying with the band [I had been currently working with] or if I was going to branch out. IT was a lot of push and pull. You just have to settle before the work could really begin, in terms of songwriting.

I played my first show in the summer of 2012 so I guess at that point I had accumulated enough songs to play a set. So I had given myself a song a week challenge, and it didn’t last forever maybe five or six weeks, but pretty much 90% ended up on the record that I’m going now. It took a lot of focus and dedication, but it paid off.

Ashley: Where did you get project name “French Press”?

Chantal: I‘m French Canadian so I wanted to come up with French name but I was worried about people mispronouncing it or sometime people are awkward about saying a word they don’t say. I thought [that wouldn’t be good] if people were hesitating to mention my band name so I just came up with “French”. It came from a little brainstorm session when I was in Thailand. I also liked the marriage of French and Press. The imagery, the crunch and the tension I think that those are themes that arise in my music so I think it worked it. And people seem to like it.

Ashley: So you went to school for Jazz but now you are doing pop, how does you jazz background influence your music?

Chantal: I think the act of being constantly on the spot. We had to take improvisational classes so you’d get used to finding your flow really fast because you kind of have to. I think that really free me up melodically so coming up with melodies because I was doing that in class, and I had to so and lock into that moment, I go better at that which I’m really grateful for.  I love playing music, listening to music, I love everything so I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going in that program but I got complete absorbed by it. I don’t think you can still hear Jazz in what I’m doing other than maybe my chords are not always super standard. I think that I allow myself by being exposed to those jazz options let me get outside of the common pop chord form.

Ashley: What’s your songwriting process?

Chantal: I find that melodies come pretty easily to me and I’m happy that one part comes really easily. Usually, if I’m faced with some kind of strife or some kind of conflict I like to be able to work through it by exploring it through music. Unless there is a good conflict going on in my life or in my morals or something like that, it’s kind of hard for me to come up with a song that I’m going to stick with that I will want to continue to play. If I have a topic to talk about, if I’m feeling a rush or a strong emotional response to something, then I can take that and have it guide the music or the sound. I’ll basically just improvise and riff and try to always make my music as hooky as possible, something that I would get about and I hope that people get excited about.

Ashley: How do you decide if this topic you’re picking isn’t too personal or if it appropriate to write about?

Chantal: Unless you’re making yourself a little uncomfortable, it’s not exciting as the artist or it doesn’t feel worth it. You want to be pushing a little bit; for example, when I wrote the song Back on the Mattress (WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW) I had people saying,“ Wow, that it was really gusty of you to just be a woman and talk about that.” Maybe for reasons of worry of slut shaming or I’m not too sure what; but, it’s by no means controversial but it is pushing a little bit and it keeps me excited and I hope that it keeps others excited.

Ashley: What is it about?

Chantal: It’s about coming out of a break up or a place that you’re single or whatever and it’s about getting back on the mattress, getting back into something after you’ve been jerked around. 

Ashley: So how did you meet Micah?

Chantal: I stumbled upon him, I saw a performance he did on breakfast television and I Was like “Who is this guy?” I loved what he was doing so then with the beauty of Facebook I found him. I went to see him play and then we sort of built a relationship since that happened.

Ashley: And made you decide to go on tour together?

Chantal: I wanted to go on tour but I wanted to do it with someone to sort of share the costs and some of the organizing. Also we’re sharing a band so we’re bringing the same drummer, bass player. It’s of course, I sang on Micah’s last record (Ok Night). I love what he does and I’m excited to talk more about music with him and we connected right away musically and he kind of gets me excited about songwriting because I see how prolific he is; he’s just an inspiring guy.

Ashley: You are both solo performers, what are challenges about that other than having to book a band for performances you do?

Chantal: It ends up being that you’re the one running the show; you’re doing all the administration stuff and paying for everything that costs money. But also you have a good amount of control over what happens so having a solo project opposed to band, with a band you have to negotiate and get everyone the same page and convince people to do things. When you’re a solo artist you only have to convince yourself, and that’s hard too. I do have some great collaborators, and that always makes life easier but sometimes you kind of have to take sometime for yourself to figure out what you’re doing before bring in too many influences. I think at this point I’m more comfortable with collaborating like Micah and I have worked on a demo together and you just have to find the right people. If it’s not clicking or if you’re not excited about it; it’s not going to get finished.

Ashley: So for people who want to start their own project, whether it’s solo or in a band, they have their own music but they don’t know if they want to do it in a band or solo; would you say the easier option would be to start solo or if they are shy about it they should start in a band and then maybe one day go solo.

Chantal: Well, bringing on five people can be kind of intense like if you do feel intimidated and don’t really want to take things on it might be better to find one person that likes the same kind of bands as you and also has a similar work ethic and passion. Someone you have chemistry with. It’s almost as impossible as finding a boyfriend; sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you have to keep looking. I’d say bringing on too many people, too many cooks in the kitchen, when you’re starting to bloom as an artist is just overwhelming, or it was for me. I really had to close lock my door and close myself in my room. I like to say throw books around and have a hissy fit until I was able to figure out what I wanted to say because to say something important, you have to have you’re voice. You don’t have to everything figured out but you have to have an awareness of your voice or you may get pushed around or you may get pushed in a direction that is unsatisfying and unfulfilling.

Ashley: And if someone decides to become a solo artists and they want to have a fuller sound that just a guitar or keyboard. How would you recommend they, if they don’t know anyone, find people? You found Micah online, but what other way?

Chantal: I was having that problem not too long ago. I haven’t had a band for too long, maybe a year and a half or something and to get into a room when you are unsure of your vision with other people trying things out, for me I wasn’t comfortable. I’ve tried those things and it just wasn’t working out esthetically for me. You encounter a lot of what you like when you hear it but to conger up something and explain to someone when you’re not even clear yourself is near impossible. Miraculously I met a couple guys from collectors studio, Arthur just came to me one day was asked if I wanted to do a demo and I Was like “You know what, why not? Nothing is really working out for me so far but I’m going to give this a shot.” So we made our first demo and they really helped me define my esthetic, we were all into it and all excited about it. It ended up being kind of edgy but a little garage and grungy because that’s kind of what they did. But because my writing was so poppy, it just made a cool marriage of pop in the writing but a little more edgy of the arrangement.

Ashley: Which song that you’re performing on this tour is your favorite to perform live?

Chantal: I have a couple songs. I like Double Check, that’s kind of a two part song. It starts as a ballad and in the middle of the song it goes into a fast tempo and then it’s kind of our biggest rock out song because for the last 30 seconds we are just wailing away and we’re just singing and it’s really intense. Then it just drops and dissolves. It goes crazy crazy crazy then just falls. We end with that song in the set.

I also really like the song Under the Gun, it feels like so nineties to me. It has this simple mid-tempo groove but every time we jam the song the whole band looks at each other and we’re like “Wow we love playing that song.” It’s a simple song but it’s just about getting it in the pocket and that’s exciting.

Ashley: What was the most stressful thing about planning thing about planning this tour?

Chantal: It’s not really difficult. You just have to follow up. You send messages, you don’t get replies so then you send it again. It’s just a matter of staying on top of it. It’s easy, I think it is I don’t know maybe we got lucky; this is the first tour I’ve booked in like ten years. You ask, you set a date and you keep sending emails even if you’re not getting replies and if their not answering emails then you message them on Facebook or call them at the venue. It sounds a bit crazy but you just have to stay persistent.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you started working in the music business?

Chantal: I mean it probably has something to do with keeping at it and you’ll be rejected. In a way I feel like I was rejected quite a bit early on for things like grants and whatever but I cried on the floor and then just kept on going. That stuff toughens you up. It’s not good to be spoon fed and handed things because if things don’t work out, it’s going to it hit you hard. I think that getting a good balance of support and pushing through. If someone says no to you, you get smarter about how to get it done. For example, I financed my record that’s coming out hopefully early next year all by myself. I cried about it a little bit but I figured it out. I spent way less money if I would have been funded so [I had a] very DIY attitude about that. Rejection is good for you.

CHECK OUT THIS NEW VIDEO FOR THE FRENCH PRESS SONG "BACK ON THE MATTRESS"!

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Nov 1, 2015 at 1:49pm PST

Support Winnipeg Musician French Press!

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Jul 9, 2015 at 6:00pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Micah Visser!

Genres: Alterative Country

Instruments: Voice and Guitar

Kieran West is living the dream everyday by having the opportunity to play with his music with his favorite band. He talks about his strong connection with his band members and his go with the flow songwriting skills. He confides how lucky he is and how where is, it what he’s always dreamed of. Not playing for 80,000 people or playing for the queen. Playing to 150 people who are having fun and everybody it happy; that’s the dream for him. 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing?

Kieran: I’ve been playing music my whole life. I’ve been seriously playing for six or seven years. The buffalo band has been together for three and a half years.

Ashley: Why did you guys decide to start playing together?

Kieran: Well, I was working on writing a lot of songs and was just going to perform them by myself because I had had experience playing in bands that weren’t that great and kind of wanted to just do my own thing. But I started to really miss playing rock shows and having fun where people dance and single along. That doesn’t really happen when you’re playing mellow acoustic shows. Right at that time I met this band “Little House”, a girl that I was dating at that time introduced to me their music and I totally fell in love with their music and they became my favorite band in the entire world. I wanted really badly to just be in that band because I admired them all so much. It was a four-piece band and they all wrote songs together and I loved that. They really reminded me of the Beatles.  We would hang out and I would show them all my songs and they all really liked the songs and stuff. They wanted to help me out so we started talking about doing a couple shows together called “Kieran West and Little House” or something else. It just turned into this whole thing and we decided that we wanted to be our own band. The line-up has changed, it’s not just little house, but that’s where it started. I wanted to play rock shows and they came in there.

Ashley: What is a practice or jam session like with the rest of the band?

Kieran: We are very informal. As Roger Miller once said, he’s a country singer, “We play a highly informal set. The higher we get, the more informal we are.” That kind of perfectly describes our practices. We practice in our basement, drinking and having fun really. There is such a cohesive bond between the guys and the band because they had been playing for four years before we started so they have been playing together for seven years so there is such tightness. The songs aren’t really that complicated so we just get together and have fun; that’s what we do when we play shows anyways to it just makes sense to practice how you play.

Ashley: So you primarily write the songs so how do you bring those to the band?

Kieran: I write the songs, the verses and the choruses and whatever else; but it comes back to the way that we started. Just hanging out and me showing them these songs that are completed but, like I said I’m just a huge fan of them as a band, and I just tell them to do what they want. It’s never the way I that I hear it in my head when I write it but it’s always better. They always have so many ideas. They are all so musically inclined and these musical brains and they’ll come up with these ideas that make the song more interesting or exciting. They’re always working to improve the song.

Ashley: So what is your songwriting process like, then?

Kieran: Well it’s always kind of different but most often I’ll come up with a line in my head like maybe it’s start with some words, or something I want to say. From that, I’ll put a melody to those words and those will become my chorus. I usually start with the chorus and the hook of the song. We have the song “Big black bug”:

“Big black bug living inside my brain, and the thoughts inside are horribly arranged.” That’s all one complete thought that will happen in my thought and I’ll have that chorus and then start from the stop down and write the verses. I’ll use rhyming dictionaries a lot too. Yeah, usually start with the chorus then work the verses around it.

Ashley: So you’re music is more lyrically driven?

Kieran: Yeah, the whole reason I play music is because it’s so emotional for me and my songs are all about stuff that I have experienced or things that I feel. It is lyrically driven but it’s also with the band; they make it so musical that it’s a nice mix of both.

Ashley: Who inspires your music? Who do you listen to that inspires your songwriting?

Kieran: That’s a big question for me. As a band we have many obvious country influences like “The Band” “Steve Earle”  “Hayes Carll” “Hank Williams III” , bands like that that are not necessarily Nashville country bands or classic country bands; country music in their own style. As a songwriter and as a human being I have so many other influences that are all very apparent in my songwriting. Like when I’m at home I don’t listen country music, I listen to hardcore punk like “Minor Threat” “Bad Brains” “Comeback kid” I was just to this morning. Stuff like that. Or Nirvana. It’s such a wide range of stuff; I love rap, I love learning from rap because there are things that rappers use lyrically like devices that rappers use that are just totally brilliant and don’t really exist anywhere else in music and there are things that I’ve learned and used. It’s really all over the place for me.

Ashley: So what is the most stressful part about being in a band?

Kieran: For me I would say: keeping everyone happy. That’s not to say we’re divas or anything; but as a leader I find it really important that everyone feels heard and feels respected and honored and all that. There are five of us which is tough to make sure everyone feels heard because there are five different personalities and five different musical personalities that are coming together and sometimes they don’t always match. That’s really important, if we’re not having fun then there is no point.

Ashley: With you’re band what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Kieran: We’ve been really lucky. We’ve gotten a lot of really great opportunities. It’s tough to just pick out one. I would say if I had to pick one, it would be to be asked to do the Minstrels program for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. That was a huge honor. We were asked to do it by the festival, I got a call while I was at work and asked if I wanted to play with my band; that it something that I dreamed about. It was really cool. It’s just really nice to be recognized and to even be on the track to play a stage one day soon. That was really huge. I’ve been going to the folk festival since I Was 16 and the first second I saw that stage and heard music coming from it I was like “That’s what I want to do, that’s where I want to play.” It was amazing to hang out back stage, ten feet away from Dan Mangan. It was cool.

Ashley: What advice would you give to musicians who are nervous about starting out?

Kieran: I would say, two major things:

Play with your friends, don’t try to start a band with stranger, because you’re not going to have as much fun and the whole point of music is to have fun.

And, make friends with bar owners and managers. It’s really good to have people like that on your side. It’s not just a phony thing, most of the people who run bars in the city are really down to earth, awesome people who are really really interesting in fostering young talent. Put yourself out there, next time you’re at the bar try to figure out who the manager is and introduce yourself. It never hurts to put your name out there. You want to get good shows, it’s not a secret if the bar owner likes you personally they are going to pay you better than if they don’t like you. That’s just the way it is. Music is like any other business; it’s all about who you know. We’re met some really amazing people through bar owners just hanging out.

Ashley: Before a performance what do you do to deal with nerves?

Kieran: That’s a funny question for me because performing and pre-performance are the only times I don’t have trouble with anxiety. Anxiety is a huge problem in my life and performing is the one time that I am never anxious. I feel great. I feel on top of the world. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing and it just feels right.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Kieran: This song Coming to Terms; It was one of the first songs that we ever learned, and we still play it. It’s a song I wrote about a conversation I had with Ben Figler, who was the singer of Little House who is now the singer for Somebody Language. It was just a conversation we had and I wrote the song Coming to Terms about that conversation. It’s a very simple song with two chords the whole way through, basically.  At the end we have this end where we going into this jam section where everybody lets loose and it’s the same chords this song called “At least that’s what you said” by Wilco which also ends in a jam session so we ripped a lot of stuff from that but it’s cool because Wilco is one of our favorite songs in the world so it’s like we’re playing a Wilco song; but it’s also the same chords as “Don’t let me down” by the Beatles so a couple bars into the jam session, I go into the chorus of that song and sing it. But I can’t really hit the notes so I’m just screaming it. It works and it’s a lot of fun. We just totally rip at it; it’s awesome.

Ashley: How do you balance music with other obligation like work?

Kieran: It’s not easy. When you’re really serious about music and working full-time and recording yourself, you don’t find yourself with a lot of free time. Especially when you manage yourself. We do our own artwork for posters for promotions and talking with college radio sessions and publications. There is a lot of time that you put into it and that can get really stressful. People need free time. That’s just kind of a fact; people need time to relax. When I’m working, [we aren’t working as hard] with the music thing. When I’m working on music, I really feel like I’m working towards something and I love the work that I do in the schools. So, it’s really just a matter of focusing on the fact that I might be tired, I might be exhausted but I’m doing what I’ve always dreamed about doing. So that makes it okay. Luckily working in a school, I have good hours and I have summers off so I can focus on doing festivals and promotions and all that over the summer. I have my evenings and weekends off, which is very good. Other guys in the band, our bassist Corey works at the Handsome Daughter and they are quite accommodating for him with getting nights off. One way or another we make it work. It’s just so important to all of us that we just have to make it work.

Ashley: So when you finally get that time to songwriting, how to do get into the zone or find that inspiration?

Kieran: I only write when there is inspiration. Inspiration comes from everything. All my songs are about my own experiences. We have a song called “Kill myself today” and I was just walking and feeling depressed and thought about jumping in front of a car, no seriously of course. But that melody started to come into my head. It was this bouncy, blue grassy thing. I was like “I could kill myself OR I could write a song a turn this pain into something happy.” It takes away the power from that feeling and we play it at shows are people are dancing around and singing along and all of that. Its just things like that. I like to write about my family a lot. I have a really serious interest in family history and stuff like that. I like to write about stories from my family. I love hockey, I’ll write about hockey. It just comes from everything. I was thinking Red Green the other day, and was thinking about his catch phrase “Keep your stick on the ice.” So I wrote a song called “Keep your stick of the ice.” You get ideas from listening to music, that’s where I get a lot of my ideas. 

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you started working in the music business?

Kieran: That’s another tough one because we really have been very fortunate to meet really successful people who have given us a lot of really helpful advice. I would say the best advice I’ve ever gotten from a musician from Bobby Desjarlais from Attica Riots. He has been a mentor of mine every since I was fifteen years old. He was working as an EA at Kelvin high school when I was there and he saw my band perform and he found me the next day at lunch and took me to this little office where he had been writing songs on his breaks, I guess. In that room, I Would go everyday, I was in the process of dropping out of school at this time so slowly and slowly I stopped going to class and just be in that little room with Bobby and his students and I would be hiding out from my classes but I’d be learning the things I Really wanted to be learning. The most important I learned from him while I was there was: When you’re writing a song, no matter what you’re writing about, even if it’s a meaningless pop song, always know what you’re writing about. Always have a point and always writes about something real. Even if it comes out as gibberish, just always have a point and always know why you’re writing the song and what it means to you. That’s something I’ve always carried with me.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Oct 25, 2015 at 5:50pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Kieran West and His Buffalo Band!

Genres: Noise Rock/Punk

David Dobbs’ Instrument: Guitar

Matthew Powers’ Instrument: Drums

I met with David and Matthew earlier this summer before a show they had at the Park Theatre. I was interested in meeting them because I was really new to the genre of “Noise Rock.” To be 100% honest, I was really new to the genre. The loud atmosphere was really exciting and really let me experience a little dose of how loud and how much David and Matthew had when performing on stage. They are currently on tour doing really cool stuff. Follow them on their instagram to see all their exciting adventures. 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing together?

David: Matt and I have been playing together for coming up to 2 years and vampires has been a conception for about 4 or 5.

Ashley: And how long have you been playing your instruments?

David: I started playing piano when I was 8 maybe and that moved to guitar when I was 13. I can play everything though; drums, keyboard, bass guitar and whatever.

Matthew: Yeah I started in piano, my dad tried to get me into it. I never really cared for it, drums was what I really wanted to do. I guess I have been playing drums since I was 12 years old so a long time. More than half my life which is weird to think about. Drums is my main thing but like David we are both multi-disciplinary, we can both jump to guitar and bass and dabble around on piano and all that kind of stuff.

Ashley: Where does the band name come from?

David: It comes from a deeply routed childhood love of vampires. I myself dressed up as a vampire every Halloween for like eight years in a row until my friends started calling me a loser. It’s also an emotional and spiritual reference to how as humans we feed all the time. Whether its actual practical raw matter like food or it’s like emotionally or spiritually feeding off other people. We’re drawing attention to that dynamic of not being ashamed to admit that we all feed off each other and it’s not in an angry or cynical thing it’s just something to acknowledge that we all need each other.

Matthew: We both really like vampires as an idea of a monster. They are kind of the most human-like. They have feelings and emotions and they are even relatable in a way. 

David: It’s the stresses we put on ourselves. Dracula always felt at odds. He was only proud when he was comfortable otherwise he was angry all the time. It just showed that he was like everyone else. 

Matthew: We don’t have any imagery associated with fangs or capes; it’s all a very artistic reference point, I guess.

Ashley: So why did you decide to start playing together?

Matthew: We kind of found each other. [David] had something I was working on on the internet and we started talking and realized that we were looking for each other.

David: I was looking for a drummer and he was looking for another project to be apart of.

Matthew: In that shared time we both kind of realized that my thing was just a in the basement having fun and he already had a project with legs and had momentum and he had a show coming up with Big Fun a couple years back and was just looking for someone to fill in the dates because he had to place it. We got together for that originally and just when on from there.

David: Yeah, we put out a four song EP together and we kind of liked the EP. It was just a showcase of what we were going through at the time. It’s really raw, its four songs that we wrote together and helped established the band in its new direction and it’s new legs so to speak. We just recorded a full-length album and it’s pretty exciting.

Matthew: It’s our first big studio album. Before [the music] was done low-fi, on the down low kind of thing. It’s our first step into a big studio with a cleaner sound. You can hopefully hear more of what we’re doing opposed to the low-fi feeling of the EP album. The songs are going to come through more in this new way.

Ashley: What is a jam or practice session like for you two?

David: Our rehearsals are usually during the week, Tuesdays and Fridays. They start around 7:00 pm typically. They’ll be me getting home from work and I’ll tidy up the space a bit and we’ll go over the lyrics and most of the time we are either writing songs or rehearsing towards a show, those two modes. We’ll play through songs a couple times and play through the songs we suck at a couple more times. Otherwise we are writing songs there is a little more relaxation and experimentation. I guess a jam is just an idea or a very small part of an idea. I’ll have a riff, let’s say, a single riff of 5 or 10 notes, some will be good and some will be bad. Matt will come along and stitch riff 2 and riff 5 together and I’ll be like “wow, it’s a line now.” Other times though they’ll just write themselves. After like four hours we will have a song.

Ashley: Would you say your songwriting is more lyrically or melodically driven?

David: Oh definitely melodically. Music writes itself and usually you find places to put vocals on top so it’s never me humming to myself trying to write guitar to my vocals it’s me matching a vocal line to my guitar I’ve already written.

Ashley: And how do you choose your lyrics? What’s your inspiration?

David: It seems to always be a commentary on social relationships and social dynamics. Personal experiences that I’m watching happen. Some songs are really personal and I wonder how I sing them all the time in front of strangers. Sometimes they’re a way to get people involved.

Ashley: How do you sing about personal things? How do you decide if something is okay to share?

David:  It’s something that happens while playing music. It’s never “oh I’ll just go sit down and write music” they just start to happen. The music makes me feels a certain way so whatever I’m feeling that month or that day or that year and it just comes out. It’s usually reflective stuff, I’m commenting on something and then I decide to make it personal. How it might happen to me. I don’t really know how I let it become about personal stuff, it just happens because it makes sense. It’s okay in that way.

Ashley: Why don’t you [Matthew] write lyrics? Have you thought about it?

Matt: I guess with my own music I do, but I guess I never stepped into that role with vampires. Not to say that it’s not in the cards that if I have some lyrics that I felt passionate about. I’m still getting into singing with vampires, they used to have a pretty big back and forth vocal dynamic between the Dobbs and the drummer and that’s something we’re trying to bring back in my own way so there may be a time when I’ll have something to say but until then I’m just hitting stuff in the background.

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

David: Still being band. A lot of bands, I think, find the internal dynamics to be too much pressure. It requires patience and hard work. We used to play at Sled Island Music Festival and that’s a huge accomplishment for this band. We’re putting out a record with a big name recording studio and that’s another huge accomplishments. We’ve gone on a couple fun little tours so far together and haven’t broken up. At the end of day it’s a band about social reflection so that interactive connection of getting other people’s take on the music so it’s always a cool moment.

Matthew: it’s nice to have people after show and say “oh I haven’t seen people do that or have that much fun on stage since I was a kid, or in years, or since this band.” People are looking at our music and what we are doing and there is a nostalgic feeling or energy that is brought back to them. I think it’s an amazing accomplishment to have that connection with people.

David: We talked about why it’s special. For us it’s just us doing what we’re doing, It’s the matter of that generational gap of the old rockers and the new kids. There is also this feeling of tolerance and inclusion, of just being seen somewhere. Part of going to a show now is just having certain people see you and tweet about you. I’m just interested in a good time.

Ashley: So you mentioned that you’re going on tour, what’s the most stressful part about going on tour?

David: The most stressful part was finding ways to keep going. We all work 8 hours a day and you’re one activity is playing then you sleep and you drink a lot.

Matthew: The days off or feeling like you’re not just wasting your time out there.

David: Learning how to maximize your time. We don’t have an agent of a publicist so we are in full control of our time and there are some points of it where we should be doing more. That’s just hard shit though; it’s not really stressful.

Matthew: It’s a breeze being out there when you’re driving to a gig and it’s going to be a new show in a new city with new people and there is always something to look forward to. Maybe it’s stressful that you’ll always needing to be “on”. You don’t want to drink yourself on the road, we want to network and meet know people and remember them.

David: That’s the most stressful part; always making you’re sure you’re at your best. Finding ways to recover to clean slate. US we’re doing the same thing everything everyday but for those people who are just seeing us for that one day.  On a personal level to meet people and say I’m a stranger and you’re a stranger and at some point you might even want some space but it’s not fair to others. It’s not out of our control

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous about starting out?

David: Don’t be nervous.

Matt: Yeah, just get out there and do it. You’ll find that once you’re on stage that nothing else matters all those things you were worried about don’t matter.

David: Be bad. Be the worst, you can only get better if you start out bad.

Matthew: Let yourself to be that too. Don’t expect you’re going to be a rock star right from the get go. My first show I got heckled with my first band. The first show we did outside of the basement. That experience was enough to be like “stop, I’m done.” But no, you want to get better and you want to prove those people wrong.

David: I’m so impressed when I see a bad who suck but they did it. They tried. I find that’s way more exhilarating than [a band] who has practiced for 10 years before finally taking the stage. Don’t perfect it. Work it out if it shows and really reflect at rehearsals. Try it out, if it doesn’t work out for a show and you’re cheeks burn red scrap it but if it works, you’re a better man.

Ashley: So what do you guys do to deal with nerves before a performance?

Matt: I don’t really get nervous anymore, I’ve been doing this for so long that it’s more the anxiety of wanting to play. It’s not that I’m scared of anything happening it’s that I just want to be on stage now; I want to be on stage where I feel comfortable.

David: I still get nervous on bigger shows. To be closer to the gear, to the stage, to the bartender or the sound guy, to feel the room that’s how I work through it. For the bigger show I’ll get nervous, it won’t be a crappy nervous where I’m sweating, it’s a nauseous nervous. I feel that’s a real strong energy that I can use to my advantage.

Matt: Yeah use it like adrenaline in a way and ride off it.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Matt: I really like the newer stuff. The foot we are stepping forward with, the new songs are really fun. Because we wrote them so quickly before getting into the studio just to get them out kind of the thing, I feel the songs are still evolving. What you hear of the album is just the first conception of them, us playing them live they are evolving and parts are becoming longer and things are getting cut, so things are really coming to life.

David: That’s the best to say, we’re always pumped to play the new material.

Ashley: How do you balance your music with your other obligations?

Matthew: Carefully

David: Yeah very carefully. You don’t have a social life. Your band and your art will make you very social. If you are partying all the time, you’re losing a lot of time. I have a radio show, I record that, I work at a restaurant and I do [music]. I do so fucking much. So managing your obligations, you knowing what you’re doing is important.  Continue to say, it’s important that I work toward this so you find the time. If you care about it you’ll find the time.

Matt: Music has always been a big priority of my life, as much as I tried to balance it with other things, the bands I’m in have kind of taken precedence in my life in a way. There is always for them. The jobs we have to do from 9 to 5 is more to fund the things I want to do after work. I work so I that I can be in a band, otherwise I’d be a starving musician that couldn’t afford to go on tour and wouldn’t have a vehicle. It’s impossible otherwise, I’ve tried working with musicians like that and it just doesn’t work.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Oct 19, 2015 at 5:49pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Band VAMPIRES!

Instruments: Voice, Piano and Guitar

Genres: Jazz and Folk

I met with Erin back in July shortly after the birth of her beautiful second daughter. We met in a Joe Black coffee shop and enjoyed some yummy lattes while she chatted about her musical experiences. Quickly into the interview I realized how much Erin and I were alike. Her honest and intimate answers were so revealing about how much in common our musical goals are. She talked about patience and making the right decisions when you’re ready (something that constantly frustrates me) and about and much more. I feel we really connected (I hope Erin feels the same way) after that afternoon together. I later listened to her music again on Soundcloud (link at the end of the article) and after hearing about where her inspiration came from, everything just clicked. I absolutely love her voice with its folk and jazz influences and the guitar accompaniment perfectly compliments her voice. Definitely super talented. 

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Ashley: Whenever you have a show? Are you contacting and hiring other musicians?

Erin:   I hire other people. For the most part I work with a guitarist and producer named Larry Roy. The music is ours, we write together so we are a duo. We go together. As much as I can when I’m out [working], I’ll work with Larry. Sometimes other people will hire me as a singer for their ensemble or group for whatever they are doing. I have occasionally, but not often because I focus so much of my time with Larry, I have done duo gigs with other people just to stretch myself and work with someone else and we’ll both contribute 50/50 to the music. Whether they are playing and I’m singing and who is choosing or writing the music.

Ashley: So, how long have you been singings?

Erin: My whole life, I’ve always loved to sing since I was little. I started taking lessons when I was twelve until I finished university when I was 27. I took piano lessons from age 6 to high school.

Ashley: So why did you make the decision to perform?

Erin: I have a lot of ‘youngest child’ qualities. There are four girls in my family and I am the third of four but I was the youngest child for nine years before my little sister was born so I always want to tell the funniest story at the family gathering. I want to do the funniest dance and everyone is going to watch me. I just want to be in front of people, it’s not because it doesn’t scare me because it always has and I get nervous all the time, but it was something I just felt I had to do. I felt I owed somebody and that I needed to be in front of people. I just liked it.

Ashley: How often are you practicing singing?

Erin: Right now, none at all except for when I’m singing the odd lullaby, usually just silly songs that my kids like. Otherwise before any gig I’m learning the music, I’ll practice a lot. I practice a lot because I’m a teacher as well. I teach voice lessons so I practice what I give my students that I assign them. That becomes practice time and then before a gig, any music I’m working on; I’ll spend sometime really going through that stuff. It depends how much time I’m working. If you see me working, you know I’m practicing. Right now I’m not working so I’m not practicing. I’m breastfeeding my brains out right now. That’s what I’m doing. [laughs]

Ashley: Who inspires your music both lyrically and melodically?

Erin: Lyrically, my own experience’s from life. I’m finding my music is becoming, when I get a chance to write, is very domestic sounding and which makes sense because that’s where I am. I’m at home, I’m in our yard, I go grocery shopping, I feed children and I wipe bums. The things I’m doing, I don’t write about wiping bums, but stories that revolved around home and around those small things that happen. Those subtle moments between couples that tell a lot more than what it would appear to be on the outside.  Hopes that I have for my children, looking at years to come. The things that I’ve written for our first album, in a way were 15 years in the making for me. A lot of things I wrote for it were written years ago in my life that just needed to come out at some point. They finally came out on my first album; they were older stories.

Lyrically my music comes from personal experience but I also find that I don’t have enough personal stories or experiences to make that many songs very interesting. So I borrow from other people’s stories as well. One of my songs is a little bit about me but is a lot about a friend of mine too. I combined our two life stories into it.

One of the songs on my album is about my sister, my parents and my grandparents; I put them all together in one song. One song is about Larry, I try to include his feelings lyrically when we work together.

A few years ago, I wrote a song for a friend who had experience a great lost and that was the first time that I wrote for someone who was new in my life. A story that was a little bit at arms length, I didn’t know them as well [as the members of my family]. That was a step away for me.

Musically; chords, harmony and rhythm, that one is always really hard. I do that so much with Larry. I will write a lot of harmony for our songs. Probably the more and more my songs are being influenced now by songs from my childhood. Those are the songs that are coming back to me as I sing to my kids when I’m staying at home. Irish folk songs are coming back to me. A lot of my melodies sound pretty folky, but I try to make the harmony more interesting that just G, C and D because that’s really boring to me. When I’m writing harmony for something I ‘ll look at jazz standards that I learned in university and ones that I didn’t learn that I’m just learning now and I’ll copy something that they do. I’ll look at their chord progressions or I’ll just forget about my lyrics and put them to a jazz standard or I’ll take a jazz standard and put lyrics based to that. I’ll take a 4-measure section of a tune that I like and I’ll take that out and I’ll try to write something over it or maybe I’ll change one chord in the configuration to make it original and try to come up with a new melody over that. 

Ashley: So what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Erin: I was really proud of graduating from university. That was a big deal for me. It was a big deal for me to go back, I was 24 when I started the degree. A lot of my friends that I grew up with got married young and had kids. I got married young but we weren’t thinking of having kids yet at the time so choosing to do a four-year degree was putting it off until I was almost 30. But I honestly wasn’t thinking about that at the time.

I think part of me thought I could never do it. I had quit a couple things in years previous. I started projects and quit them and I was starting to feel that maybe that’s what I was, that I was a quitter. So starting to that degree and committing to four years was something I thought I would never be able to do. It was very scary. I deal with fears that have nothing to with music, I have some general anxiety problems and just some other stuff going that go around in life that make it hard to be around people are finish something. So I’m really really proud of that accomplishment.

Doing the album with Larry, when I started my degree and I met him, I never would have guess that I work with anyone on faculty. It’s a big accomplishment that he chose me as a friend and as someone to work with and since I was a kid, dreaming of being able to put my music on something tactile and giving to people. People had been asking since I was 15 for a recording. It took until I was 28 or 29 to put it out there.  That was a really big deal. It was a long time coming. 

Ashley: So you took some time before you put something out there. What advice do you have for people who want to do music that don’t feel like they’re ready to get their music out or are too afraid?

Erin: For not being ready, I would say its okay to not be ready. Most of the world is not ready and you want to feel ready. It’s an expensive thing to do if you want to do it well and you want to do it right and it’s a lasting thing to do. You want to feel like you’re in a project, whether is a band or solo act or working with a certain producer, you want to feel like you’re putting your time and effort, your gift, your talent and your studies, and your money behind something that is worth your while. It is okay to not be ready. You make yourself ready. I had opportunities before this album with Larry, and there was always something that felt a little funny. I just wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted to put my name behind first. And I don’t regret those decisions. It felt frustrating at the time; I would think, ”maybe I should just do it.” Maybe it’s different for other people but that’s how it was for me. I wanted it to be really really good. Some people in my life have told me I take things too seriously and maybe that’s true. Maybe I take myself too seriously but it’s worked for me. To be a serious person and wait for good timing, I think that there is a lot of value in delayed gratification. Take your time, it’s okay.

As for being afraid, well that’s just something that a some point that you just need to choose that its what you want to do and get out there and do it. I’ve chosen not to do something that I didn’t want to do and I’m let myself down in different areas where I just decided, “nope I’m too scared to do it.” You don’t want to have those big regrets at the end. Or maybe you don’t care, maybe you don’t mind living with a little regret. I do. I have a few regrets in my life that I wish they weren’t there, that’s why they are regrets. At some point you just need to chose it, and if you need to go to counseling it’s totally find, [I’ve] been there and probably will be there again, or you just need to start small, like talking to people about it. Doing a small coffee house show and only inviting people you feel comfortable with. That’s fine! Do what you need to do. Or you need to jump in and do something crazy to get you started. Maybe something crazy to you is getting up a jam session, maybe crazy to you is signing up for a noon hour recital or something. Yeah! That’s pretty scary, but maybe you need to do that one crazy thing, fail and fall on your face, that’s okay. Or maybe you’ll be awesome. At some point you need to choose. It might be something small, it might be something crazy. 

Ashley: What do you do when dealing with nerves before a performance?

Erin: Well what I want to do just not talk to anybody. People want to be all chatty and gabby with you and I’m just like, “get away.” I want to think of my music, go through the lyrics and go through a couple trouble spots that I’m particularly nervous about. I’ll go through five-or-so spots in my set, “this is the place where I could totally screw up and the song would fall apart” so I got over that part mentally. I started to try to do this thing called “positive visualization” where you imagine yourself going through your whole set flawlessly. Get all the bad stuff out of there and imagine yourself doing it flawlessly. I don’t like to talk to people, I’ll just do that alone.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Erin: For the past two years or so in Larry and my set, my favorite song to do it Waters of March. It’s not even an original it a standard by Antonio Carlos Jobim. (Click here to hear what it sounds like!) It’s normally done in Portuguese but I haven’t tried to learn the Portuguese yet. There are so many words in it but we do based on an arrangement based on Cassandra Wilson. I love her band, she always has a great band. Her arrangements are almost always really cool. The groove that Larry plays with it is really cool and it’s intense at the same time and it’s beautiful and its fun.

Ashley: How to do you balance music with other obligations?

Erin: I’m learning. Right now I’m in phase where I have a newborn at home so it’s all about her. That’s all. It’s more of a mental balance that I have to remind myself every couple of days that this is what I’m meant to do right now. These are the choices I have made, I love her and it needs to be done. There is just nothing else. So that’s where I’m at [right now]. What we are planning is, she’s getting used to using a bottle now and now I can get out for a few hours in the evening and my husband can help out. I have never been someone whose want to gig multiple times a week just because I love to be at home and I love my kids and I love my husband and I want to be there. It takes a lot of planning. My obligations are my family so it’s just planning to make sure a kid is comfortable, breastfeeding and on the bottle so I can do rehearsals a couple times a week, do some studio time, finding really great babysitters and I have really great family to help out with that; and emotionally tearing myself away from my family once or twice a week to write and practice. I’m going to have to do that. I’m not there yet because she’s so young, but I’ll have to get there in the next couple of months. Making the choice to keep writing and sacrificing a few hours a week with my babies. I have to do that.  

Ashley: Do you feel that songwriters should have some sort of structured education for singing or do you think that as long as they are practicing everyday it’s okay?

Erin: I would really prefer to hear a voice that at least as the training over a voice that hasn’t.

Ashley: What do you hear when you listen to an untrained voice?

Erin: You can pick this stuff up when you have a good ear and listening to trained singers and figuring it out for yourself. You’ll hear a nasal tone, weird vowels and not that I don’t do weird vowels sometimes but there are some really weird vowels out there. You’ll hear people who really aren’t singing with their real voice yet because they don’t know how to breathe properly and it kills me. Not because that’s what I have to hear but that’s what they have to work with. They could be doing so much more. Just taking a couple lessons with somebody. I’ve had students that once they learn how to breathe properly, they sound completely different. Those kinds of things kind of drive me nuts. I think you can be a great singer without any formal training if you just have a good ear and are willing to get the best for yourself, then you’re going to reach out somehow. You’re going to figure it out somehow and that’s fine.

Ashley: What’s the best advice you’ve heard since you’ve started working in the music business?

Erin: The first thing that came to mind is not what you want to hear so let me thinking of something else

Ashley: No I want to hear!

Erin: Okay, I was at a music conference and Steve Bell was asked to play there. He’s a very well known Christian artist and he’s a great singer and guitar player. Every year he does a show with the WSO and it sells out. He’s won lots of awards and he’s from Winnipeg. This high school student stood up and asked “Mr. Bell, what would you say if I said I was interested in going into music, what advice would you give me?” And Steve said, “If there is anything else that you can do, you should do that.” He’s [meaning] instead of music. He’s talking as a person who is in his second half of life who has worked hard, I don’t know him personally but I imagine he works hard, to raise and support a family and he probably had things and lost things and had things and lost things and there is so much more stability in another career. You’d have to ask him specially why he said that but I found it very interesting and very honest. It makes you honestly look at yourself and what you want out of life. Do you want to buy a new blouse every week and go on a snowboard trip every winter and have a new car every 10 years or have a car? Do you want to not share an apartment with somebody? Do you want to not rely on sharing a rental space with someone? Then [music might not be] the route for you; you have to look at what kind of lifestyle you want and what expectations you have for your life.

The other best bit of advice or just statement that I heard was probably back in university and Steve Kirby said to someone in our class, “You don’t even know what your don’t know.” That has meant to a lot me. It’s meant a lot to me about humility, of not going into a situation assuming I know where everyone is coming from or that I know much about music at all. I have to assume that I can get something in any situation from other people that are positive things. That other people have wisdom to share from me. Instead of going and assuming that I’m the one who has the wisdom and that works everywhere in life. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Oct 4, 2015 at 3:06pm PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician Erin Propp!

Instruments: Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keyboard, Voice (and some flute)

Genres: Danceable Lap Pop, LoFi Silly Songs, New Wave, Acid Jazz, Grunge and More

Joel Klaverkamp is the mastermind behind the varying styles of beefdonut. After a short and sweet introduction and interview, I could immediately tell he is a relaxed and laid back dude. His musical CV is all across the map when it comes to genres and musical styles so the best thing you can do it check out his soundcloud and hear them for yourself. I promise you won’t be disappointed! 

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Ashley: Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

Joel: I’ve played for a long time in the Winnipeg music scene. I played bass in Skingerbreadman and bass in The Hummers. I also played keyboard in Drums and Wires and I played guitar and everything with beefdonut which is sort of just me and my songwriting. I also play drums for people like A La Mode and Boats.

Ashley: So where did the name come from?

Joel: I worked at HMV a long time ago and I worked with a friend of mine who brought donuts from sears and they tasted like they were deep fried in oil that had deep fried beef so it had this disgusting flavor to it. We started calling them ‘beef donuts’ and later on I thought it would be a pretty good name so I took it.

Ashley: How often are you practicing your instruments? 

Joel: The correct answer is not often enough, but it also ebbs and flows. Lately I’ve been practicing drums a lot more because A La Mode was preparing for Real Love summer fest and a show at the Handsome Daughter. It all depends on which gig is coming on. I am mostly practicing for shows three times a week.

Ashley: What is a practice or jam session like with the band?

Joel: It depends on the project, if its very collaborative it’s very magical. I try to respect that magic and allow it to happen and that’s one of the main reasons I play. If it’s not collaborative, if it’s someone else saying theses are the parts or if I’m saying these are the parts it tends to be not as magical and a bit more technical. You have to actually figure out their vision or you have to try to communicate your vision [to others] so it’s less just “letting it happen.”

Ashley: And with beefdonut, how do you perform your music? Do you do it solo or do you book musicians?

Joel: It depends, we played at Graffiti Gallery and it was a whole new line up. I got flute synth parts, electric guitar, backing vocals and percussion, synth and drums and it’s got a bigger band and dance focus. The last record I did was very grunge rock themed where there are very little dynamics. It was a four piece [set-up]. Before that I have done performances alone with laptops but I don’t really like that; I’ve also had guitar loops solo shows where I’ve had a guitar loop pedal and play. It can be whatever. I’ve also done a lot of recording for sound track work mostly for modern dance shows so a lot of the times I’ll be live mixing that while the show is going so the sections all match up with each other. It really depends.

Ashley: What is the most stressful part about being a musician?

Joel: I’m really easy going and relaxed in general so there really isn’t anything that stresses me out about music that I can think of. For me, that’s the fun part.

Ashley: Then who inspires your music?

Joel: That changes a lot. Currently I’m really inspired by Goat and Thee Oh Sees although if I had to pick, in the past I would have said Bjork or Prince. But now I would have to say James Murphy. The stuff he makes is just perfect in my mind. If you were to break it down into actual quantifiable metrics, thearrangement of the song, the tones of the instruments, the lyrics, the melodies and everything about what he does is matched in my DNA for music.

Ashley: So then what is your songwriting process?

Joel: I don’t have one. Nope, I just sit down and let them come out. I don’t think of them as coming from me.

Ashley: Is it what’s in the your head and you put it out there? 

Joel: Yes the music will usually come to me, usually on the bus, and I’ll write down the words I’ll hear. I’ll try to keep the melody in my head until I’m near an instrument and try to figure it out. Usually by then it’s somewhat changed or I don’t get it exactly right.

Ashley: Would you say your music is more lyrically or melody based?

Joel: Oh definitely not lyrically based. Although a lot of times the music will start with one lyric or one phrase that comes into my head and it will have a melody attached to it already and I’ll just build on that.

Ashley: What accomplishments with beefdonut are you most proud of?

Joel: I recently won an award for ‘Best Music for a Short Film’ that was in a film festival. The film is called Alice and Kevin; it’s a really touching movie, really well done. It’s about a mom and her son and the son has I believe its cerebral palsy; basically he has special needs and she lives on a reserve with him and she’s not getting the same level of health care that she would get if she lived in the city. She’s filed a human rights claim and she’s just found out she has cancer and has a limited amount of time to live. She feels that if she’s gone then he’s not going to get the proper care to live without her. It’s a very powerful story and it’s true. It’s a documentary. I didn’t even know it was in festivals and I got a check in the mail and it said ‘Best Music’ from the Nanaimo Arts Council.

Although that said, that would be for beefdonut. For other projects I’ve been in, I’ve been doing [music] for a long time but playing at Folk Fest with The Hummers in 2007 was probably the highlights. We went on we were supposed to play for maybe an hour long set but we ended up playing from 3:00am to sunrise. There were just thousands and thousands of people, it was a lot of fun.

Ashley: What’s your favorite song to perform?

Joel: My favorite song to perform is Signs of Seasons. I also really like performing with Robo Jam; which is a band I play drums in. We have a lead vocalist/dancer and a keyboard player and we use prerecorded loops and a software that generates music and it’s a lot of fun. It’s very theatrical and we all dress up like robots. It’s a high-energy band and the crowd reaction is pretty good.

Ashley: How do you balance with your other obligations?

Joel: I don’t do anything else. I work and I have a family and I have music. I’ve never seen an episode of Breaking Bad and I miss out on all those pop culture references. I work with a lot of people who reference shows that I’ll never get around to watching. I probably won’t see anything until I’m 70 and I’m in my hospital bed and I have nothing else to do but watch them. Hopefully I’ll be mentally fit to understand them.

Ashley: Since you’ve started working with people, what’s the best advice you’ve heard since you started as a musician that has stuck with you and helped you with your music career?

Joel: [I would say] I try to be, as much as I can, a person in the music scene. The music community in Winnipeg is pretty wonderful and pretty open. Anyone can get in there, just start going to shows and you can start being [one of those people] that are part of the community. For me, I try to go to as many local shows as I can, listen to their stuff in the car and the Internet radio. For me everything it gears towards that. What I’m talk about is just support. I try to support the music scene as much as I can in confidence that it will be reciprocated. The people who come out to see me play are the people I go out and see play.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Sep 24, 2015 at 11:15am PDT

Support Winnipeg Musician beefdonut!

Instruments: Guitar and Voice

Genres: Pop, R&B

Infusing soul into vocals with jazzy chords into a pop song structure, Maxine has a ton of feelings to share and uses music as a way to express herself and connect with other people. Her honesty in her music leaves a relatable feeling that tells you she’s singing her message from the heart. Maxine and I hung out on her balcony and chatted as she did her makeup for work later that night. It was a lot of fun spending a relaxing afternoon with her in the warm summer air. She talked about all her hard work on her upcoming single and experience as a songwriter and performer.

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Ashley: How long have you been playing?

Maxine: Well [I’ve been] singing always. When I was really little, like four or five years old, my parents would have me sing in church all the time. I would go up [on stage] and do solos in my little church dress and hats with no fear. As I grew a little bit older and grew very shy. I was very academically focused and did really good in high school. [Music] was this secret love of mine. I only started playing guitar when I was 18, a friend of mine got me a guitar because he believed in me and knew I had this secret love for singing. From then on I started writing with a guitar and then I went to college I finally admitted to myself that [music] is what I wanted to do with my life and have been pursuing it ever since then.

Ashley: How often are you playing or practicing at home?

Maxine: Practicing? I find that at this point I am so busy gigging, I have a lot of things that just keep me up to practice. I find that I’m not practicing as much as I used to when I was in college or when I was taking voice lessons. These house gigs I have are great places to try out new songs and make sure I stay in practice, as long as I’m doing it in a weekly or biweekly basis. That keeps me up to speed on a lot of things. Otherwise, I don’t have a lot of time. If I’m at home, I’m songwriting.

Ashley: What are house performances?

Maxine: By house gig I mean I have a regular gig there.

Ashley: Have you toured before?

Maxine: I went to a music school in Nashville and when I was there we went on a tour collectively; but I haven’t done a solo tour. I’ve traveled around to Toronto and some places in the states but I haven’t done a full-fledged tour.

Ashley: What would be the most stressful thing about planning or getting ready to tour?

Maxine: Booking is tough in outside markets, especially when you are doing it alone and trying to sell somebody on yourself. It’s definitely easier when you have somebody else booking for you. Being an unknown and reaching out to a market that doesn’t know you is the toughest part. In Winnipeg, I feel like I have decent handle the regular big gigs I want to book. Everybody is connected here so I find that if I want to get in touch with somebody I can. They won’t necessarily book me but I find it easier in touch with people rather than going to Toronto who would prefer your agency to book you and you don’t have an agency.

Ashley: What you recommend for people who want to book shows in Winnipeg?

Maxine: It depends what kind of shows you want to book. Once I have new music to market myself, I want to push for playing bigger gigs and festivals. Right now I’m playing smaller patios and such. For that, I just found contacts with managers at different bars, etc. For festivals, I’d say the more musicians you know the better. Even getting booked as an opening act at the park theatre or West End. The more friends you make, the better. Go to Manitoba music events, work your ass off, follow people online and connect with them. Try to write with them and things like that. If you have that rapport and your genres work together, why wouldn’t you want to work together?

I’d say try having someone vouch for you for festivals, unless you know the organizers yourself. Sometimes it just looks better to have someone else; if you have an agent that is awesome or a manager, or if you have somebody who can play that role for you.

Ashley: Who inspires your music when you are writing or performing?

Maxine: There is this girl I’m currently obsessed with lately, everybody knows it, her name is Tori Kelly, she is the love of my life. She is doing something very similar to what I want to be doing. She writes from the heart, which I love. I also love Lauren Hill she’s amazing! I love Top 40 too. People knock on pop music all the time, but I love pop song structure. Styles like Katy Perry and Taylor swift; I love taking that and infusing it with jazz and soul.

Ashley: What is your songwriting process?

Maxine: I’m not going to lie I need to do more co-writing; I don’t do a lot of it. I usually write by myself. I like to start by writing before I go to bed if I have some thoughts in my head. I have to feel like I have something to say. I’ll usually write the lyrics separately and a lot of the time I’ll just let go of whatever is inside me. When you are writing you have to turn off your editor at first. You can turn it on later to make the song the best it can be but at the beginning during the creative process you just need to let yourself be as free as possible. I like to just write and write and never let myself think something is too wrong to write. I’ll usually take a section or a line or two lines and later when I’m playing guitar I’ll come up with a riff and whatever that riff is I’ll find some sort of melody to go with it. I’ll try to infuse the two together and build other lyrics around that. I’d say my music is very rhythmic based. 

Ashley: What accomplishments are you most proud of?

Maxine: In 2013 I won a songwriting contest for a single of mine called Shame On Me with the Manitoba Songfest. It was really nice as a writer because I’m primarily a singer and it was great to be acknowledged that way.

What’s really cool and recent is that I opened Nick Carter and the Pyramid. That was a lot of fun! The demographic was exactly what I want to be playing for.

Also, I was with a bunch of artists about a year and half ago playing a fundraising show at the Burton Cummings Theatre. It was with all these other local artists. On that stage I did a song solo and did two songs with a beat boxing friend of mine. Being alone on that giant stage, it’s such an iconic stage, it was such a big moment for me.

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous about starting out?

Maxine: I would say when it comes to being on stage and getting over nerves you have to throw yourself into it and know that it’s going to get better. I find with nerves that often half way through the first song you’ll find that you’re going to be okay. It’s going to be all right and you are going to get less nervous as you do it.

Also when songwriting, don’t be afraid to suck and know that you’re going to write a lot of shit. Most people write a lot and take what’s good and you edit that to make it the best version of itself. Not everything you’re going to write is going to be gold and you have to be okay with that. I know people that have told me that they have tried to write and they say, “everything I write is just so cheesy.” You don’t need to worry about that right now and just keep writing. The greatest songwriters are not writing hits every single moment. They are writing a lot and they take from that lot and edit it down.

[You also need] to network. The better your know yourself as an artist and a band the easier it is to stay true to yourself, to market yourself and sell yourself when you are in the world.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Maxine: I have two songs, one that I open every show with and one that I close every show with. One is called Better that’s the one I’m recording it right now and I’ll close every show with it. I open with I just want to love you. They are both really upbeat jams with pop chorus. I feel like they optimize what I do so those are my favorite. You have to have your opening and closing songs down pat for sure, they have to be killer.

Ashley: What is the process to get started to record a single? Did you have to apply for funding?

Maxine: I’ve applied for grants in the past and did not get accepted for them. The current producer I work with, he is fantastic, has been helping me out. I got connected through a DJ friend of mine, so we sat down and I played him a bunch of songs and he was really into what I do and he wanted to help me out.

Ashley: How did you decide which song to pick for your single? How did you know the song was ready to be set in stone through recording?

Maxine: I’d say the latest song you’ve written is always your favorite one but that doesn’t always mean it’s the best one. Sometimes you have to let them sit for a month and play it for people that you trust too. Have them tell you if you need to tweak some things. For a single it has to be a very specific type of song and I just had that feeling for this one song of mine. I feel like it could have a good mainstream feel and I love what I’m saying in it. As long as it’s got the marketability along with heart connection, I think that’s a good balance.

Ashley: What’s the best advice since you’ve started working in the music business that has just stuck with you?

Maxine: One of my Profs in Nashville said ‘the audience isn’t always right but they never lie.’ The audience is going to react the way they are going to react, they may not be right but they are always telling you their truth. I think that’s something to keep in mind. Think about that when you are out online or at shows, you don’t have to take everybody’s advice but they are going to tell you what they think is true. 

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Sep 17, 2015 at 7:46pm PDT

Support Local Singer-Songwriter Maxine Peters!

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Canada Day 2015 in front of Music Trader on Osborne. Photo Credit: Kelly Hughes

Beth's Instruments: Bass and Lead Vocals

Trevor's Instruments: Guitar and Lead Vocals

Grant's Instruments: Synthesizer, Piano, Guitar and Vocals

Roger's Instruments: Drums and Vocals

Genres: Alternative Pop Rock

I first heard the name Autumn Still when I attended a Music Works workshop through Manitoba Music. Beth and Roger were both attending and the band name stuck in the back of my mind. A few months later when I started the #WinnipegMusicProject and started contacting Winnipeg Bands, I still remembered the name Autumn Still. I was delighted when I got a response from Trevor and we set up a time to meet after a band's jam session. Trevor, Grant, Roger and Beth are such incredible people. Not only are they confident (and rightly so) in their sound and instruments, but they are genuinely the nicest people. They gave me so much wonderful advice that I can't wait to apply to my own musical career. I tried really hard to include the humour in this interview obvious and remain honest with portraying everyone's personalities. These people are so closely knit and a perfect match, I really wanted to express the relationship they all share together.

I'm excited to announce Autumn Still will be releasing their highly anticipated full-length album later this year in early November! They are going to be having their release part at The Good Will Social Club so follow them on social media accounts (links at the end of the interview) to stay tuned to when the exact date with be announced! Afterwards they will have plans for a Ontario and Quebec Tour! Check these guys out! 

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Ashley: How long have you been playing your instruments?

Trevor: For me, forever I guess. I have been playing guitar since I was 10 or 11, so a long time.

Beth: I had actually just picked up the bass 4 or 5 years ago. Maybe even less actually, when this project started to become an idea. Actually, probably more like 2 to 3 years ago; before that I played guitar. The bass really connected with me, it feels like comfort food. It’s nice to have this instrument close to your belly with these nice low vibrations [laughs]. It’s the first instrument that felt natural to me.

Grant: I’ve been always been fooling around. I’ve been playing piano since I was 6 but very badly, and I started to playing guitar at 14 but very badly. I played synthesizer for a couple years but only since I started [playing in] bands have I taken it seriously.

Roger: I’ve always been able to kind of played drums for a long time but I never actually played played drums until a year and a half ago.  Beth and Trevor were trying to find a drummer and I just said “Hey, I can kind of play drums for the EP” so music can get pushed out there and I just stuck. My style of new drumming fits really well, I think. I haven’t been playing drums for very long but music I have been playing for a long time.

Ashley: How long have you guys been playing together?

Beth: Well Trevor and I had been tossing ideas back and forth 2 and a half years ago and then eventually we were like “we should start a band.” It was a slow progression and things slowly fell into place. We had been playing live shows since last august and that’s when we started putting ourselves out there.

Trevor: Yeah, I think it was a definite marking point. Our first show was a three piece, Beth, Roger and [myself], at the Fringe festival last year (2014). That was about a year ago now…

Beth: Aw it’s our one-year anniversary!

Ashley: So where does the band name come from?

Beth: That came from an intensive brainstorming session between Trevor and I. We were struggling and thought a band name would just magically come up. We did this stream of consciousness, throwing out different things and ideas that pertained to our music. Autumn and Still just came together that way, I guess. It has several different meaning but for both of us. Autumn is our favorite season; it’s when we feel most creatively alive and we can sit down and write.

Ashley: So how often are you practicing together and being a band?

Beth: Well we get together twice a week typically to jam but now a days we are getting into recording our album (now scheduled to release this November 2015! =D) so things are getting really intensive. I guess we have to see each other so much now [laughs].

Grant: [Rolls eyes] make a note that I rolled my eyes at that!

Trevor: We are essentially recording our first full-length album over the course of the summer. We’re going to be stepping it up.

Ashley: So what is a practice or jam session like? Like what is happening?

Beth: Well usually it depends on the practice. We try to be sort of strategic with selecting two or three things that we want to hone in on per practice and that’s what we do. [Before a show] we play through the set and clean things up a bit and things like that. It’s structured yet loose.

Trevor: It depends what stage a song is in. In our last practice we devoted a lot on our last song.

Beth: Yeah, and that’s all we will do for that night.

Ashley: Do you bring a finished song in? Or do you figure it out together on the spot?

June 18, 2015 @ The West End Cultural Centre with The Wooden Sky. Photo Credit: KJ Photography

Beth: Typically Trevor and I toss ideas back and forth first. We have done more things where we co-write. Trevor will have this guitar riff with a melody idea and I put some lyrics on it or something like [that]. I might have a song and Trevor creates some beautiful guitar overtop. It’s really different from song to song. Once we feel like an idea has come to then we bring it into the band and ask, “What do you want to do with this?” We try to let everyone put their own personal spin on things. It’s not like we are saying, “This is what we want exactly like this” we don’t prewrite the parts for people or something like that.

Ashley: So then are you saying your music is more lyrically or melodically driven?

Trevor: I can’t say that as a band we have discussed this a whole lot, but I feel my personal point of view is that the lyrics and the melody are just intertwined and you can’t really avoid that connection. I think that when it comes to songwriting we spend a lot of time on lyrics and we worry about lyrics a lot and try to make sure it sounds just right. I guess in that sense you could say you we have a strong lyrical focus but we spend a lot of time on melodies and vocal arrangement as well. As far as a concert answer, I don’t know.

Beth: Yeah I don’t know [either], I agree that lyrics often drive melody or melody drives lyrics. It’s hard to say which one comes before the other. When I write a song often, for me anyways, it is a set of lyrics. I write whatever dribbles out of my head and I’ll hear a melody in that or I’ll see something that can become a song. You could do a little tweaking to help it fit a melody.

Trevor: It’s cool that everyone involved, because of our own experiences, that we have a really good sense of melody and how the arrangement can support that. It’s definitely that the whole vocal thing is a primary consideration.

Grant: Beth and Trevor write the Autumn Still songs but all four of us are songwriters.

Ashley: Have you two ever brought something to work with?

Grant: We have not yet but sometimes a song from another project will make it’s way into the band. We were thinking about that for the album.

Beth: I don’t think we are thinking about that anymore though.

[Group Laughter]

Grant: Well okay. It was thought of.

Roger: I think my writing would be very different then what you guys are doing, what we are doing with Autumn Still.  Not by a lot but a little bit. To be honest, I really like that I’m playing drums and I don’t have to worry too much. I think that it’s the instrument that I’m focusing on and every time they bring a song I can go “Okay what can sound good with this song and with how can I play it” and it’s neat like that.

Beth: Yeah, and we never set it out to make it a dictator ship or something-

Roger: and it doesn’t feel like [that]

Beth: it has always been [Trevor and I’s] project and vision. Some people have had experiences where they are in this situation when there are too many cooks in the kitchen, the vision gets lost or gets crazy.

Grant: I think we are very fortunate to have a really good sense of what our roles are in the band and our hands are all full with what our roles are.

Roger: Exactly.

Ashley: So what is the most stressful part about being in a band?

[Group Laughter]

Trevor: You’re asking a band that just got back from tour not too long ago!

Roger: Honestly, the most stressful part is the business side of things, the logistics parts of things. Right now we are setting up to record and we need to figure out the funding-

Beth: the bureaucratic process.

Roger: Yeah. Rehearsing, that’s amazing. Playing shows is awesome. Going on tour is awesome because a lot of that [business] stuff just fades away into the background. You just go and play and it’s awesome. I don’t even do that much of it, I know these guys do it a lot more. I do more on the recording side of things but I find it stressful. It’s the part when I was fifteen I didn’t know about. I just loved playing music.

Trevor: It’s kind of funny. From my point of view this band is the band I’ve dreamed of being in for a long time. I’ve been in other projects in the past and you know the most stressful aspect is sometimes just getting into the same room together. We don’t have that problem. I agree the most stressful aspect isn’t the creative end, or the interpersonal end, it’s just hoping that this music that we are so proud of gets out there enough and people are hearing it. There are things you have to do to make that happen and it’s a lot of work.

Grant: As an introvert, it’s always a struggle to put yourself out there. Being on stage is one thing, but any other interpersonal stuff is a big drain. Finding that balance between doing what I need to and doing what I need to restore my selfhood is my biggest struggle.

June 18, 2015 @ The West End Cultural Centre with The Wooden Sky. Photo Credit: KJ Photography

Beth: I’m with you on that. I find that performing is not something that comes naturally to me. Depending on the day, I’d rather just curl up in a hole and hide under the covers. I feel like I’m growing as a performing and proud of that. I enjoy finding the enjoyment in it! With all the fear that leads up to it, it’s nice to get that “okay this is why people do this” [feeling]. It’s not totally frightening.

Grant: Once the worse thing that can possibly happen to you happens when you are on stage, you feel liberated.

Beth: I don’t know, I still haven’t been pantsed.

Grant: Well, all you had to do was ask, Bethany. 

[Group Laughter]

Ashley:  Who inspires your music? Who do you listen to that really listens your songwriting process?

Grant: Leonard Conan, right?

[Group Laughter]

Beth: Well I’m a big Leonard fan but I think this is always a tough question because we have so many diverse influences that are sort of all over the map. It’s always tough to say. We don’t really have this muse that we filter or emulate or something like that. I’m sure influences sneak into it, I’m always curious to hear what other people hear in our music or what they would compare it to.

Ashley: So far with Autumn Still, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Beth: For me, [I always have wanted to tour] with a musical project of mine, so getting the first tour done felt like a great accomplishment to me.

Grant: [Touring has] been a dream of mine since I was 18.

Trevor: For me, it’s been awhile since this point, but putting out or first EP because there was this big process behind that when we worked [on it] for so long. We worked for quite awhile on those three songs, we got to a point that you’re [almost] terrified to put it out there [because] it’s so important and special to you. At that point, we finished recording it that summer and then started performing. It was great when it came out too; we got a lot of positives responses. You only thought about making it as good as possible and people were responding to it and that was really great.

Beth: It all feels likes baby steps leading up to this album. It’s going to feel so good I just can’t even conceive it right because there is so much to do.  Roger is a very talented recording technician so he works for us a lot of the time.

Trevor: He recorded our Ep.

Beth: Yeah and he’ll be a huge part in recording our album along with Jay Reilly who will be mixing it and stuff like that. That will feel really good to have that in our hands.

Ashley: About going on tour, who made that decision? Who planned it?

Roger: I think the decision was already made when we were doing the EP. Because honestly way earlier on there was talk of touring, it was really really early.

Trevor: We knew for sure that it was going to happen. I guess you could say I planned most of it and booked the shows. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t too difficult, because we had the amazing luck and got such a good response from the EP. Especially Ottawa and Toronto and Windsor. We had people actually playing the EP and giving us a lot of promo.

Ashley: And how did you start with that? Did you approach venues first? What was the process?

Trevor: I reached out to venues and to local bands in those cities [at the same time]. We had our general idea planned early on and it was just filling in the blanks. Essentially we are a band that was fairly new that put out our new EP fairly recently so we didn’t have that cache we can just walk into the city and get a great show. It was a bit of a mismatch; we got help from some bands and venues locally too. We actually got a lot of support from people on that tour.

Beth: Grant went on Reddit.com and found people in different cities to put up posters.

Ashley: What advice would you give to beginners who are starting to record an EP who want to get their music out there?

Trevor: I would say personally that anybody that is trying to start out should just focus on the music first and foremost. It’s the most important thing and then worry about the whole business side that we talked about being so stressful. Make sure you are actually making music you actually love.

Grant: Another part is the recording of it, which is a super important element that allowed us to propel ourselves without a lot of resources besides with that we had. If we couldn’t have recorded it ourselves we would pretty much have been dead in the water.

June 18, 2015 @ The West End Cultural Centre with The Wooden Sky. Photo Credit: KJ Photography

Roger: Well there are other ways, right? If people don’t have somebody that can record them, basically you start playing shows before you start recording.

Beth: Set little tiny goals for yourself. If you’re starting from scratch and you have your songs together, take the time to find the right people to work with. Once you have that together, which can take some juggling and thought, then actually lay out a little timeline. This is when we want to play our first show. Be kind to people and humble. Be willing to stretch yourself a little bit, and be curious and talk to different musicians in the city. You’ll find your way if you reach out to that community. I mean there are also assholes and you [just need to talk to someone else].

Ashley: What do you do to deal with nerves before a performance?

Beth: We have little band rituals that help like deep breathing sessions in the bathroom. We also do a little vocal warm up too which always feel good because it shakes out the weird tension and it sounds okay. It’s kind of like a band bonding experience.

Grant: It must look super hokey because we stand in a circle and our eyes are probably shut and, if anyone is like me, we are swaying gently back and forth. But it’s a good way to remind yourself that we all have something in common which is the ability to make beautiful music together. That’s what the vocal warm-up means to me.

Roger: I keep myself busy.

Grant: By hurting yourself?

[Group Laughter]

Ashley: What does that mean?

Roger: I’ve have the worst luck this past month. On tour I almost broke my toe. I got back and I split thumb open, four stitches.

Beth: It was right before a big show.

Roger: I had to drum with this thumb and the worse flu I had had in years. [Also] on my birthday I sprained my ankle. It’s just ridiculous. But actually before a show I literally keep myself busy and I normally don’t get nervous. Or I’ll nap.

Ashley: What is your favorite song to perform live?

Beth: I feel like if there was any song that I wasn’t excited to play, it wouldn’t be in our set.

Roger: Yeah, I like playing all of them.

Grant: I joined the band after these guys had recorded the debut EP and there is a song on the EP called Bartholomew and if I’m totally honest that’s the main reason I joined the band. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard and there are these beautiful harmonies at the end of it and I feel really privileged to be able to sing those parts. We just recorded a video for it a couple months ago and it’s the single off the EP. (CHECK OUT BARTHOLOMEW HERE)

Ashley: What was the inspiration for Bartholomew?

Beth: I guess it’s about my own struggles with communication and social anxiety and all of those things. At the time I wrote it, I was also going through a creative rut. The lyrics are a little stream of consciousness and dealing with my frustrations always having to speak within these binaries and blah blah blah and I felt like I couldn’t communicate the way I wanted to and wanting to connect with people in a meaningful way and how it’s always combative. It’s about vulnerability, being exposed and feeling vulnerable.

Grant: You mean it’s not about Bart Simpson?!

[Group Laughter]

Ashley: How are you balancing your music and the band with other obligation with working and paying bills?

Grant: Sleep less!

Beth: I really wanted to make music a center part of my life so I pursued a career that would help me do that. I’m a massage therapist and my schedule at work is pretty flexible. I tried to set up my life that it would be accommodating to making music and that I’m not working a soul killing 9-5 kind of deal. That was not working, I felt the least creative when I was doing stuff like that.

June 18, 2015 @ The West End Cultural Centre with The Wooden Sky. Photo Credit: KJ Photography

Roger: I’m kind of like Bethany in a way; I fix musical instruments so my hours are somewhat flexible as long as I put the hours in. You know, it’s a big struggle. You just do it. It comes down doing it and lots and lots of scheduling. Sticking to the schedule and actually having a plan ahead of time and making sacrifices.

Ashley: What is the best advice you have heard since you started working in the music business, something that has just stuck with you? 

Trevor: For me, it’s the advice that I earlier regurgitated that you have to play what you love. I think its super important. That’s where it starts and ends.

Roger: I don’t remember who, but I just remember someone at some point was like “Don’t be a dick.” Go to shows and don’t be an ass. I think that with the four of us, it’s kind of nice being in a band that you walk in and you know that none of your band members are going to be an asshole to everyone around you. It sucks [when that happens] and that’s one of the biggest things. People won’t want to deal with you, it doesn’t matter if your music is great, but if you are an asshole they aren’t going to invite you back.

Grant:  I heard it from James Mercy, if you are afraid of something that you have done or something you’re going to do; it’s something that you should follow or at least pay special attention to it. That fear means you’ve touched into something that is sensitive and that works in a couple ways. You’re either going to step outside your boundaries a bit which is going to lead you to a new wealth of experience or it’s something to share with others which is going to lead you to find some commonalities with the rest of the world. It’s liberating to smash through that boundary and to follow that sort of trepidation and turn it into a positive.

Beth: If you feel there isn’t a place for you then carve your own path, whatever way possible. Things don’t always have to look a certain way for you to have space in the world. By being your own awkward self, just keep being your own awkward self and deal with the crap that comes with it, you’ll have to anyway. If you want to be a performer, you just have to do it in a [louder] way. If you’re doing something you love to do, you’ll be doing it anyway so embrace the awkwardness.

A photo posted by Ashley Bieniarz (@ashleybieniarz) on Sep 11, 2015 at 6:28am PDT

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If you want to hear the advice from Autumn Still on how to record your music or get funding, like this post! There was just so much to fit into this interview that I couldn't fit it all in; but if you want to hear some really great information about making the decision or record and apply for funding, show this post some love!

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