Eternal Husbands bring their own brand of rock to the table with this latest release French Exit. You can visit their website here. I recently did an interview with Matt from the band, you can check that out below. Be sure to give these guys a listen!
Jay: thanks for taking the time to answer some of my
questions guys! First off, congrats on the new album French Exit. Now,
about the name: is there hidden meaning to it? Why did you decide to go
with this title?
Matt: According
to public myth, a 'French Exit' is when someone leaves a party
unannounced. There is a slight reference to Rick's rapid departure from
Montreal September 2013 after our first tour. It sounds a bit better
than 'Ghosting' though, no?
Jay:
I've read that Eternal Husbands sound is described as fog pop. Can you
comment on what that means? Is this a fair description of your sound?
Personally I feel like maybe there is a bit of a 70s rock influence. Not
to pigeon hole anybody of course!
Matt: There
are new musical descriptive terms popping up every single day so we
thought we would have some fun with it and coin one for ourselves. It
was either that or twangaze. It's much easier than saying "Diverse,
experimental, pop music" and is clearly the reason neither of us are
music journalists.
Jay:
You've had a few tour dates in support of this release between Alberta
and BC. Do you find a difference in terms of the support for the music
scene between the provinces? Where would you rather play?
Matt: We
have played in Vancouver 30+ times in various bands and it has always
been incredible. It's a tight nit music community, with everything
out-flowing from our friend/producer Jesse Gander. All jokes aside,
scene's are scenes. Edmonton is a massive sprawling city but the people
in the city really come out to support one another. Half play in each
other's bands, make videos for each other, record with each other, etc.
Then again, I'm sure if I spent enough time in Vancouver, I might say
the exact same thing. It's the same everywhere, people help each other
out. Some cities have more venues, some have more DIY spots, some have
more house shows, but people are people are generally like to help each
other out.
Jay: Any plans for a cross Canada tour? Surely you can't leave the east hanging!
Matt: We will be touring Ontario/Quebec/Maritimes and potentially NYC in October. We need to debut our song 'Halifax' from the record in the city itself. Maybe Joel Plaskett can come play guitar on it, the fellows from Kestrels doing some noise on the outro of it, and the Scoop Outs on harmonies. All in a dream world I suppose...
Jay: Lets talk
about the music industry for just a moment. There are so many musicians
scrambling to be heard everyday popping up on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and
the like. For touring musicians such as yourselves, do you find that the
accessibility to music both professional and DIY over the Internet is a
disservice or an advantage to bands who work hard and tour in support
of their art?
Matt: I
noticed that as more people had Macbooks, Garageband or any other free
program, a lot more bands started popping up. I don't know if everyone
is recording at home, or what they are doing, but the fact that people
are creating a ton of music is sweet.
An issue though is that more bands -or "artists"- can mean more people doing shows which can clog up a touring circuit. For example, if we tour and always play the same bar in Winnipeg, have a great relationship with the promoter, and there is a newer band that is ultra tech savvy and can get the word out to 100x more people than we can, the promoter may choose to do a show with them. Even though he/she may like your music better and want to help you out with the show, depending on how the venue is doing, they may choose the latter. At the end of the day, it forces everyone to work harder to get people out to the shows but at the same time it makes you just another blip. Maybe it is weeding out the lazy ones who don't want to tour but at the same time it is making it more difficult for those that tour all the time.
The internet gives you a platform to spread your music worldwide instantly, but at the same moment it opens the door for you, you look around and see one million others let into the same field as you. It's there, we work with it, it isn't going anywhere any time soon so might as well use it. The important thing to remember I suppose is that the numbers and stats mean nothing. There will be a time when facebook is not the most important thing in the world and likes don't mean anything. That being said, I still log in every day or so...
Onto the next question!
An issue though is that more bands -or "artists"- can mean more people doing shows which can clog up a touring circuit. For example, if we tour and always play the same bar in Winnipeg, have a great relationship with the promoter, and there is a newer band that is ultra tech savvy and can get the word out to 100x more people than we can, the promoter may choose to do a show with them. Even though he/she may like your music better and want to help you out with the show, depending on how the venue is doing, they may choose the latter. At the end of the day, it forces everyone to work harder to get people out to the shows but at the same time it makes you just another blip. Maybe it is weeding out the lazy ones who don't want to tour but at the same time it is making it more difficult for those that tour all the time.
The internet gives you a platform to spread your music worldwide instantly, but at the same moment it opens the door for you, you look around and see one million others let into the same field as you. It's there, we work with it, it isn't going anywhere any time soon so might as well use it. The important thing to remember I suppose is that the numbers and stats mean nothing. There will be a time when facebook is not the most important thing in the world and likes don't mean anything. That being said, I still log in every day or so...
Onto the next question!
Jay: Time for a controversial question. Which is better Alberta or BC? And...GO!
Matt: BC is leagues ahead of Alberta environmentally, but their handling of the Mt Polley disaster with the government and their mining interests is sad. Alberta did itself a huge favor by electing the NDP, which blew my mind. I truly never thought I would ever see anything but a conservative majority in Alberta.
There is a rational part of my mind that tells me no politician anywhere should be trusted, it is a giant game and there is no such thing as good or bad. There is another part that says maybe some times you have to be a cog to change the machine and truthfully I don't have an answer. I want to believe that things change but I'm not sure the government is the place to do it.
I would suggest buying our new album 'French Exit' -available now on Clamour Records-, going for a walk to your campus radio station, and volunteering some of your time. That is a meaningful use of time.
Jay:
Back to some music questions. If you were to recommend an album to
fans, what would it be? Anything in particular that comes to mind?
Matt: I'm not sure if you are meaning one of our albums or an album of someone else's so I will do one of each:
Eternal Husbands- French Exit: best thing we've made since our last one.
Baptists-Bushcraft: Heaviest stuff around since Propagandhi
Colin Stetson-Any record. Colin played on our last band The City Streets' record "Winter Lightning" and blew my mind. Circular breathing, one note held for 15-20 minutes, crazy syncopated stuff via Steve Reich, check him out
Mike McDonald-Live at the Blue Chair Cafe. Jr Gone Wild frontman, always worth its time.
Matt: Roger that, over and out.
-Jay Caption
