Ramble and Roll: How did you guys get into punk rock/start playing music?
ERIC: We all started playing pretty early. My personal influence started back when I was like 9 years old following the footsteps of my brother. I’d hear him playing his bass to his Metallica records and it influenced me to pick up an instrument of my own and do the same. Eventually I started to hear about different genres of music and different bands which lead me to find my own taste and preference in music. Rock, punk, metal and everything in between has always been the music I admired most but punk rock will always be my number one. The one record that really opened the door for me was …And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid when I was about 13. Ever since then, music has never left me.
RNR: How did the band come to be?
ERIC: Me and matt were trying to get a punk band together for the longest time, but we were never able to find any bass players or lead singers. We tried putting ads all over town asking for bass players or guitar players to contact us. We even tried putting ads up on the internet countless amounts of time and it never seemed to work. We had friends as well as strangers jam with us to see if there was any chemistry or potential in possibly forming a band, but nothing ever worked. Finally with a “let’s give it one more shot” attitude, me and Matt posted another ad on Craigslist. That’s when Scott and Brent answered and they were in the exact same position as us. Brent played bass. Scott sang and played guitar. They were both friends and they were looking for a guitarist and a drummer who loved punk. It was a perfect match. You can say luck or you can say meant to be!
RNR: What are some of your favourite bands or bands that have influenced you as musicians?
ERIC: As I mentioned before ...And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid is probably the reason why I play punk the way I do, so Rancid is definitely the main influence of it all. It goes for the rest of the band as well, as we are all huge Rancid fans. Of course I thank the godfathers of it all, like The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Ramones. The list can go on forever if I named every band. We also tend to incorporate some folk/ Celtic influence into our music since we are all huge fans of bands like Dropkick Murphys, The Pogues, Flogging molly etc. We don’t only listen to punk though… if someone were to hop in our van and head on the road with us for a few hours, they’d be sure to hear punk, metal, rock n roll, reggae, ska, country, and Celtic music coming out of the van’s speakers. We basically just appreciate good music, whatever style it may be. if the tune kicks ass, then we like it. As for our own music…whatever we think sounds badass, will be recorded!
RNR: You've toured across Canada with the Real Mckenzies as well as on your own, plus countless other shows on top of that. Do you have a favourite show or a show that stands out to you?
ERIC: There are definitely a few stops that are better than others. I won’t go ahead and say which ones aren’t so good but I can tell you some that rule. We’ve played Ottawa a few times and it always kicked ass. Whether it was a packed house where kids were going crazy the whole time or a semi-filled room with nothing but good friends, Ottawa was always a good spot. Big thanks go to the bands The Scally Cap Brats and Machine Gun Dolly who are 2 great bands from Ottawa. They definitely helped us achieve the audience we do when we play there. Another good spot is Sept- Iles Quebec. Kids go nuts there all the time. We were already headlining the show when it was only our second time there. Rouyn-Noranda , Quebec is another great stop where the kids love us. They try to book us at least once a year. We are heading out to western Canada in just a few days and I’m pretty stoked to see how our return to these cities will turn out.
RNR: Carry On! Has been getting a lot of good reviews and a lot of attention. What's it been like supporting the album, being on the Stomp Records roster, and what are your own thoughts on the album?
ERIC: We are super stoked to be a part of the Stomp Records family. They’ve helped us a lot and anytime we have something we’d like to talk about or any goals we’d like to achieve, they help us get there. Releasing CARRY ON! on Stomp Records was also a huge help for us. It helped us get the supporting spot on tours for great bands like The Brains and the Real Mckenzies for example. It feels good to see how many records sold. We worked hard for it and were glad that it’s slowly but surely paying off. We heading into studio very soon and we will be releasing album number 2 in no time. We have high hopes for it and it we cannot wait to get started. We’re bringing it on even harder this time!MATT: Being on the Stomp Records roster is awesome. It's a label that really does care about underground music so we we're extremely excited when we found out they were going to release our first record. It definitely feels more like a family than anything else, all the bands on the Stomp roster are genuinely nice people and talented musicians.
Supporting the album has been great! We we're lucky enough to do
our first western Canada tour with none other than The Real McKenzies
which was an amazing experience. We we're able to play in front of large
crowds every night which really helped us showcase our music in a way
that would not have been possible if we went on our own.
I think the album has great, honest songs on it. There is definitely more of that coming on the next album!
RNR: What's the songwriting process like for the EER?
MATT: We are very democratic when it comes to writing, haha. We all write songs on our own and then bring them to practice for the rest of the guys to hear. If we all think it's something we can work with, we'll start working on it until it's to everyone's liking.
RNR: Many of your songs are politically themed or tackle social issues. What role do you think musicians should play in regards to political and social awareness?
MATT: I think it is a musician's duty as an entertainer to talk about real social issues in their songs. With so many songs on the radio today only talking about how much they wanna dance all night and how much sex they wanna have it doesn't leave much room for people to think about what is really going on in and out of our community. Underground music has always been a place where people can talk about these kind of issues openely without having a major label forcing you to write a hit record with simple, meaningless lyrics. It is a place that allows you to speak your mind and exchange ideas with people that are as pissed off as you are about our economic situation and other social issues. If pop culture won't do it, then someone has to.
RNR: What are the future plans for the bands? More tours? New album?
MATT: For touring, we are about to leave for our second western Canadian tour with The Brains which we are all very excited about. We have been writing for the new record for a few months now and we will continue once we get back from tour in November. The plan is to record a new album in January and if all goes well we'll release it on Stomp Records in early 2014!
RNR: Any final words?
MATT: Yes...Mike Franey is one handsome devil. That is all.*
*EDITORS NOTE: I contemplated removing this answer but in the end I thought I'd leave it in for the sake of journalistic integrity.
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The East End Radicals are embarking on a tour of Western Canada with their label-mates from Montreal, The Brains. Check out the poster below for the dates!
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