Monsoon Season has been in the works for some time, how does it feel to finally
be releasing it?
Honestly, we’re thrilled. We
can’t wait for everyone to hear it. It’s been a ton of work to get to this
point and the fact that the release is right around the corner is a little
surreal. And so far the response has been amazing. Making a record, there
are many moments of uncertainty. Is this material up to snuff? Is that
performance ‘the one’? Does that mix capture the vibe we’re going for? To
be able to look back on all those decisions and actually be excited about the
result is a wonderful feeling.
Biblical happens to be the most badass name of any new band emerging, who
picked it and how did you land on it?
We’ve actually have a good
story for that. Back in early 2010, Ghostbusters seemed to be playing on
TV like every other day. There’s that scene where they’re trying to
convince the Mayor to take action and Bill Murray says “this city is headed for
a disaster of biblical proportions.” I saw it and I thought Biblical
Proportions would be a cool name for what we were doing. I brought it up at
practice and everyone liked the sentiment. After about half an hour we
decided to drop ‘proportions’ and just go with Biblical. Good call.
What does the title of the album, ‘Monsoon Season’ signify?
Monsoon Season started out as
just a song on the record. It’s a pretty epic number that clocks in at over 11
minutes and has a really oppressive atmosphere. Originally, we were going to
call the record something else, but as we got into mixing we started to feel
more and more that both the song and the title really captured overall flavor
of the record. Sonically, we try to create tension in our music by using
dynamics. We like to let things simmer and then come crashing in with a big
change. The image of a storm rolling seemed like a good fit.
Lyrically, I was writing from
a strange place. The last five years have been really up and down. There’s been
a lot of illness in my immediate family and regrettably a number of deaths. So
for me, Monsoon Season was about getting through a period of sustained
turmoil. There were many moments of hopelessness. Now that I’m on the other
side of those experiences, I did my best to inject the record with as much of
that as I could.
On your site, you describe your sound as “The sound of mountains splitting and
oceans parting.” What does that image mean when you hear that phrase?
We’re really into developing
tension with our music. When we get loud, we like to do it suddenly, especially
after longer passages of mellow. Giving people a reference point of a mellow
dynamic versus a loud one makes those moments have way more impact. That phrase
is trying to capture those feelings.
There are so many styles within this band. You are part prog, part metal, part
garage, what do you classify yourself as?
We never refer to ourselves as
anything other than a Rock band. There are so many genres and so many amazing
ideas they all have to offer. People call us different things, but the
only thing that always fits is Rock.
Who are some of the influences that make up Biblical?
There’s the obvious starting
point of 70s guitar rock as our foundation. But we’re much more interested in
music that’s not related to what we’re doing. We’re all big fans of the 60s
David Axelrod produced stuff, Brazilian psych/samba like Marcos Valle and Os
Mutantes. We love heavy stuff like Funkadelic and even weird keyboard stuff
like Bob James. All of it informs our music in some capacity. Matt and
Jay both work at record stores so they’re walking libraries of information.
I say Rock-wise, the one thing we all agree on is the MC5. But
when we’re on the road, we honestly don’t spin a lot of rock records in the
van. If we do, it’s going to be obscure like T2 or Truth And Janey.
The band has been praised for your live show, is there pressure now living up
to the hype on an album?
Normally, I’d say yes. But in
this case, we’re really satisfied with the record. It’s got it’s own
identity and a consistency that carries through the whole listen. I think
anyone who sees us live will really enjoy it. And conversely, anyone who hears
the record first will be really happy to see what we do with the songs
live.
Hailing from Toronto, which these days is mainly known for the music of Drake
and the city’s mayor these days, how has the city played a role in your music?
Toronto is a great city to
live in. There’s a pretty big and diverse music scene and a ton of venues to
play. If anything, I’d say the city has allowed for a lot cross
pollination between different groups of people and different genres.
Matt, Jay and Andy regularly sit in with a ton of different groups that play
everything from soul and funk to folk and experimental. I think the city is
just big enough to allow for those genres and scenes to co-exist without being
too isolated and impenetrable.
So many heavy bands have come from Canada in recent years – Fucked Up, Metz,
Death from Above, how does Biblical stand out from the pack while continuing
the legacy of what already is?
Those bands are great and
we’re thankful that there’s credible, heavy music coming out of Toronto. We’ve
shared bills with some of those bands so it’s not totally incongruous, but I
don’t think anyone would confuse what we’re doing. Really, the similarities
begin and end with ‘loud’. But hopefully that pedigree gives people a
reason to check out what we’re doing.
Where does
Biblical go from here?
The focus right now is to play
as much as we can. The record comes out in March and we look forward to
setting sail. There are a lot of places we want to visit!
