By Boardpass Members Arthur Ostrowski
How is the situation with your drummer?
Our situation is going extremely well, Bram the new guy from Edmonton . We kind of played with his old bands a lot of times over the years and today he's playing with us for good. It's going very well. He came in and recorded our new CD. Hhis playing and his input is great..
You seem to play a bit of jazz at times, is that a hidden passion?
Yeah! Well I was going to school and I met the Belvedere crew while I was going to college studying jazz. So I've been working on my jazz for a bunch of years. It's a bit of a thing I have in the back..
Do you get a lot of practice when you guys are on tour?
It's always nice to practice and try to keep up with it.. .
What would you say to someone wanting to be where you are today?
I'd say just go for it.. Play, jam, have fun , get shows and if you can get out of town do it. But pretty much play a lot.. but have fun!
What was life like before you joined the band?
It's like and everyday life. I was going to college so I was living the college scene.. Going to class every day.. Finally met up with Steve who was in the band Belvedere and they had a comp out. Their bass player was in the same program as me so I kinda started learning the tunes. Steve and I were talking and we both really like the same kinds of bands. We started jamming and they needed an extra guitarist and it all started from there..
How'd you like touring Europe compared to here?
Not much different other then the fact that a lot more people here have heard of us. I find that other then the language barrier and that sort of thing, the kinds are the same. Sometimes they are more responsive to a band they have never seen before and the fact that the bands come from America and Canada to play for them, they really dig it. As I've seen when we play show to show, kids love the music, love the bands and have a good time.
Steve was saying that his favorite place to play was Italy, what was yours?
I would say Italy because it was awesome there, but just to be different I'd have to say I had a really good time in the Belgium - Holland area. We played a lot of shows there and we had a lot of friends. We played with a lot of local bands. Switzerland was good, Germany was really good, we just had a great time.
Seeing more of the world has it been posityive for the band
I think it has. With things like the internet it's really easy for kids to check on the web what they've seen on a poster, and by then they'll know like 3 of the songs already. So wherever we play, if there is good advertising, people generally will know something about the band before they go see them. They will know what they're expecting.
Have you traveled much before the band?
Before the band I've never been more east then Winnipeg . Now I've been to Toronto, Montreal, the maritimes and it's all because of the band. I've been to Europe once but now I've been twice and I've kinda seen a lot more then when I traveled on my own. I've never really been in the states other then Disney Land and back so now I've pretty much seen all the states. So touring and being in the band has showed me a lot of the world .
Have you ever thought about doing anything south of the equator?
There has been talks about doing Brazil because our CD just recently came out there. It doesn't look like there is any solid plans to go down to Brazil but we would like to try it sometime. I know that the Satanic Surfers went and did it. A band from Europe called Flat Cat have done it a few times and have told us that it's been a great experience.
Compare for us the new belvedere to the old?
Well it's obviously changed a little bit. As you get older and you've been in the band for a while. We wanted like stuff from the same genre of music but everyone listens to different stuff and they all have different input. But I think that the new stuff in some ways is a touch slower but in other ways it's a lot harder and more aggressive. So I really like the way our music has been going. Since we have recorded a split CD with 5 songs, we're really pumped up to get out a full length release with 12 different deep songs. A lot of bands out there are really eager and pumped up on our style of music such as Rise Against, Near Miss, Strike Anywhere. Bands like that, that I've heard recently really make me feel good about our fast hard style of punk that seemed to have died a little bit. Emo is slower which there is nothing wrong with that, but not really my thing. When I heard the new rise against I just thought this is what I love, this is my type of music.
What are your plans for the future?
No real plans, A lot of the bands are touring right now.. We'd like to play with bands like Closet Monster. I know that we don't have a lot of plans. I'd like to go to Europe, Canada again and try to get some stuff together for our next tour, so it's all about making it happen. We wanna just get touring so that we get our music out as far as we can. Maybe we can get out to Japan or Australia, play some shows, get our Cd's out there.
Got any last words for your fans or future fans?
We're fully supportive of the internet media trading, of Kazaa or anything like that. We are more then happy and we really encourage that you download it and burn it, come and see us at a show, buy a Cd and burn it for your friends. Whatever you gotta do to push the music. We're not here for a buck. Like the music and come to see a show, that's what we're all about!
