TO NICE TO ROCK
By Spencer Cantley
I’m too nice to be a rock star. Yep It’s not because I can’t play, or dress cool, or get along with my band mates, or even because I get stage fright. The fact is, I’m just too nice. Music does weird things to people, and unfortunately for most of us, looking, and acting the part is just as important as playing the music. I have been involved in music most of my life (I'm 25) and It is linked to some of the best memories I have, and the ones that are about music are the strongest. Like the way a great song gets stuck in your head… I have played in dozens of bands, I’ve formed bands, broken them up. Been kicked out of a band, and I’ve also done the kicking out. Politics play such a huge role in bands, It is a wonder some manage as well as they do. Try getting 3-5 people to show up to practice, stay together and agree on anything is a task in itself. It’s intense, it’s nerve wrecking, it makes me feel sick, and It’s amazing , I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. The feeling of being on stage, Playing, your songs, and seeing people in the crowd enjoying it… Words can’t describe, But I’m going to try. And that’s what this is, It’s an abridged autobiography of my life in music. So bare with me, here goes.
ROCKING FROM A YOUNG AGE
I’m not sure where to start, I suppose I could start by telling you how I began taking piano lessons at a young age, I still remember my first performance, I was so nervous I couldn’t stop shaking, and That’s not good when your playing the piano. Even if the piece is only Mary had a little lamb. Needless to say that was my first and last piano recital. But soon after I picked up the trombone, and that’s when I really discovered my love affair with music. So it was the 80’s, And I couldn’t tell the difference between suck and rock yet. But let me tell you how I got from point A to point B. Hey after all I am an 80’s kid, so right away that has to tell you something. I grew up in a small isolated community, my only view into the world of commercial music was through Dan Gallagher’s Video Hits on CBC television. Didn’t that show rock? Well probably not, I mean it was Canadian, at a time when most of the big Canadian act’s sucked, stuff like Van Helen, and New Kids on the Block were ruling the airwaves. Let me tell you Bryan Adams is not really my idea of great rock and roll! Oh don’t forget Gowan. That guy really did Rock, I loved the song you’re a strange animal. It was creepy and catchy, and like nothing I had ever heard before. I still have the tape. All I am saying is that it’s amazing that I ever found underground music, I know that now with the internet, every kind of music is everywhere, at your fingertips, But it wasn’t like that at all when I was a kid. Don’t deny it, I know you had those New Kids On The Block posters on your bedroom walls! Somehow I managed to get past all the commercial crap out there. I survived the 80’s. Even with my steady diet of video hits, He-man and peanut butter sandwiches.
So why The title TOO NICE TO ROCK?
Well that’s simple. It refers to the fact that so many bands have these tough guy attitudes these days. That’s not what I want to convey. I am here to make raw, honest music. I believe that there are only three things a band needs to succeed: TALENT- this is obvious, but I must explain something. Succeeding in my book is not necessarily the same as Sony music’s idea of succeeding. If I can put out a CD of good original music, and people like it, then that to me is success. Sure money is great, it pays the bills. But I could have all the money in the world, and if my band sounded like THE BACKSTREET BOYS. Well that's just who I am. I think that UNIQUE song writing ability is veryImportant. You can be the next NIRVANA, or THEORY OF A NICKLE CREED clone band. But if it all sounds the same then it’s not going to last. And besides, anyone can sound like any of these bands. There’s no challenge in that, it’s been done before. It is human nature to copy what we see and hear. To be able to bring a unique perspective to the song writing process is something that is becoming increasingly difficult to do, but something I believe is intensely important to rocking out. Finally CONFIDENCE: in what you are doing, and what you are saying, or what you are not saying. There is something to be said, for not saying anything at all. But it is important to have confidence not only in your music, but in yourself and your band members. You are friends as well as band mates. And this can be one of the hardest things to achieve, and I have lost friends over this. Band members lose confidence in one another. Bands break up, and people never talk to each other again. Confidence is not as obvious as you think either. Everyone deals with it in different ways, but everyone has issues with it. You may think that anyone who can get on a stage and sing to you must have nerves of steel. That is simply not true, it takes guts, to get up there, and sometimes it can be downright scary. It does get easier the more you do it but that doesn’t mean you won’t be scared shitless while doing it. This is why any band giving it there all should be commended. It is hard work, and anyone who sticks with it deserves to be rewarded.
MY FIRST TIME
I can still remember the first day I got into rock. It was my 15th birthday, and my parents had just presented me with my very first drum set. They picked it up at a local pawn shop for a hundred bucks. Actually it was barely a drum set at all. It was the ugliest vinyl maple fake wood 2-ply crap I had ever seen. It consisted of a bass drum, with a broken pedal, a snare, with a broken snare chain, and an unnamed hi-hat and cymbal. Lackluster ness aside, I was beside myself with excitement at the potential it gave me.
To me it was a drum set, and that was all that mattered. It really didn’t matter what kind of shape it was in, I couldn’t play anyway.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents for putting up with my off time banging and crashing (In the house) let alone at all. Thanks Mom and Dad. Shortly after my birthday I picked up another cymbal and a floor tom, I now had a full makeshift set, and I was ready to begin rocking!
My first band consisted of myself and three other Dungeons and Dragons role playing buddies, so it’s no surprise that they wanted to call the band the Whirling Juggernauts of Doom. We played our first show ever under this ridiculous name, at a rec center close to our High School. We all have fond memories of the Hotbox, (as it was called by the stoners) eventually the name stuck, like too much pot resin on the bathroom walls.
We opened the show and played our hit song, (Fishbowl) which followed the Nirvana ethic of quiet part, loud part, and repeat. The songs chorus consisted of the lyrics- “Shark… Shark… Shark…… in the … FISHBOWL! Ha, it can be taken on so many levels. Its pure genius.
There were only about fifteen people in the audience, most of those people being the other two bands, and their girlfriends. But we didn’t even mind when most of the audience went outside to smoke, we didn’t care that the singer of one of the other bands was sitting on a chair in the middle of the dance floor, watching and laughing at us all the while. And why not, we were really loud, and really unable to play our instruments. Still that is one of the best shows I have ever played, or will ever play, because it was my first show, and just like the first time having sex, whether it was a good experience or not, you can’t forget it. You will always remember exactly how you felt, how your heart was pounding out of your chest. Words can’t do the first time justice.
We went on to play a few more shows at the Hotbox and at our High Schools Coffee house nights. And soon after decided to change our name and get serious! There may be some debate about this, but I think it was our singer who came up with this name. The name that stuck for six years, it was FERAL which means, Feral to be wild, and Elysium meaning a happy place of the dead- heaven. So the name roughly translated into wild Heaven. That sounds so wimpy translated into English. We were anything but a wimpy sounding band.
Our sound had evolved from some kind of a Nirvanaish gunge band , into something still very heavy, but with long songs with many parts and switching time signatures. Pretty much a Stoner Rock band (think Black Sabbath, Fu Manchu)
CAFE OLE- MY FIRST REAL EDUCATION
Our first real show, which was at one of the best all ages clubs that I have ever seen, was at Café Ole. In its day it boasted that it was the longest running all ages club in Canada, lasting approximately six years. It was located on Barrington Street, in Downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. Where most of these accounts will take place. The main entrance was at street level, sandwiched between a used CD store, and a Gay and Lesbian variety store. It was never meant to be anything more then an office and storage space, but it became so much more to so many. The street level door was in an alcove that was covered with graffiti, most of it so old it was unreadable. It always smelled like piss here because some drunk was always relieving himself in the corner. When you entered the door, your eyes took a minute to adjust because the only light was coming from the doorway you had just stepped through. Once you could see there were immediately two flights of dark stairs. Everything was painted black, the stairs, the walls, even the ceiling. The only other light came from a small black light at the very top of the stairway, which made your clothes and teeth glow. The walls in the stairway where also covered in scrawling, mostly of long dead bands such as Deep Woods, and The Chitz. They would stand out and would burn into your retina. When you reached the top of the stairs (which was no picnic with amps, drums, and guitars) you came to another doorway. Stale sweet and blasting heat hit you so hard you almost fell over, but once though that threshold you were in the main room of Café Ole. Other then that room there was a small backstage area, a very small office and a toilet. That was it. The main room was not much bigger then your average size High School classroom, It had cracked black and white checkered floors, flat black walls, and a large old disco ball hanging above the “Dance floor” that looked like it had caught a Saturday night fever.
The tiny stage sat at the front of the room against a large window looking over the street. The stage was not much more then a few planks supported by some cinderblocks. As a result, it needed to be replaced every once and awhile. The only in house equipment was the PA sound system that was on permanent loan from a local music store. The rest of the equipment was supplied by the bands playing. At the other end of the room was a concession stand serving cold drinks and potato chips, and in the opposite corner was the makeshift sound booth, nothing more then a wooden box on stilts. Next to the main entrance to the main room, was a wall that had been partially knocked down, and where a hallway still divided the wall and the dance floor. This wall was a great spot to sit and watch the bands, and smooch with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Along both walls there where six metal stands from floor to ceiling (three on either side of the room) with lights strung all over them. Other then the stage lights these where the only lights on the dance floor, so it was always dark. But that just added to the amazing atmosphere.
When you crammed 200 plus sweaty teenage bodies into that space you where literally packed like sardines, unable, and sometimes unwilling to move. I still remember being at shows like this when the posters on the walls would be sliding off because of all the condensation in the room.I learned a lot of valuable life lessons in that room. Like how to survive a mosh pit. The difference between a loud band and an ear splitting one, and how to lust, ahem, I mean how to talk to girls.
I made a lot of great friends at Café Ole, and saw a lot of amazing bands, and even more shitty ones, too many to name, although I will try. That’s why it was so difficult when we found out Café Ole was closing its doors for good. The theatre next door was expanding, building a new stage. This meant that they now shared a wall with the Café. They soon complained about the noise, and that was it. Café Ole was closing its doors for good, after six incredible years. So we had one last crazy loud emotional jam packed show. And by the end of the night, tears and leaves where falling everywhere, as local hardcore hero’s Equation of State finished the night off with an explosive rendition of their song “New Beginning” Everyone rushed the stage, and the place went nuts.
There seemed to be a real sense of family back then, maybe because I was an impressionable teenager, maybe things are not so different today, I just have a hard time relating to the kids, because now I have bills to pay and other things to think about then what I’m going to do on Saturday night. But it really seems to me that we had something really special that only a handful of people really knew about. We all secretly cherished that feeling.
PUNKS NOT DEAD
After Feral Elysium began to die down a bit, the Bass player and I decided to start a side project with another friend of mine. We started jamming together in early 1996, but this was unlike the heaviness of FERAL. This was all out punk. We decided to call ourselves GUSS, and I can’t even remember where that name came from, it was just a name. We made a demo tape two weeks after we began playing together, dubbed about twenty copies, and gave them to our friends. It wasn’t long after this that we realized there where already two other bands in existence called GUSS, so we decided to change our name. This time Nick came up with the name THE ABANDONED, it was a very punk sounding name. So it stuck until the band broke up in 1998. We recorded two demo tapes in the course of these two years, the first which was recorded by ourselves after two weeks of playing together was called THE YEAR OF THE RAT, and the second was called NUMB SKULL PUNX. That Demo was recorded with a slightly higher audio quality, and we may have actually paid a hundred dollars to have it recorded and mastered. We never really had any hits, but the songs that got the most feedback where probably DIE NAZIS, which speaks for itself, DRUGS SUCK, once again no explanation needed, and the best song we knew how to play, Ace of Spades by Motorhead.
We were one of those bands that you never really enjoyed, but we seemed to have good turnouts at our shows, and it was all because of our singer/Guitar player Nick. Something exciting always happened. Whether he was pissing off the crowd by singing about how drugs suck, or even if he astonished them with one of his blistering guitar solos. The best example I can give was at the annual Punk Fest held at Café Ole every year. This was a weekend of pure messy, sweaty punk rock. Where many local bands and a few out of town bands were given a chance to thrive. THE ABANDONED was picked as one of the opening bands, and we where thrilled to be playing. During our set the crowd was thrashing about wildly, and being quite violent, and at one point, one of the punks in the audience decided he didn’t like what Nick was singing about. So he reached up and hit Nick as hard as he could. Nick retaliated in a very swift move, by hitting the punk back and continuing his crazy guitar solo. The rest of the crowd having seen this senseless violence, immediately grabbed the punk, and quickly swept him out of the door and into the street. I will never forget that show. To me it was everything a great punk show should be. It was hot and sweaty, electric, it stunk, there was political tension, and mild violence, the most important thing being that nobody got hurt. That was everything a young punk band could hope for. It was THE ABANDONED’S finest moment.
Playing in a band such as THE ABANDONED can get pretty stale pretty quickly, the bass player wanted out, as he was moving away to go to university, so the band called it quits in the summer of 1998. Now out of a bass player Nick and I decided to find someone new to play bass, and to get a new singer. We did this, and in late 1998 ENSURE, and finally HEADSTRONG was born. But this band would never even get to play a show, and Nick ended up leaving the band before anything really happened. Another new bass player was added (man those guys are squirrelly) and the old one moved to guitar. We then Became LED BY REGRET, an emotional hardcore band, who immediately gelled and began to play shows. This was a very exciting band to be in, and we quickly created a buzz for ourselves. We recorded a self titled Demo, and things seemed to be going really well. But all was not as it seemed, and a year after LED BY REGRET was formed I was asked to leave the band. Looking back on it now, I can hardly explain what happened. All I do know is that we stopped communicating. I can honestly say that I was more relieved then anything when this happened. Although I still believe we could have worked it out of we had bothered to talk about it. Unfortunately young men in bands are not always the best at talking through their problems, and it is infinitely easier to just kick out the clashing member. This is what happened to Nick before me, and this is what was happening to me. The band went on to release a self titled CD with a new drummer, and to go on a few mini tours, I never felt too jealous, I was just disappointed to find out that I WAS thanked in the liner notes, but my name had been spelled wrong.
TIME OUT
I took some time off of playing in a full time band after that experience. FERAL ELYSIUM was still practicing on and off, not playing too many shows. We had lost our singer about a year before this time, but decided we would continue as an instrumental band. I am really glad we did because it helped my drumming immensely. The bass player had been studying music at university, and he continued to challenge the guitar player and myself with uniquely structured songs and odd time signatures. We began to write songs without the verse/course/verse method that modern pop music often takes and began to experiment, building songs one layer at a time. We put out a full length CD called DIESEL ENGINES, and a we also had a song called “Memory Bank” on a compilation CD titled “new rays from a rising black sun” from an independent magazine called “Dirt Culture” published out of Arizona. We also had an extensive website that can be found at www.stonerrock.com and as I write this the website still exists, with only a few broken links. Amazingly enough. As with many friendships, eventually over time they fade and diminish, and that’s what happened to FERAL ELYSIUM.
We were just not as close as we had once been, our musical tastes where going in three different directions, and it seemed pointless to continue the band, so in 2002 after six years together we called it quits.
SCHOOL
At this point I was busy in university and later in photography at the local community collage. I didn’t give a lot of thought to being in a steady band. I was mostly concentrating on my photography. But something was bound to come up sooner or later, and not long after going to the community collage I came across, another passionate young musician, who had similar musical interests. We started jamming together. Once again I played drums and he played guitar, he got a friend of his to play bass and soon after, the band was named SIXES AND SEVENS. This name refers to the old English saying “to be at sixes and sevens, which means to be at the end of your rope, or to be very frustrated. It seemed to be a fitting name for an indie rock band, such as ourselves. Our guitar player wrote all of the songs exclusively, it was always his project from the beginning. It seemed as soon as the three of us got together, we were on overdrive until we crashed and burned just over a year later. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
ROCKIN AGAIN
The year is now up to 2002, and Garage rock has made a triumphant return, and we where determined to ride that wave. We took our influences in the vein of bands such as The Hives, Division of Laura Lee, and most importantly, THE STOOGES. We were loud, fast, sloppy, and just plain fun. I hope that is what everyone got out of our shows. This was the first band where I tried to do it as professionally as I could. I made a press kit for the band, and after we recorded our self titled CD for 200 dollars, we began to send press kits around the city, and to sell our CD in local record stores, such as CD PLUS, SAM THE RECORD MAN, and NO RECORDS. We enjoyed frequent airplay on CKDU, and were featured twice live on the air, playing on the local punk show. People began to recognize me in the street, people I had never seen before. It was a very strange feeling. We where talking of doing a lot of things, by this point, most of which never happened. We had a website, which no longer exists. We made t-shirts, which I still have plenty of in a bag in my closet. We had independently recorded, produced and promoted our CD. The next thing was to make a video, for the song, “KISS THE MISSLE” but the problem was that we had no money. So the Video idea would half to wait. We did manage to play a lot of great shows, two of the more memorable being TUBLEWEED the outdoor summer music festival, and the infamous Halifax Pop Explosion, with local bad boys OH GOD, and awesome Torontonians, DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979. Sadly we did not realize at the time that The Pop Explosion show would be our last time on stage together.
IT'S OVER
The band just imploded on itself. We started strong, burned very brightly for a very short time, and exhausted ourselves. It was nothing new, just three guys releasing a lot of steam. I think that any minimum success that we may have had went straight to our heads. None of us really knew how to handle it, and this was small time. When you stop to think about it, who really cares if a couple of zit faced teenagers recognize you as that guy in that band. Aside from the intensity and bullshit, this was still an amazing band to be in. There is something to be said for a power rock trio. That is definitely what we where. We tried to do too much at once, and as a result the quality suffered. The six song CD was recorded in a weekend, all of the vocal tracks where done in one afternoon. Buy the end of the CD you can hear that his voice is about to give out. The next time I am a part of the CD recording process, I will take my time. The one reason that any band member anywhere should be into the band is for the love of the music… period. But this is not always the case. And this was definitely not the case with SIXES AND SEVENS. We simply did not all take it seriously, and I think that that is why we failed so early in the game. You all need to have the same love and drive to make the music. If you don’t all share the same goals as well then you will be going nowhere fast. Plying in a band is like having a three headed girlfriend. It’s intense, and emotions run high. You don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but if you don’t all work together, it will all fall apart, and you will be left playing with yourself.
