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Love You To Death was another band that I found playing at the Hope For The Sold Benefit, and again, after checking out their MySpace, I was extremely impressed and knew I definitely wanted to talk with them. I was lucky enough to get in touch with Scotty (guitars, vocals), and have him answer our questions about their recording process, their live show, and their lyrics. (We also find out that Scotty likes to ramble a lot. That's okay, there's nothing wrong with that at all.)

"I usually try to theme the song in a pop-culture sort of way to be a little more interesting, and get people to relate on a bit of a different level."
- Scotty: Love You To Death

For our readers who don't know who you are, roll call. Who are you and what do you do for the band?

My name is Scotty. I play guitar and sing for Love You To Death, and write all the damn songs. I also record and produce our songs as well. I also manufacture band members out of discarded auto parts, and program them to play our set. I also deliver babies and heal diseases at live shows.

How did Love You To Death come to be?

We used to be called The Pettit Project. We were called that for about 8 years, and formed out of Oakville, Ontario. The band was started by myself and Connor Lovat-Fraser (the singer of Boys Night Out) when we were living together in a house on Pettit court. Alison joined the band shortly after its conception. Connor obviously has since left and gone on to Boys Night Out. In total we've had something like 21 band members. The current line-up has be the same for the past 3 years or so-- which is a personal best for us. I must be getting more tolerable as a dictator. We changed our name to Love You To Death about a year ago because nobody could spell or pronounce our name correctly, and every time we told people our band name they couldn't understand what we were trying to say. Bummer changing your name after 8 years, but the new name is better and frustrates us less.

What was it that inspired you to get into music, and is it the same thing that continues to inspire you today?

I'm not sure what inspires anybody to get into music. We all enjoy listening to music-- well most people anyway. So then I took up bass and started to play it and realized I liked breaking apart songs that I liked, in order to see how they were made. I discovered I was a pretty good musician and songwriter, and enjoyed writing songs and being in a band. I do now, just as much as ever. Pretty boring answer. Let me think of something cooler.... I was once held up by a bunch of blues guys when I was a kid, and they said they'd kill me if I didn't sing them a song. Ever since then I've had this weird feeling like I had to play music or I'd be murdered by old blues guys.

Your newest EP, RIP Cupcake went up on iTunes in November, how was the recording process for that, and how has that been received by your fans so far?

The recording process was weird. Well not the process of actually recording-- thats always relaxed and fun because I have my own studio. But the process of how the EP was assembled is non-traditional. About a year and a half ago we recorded a number of those songs as The Pettit Project and released them as a free EP for download from our website. Then a year later we changed our name, recorded a couple other songs, added them to some of the previous ones, and called it a new release.... only this time charging for it so that we can actually afford to be a band... and, you know, eat.

What is it that inspires your lyrics, and is there one particular lyrics that means the most to you?

Our lyrics are all just real things that went down told in a bit of a more literal way than most bands. However I'm not all that satisfied if its only "this happened, then this happened, this is how I feel". I usually try to theme the song in a pop-culture sort of way to be a little more interesting, and get people to relate on a bit of a different level. For example I'll equate a relationship to something to do with driving a car, or Transformers, or Super Mario.... nerd alert! As far as lyrics of mine that mean the most to me... hmmm. I'm writing a new album, and all the new songs hit close to home... I guess because I'm writing them about stuff thats happening right now. Duh, Scott.

For those readers who haven't seen you play live, can you describe your live show? What gets the best reaction from the crowd?

It's actually pretty nuts. We wear fire-proof suits and play our entire set totally engulfed in flames. However thats only if the venue permits it. And they never do. But for real, we have two cute chicks in short skirts playing keyboards.. one is actually playing a keytar. And I'm devastatingly handsome as well. Lots and LOTS of different sounds and melodies going. Everything you hear in our recorded tracks is replicated at our live show, which is cool. In case you didn't pick up from this interview... I also ramble on a lot. I end up talking between songs for durations longer than our songs themselves, unless I'm kept in check. My band calls it Scotts Comedy Hour, and they sound sarcastic when they say the "comedy" part. F*ck them. F*ck my band.

What is your favorite part of being on stage?

Scott's Comedy Hour. F*ck my band.

You're performing at the "Hope For The Sold" benefit, can you tell us a little more about that, and what is it that got you interested in the cause?

As awful as it sounds, we tend to pass on benefit shows. A lot of them I just don't care or understand the benefit, or I don't trust that the money made is actually going to end up helping. I tend to be pretty self-centered and seemingly uncaring, or at least un-PC. But in this case I actually kinda jumped at the chance. I'm a big big fan of true crime literature and documentaries, and the stuff that's always horrified me the most (besides my destructive personal relationships), has always been people trafficking, and essentially the sex-slave trade by some of the more despicable organized crime elements. I couldn't imaging anything more awful for a human being to go through. The thought of it actually sort of bums me out about the world in general-- the idea that such a thing is even possible, let alone happening in more frequency that we could even imagine, and there are VERY few other things that effect me to read or hear about as much that. It seems like such a different world, and a difficult thing to battle, so any way that we can help out, we're happy to.

What is it that fuels your passion for what you do?

Songwriting is pretty much the only activity I can do that essentially makes me lose track of time. Everything else stops, and I'm enjoying myself so thoroughly that I basically exist for nothing else. It sounds cheesy, but we should all be so lucky to have that one thing that can do that. And the nice thing is that the inspiration hits me only when it wants to hit me... so there are peaks and valleys with it, which tends to help the end product and makes me more excited when it happens. Also if I was just doing that all the time I'd starve to death. Playing the music with my friends in the band is fun too. Without them I'd have, like, 2 friends.

What has been the biggest moment for the band? What has been the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge is people "not getting" us and being rejected a billion times more than you're accepted or appreciated. As much as we're just a pop band, and tend to get lumped into pop-punk, we have enough different elements that have "confused" people in the record industry, so much as to make it difficult for them to see where we would fit in, or how we would be marketed. So as a result we get a lot of interest that ultimately goes no where when they get cold feet. I suppose thats with any artist thats been around for a while. That being said, we've had a lot of great moments. Playing with some great bands at some great shows, Warped Tour, Hedley, Alexisonfire, and with our friends like Hellogoodbye, Fe Fe Dobson, Silverstein, Boys Night Out. And I guess the most helpful, and certainly super-fun thing we've done is, as The Pettit Project, had an episode written about is on Radio Free Roscoe, where we were actually on the show. If you have 22 spare minutes, go to YouTube and look up "Pettit Project Drinking Game", and watch me get pathetically drunk to the episode.

Here at the Sound Faction we are five of the most random people you will ever meet, so we like to end our interviews on a less serious note with five random questions. Are you up for that?

Like I have a choice.

Manda's note: Actually... you did. Just sayin'...

If you could have lunch with any fictional character, who would it be and why?

Patrick Bateman in the book American Psycho. Cause he's awesome.

Name one guilty pleasure anything!

I love t.A.T.u. and Aqua... for real.

What's your favourite song on Guitar Hero?

Lay Down, by Priestess. Its one of those things where I wouldn't give the song a second listen if it wasn't for Guitar Hero. Now I think its totally badass.

What is one piece of clothing that you can't live without, and why?

The scarf holding in the blood and throat-guts from a festering bullet wound in my neck that I received on vacation in Israel. Because of the nature of the wound it won't heal, and I'll bleed to death without the scarf. I literally "can't live" without it. Also I enjoy my brightly coloured sneakers.

Who would you wanna win a date with?

Jesus, I guess.

And here's your shameless self-promo spot: anything you'd like to add about yourselves, the music, or anything else?

Obviously if you get a chance, go listen to us at myspace.com/loveyoutodeathrock or purevolume.com/loveyoutodeath and if you like anything you hear, be a doll and spend the 99 cents per song on iTunes. We DO play for the love of the music and to give you guys something to enjoy, but bands simply can't exist if they don't have a little bit of money for gear, studio, and tour. So please be a doll and support the bands you like-- we're all thousands of dollars in the hole but still want to keep going forever.

Thank you so much to Scotty for taking the time to answer our questions (even if he felt like he had no choice when it came to the randoms...), and definitely head over to Love You To Deaths MySpace and PureVolume, you won't regret it. To learn more about the cause, Hope For The Sold, you can find it here.