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Natty vs. The Waking Eyes
Sometimes, just sometimes there is a band that you stumble upon if not by chance then by someone putting them in front of you to take a listen to. That is how I came across The Waking eyes, a band from Winnipeg who have an eclectic sound that is ever evolving and a style all their own. If you have a chance you should go out and pick up their new album, it is filled with amazing sounds and each song offers something different and completely unique for the year.
I had a chance to sit down and talk to Matt and Rusty and talk to them about their music and where they see things going in the future. By chance if you have some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies you should look them up, they might take you to the dark side with them.
“Musically, lyrically, it’s quite different from other stuff we've done.”
Matt: The Waking Eyes
First off, Roll Call, for our readers who don't know, can you introduce yourself?
Rusty - Guitar, keyboards and Sing.
Matt - and I do the same thing.
Matt - and I do the same thing.
You guys formed after the breakup of two other Manitoba based bands, how did you decide to form The Waking Eyes?
Matt - Well I think we, well I had another band called The Pets and Rusty was in another band called Novillero. Which isn't broken up, they are still going strong. We met each other, and we kind of knew that we liked hanging out and making music together. And so it was kind of inevitable that we would start something together as soon as all the other stuff dissolved. We kind of got together and enjoyed the recording style we had at the time, which was just in our basements, just one track at a time, which was really obnoxious, but in the end it kind of forces you to make certain decisions that are cool. We liked the way we were recording and we just went nuts and worked on our first record for fifteen months or something stupid like that. It was a passionate love affair for this album that we finished. It was done and at that point we had everything figured out for the name and everything.
Where exactly did the band name come from? And is there any significance behind it?
Rusty - a guy who used to play in our band, Merlyn Schultz, he came up with the name. It’s a Pink Floyd lyric.
Matt - from the song Echos.
Matt - from the song Echos.
You guys have been together since 2001, how has your music evolved since then?
Rusty – That’s pretty much all it’s been doing since '01.
Matt - Our first record was a neo-psychedelic kinda affair, which was in line with some of the stuff we'd been doing beforehand. We did that, and our last record, we decided we wanted t focus our sound a bit, it was much more of a garage rock album. With this one we just sort of realized that we couldn't focus in on one sound, we are not capable of it. I think a lot of bands have an easy time just saying this is the four or five elements we use, let’s just stick with that because it’s tried and true.
Matt - Our first record was a neo-psychedelic kinda affair, which was in line with some of the stuff we'd been doing beforehand. We did that, and our last record, we decided we wanted t focus our sound a bit, it was much more of a garage rock album. With this one we just sort of realized that we couldn't focus in on one sound, we are not capable of it. I think a lot of bands have an easy time just saying this is the four or five elements we use, let’s just stick with that because it’s tried and true.
What are your major influences in music? Are there any that people would be surprised by?
Matt - Oh the influence question.
Rusty - that’s a tough one. Unique sounds, good music, good songwriting, unique song writing. Everything from Outkast to Radiohead to the Beatles to Weezer.
Rusty - that’s a tough one. Unique sounds, good music, good songwriting, unique song writing. Everything from Outkast to Radiohead to the Beatles to Weezer.
You pick something from everything?
Matt - Yeah I do. I like classical and Joey likes Jazz and I think we draw from a lot of different places. When I’m asked that questions I always have a hard time deciding which bands do you select to be in your influence circle. It’s kinda hard. I mean there is a lot of stuff and it’s constantly changing and you have to evolve who’s influencing you at any given moment because if you are listening to the same five artists when you started your band it kinda stays that way.
And you aren't really evolving yourself?
Matt - Exactly.
Your new album was released digitally on July 1, how does this record compare to anything that you've done in the past?
Matt - It’s totally different, like I was saying our last one was garage rock. This one is more us just accepting the fact that we are very unique and we kind of like to have a lot of tangents and go all over the place. Having good harmonies and huge choruses, vocal harmonies and not really restricting ourselves to anything. Musically, lyrically, it’s quite different from other stuff we've done.
I noticed that it took you guys from 2005 to 2007 to work on the new album, was there a reason behind the length of time in creating the album?
Rusty - We just wrote over a 100 songs and we were recording them constantly, and we kept putting together what we thought would be a good album. Then we would write new songs and then naturally they took over. We had to stop somewhere.
Matt - and now we look back at the first batch that we thought were gonna be the full album, and they were so awful, we look back at them and laugh. It’s not that awful, it’s one of those things that you realize that in two or three years you change.
Matt - and now we look back at the first batch that we thought were gonna be the full album, and they were so awful, we look back at them and laugh. It’s not that awful, it’s one of those things that you realize that in two or three years you change.
Well, even in a year span.
Matt - That being said it’s been a year since we've finished the record. It’s been a long wait since the record came out and we still like the songs, and we enjoying playing them.
Do you think that taking so much time to create the album makes it that much more significant to the band as a whole? (ie: spending more time sometimes makes things better and more relevant to yourself, you end up being more satisfied in the end result)
Rusty - Yah I think so. We spent a lot of time redoing things, and making sure it was the way we wanted it to be.
I noticed that you guys did an acoustic set back in early October called Busking for Change for WarChild, what made you decide to work with WarChild?
Rusty - They kinda came to us. It was a good opportunity, and you can't say no to something like that.
Matt - It was fun, it kinda forced us to learn a lot of covers because we never really play any of our own material, so we just picked songs that we were listening to at that point.
Rusty - I've never busked before.
Matt - Yeah you've never busked, Joey our Bass player did, he busked in the past.
Rusty - It was a fun experience.
Matt - It was fun, it kinda forced us to learn a lot of covers because we never really play any of our own material, so we just picked songs that we were listening to at that point.
Rusty - I've never busked before.
Matt - Yeah you've never busked, Joey our Bass player did, he busked in the past.
Rusty - It was a fun experience.
The music industry is a very volatile industry, what if anything do you take from criticism?
Rusty - Like the criticism that we were reading on the internet.
Matt - When we decided to wear all black. We are constantly trying to figure out how we're going to dress, we tried a ton of different things and well black just worked. Somehow we're going to have black in everything we wore. Someone on the internet realized in all the pictures in the last three weeks, from shows, in every single f*cking shot we are wearing black and the same thing.
Rusty - Like the same black shirt, and they actually pointed out mine, which I’ll be wearing tonight.
Matt - F*ck it we're still wearing it. Something like that is an example of good criticism, where you’re like, you know what, it’s true, and its kinda awkward.
Rusty - It's kind of embarrassing
Matt - Yeah, and you kinda realize, we need to get more clothes and some of it is empty. You kinda have to take it with a grain of salt.
Rusty - I remember on our very first album when there were some bad reviews I took it very personally and I was like 20 years old. It doesn't bother me anymore, I mean if someone wants to say whatever they want to say, it's their opinion.
Matt - That being said you can't really take the really good ones, because on that album we got some really good press. When you get really good press you can't buy into it too much and believe it. I mean you want to believe what you made is this great amazing thing. But at the same time you can't let hype or anything get to your head.
Matt - When we decided to wear all black. We are constantly trying to figure out how we're going to dress, we tried a ton of different things and well black just worked. Somehow we're going to have black in everything we wore. Someone on the internet realized in all the pictures in the last three weeks, from shows, in every single f*cking shot we are wearing black and the same thing.
Rusty - Like the same black shirt, and they actually pointed out mine, which I’ll be wearing tonight.
Matt - F*ck it we're still wearing it. Something like that is an example of good criticism, where you’re like, you know what, it’s true, and its kinda awkward.
Rusty - It's kind of embarrassing
Matt - Yeah, and you kinda realize, we need to get more clothes and some of it is empty. You kinda have to take it with a grain of salt.
Rusty - I remember on our very first album when there were some bad reviews I took it very personally and I was like 20 years old. It doesn't bother me anymore, I mean if someone wants to say whatever they want to say, it's their opinion.
Matt - That being said you can't really take the really good ones, because on that album we got some really good press. When you get really good press you can't buy into it too much and believe it. I mean you want to believe what you made is this great amazing thing. But at the same time you can't let hype or anything get to your head.
As a band that has been around for a while, where do you see your music going in the future?
Rusty - We have no idea, something totally different from this record probably.
Matt - I'm sure it will sound completely different and we'll alienate everyone again.
Rusty - I think everything we do has a thread of our sound through it, I mean our album still sounds like an album. But the next one will be totally different but still sound like us.
Matt - Sometimes we try to pin down what defines us musically, and it’s really hard for us to answer that question sometimes and I think I’ve kinda stopped worrying about it in a sense and just make whatever comes naturally to us. You want to have your head screwed on straight, you want to keep people in mind, you can't just get up there and plug your guitar in and play feedback for 45 minutes. But at the same time you want to do something that feels right at the time, you don't want something that’s tied down to structure or arrangement or that sorta thing. I mean naturally if you have pop sensibilities you want to have a melody and harmonies, etc. At the same time I like embracing that we are kinda eclectic and in our next record if we do something completely different hopefully we'll have developed enough of a fan base that they will like that approach.
Matt - I'm sure it will sound completely different and we'll alienate everyone again.
Rusty - I think everything we do has a thread of our sound through it, I mean our album still sounds like an album. But the next one will be totally different but still sound like us.
Matt - Sometimes we try to pin down what defines us musically, and it’s really hard for us to answer that question sometimes and I think I’ve kinda stopped worrying about it in a sense and just make whatever comes naturally to us. You want to have your head screwed on straight, you want to keep people in mind, you can't just get up there and plug your guitar in and play feedback for 45 minutes. But at the same time you want to do something that feels right at the time, you don't want something that’s tied down to structure or arrangement or that sorta thing. I mean naturally if you have pop sensibilities you want to have a melody and harmonies, etc. At the same time I like embracing that we are kinda eclectic and in our next record if we do something completely different hopefully we'll have developed enough of a fan base that they will like that approach.
That’s what I enjoy, the fact that every song on the album is a little different.
Matt - I mean people have iPods now and they really, they don't listen to a full record but I mean I try because I like the record as an art form, but it’s fun to make playlists.
If you could be in charge of the music industry for one day, what would be the first thing that you would change?
Rusty - I would make us massive.
Matt - give artists 100% of everything, I don't know, what would you change?
Rusty - I would put music videos back on MuchMusic.
Matt - That’s what I’d do, that’s awesome.
Rusty - Canadian rock bands, I used to come home from school and learn about new music.
Matt - give artists 100% of everything, I don't know, what would you change?
Rusty - I would put music videos back on MuchMusic.
Matt - That’s what I’d do, that’s awesome.
Rusty - Canadian rock bands, I used to come home from school and learn about new music.
Exactly that’s what I used to do, and now it’s all half an hour shows.
Rusty - And reality TV.
What advice to have for small time Canadian bands who are trying to make that first break into the industry?
Rusty - Well Matt, I think that you personally, should go to Etobicoke and live in a house for three months.
Manda's Note: ... I live in Etobicoke... ...was that a shot at Etobicoke, dude?
Manda's Note pt2: Joking, I don't really mind if it was. ;)
Matt - Okay this sounds good.
Rusty - Don't do very many shows and when you do, do universities and don't promote them.
Matt - Nope, no, and Friday or Saturdays nobody comes to shows.
Rusty - Do not play on Fridays or Saturdays. Oh, wow that was really sarcastic. Next question. (insert a lot of laughing on all ends here).
Rusty - Don't do very many shows and when you do, do universities and don't promote them.
Matt - Nope, no, and Friday or Saturdays nobody comes to shows.
Rusty - Do not play on Fridays or Saturdays. Oh, wow that was really sarcastic. Next question. (insert a lot of laughing on all ends here).
The Sound Faction is made up of five girls who are random at best, love to laugh and make others laugh. We try with each interview to ask five of the most random questions that you will ever experience in an interview
If you were offered cookies would you come to the dark side? And if not cookies what would make you come to the dark side?
Matt - Yeah, no cookies. I would think cookies. But what kinda cookies, Peanut Butter Chocolate chip?
Yeah.
Matt - Then I’d come to the dark side.
Rusty - I would probably stay on the light side, but we would call each other. You're a red head.
Matt - I'm already on the dark side.
Rusty - I would probably stay on the light side, but we would call each other. You're a red head.
Matt - I'm already on the dark side.
If you could be any fictional character who would you be and why?
Matt - I have the geekiest answer ever. You ever hear of the DragonLance books? I would be Raistlin from DragonLance. That's who I would be.
Rusty - I think I would be Bender from Futurama. He has to drink beer to stay healthy and he's an asshole.
Rusty - I think I would be Bender from Futurama. He has to drink beer to stay healthy and he's an asshole.
If you were a scented candle, what would you smell like and why?
Rusty - Apple Cinnamon
Matt - Shit, I think I would.
Matt - Shit, I think I would.
What's your favorite five letter word?
Rusty - Queue.
Matt - Kyoto, I like that word and it’s very close to queue, I had to analyze that for a second.
Matt - Kyoto, I like that word and it’s very close to queue, I had to analyze that for a second.
What is the one piece of female of clothing (ie: clothes, accessories, shoes, etc) that you just do not understand at all?
Matt - I don't know, I like it all.
Rusty - Scarves in the summertime.
Matt - I wear scarves in the summertime.
Rusty - Yah I know and I just don't get it.
Matt - I like it all, there’s nothing that I don't understand. That makes me sound like a womanizer. Scratch that, I'm not answering that.
Rusty - Scarves in the summertime.
Matt - I wear scarves in the summertime.
Rusty - Yah I know and I just don't get it.
Matt - I like it all, there’s nothing that I don't understand. That makes me sound like a womanizer. Scratch that, I'm not answering that.
I would like to thank Matt and Rusty for taking the time to talk to us. If you want to hear more about the band go check out their myspace here.
