|| The Sound Faction (dot com) ||

On October 17th The Sound Faction headed to The Reverb in Toronto to cover the Teeter CD release party. With them were several other bands that played to the crowd and got everyone pumped up, among them was a band called The Last Forecast. They had great on-stage presence, chatting the crowd up and and cracking jokes with each other, keeping the vibe light and fun as well as keeping us rocking out to fantastic music! I knew immediately that we had to pull them aside and talk to them, and as luck had it, they were just as funny and charming off stage as they were onstage. We chatted about how the band got started, the local scene, and let vocalist and guitarist Elvy get a little personal ad in there as well, he's single and shy, Ladies...

"We love children, and not in the Michael Jackson kind of way."
Elvy: The Last Forecast

First of all, for anybody out there who doesn't know you or anything like that, go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us what you do for the band.

[Elvy]: (Quickly) I'm Elvy!

[Armand]: Try that again, buddy. (Hands Elvy the Microphone)

[Elvy]: We are The Last Forecast

[Armand]: I'm Armand, I play guitar and do backing vocals.

[Elvy]: And uh, my name is Elvy

[Armand]: You gotta spell that, because people will write it with an A.

[Elvy]: E-L-V-Y For the Facebookers out there. Yeah, I sing and I play guitar.

[Jason]: I'm Jason and I keep the beat.

[Fabian]: I'm Fabian, I play bass.

[Armand]: We're the uh, We're The Last Forecast.

[Elvy]: And I smell weed.

[Armand]: Yeah, I smell some marijuana cigarettes right now.

So where do you guys come from? And how does the scene where you guys are treat you?

[Armand]: Well, two of us, Fabian and Myself are actually from Brampton. Um... which has an interesting scene I guess. It's gone through many different phases, there used to be a pop-punk scene, and there was a hardcore scene, and there was a metal scene it kind of goes in stages, I have no idea what it's at right now.

[Fabian]: I don't pay attention anymore.

[Armand]: Yeah, we don't have any venues left at this point so we just kind of rock out to wherever we can, little coffee shops things like that. It's good times. And these two uh..

[Elvy]: We're from Scarborough and to describe the scene we have one action. (Elvy and Jason participate in the "Brap-Brap" signal, which I later find out is what we in Chicago call being shot...)

[Jason]: Gangsta'.

[Elvy]: That sums up the scene there...

[Armand]: We just say that we're Toronto-based. That's the best way to say it.

What made you guys decide to start a band?

[Armand]: Elvy can answer this one! He's the genius behind the bad right now, so...

[Elvy]: Umm...

[Jason]: All right, so it started about two years ago, I met Elvy and we did an acoustic show, it was a disaster! I played guitar, he played guitar, he was good, I was bad.

[Elvy]: I was bad too.

[Jason]: So I switched to bass, and then I switched to drums and then eventually this guy (motions towards Armand) contacted us because we were looking for a guitar player, hooked it up, and he brought in Fabian and uh... good times had by all.

[Armand]: Yes... and we've been together for about four months now... and this is show number one! Of many hopefully.

[Elvy]: (Motions to Jason) We actually met at summer camp.

[Jason]: We worked at summer camp!

[Elvy]: We were aiming our fanbase to be a very very young fanbase. ...Very young. Single digits.

[Armand]: We're not pedophiles, we swear. Let's just clear that up, because those words can be misinterpreted. And that's the end of this band as we speak..

[Elvy]: We love children, and not in the Michael Jackson kind of way.

All right, what do you guys do to get pumped up before you play?

[Elvy]: Armand uses a d*ck pump.

[Armand]: Nobody's supposed to know about that dude... I don't know, I don't really have a ritual. I drink a lot, and get these guys out of the "I don't know guys, I don't know" .. that's usually the attitude, but we're good today, today was a really good attitude, just getting ready for the show and, we do the gangster... "Brap" ... I can't really do it...

[Elvy]: We didn't do it today! Um... how I get pumped up, I have a sweating problem... so once I'm under the lights, I start getting pumped up... it's just.. Endocrine gland problem probably... I'm pretty sure that's it.

[Jason]: I drink a lot of Redbull. It's all you gotta do, Redbull's the way.

[Fabian]: I don't need to be pumped up.

[Armand]: ...He plays Bass.

[Fabian]: I play Bass. No one cares. It's true, I know it.

[Elvy]: We care...

So how do you guys feel about the set you played tonight? Think you did all right?

[Armand]: For the first show, I think it was pretty solid! The crowd was awesome, that's I think one of the things we love the most. We were kind of coming out here going y'know "The kids aren't going to like us" and they did, so... that's all you can really ask for.

[Elvy]: We were going by "All right guys, clap!" and I was totally ready to be like "Armand! Clap with me!"

[Armand]: Yeah, when I said "Clap" I was expecting like, my mom to just be like (clap clap) and even she like when I looked at her, she was kind of like... "Do I really want to clap?" But no, the crowd was awesome, I think that's really what made us happy about tonight so we're looking forward to getting more going!

Well, I'll tell you... for a first set, you guys did phenomenally, we really enjoyed it!

[Armand]: Thank you! We appreciate it.

What's your favourite song to play live? What do you think gets everyone pumped up the most?

[Jason]: The last song... "Take Every Breath"

[Elvy]: I think every song!

[Armand]: I think the reason "Take Every Breath" has been so popular is because it's the only one we have recorded right now. So it's the only one people know. Which is why we play it last. And hope that nobody would kinda go "They're f*ckin not playing it" and walk out, but personally I like our opening song, it's really a good rock out tune. I don't know, I like all of our songs, they're a lot of fun.

[Elvy]: If it's not fun we wouldn't do it

[Armand]: If it's not fun we wouldn't be playing it so...

[Elvy]: Especially this guy (nods to Jason) every time he's like "Hey I don't like that song." But... I just wrote it!

[Armand]: Yeah... "if you're going to play it, I'm going to walk off stage."

[Elvy]: "No, just no..."

[Armand]: We're kidding by the way...

[Jason]: (laughs) you're talking about ME? Sorry, zoned out...

I think you need a couple more Redbulls...

[Elvy]: It's gone...

So where can people access your music online? Where can they hear you?

[Elvy]: ww.myspace.com--

[Armand]: You missed a W. ...WWW

[Elvy]: It's assumed!

[Fabian]: Not if you tell them otherwise!

[Armand]: No you have to go: (indian accent) Triple W--

[Elvy]: He's not Indian by the way.

[Armand]: I'm not. I'm Mexican. I can just do the indian accent. ...myspace.com/thelastforecast...

[Elvy]: That's.. myspace.com/thelastforecasst

So... We at The Sound Faction are probably some of the most random people of all time...

[Armand]: That's awesome!

What we like to do is wrap the interview up with just random, off the wall questions. Is that okay?

[Armand]: Cool!

[Elvy]: Yeah, I like it!

[Armand]: Are they like fast ones? Where you have to answer right on the spot? I love those ones.

You want to do it lightning round style?

[Armand]: Let's do a lightning round!

[Elvy]: Where's the button, where's the button?

All right, what was your favourite bath toy as a kid?

[Armand]: My rubber duck.

[Elvy]: umm... my rubber dinosaurs.

[Jason]: This red bucket... thing.

[Fabian]: I had a boat..

If you could have a superpower, what would it be? And don't give us any lame crap like flying or X-ray vision... come on... creativity here...

[Elvy]: What's wrong with flying an X-ray vision?

I'm gonna need some creativity...

[Armand]: I'm Mexican, so the fact that I can just play guitar and speak Espanol and be sexy, that's my super power.

[Elvy]: My super power... I'm kind of a perv, so something to do with being able to get with women would be pretty nice. And (nods at Jason) He agrees to, but he probably wouldn't say it.

[Jason]: Is the question like, if we had a super power? OH! To grow taller...

[Fabian]: I don't really know, I have enough powers...

[Elvy]: A little egotistical here huh? (laughs)

What was your favourite Ninja Turtle and--

[Armand]: LEO! ...I'm sorry, I'm sorry I interrupted the question... I was lightning rounding...

[Elvy]: It's SO about Donatello because he was purple!

[Fabian]: Was there an end to this question?

The second part is: would you, or would you not listen to Splinter?

[Armand]: Splinter was like, bad ass! I would listen to him because like... a Rat that can kick somebody's ass is not somebody I would ever mess with.

[Elvy]: I might listen to splinter... depending on what he says. Sometimes he's just f*cked up, man.

[Jason]: Mine was Michelangelo. I love the colour orange, it's my favourite colour... one day I'm gonna get an orange drum kit! Promising you right now, I'm going to get an orange drum kit. And I would listen to Splinter, he's so bad ass he could kick my ass!

[Fabian]: Rafael! All the way, he's just the most bad ass--

[Elvy]: We didn't plan that by the way!

[Fabian]: Like him, I would not listen to Splinter. No, I do my own thing.

If you were a scented candle, what would you smell like?

[Elvy]: .... ass.

[Armand]: I don't know um... I want to say ass too...

[Elvy]: Ok, I had a little bit of lisp there, I meant to say AXE because of um... ok no I said ass, I'm just making shit up, um AXE because of those commercials that are really really cool.

[Armand]: Enchiladas, that's mine. I'm Mexican.

[Jason]: Uhh... I smell like unicorns and rainbows.

[Armand]: What do those f*cking smell like??

[Fabian]: Like good, man. I don't think I have a scented candle... I never liked them.

[Jason]: He'd be unscented.

What female fashion trend confuses you the most?

[Jason]: ...none...

[Armand]: ...Bras...

[Jason]: Yeah, no use for them!

[Armand]: Why do all of them have to have them? There really just there to get in the way!

[Jason]: It's just another layer between where I need to be!

[Elvy]: Obviously like... Clothes. What's up with women wearing clothes?

[Armand]: Clothing is a fashion statement that should go.

[Elvy]: Clothing's gotta go, man.

Shameless self promotion time: whatever you want to say...

[Armand]: Hey guys! We're The Last Forecast, you should go to our myspace: myspace.com/thelastforecast, and keep hitting play on the one song over and over and over again so we feel like we actually have fans. We'd really appreciate that, thank you.

[Fabian]: No, they can't just press play, they gotta like: refresh the page, and then press play again.

[Armand]: Okay! So go to our myspace, myspace.com/thelastforecast ... listen to the song, and then refresh the page, and listen to it again! Over and over again! And we get another view that way too! And then what you should do is add the song to your myspace so that way -- (at this point the band gets accosted by a random fan and there are high-fives for all.) ...That's our shameless self promotion right there too. Thanks.

[Fan]: He's beautiful! Mexicans are beautiful!

[Elvy]: I am single... and our myspace is myspace.com/thelastforecast, do what Armand said and--... I'm shy... so... Ladies... I'm shy and single...

[Jason]: Thanks for coming out to the shows guys, hope to see you at the shows. Support local music, that's what it's all about...

[Armand]: And listen to US.

[Jason]: Listen to us when you can, support us, support everyone, you know that's what's up with the music scene it's all about independent music, man. And it's about creativity. Thanks.

[Fabian]: I don't know, I said mine. Refresh the page, that's it.

[Armand]: Myspace.com/thelastforecast

[Elvy]: you're making it sound so commercial! ... myspace.com/thelastforecast

Thanks again to the boys in The Last Forecast for taking time to talk to us, and remember to check them out here!