(The Motorleague, from left: Ryan McDonald, Dana Robertson, Don Levandier, Nathan Jones.)
The Motorleague rose from the ashes of Moncton rockers The Ditchpigs a few years back. They’ve quickly developed a reputation for high energy shows and catchy-as-hell songs that blend poppy hooks with an onslaught of noisy, loud guitars and a driving rhythm section - feelings of frustration and anguish turned into anthems that have rocked bars from Halifax to Toronto.
The band features the talents of singer-guitarist Don Levandier (The Ditchpigs), guitarist Nathan Jones (I Capture The Castle), bassist Dana Robertson (HOPE) and drummer Ryan McDonald (Broken Radio Sound).
Tonight in Moncton, the band will release its first full-length album Black Noise (the follow up to EP White Tape). The band has teamed up with Fredericton-based Forward Music Group to release the album nationwide on Tuesday, May 19.
Black Noise was recorded in June 2008 in Toronto at Chemical Sound studio with producer and guitar-god Ian Blurton at the helm as producer.
First single “Hymn for the Newly Departed” is now at radio and the band has a video in the works for the tune. A series of east coast dates are planned (see their official site for details).
The Motorleague singer/guitarist Don Levandier answered some questions from EastCoastNoise via e-mail this week. Guitarist Nathan Jones pitched in a few comments of his own. Read on …
EastCoastNoise: Black Noise is coming out May 19, CD release is Friday in Moncton … what else is happening or on the horizon?
Don Levandier: Right now we’re excited to get the first video out and see how that goes. We’ll be making the usual stops around the Maritimes for May then gearing up to break our ‘we’ve never been further west than Toronto’ mould. That won’t happen until the fall though. Other than that we were supposed to do a gig with Fred Penner in Newfoundland at a conference – but it looks like we’ll be playing the day after him with Tom Fun – which is equally cool – but not really – I mean … FRED PENNER.
ECN: What’s the scoop on the video for “Hymn for the Newly Departed”?
DL: The scoop is that it should be out soon – I’m not 100 per cent sure on the timeline but we’re going to show a version of it at the CD release – then launch it officially on Eastcoastnoise.com. After that we’ll see who’ll play it.
The video itself was shot by The PostMen who are a local production company that shoots for CBC / CTV / STARS and more – they wanted to try making a music video because they’d never done so before – we wanted to make a music video for the same reasons – voila.
Nathan Jones: Video was produced by our friends at The Postman. We were lucky enough to have 40 friends come and hang out with us for a day while we put everything together. The final version is going to be publicly debuted on Friday, May 8 at The Paramount during the album release party. After that it will sent to Much Music/MTV and other places as well as being plastered all over the Internet. Special thanks to Marc Savoie, Marcel Gallant, Felice Grana, Michael Cowie and Mel Flanagan.
ECN: You guys recorded this album last year with Ian Blurton in Toronto … what was that experience like for you as a band? How did it compare to recording CDs here in Moncton in the past and what did you learn from it?
DL: It was a lot tighter. We had one week to do the entire record – where at home you record as you please – and take as long as you like. It was also weird having more than one person (record) your band. In Moncton we’re used to working with Kyle McDonald, so it’s very one-on-one, whereas in Toronto we had Ian as a producer and two engineers for the drums and bass parts.
The guitars and vocals were done with Ian after that – it was really weird playing or singing in front of the guy. It wasn’t too bad until we’re sitting in the studio and a studio hand starts going ‘OH MY GOD…THAT’S IAN BLURTON’ – then it started getting a bit weird. But after the first day or two of doing vocals and guitar – the jitters were gone and it was down to business.
As far as Blurton goes – he’s way smarter than you think. I always got this hairy caveman vibe from him – but he’s actually really articulate and well spoken. You don’t expect that from him – because at shows he’s quiet – but the guy is very smart and great with computers.
As for learning – I think he took away a lot of my crutches. Things like doubling up vocals or tons of vocal harmonies are what I’m used to doing – but in this case 90 per cent of the vocals are straight – one vocal, no harmonies – so it really made me push to sing better rather than rely on layering. He taught us that simple is often the best approach.
NJ: It was awesome having an outsider’s opinion on the songs, especially an opinion that we all so obviously respect. Ian has had a hand in some of the best rock records this country has produced, whether it’s his own bands or something he’s produced.
Being in Toronto was probably the best part of making this record. When you’re at home trying to do something like this there’s a lot of distractions going on - work, family, day-to-day life stuff. When you’re away from home and out of your comfort zone, all you have to really focus on is the task at hand, there’s no putting things off until next week or next month. Things had to be done so they got done.
ECN: Why did you choose Blurton to produce and what was he specifically like to work with?
DL: Originally we wanted to do the next Ditchpigs record with Jon Cummins (Doughboys / Bionic) and that plan carried over to The Motorleague. We never had any solid plans – just an idea of that’s what we want – and we had heard that Cummins was up for the idea (although I never spoke to him personally). At North-by-Northeast 2007, I mentioned to Ian – who was hanging out with PJ (Dunphy, former Motorleague bassist) - that Cummins was hopefully going to produce. Ian said, ‘Fuck him, I’m doing it.’ EXACTLY one year later we were in Toronto making the record.
Blurton produced 2 of my all time favourite records (by The Weakerthans) and played on another two (Steel Teeth by Change Of Heart and Blurtonia) – it was a no brainer. We knew the guy a little, so that helped too, it wasn’t like going into the studio with a stranger. And we knew he’d know our sound – we weren’t worried about him changing it too much.
ECN: On this album, and the last EP (White Tape) … the songs, at least on the surface, sound pretty pissed off - frustration over jobs, relationships … what gives? Will we ever see a happy Motorleague tune?
DL: No. I heard Gordie Johnson speak once – and he said it best – ‘write what you know about.’ A lot of the anger is introspective – while other songs are 100 per cent specifically aimed at certain events and people. I spend a lot of time biting my tongue with Monctonlocals.com (website and message board Levandier runs) – I don’t do that with The Motorleague. I think the songs need to be angry to be good – so ‘You Wear Me Down’ is probably as happy as you’ll ever get.
There’s also a line – I’ll bring a song to the table and if it’s too far wuss or happy – it will get knocked down to ‘not a Motorleague song.’ I have an albums worth of stuff that went that way.
ECN: Does the album name signify something? Black Noise … and hey, White Tape?
DL: Black noise, while not the mathematical opposite, is the figurative opposite of white noise. White noise can be used as a masking agent – this really can’t be used as such.
We wanted to continue to point out the irrelevance of mediums – hence the tape on the CD (artwork). Now we’ve got an iPod playing a CD with the picture of a tape on it – it’s just ridiculous – so we knew that Black Noise had to stay on theme - to be a true successor to White Tape. For a while the title was You Know This To Be The Truth but that didn’t feel right – Black Noise felt right for the songs.
NJ: Black Noise is kind of a play on words. We were going with the colour theme and White Noise is an audio signal that spans the full audio spectrum at an equal level, not moving. So black noise is music? Yeah, we made it up.
ECN: You’ve got a professionally produced album in the can, a single on radio locally and a video in the works and I suspect tours are in the works as well - clearly you guys are serious about this … how far do you want to see the band take things? Do you want to stick to Moncton and do the occasional tour outside of the Maritimes, or are you guys prepared to drop everything and make this a full-time gig?
DL: I doubt there are any bands that wouldn’t want to make it a full-time gig. The minute bands make a poster, book a gig, and sell something (merch, CD) then they’re pretty much saying – they’d go that route if offered, and so would we, but it will never come to that. The ideal situation for us would be to get the single doing okay, tour as much as possible without losing our jobs /houses – and get to see the world in the context of the band.
Bands with tons of success still have to lay down jobs when they’re not on the road – and I don’t think we’ll ever be any different. We’ve got our goals set on seeing the west coast, and getting off the continent and those are attainable goals now – after that it’s all frosting.
ECN: Each of the band members have varying degrees of experience and success playing music with other Moncton bands over the years - how can you benefit from the experience you all have?
DL: For me personally, it’s what I write about, things that I’ve seen/done/been subject to - it’s where all the angst and sarcasm comes from, in addition to other things like the corporate American workforce. I think not being successful with The Ditchpigs has given me more drive to be successful with The Motorleague – to show people that we were on the right track – and could have done okay doing what we were doing.
Kind of a ‘fuck you’ to your old girlfriend by showing off your new one – immature for sure – but there’s some of that in there for me. I’d like to say all the booking contacts and all that jazz were a plus – but honestly when we started The Motorleague it wasn’t as easy as going, ‘Hey, we used to be in The Ditchpigs, can we play your bar?’ We had to start from scratch.
ECN: Since the band’s inception, you’ve added a new drummer and bass player - is this the line-up you see will stick together going forward? Is everyone committed to the project with so many other things (bands, jobs) to consider?
DL: Everyone is as committed as they can be without having the house of cards collapse down around them. We do all have jobs and other demands on us – so we’ll move forward with this lineup until it’s not possible to do so - but we won’t miss tours or dates that are worth doing – we’ll make due.
ECN: What challenges do you face on the road ahead trying to get the album on radio and the video on TV?
DL: Money, money, money, money, money. Getting the song on the radio is expensive. Touring is expensive. We’re applying for every grant out there – if we get some real money coming in we’ll be able to give the record the attention it deserves. If not it – there will likely be boxes of it in my attic next to my copies of Someone To Hate More Than Yourself (The Ditchpigs’ swan song record).
ECN: The Motorleague’s sound sort of straddles a fine line between really catchy choruses and almost poppy hooks that seem a natural for radio, but you have a certain edge and a bit of a punk sound that still gives you credibility amongst those who wouldn’t turn on a radio station to save their lives … is that something you’ve ever given any thought to? Is there effort made to try to make the band sound a certain way or is this just what you do?
DL: The older you get, the easier it is to write songs that are radio friendly. With age, there seems to be a certain ‘okay’ level with making music your parents like. I didn’t get wussier on purpose and honestly I can’t tell the difference with how I wrote for The Ditchpigs to how I write for Motorleague except for in The Ditchpigs I’d bring songs to the table and the pussy ones would get cut out.
In The Motorleague, that happens less - still happens though. I’ve got tons of songs that are completely soft, not heavy at all. One day I’d like to put out a solo record with all that other shit on it. But I think the guys in The Motorleague have all been in loud bands that weren’t cut out for radio, they’ve been there and done that, now they’re willing to try something different – at least that ‘s how I see it – they may have a different view.
I think if a song is good enough anyway – it will become radio friendly. I mean – you can go from Sum 41 to Marilyn Manson – who sound nothing like each other but both pushed the envelope of what the radio was playing.
The Motorleague is hosting two release shows tonight (Friday, May 8 ) in Moncton. The first show is an early, all-ages show to be held at Moncton’s Aberdeen Cultural Centre on Botsford Street with a start-time of 6 p.m. Slain on Second Ave., Twelve, Sigil of Aeons, The Short Fused and Neverdie are also on the bill. Price is $5 at the door.
The second show is a licensed show at The Paramount Lounge on Main Street in Moncton. Joining the band will be Shelter With Thieves, Myles Deck And the Fuzz and Static in Action. Admission to the late show is $10 or $15 with a CD.