Music
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Have you listened to First Rate People’s (FRP) new single, You Won’t Get This Joke At All? It’s good. It’s clean, addictive and just all-around interesting musically. Its moves from a guitar and vocals-style song to a dance post-disco synth-pop sound, and then goes on to marry the two. YWGTJAA (yes, that happened) is cause for using the repeat button.
After getting a lot of attention in late 2010 and 2011, FRP was kind of quiet in the last year. I caught up with FRP songwriters Jonathan Lawless and Liam Sanagan at The Embassy Bar to hear about what they’ve been up to and what the new release means for their next phase. John’s got a mop of blonde hair, and Liam totally sort of looks like Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While John is the arrangement guy, Liam and other bandmate Hayden are more technical of the nerds.
As one might expect, they’ve spent the last year writing, recording and producing. They’ve got a number of new tracks ready and are poised to start circulating them and playing shows. They’re at a pretty cool point in their musical development and are strategizing to play it right.
“We’re feeling it out,” Liam says. “I don’t think we want to be too premature with anything. We’re waiting for some opportunities and sussing it out as we go. We could do our own LP release at some point and I think we’ll all be happy to do it. In the meantime, we just want to put out few songs, make some videos and play some shows.”
Last year, FRP showed they’ve got the goods to make a name for themselves and that pretty much everyone who’s familiar with them knows it. When they dropped the single Girl’s Night at the beginning of 2010 and began touring with Born Ruffians, Pitchfork took notice, calling their track a “funky, flirty abstraction that floats somewhere in the space between a bouncy 1990s-style R&B tune and a swooning alt-rock ballad.”
“It was pretty weird in retrospect,” Liam says about the attention. “It was literally a pet project at the time and everyone lived in completely different cities and we were all pretty much still in school.” - OTM Zine
Have you listened to First Rate People’s (FRP) new single, You Won’t Get This Joke At All? It’s good. It’s clean, addictive and just all-around interesting musically. Its moves from a guitar and vocals-style song to a dance post-disco synth-pop sound, and then goes on to marry the two. YWGTJAA (yes, that happened) is cause for using the repeat button.
After getting a lot of attention in late 2010 and 2011, FRP was kind of quiet in the last year. I caught up with FRP songwriters Jonathan Lawless and Liam Sanagan at The Embassy Bar to hear about what they’ve been up to and what the new release means for their next phase. John’s got a mop of blonde hair, and Liam totally sort of looks like Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. While John is the arrangement guy, Liam and other bandmate Hayden are more technical of the nerds.
As one might expect, they’ve spent the last year writing, recording and producing. They’ve got a number of new tracks ready and are poised to start circulating them and playing shows. They’re at a pretty cool point in their musical development and are strategizing to play it right.
“We’re feeling it out,” Liam says. “I don’t think we want to be too premature with anything. We’re waiting for some opportunities and sussing it out as we go. We could do our own LP release at some point and I think we’ll all be happy to do it. In the meantime, we just want to put out few songs, make some videos and play some shows.”
Last year, FRP showed they’ve got the goods to make a name for themselves and that pretty much everyone who’s familiar with them knows it. When they dropped the single Girl’s Night at the beginning of 2010 and began touring with Born Ruffians, Pitchfork took notice, calling their track a “funky, flirty abstraction that floats somewhere in the space between a bouncy 1990s-style R&B tune and a swooning alt-rock ballad.”
“It was pretty weird in retrospect,” Liam says about the attention. “It was literally a pet project at the time and everyone lived in completely different cities and we were all pretty much still in school.” - OTM Zine
Part of the track's appeal stems from an artful deployment of the appealing fake-out. A bombastic electropop intro sets up what sounds like a Passion Pit song—until, suddenly, all that production disappears, leaving just a sweet, folksy female vocal track and an acoustic guitar. We don't want to spoil the surprise, but by a minute and a half in, both elements are perfectly synced into a playful, poppy track that works as more than just an "I like you" song.
Its lyrics are at times a little baffling—but for the most part, with lines like, "There are streets and there are signs / There are worst and better times / But across these gender lines / I need you," the band makes itself understood without hitting you over the head with sentimentality. Ultimately, we think, First Rate People is inviting us in on the joke. - Interview Magazine
Part of the track's appeal stems from an artful deployment of the appealing fake-out. A bombastic electropop intro sets up what sounds like a Passion Pit song—until, suddenly, all that production disappears, leaving just a sweet, folksy female vocal track and an acoustic guitar. We don't want to spoil the surprise, but by a minute and a half in, both elements are perfectly synced into a playful, poppy track that works as more than just an "I like you" song.
Its lyrics are at times a little baffling—but for the most part, with lines like, "There are streets and there are signs / There are worst and better times / But across these gender lines / I need you," the band makes itself understood without hitting you over the head with sentimentality. Ultimately, we think, First Rate People is inviting us in on the joke. - Interview Magazine
The MySpace of Toronto's First Rate People has praise from indie all-stars Matt Berninger of the National and la Blogotheque's Vincent Moon. It's easy to see the appeal in the R&B-influenced "Girls' Night", with its lazy boy-girl vocals and little production flourishes (is that an oboe dancing around there?). Only one other song on their MySpace at the moment, but according to a blog post, there's a full-length on its way, so stay tuned. ( - Pitchfork Media
The MySpace of Toronto's First Rate People has praise from indie all-stars Matt Berninger of the National and la Blogotheque's Vincent Moon. It's easy to see the appeal in the R&B-influenced "Girls' Night", with its lazy boy-girl vocals and little production flourishes (is that an oboe dancing around there?). Only one other song on their MySpace at the moment, but according to a blog post, there's a full-length on its way, so stay tuned. ( - Pitchfork Media
Discography
It's Never Not Happening EP (2010)
Someone Else Can Make a Work of Art EP (2012)
Unrealeased Full Length Coming Soon
Photos
Bio
Drawing on a diverse range of influences from pop, electronic, and r'n'b, First Rate People bump, grind, and bounce like nothing that came before them. And after touring sold-out theatres and festivals across the northeastern US and Canada, the world began to take notice: glowing reviews from indie-tastemakers Pitchfork and la Blogotheque reflected a growing global fan base; the Guardian declared them "the best band in Canada" for November of 2011.
Encouragement from people like Luke Lalonde (Born Ruffians), Jens Lekman, Chad Valley, and Matt Berninger (The National) blew the group's collective mind. And that was just the beginning. "You Won't Get This Joke At All" demonstrates a newfound confidence; it reflects all the emotional upheaval and maturity that comes with one's mid-20's.
Few artists can make you laugh, think, and move at the same time; First Rate People accomplish all of this and then some.
- Zachary Stockill (The Huffington Post)
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