GlooM RooM

GLOOM ROOM EMERGE FROM THE BOILER ROOM TO JOIN EDMONTON'S MUSIC SCENE

BRYAN BIRTLES / bryan@vueweekly.com

Like a lot of other kids, Ryan Rathjen’s parents didn’t exactly approve when he informed them he’d started a band.

Even though his father had some serious misgivings, however, he stil found a way to support the young Rathjen’s artistic endeavours. And even though Rathjen’s father, a pastor in the central Alberta town of Bentley, wasn’t about to let his son’s metal band jam inside the church where he preached, he was willing to find a place for them.

“Our band was called Kill, and my dad wouldn’t let us jam in the church because we were called Kill and we played a bunch of really bad shit—lots of swearing and some anti-church music,” explains Rathjen. “So we had to do it in [the church’s] boiler room.”

Kill eventually morphed into a band called Trainwreck Diaries, then lost its guitarists to marriage and other tragedies. With no more guitars, and perhaps a lack of available talent in their adopted hometown of Red Deer, the band decided it was time for a complete break with the hardcore punk of its past and Gloom Room was created.

“We just said ‘fuck it’ to guitar players,” says Rathjen. “We just got more digital and didn’t have guitars at all.”

Named after a discotheque in a Spiderman comic, Gloom Room melds the energy of punk with the dance floor vibe of electronica, and the band has quickly built a name for itself.

“When you go to DJ shows, if you’re not dancing you’re a square, but at a punk show everyone’s so afraid to look stupid,” Rathjen laments. “It kind of sucks; you can never have too much fun.”

The members of Gloom Room recently moved to Edmonton to take advantage of the larger, more diverse scene and the additional venues that a bigger city provides.

“We moved to Edmonton because we thought it had the best music scene in Alberta,” Rathjen enthuses. “All the bands we were into were from here.”
The move to Edmonton has not been without moments that made the band members think that maybe they’d gotten in over their heads. When they moved here, Edmonton was primarily a riot city, but now it’s the murder capital of Canada.

“In the rioting days, I thought it was pretty fucked up, but not as much as getting stabbed all the time,” says Rathjen. “I’d rather there be a riot than a stabbing.”

Wouldn’t we all? V - VUE WEEKLY

Vue Weekly Review

Gloom Room
Mr Resistor
Independent

ROSS MOROZ / ross@vueweekly.com

Adding a synthesizer to your rock band must have seemed like a pretty revolutionary idea in 1999. Nowadays, though, everyone from trendy New York electro-rockers to the most banal of mall-punk bands has a few Microkorg or Minimoog riffs thrown in for good measure. Its refreshing, then, to find a band like Red Deers the Gloom Room using synthesizers not as cynical modernist allusions but as the backbone and thrust of their dark, moody sound.

Their debut, Mr Resistor, is more than a little schizophrenic: the title track, for instance, features a bouncy, almost reggae-influenced back beat fighting with Downward Spiral-era NIN darkness until an anthemic, fist-pumping sing-along chorus. One could also argue that some of the tracks (especially Buried in Numbers) borrow a little too liberally from the work of Edmontons synth-punk phenoms the All Purpose Voltage Hereos. But these criticisms are nit-picky at bestthis is a young band coming out of a part of the world more known for producing Nickelback knockoffs and big strong defencemen than anything as interesting as this, and the Gloom Room have put out a solid first effort, hinting that their future will be anything but gloomy. - Vue Weekly

Taking elements from their previous bands, Trainwreck Diaries and K.I.L.L., as well adding a new element of electronica, this collection of tunes is extremely danceable and catchier than a flu epidemic. While hardly a Luddite, vocalist Ryan Rathjen’s lyrics often have themes involving the concurrent de-evolution of man during technological evolutions, Electronic Voice Phenomena via Instrumental Transcommunication (perhaps more than the music is speaking to me through this CD), and zombies trading their minds and lives for replaceable career positions. Most notable for me were the extremely hyper “Electric Parasites”, “Mr Resistor”, and “Buried In Numbers”. - Beatroute

A new name is just the beginning of a stream of creative changes for a Red Deer based band.

The bands new moniker came along after depature of guitarist/singer Ed LeBleu; the remaing foursome was considering there options and ultimately opted for a fresh sound.

Officially Gloom Room was launched last fall, says lead singer Ryan Rathjen.

Round out the band today is bassist/vocalist Christopher Gyori , keyboardists Christopher Donnely and drummer/vocalist Ryan Lundy.

Their new project whips up energy and inspiration with a notable nod to electronica influences. The goal is clear.

"We want to make people dance."

Donnelly handled the computer programming end of things while the tunes were fleshed out musically.

The results offer a striking change of pace for the band, which has been merging talents for about six years now. As Rathjen points out, dance-infused music clearly broadens there reach as a band.

First known as K.I.L.L the guys initially tore up the stage as horror-punk force complete with ghoulish themes.

That desire for change is felt most powerfully today with the new offering Mr.Resistor pulsates with unrestrained energy.

The electronic charge shines out immediately in disc opener Traffic, then takes deeper meatier turns in tunes such as Electric Parasites and Buried in numbers.

The name 'Gloom Room' doesn't seem to match the upbeat sound of most of these songs, but Rathjen said the name just seemed to fit us as a flurry of ideas were tossed around.

"To really understand the name people will have to see the show"he adds with a smile.
- Red Deer Express

"Recently arrived refugees show deadmonton a thing or two about synth rock with their glitchy snarly debut. (Mr. Resistor)". - The Vue Weekly

This Album was released while most of the synth rock quartet Gloom Room still lived in and around Red Deer, but they've since moved up to Stabmonton. That, and the fact that this record is totally awesome, gets them on the list of this years best releases. - Beatroute