The Perms

“People tend to forget about you if you’re not on the road
all the time and we were afraid that, when we went back
into the studio we’d have a little trouble adjusting,”
explains Perms bassist Shane Smith.
“It’s been three years since we released Clark Drive,
and there’s a pretty big difference between making
music onstage and making music in the studio. The
studio’s much more tame, and it’s tough to sound
enthusiastic when you’re doing several takes of the
same song and you don’t have a crowd to play off of. We
really pulled it out, though—this record is our best to
date, and the road really did tighten these songs up. So,
in that way, the studio experience was relatively
painless. I think this record will really turn some heads.”
After a couple of months hard at work in the studio
recording Better Days—the band’s third album—Smith
and company were gearing up to hit the road once again
for another two–week tour from their hometown of
Winnipeg, Manitoba through the key markets in Ontario
and back again when View spoke to him.
While the “Taking Back the Night” tour is fairly brief
when compared to what the band had grown
accustomed to in their support of Clark Drive, Smith is
quick to point out that both hitting the road and the
brevity of the tour are both key things that the band
needs to do on the eve of the new record’s release.
“This tour is really a test run to see where this record is
going to take us,” he says. “We’ve been around for a
while, but we don’t feel like we have any laurels to rest
on. We want to get some hype behind Better Days
before we do the big push following the release date of
the album to drum up some additional interest before we
hit the long haul. We can’t just do a couple of shows in
Winnipeg and Brandon for promotion and then go and
book ourselves across the country with little knowledge
of how it’s going to go. These shows are a short wade in
to see what’s going to happen first and get people
talking about this new material which I don’t think will be
very hard. I feel like we really went the extra mile on
Better Days.”
According to Smith, the band recorded the new album
with a full horn section to fill out the mixes, and that
addition really took the material to the next level and got
the band’s excitement up in the studio. “There were a
couple of factors that aren’t going to let us bring the horn
section out on the road for this tour but don’t worry,
we’ve already rearranged the songs so that, in a live
setting no one will miss them,” explains the bassist. “It
would’ve been nice to bring the horns out on the road
but anyone who has ever seen a 12–piece band
onstage knows how difficult it can be to get it to sound
good and, on the band’s end, it’s remarkably difficult to
organize and do a live mix for. As well, there’s obviously
the financial issue—we’re an indie band after all.”
When asked how difficult it was to be a small band
trying to stretch out from chilly Winnipeg, the bassist
laughs at the inference.
“Well, I mean, it’s a balancing act,” Smith says. “When
you’re an indie band from a place like Winnipeg, you run
the very real risk of over–exposing yourself. There aren’t
a lot of places to play in Winnipeg and Brandon, and
those are the largest cities that you have to work with. I
think it makes you work harder.
“A band from Toronto has all sorts of places to secure
shows that are all within a short driving distance, be it
Niagara, Hamilton, Kitchener Guelph or even London.
When you’re from a more rural area, you hit the road.
You go further and play more shows to a larger cross
section of people. It forces you to really be the best band
you can be because, if you make a bad impression, Lord
knows how long it’ll be until you come back if you’re
asked back at all. I wouldn’t trade the bands from
Toronto for anything—especially with Better Days, to
make people sit up and take notice that we’re back and
better than ever.”
You’ll have your chance to do just that, when the Perms
hit the Casbah tonight. V [BILL ADAMS]
- View Magazine (Hamilton, ON)