Music
Press
By Lindsay La Fraught tb source
Although When We Dead Awaken lead singer Josh Hogan says the band isn’t in a rush to make it big right away, they certainly have themselves a good game plan for future success.
With their first full length album set for release in April and plans to relocate from Thunder Bay to Toronto in the fall, the band, who’s sound can be described as hard rock with obvious influences of Alice in Chains, Refused and Thrice, is more excited about their musical future then ever.
“The success we have seen in Thunder Bay feels awesome,” said Hogan. “It’s nice to see the fans singing the words to our songs and it’s cool when people come out to our shows and tell us how much they enjoy it.”
When We Dead Awaken’s five member’s range in age from 19 to 22 and consist of Hogan, Chad Harms (bass), Eric Wright (lead guitar), Derek Kirk (guitar/vocals) and Zach Brown (drums).
The guys came together after the break ups of Hogan, Wright and Kirk’s band Korova and Brown’s band Social Enemy. Both groups fell apart and the guys were missing the excitement of playing live.
“Derek, Eric, and Zach ended up getting together for a cover show of Queens of the Stone Age and asked me to help out with the vocals,” said Hogan. “We had so much fun doing that show we all agreed we should start a band. The bassist from the Queens show was in his own band so that’s when we called up Chad who had just started to play bass and was a good friend of all of us.”
It was Harms who drifted off during English class one day, being snapped out of his trance only by the name o f a Henrik Ibsen play.
“All I heard was my teacher talking about a play called When We Dead Awaken and I said, “THAT’S A BAND NAME!,” said Harms.
The group embarks on a Southern Ontario tour in April, which will focus mainly on the Greater Toronto Area but will also include at least one show in Montreal.
“I think this is going to be the first true representation of the band because our last album only had seven songs and was put together after only being a band for about a year. It was just kind of thrown together and looking back I think we see our mistakes,’ said Hogan.
The shows will bring an opportunity to get audience feedback on the 14 new tracks as well as get a taste of what it is like to play in larger cities/
“When you first start out, you think when you are playing a big city that it is going to be a good show, but because it is a big city it’s not a big show because everyone has so many other things to do,” said Hogan, who said playing in smaller communities like Sioux Lookout is always fun. “Everyone comes out and really appreciates the show in the smaller places.”
After their tour the band will once again go on a summer hiatus while Harms focusing on firefighting and the others focus on making money to support their musical dreams.
“The break is usually a positive thing. This summer that just past for instance, we all took the time to get summer jobs and pool our money. We ended up buying a school bus to tour in and everyone came back with a really fresh outlook on the band,” said Hogan.
When We Dead Awaken are playing with Montreal’s The Gorgeous at Kilroys on March 11. The show is all ages. - TB Source
Discography
2006 Night Of The Long Knives (LP) has received extensive radio play on:
92.9 KICK FM (Winnipeg)
102.1 CILU (Thunder Bay)
90.3 CKUT (Montreal)
Soo Radio (Sault Ste. Marie)
2005 We See The Irretrievable Only...(EP)
Photos
Bio
Thunder Bay. It's isolated, cold and the youth are dwindling. In an aging town, with the demographic geared towards the Baby Boomers, it is not surprising that the youth find themselves with nothing to do. So they turn to the one thing that has always brought them comfort growing up... Music.
Sons&Lovers are a 6 piece hard rock band who have been perfecting their sound for 3 years now. Some say they sound like a Canadian made mix-up between the post-hardcore heavyweights Glassjaw and punishing rock and rollers Every Time I Die. Others say its more like a drunken fistfight between stoner rock vets Queens of the Stone Age and punk rock legends Refused.
This fall they entered the finals of Toronto's Indie Music Week and they placed high in the finals out of the 50 bands that were selected to compete. The band has embarked on 2 Mid-Canadian tours so far, have worked closely with Freedumb Records in Quebec and have recently been released on TEA South's 10th Compilation (www.teasouth.com).
Sons&Lovers are releasing a Split E.P. with the Toronto band 'Dancing With Paris' and have just wrapped up a Canadian tour with the B.C. band KINCAIDE, who have toured cross-Canada 4 times.
They have opened for As I Lay Dying, Moneen, The End, Brazil, Ghosts of Modern Man, the Holly Springs Disaster, Straight Reads the Line, Dead & Divine, The Black Maria, the Gorgeous and many others.
Sons&Lovers is also actively involved in bringing the message and merchandise of Skate 4 Cancer, to help spread awareness about one of the most deadly and common diseases out there.
Their live shows cannot go unnoticed. Sons&Lovers ferociously hammer out massive rock epics, juxtaposed with soaring melodies and beautiful harmonies, all the while seeming hell bent on delivering the most intense live performance possible.
This is not a band who is content with resting on their laurels. Lead singer Josh Hogan outlines some of the bands plans for 2008: "We are currently writing the material that will be become our next EP. We are looking at some producers and trying to decide on who we want to work with and who will help us bring our sound to the next level. At the same time, we are making demos and looking at some Indie Labels to work with so that we can get some more support and open up a few new doors. Around February we might be hitting the road with a fantastic band that we were in the Toronto Indie Week finals with called Lifestory:Monologue, and after that we will release our new EP and tour Canada relentlessly. Also, there is some talk of heading over to Europe for a bit in the summer."? Indeed, Sons&Lovers are ready to give up all other parts of their lives to follow their music and see what heights it takes them to. Will you join them for the ride?
Links
