Interview With The City Streets
The City Streets are a rock band originally from Edmonton, Alberta but currently relocated to Montreal, Quebec. The band boasts over 400 live perfomances in Canada, the States and even into Mexico and Haiti. The guys discuss their double release, Sawdust & Rum and Winter Lightning, their favourite cities to play as well as give advice for Canadian artists trying to get over the border.
The City Streets are a rock band originally from Edmonton, Alberta but currently relocated to Montreal, Quebec. The band boasts over 400 live perfomances in Canada, the States and even into Mexico and Haiti. The guys discuss their double release, Sawdust & Rum and Winter Lightning, their favourite cities to play as well as give advice for Canadian artists trying to get over the border.
The City Streets originated as an Edmonton based band, but in 2009 relocated to Montreal. What do you feel are some of the major differences between the music scene in Alberta as that of Quebec?
Alberta is a smaller music scene and more isolated with less bands that tour regularly – there is less exposure in general for the scene as a whole compared to Montreal. Edmonton in particular has a lot of great rock bands, while Montreal leans more to the art-rock /electropop side of things. There is a lot of camaraderie among the artists in both provinces, bands help each other out, which is cool.
You guys recently released two albums, Sawdust & Rum and Winter Lightning. Each album has a different sound and direction. Both albums we’re also recorded at separate locations. How did the concept for the two separate albums come about?
Basically I had the two albums written, and we knew they were going to be separate. We had wanted to record at Hotel2Tango in Montreal with Howard Bilerman on 2 inch tape to get that classic powerpop sound we were looking for, and put Winter Lightning out on vinyl. Sawdust & Rum was a more fragmented, experimental and personal record that we wanted to do ourselves in a cabin in Nova Scotia. It’s inspired by the life of my grandpa, and we felt a looser approach would make the album more true to the subject matter. In turn the hope is that the songs are universal in their themes and emotion.
Last month you guys we’re heading over the border for a show in the states, but which were rejected at the border, which seems to be a problem that more and more Canadian are seeming to face. What do you guys have to say about this issue?
Going over legitimately is a huge hassle with paperwork/visas and financially ruinous for independent bands without huge guarantees. We’ve been over dozens of times over the years but it has been getting harder and this last time was because we made the small but fatal error of not deleting our dates on our website. The border guards are computer savvy now and a warning to other bands, stamp all your merch as promo and delete your dates before you give the border your fake recording contract.
You’ve toured all across Canada, into the states and even in Mexico and Haiti. How does playing in Canada compare to other countries?
Canada means longer drives between shows, hideous road conditions for most of the year, but a warm feeling of always being at home, no matter where we are in the country.
What are some of your favourite Canadian cities to play?
Sudbury – The Townehouse
Montreal
Edmonton
Saskatoon
You can check out more of the City Streets at the links below.
