Interview With The Nursery
“Dreamlike”, “dramatic”, “vibrant” and “clever” are all words that have been used to describe the band’s hard-to-define sound.
The Nursery is a psychedelic pop group from Toronto, Ontario. The band has just released their debut EP, Carnival Nature, which is now available on bandcamp. The album features not only some great and very unique music which entices your emotions and takes you on a trip like you’ve never been before, but also some amazing artwork with a poster included by local artist Nathan Lalonde. We had a chance to down with three of the four members; Alex, Nate and Victor to discuss the new EP and the bands plans for the near future.
Dropout: You guys just released your first EP, Carnival Nature. When I first heard the music that album name seemed so fitting with the style of music on the record. Where did the name come from?
Alex: I think the term Carnival Nature really inspires a very colorful, wild kind of adventurous image and I feel that compliments the music.
Dropout: Did you write all the songs then come up with the name, or was this something you had in mind from earlier on
Alex: No it came later. I feel like when you’re naming anything, you don’t really know what you’re naming until it’s there.
Dropout: It’s a perfectly suiting name. Earlier we we’re talking about the artwork, you have some really cool stuff between the album cover and the poster inside. You’ve collaborated with some local artists; want to tell us a little about that?
Alex: We worked with Genevieve Blais who is a photographer and another photographer Nathan Lalonde. There both doing there own very unique but completely different things and I love them, I think they’re two of the best young photographic artists in Toronto and I really wanted to involve them in the artwork. They really understand the music too, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to work with them. They really got it and feel like they expressed that through their art
Dropout: Everything is very well packaged. The name, the pictures, the poster they all really connect to the music. It fits very nicely together
Alex: We like mixing different art mediums. It’s not just music, obviously we’re band we produce music but it’s not like just finding any old album cover and sticking it on it. We very much like involving a bunch of artists and making one thing that’s multi-dimensional. I’m glad you like it, thank-you.
Dropout: What do you guys have coming up for shows?
We’re playing a few Toronto shows; Handlebar on the 20th of July, The Piston on the 8th of August, the Carlton Cinema on the 17th and Izakaya on the 23rd. We’re also going down to Buffalo on the 10th of August
Dropout: Have you guys played Buffalo before?
Alex: Not as this group but I’ve played there a few times previously.
Dropout: Do you see a big difference in the scene there as opposed to playing in Toronto?
Alex: Yeah, they really love and appreciate music and the fact that you’ve travelled x amount of hours to play there. I find there’s a real deep love for music. Because Toronto get’s so many different bands and styles of music were almost a little spoiled. We take it for granted that we can see an electronic show, a grunge show, a metal show, a pop show or anything on any given night. So we’re a bit spoiled where as they really want to be a part of it.
Dropout: You guys have got the shows line up, you just released your EP, what else do you have coming up?
Alex: We have two video in the works from Carnival Nature that we’re going to do. Lysergically Yours and This Wild Heart which should be coming out soon.
Nate: We’re recording also this weekend. We leave Friday for some recording at GCR.
Alex: Robby Takac, the bass player from the Goo Goo Dolls owns the studio, so he’s always hanging around. I know when I’ve worked there before he’d always stop by and listen and he’s the coolest guy ever.
I know this probably sounds weird because we just put out that record but we just have a lot of music and we want to put out an LP, because a lot of those songs are songs I wrote on my own so we want to really get out there and try recording some new stuff together
Dropout: Will the sound and atmosphere differ from Carnival Nature?
Alex: The spirit will be the same; the adventurousness will be there, as well as melodically the song writing. But it’s going to sound like the four of us now.
Nate: They both played on the EP. I loved learning some the beats that Julian (who had recorded the drums for Carnival Nature) had played, there are a lot of cool rhythms on their. Lucy’s got a really cool pattern on it, did he develop that or was that Tony?
Alex: Yeah we worked with the producer Tony Malone. He was really hands on in terms of the arrangements and in terms of how the songs were expressed.
Nate: Yeah there’s some really cool stuff on there and some of it was challenging to learn but I’m really looking forward to adding my style and the way we meld together
Alex: Totally different feeling, I’ve never played with anybody who sounded like Nate before and it’s really exciting for me
Dropout: Where did you guys record Carnival Nature?
Alex: In Guelph in a place called Ignition, the overdubs were done here in our home studio and in our producers home studio which is called Japaneese monster and two small children.
Dropout: Quite the name!
Alex: Yeah we just called this place Nursery HQ or something, we don’t really have a fancy name for it
Victor: It is a pretty fancy name.
Alex: Is it?
Dropout: Sounds like your fostering children or something…
Alex: Well we are fostering something
If you want to find more from the Nursery check out their webpage, which is a hub to all their other links.
