Cold Fame is making waves with their inspired electronic/indie pop music. Victoria-based Damian Anthony and Cody Dalman formed the group in mid-2021, with Jodi Pederson joining as lead vocalist earlier this year. They’ve been hard at work with new music, building their brand, and preparing for their live performances in 2023. Their latest single, “If That’s Love,” is a lush, summery cut about fulfilment and taking a chance for another. The accompanying music video is a fun watch, with their friends and family coming together for a pool party, and other shenanigans.
You originally formed as a duo in 2021, with vocalist Jodi Pederson joining this year (after having collaborated with her stage moniker ROYAL on April’s “Loved You Too Much”). Tell us about this union, and how it came to be.
We originally created Cold Fame as a production “duo,” meaning it was just meant to be the two of us (Damian & Cody) producing beats and instrumentals. We had zero intention, at the time, of becoming a “band” and so we only created collaborative tracks with feature vocalists. Our very first track featured local vocalist/songwriter Xana and when we asked her to recommend a producer to work with, she recommended Shane Stephenson (who we have since had co-produce all of our songs to date). One thing led to another; he recommended that we work with ROYAL (Jodi) on a track. That song became “Loved You Too Much.”
We honestly enjoyed working with her so much we asked if she wanted to [work on] another (which became “Cherry Kiss On Ice”). While working together on Cherry Kiss, it honestly just made sense to ask her if she wanted to become the permanent singer for Cold Fame. We agreed to keep the name and branding that we had started but to shift the direction a bit. Since then we’ve released our third single together “If That’s Love” and it feels like the most refined of all our releases as far as the sound we want to go for moving forward.
For Jodi, was it an easy decision to join Cold Fame as a full-time member, because you also have your solo project, ROYAL, to consider.
The first song Cody and Damian and I worked on together was such a positive experience, and as we all got to know each other a little better, we just clicked. I’ve always wanted to be in a band, so when the guys asked me to join I was ecstatic. I’m pretty sure I either started jumping up and down or started dancing - maybe both...
I am the type of person who loves to be busy and creative, so having the two bands is perfect for me. When I feel like diving into something moody and dramatic, I’ll work on a ROYAL song. When I’m feeling more of a fun, indie pop vibe I throw myself into a Cold Fame song - it’s my perfect oasis and the best of both worlds!
Who are your major influences as a band? Is there overlap between your individual members’ musical inspirations?
We all have a pretty diverse catalogue of musical influences; Cody and Damian maybe a bit more similar with their metal/rock background, compared to Jodi’s love for Billie Holiday. As a band we collectively draw inspiration from the artists: The 1975, Paramore and MOTHICA. One of the first things we did as a band was put together a playlist of songs and artists to inspire and establish our sound and tone. But with each song we write, we tend to really just blend our own stylistic approaches and that’s what really creates our sound and makes each song so unique from one another.
Congratulations on the release of “If That’s Love.” It’s very playful and polished. Was it very collaborative between you as a trio, between the lyrics and what you wanted to achieve in sound?
Thank you - we are very excited about this release!
Yes. This song was a perfect storm of all three members of Cold Fame. Cody came up with the majority of the instrumental, including the main guitar hook, one night and sent it over in a group chat we have going on. Right away we were all very excited about it and Damian dug in with some further instrumental production. Once the structure was ready, Jodi sat with it and the lyrics and melody poured right out. Those songs are always the most fun to write - sometimes it can be such a trudge to get a song down, but “If That’s Love” was almost effortless.
It was co-produced by Shane Stephenson, who’s a prolific producer in the BC music scene. What was it like working with him to fully realize your vision for this song?
We love Shane - in fact - Shane was the person who connected us in the first place! So it felt natural to bring him in for production - and as you said, he is a prolific and brilliant producer, so it was a no brainer. I like to compare Shane’s production talents to that of Jack Antonoff, in that he has the ability to make brilliant music with a diverse range of artists without changing their sound.
Instead, he enhances it - which not all producers do. Some have a very distinct sound and style and when you hear a song they’ve worked on, sometimes it can feel like such a strange animal and departure from that artist. But with Shane, he really listens to the artists and their vision, and works to complement their style, resulting in such a positive experience and music outcome. Our vision with this song was so clear from the beginning that Shane was able to work that into magic, and we are all beyond happy with the result.
The song has an underlying message of living life with no regrets. Are positivity and hopefulness themes that you hope to consistently incorporate in your music, or was this specific to this track?
I’m not sure if it motivates each track, but there seems to be a bit of that as an underlying tone of our recent and upcoming works. Speaking on behalf of myself (Jodi), I’ve written so much depressing and sad music that it has been liberating to be writing something with a positive tone. Especially now, I feel that we could all use a bit more of that in our lives. But you never know, you’ll just have to wait and see what’s next ;)
The music video looked like a lot of fun to shoot, and felt like a casual pool party with friends; how did it come together?
The music video was a lot of fun to make, and that was our goal with that project; to throw a fun pool party with friends and film it. Jodi loves coming up with music video concepts, and we all liked this idea and jumped on board. Our friend Sergej was the talent behind the lens, bringing to life all of Jodi’s Pinterest inspired shots as well as his own ideas. Cody is our natural star, Damian and his drone “money shot,” Jodi with her killer outfit (dress by local Vancouver designer Zoë Führ of FUHR co.) and the cherry on top: friends and family of the band who travelled from as far as Vernon and the island to be a part of the filming in Vancouver - it all added up to a fun day and stunning music video.
You’ve been using TikTok as a band. What’s your take on using social media and content creation, and how it’s helped grow your audience? Have you faced any challenges?
Social media has become such a powerful tool for independent bands such as ourselves. With it, we’ve been able to grow and expand our reach with our audience across the globe, connect and interact with our audience as well as people within the music community, build relationships to create more business opportunities and put out as much content as our hearts desire. There are so many advantages to utilizing all the different platforms that are out there. The challenge is trying to post regular content when it can be pretty time consuming to make, luckily there are three of us 🙂
How would you describe the current music landscape in BC in terms of opportunities for independent artists like yourself?
We are so fortunate to live in a place that has so much love and support for the arts. BC offers a variety of grant opportunities, we have Music BC and Creative BC in our corner, and so much local talent to create professional content with our recording, visuals and more. We are looking forward to seeing what the live music scene is like, now that the world is opening up again. We hope that people have missed it as much as we have, as we can’t wait to get back on stage.
Touring across BC is also one of the most beautiful trips you can take, and we look forward to watching the landscape change as we drive from one town to the next.
Can you name a few Canadian (British Columbia) artists whose music you listen to and would recommend?
We will do our best to not make this list too long, as we have many Canadian and specifically, BC based artists whose music we enjoy - here it goes! LIINKS, Luca Fogale, Adam Mah, Emily Rowed, Alexandria Maillot, Sam Lynch, Conro, Riun Garner, Desirée Dawson, Jon Bryant, Mathew V, BENJII, daysormay, Shredkelly, SonReal, Laura Reznek, Shale, Sleepshake - wow, we could go on forever - and those are just some of the BC based artists!
What are your plans for the fall/winter? Can you give us some insight into the new music you’ve been working on?
We’ve just released our new single and music video for “If That’s Love,” and we have plenty more in the works. January 2023 will have our first live performance - with more details of that coming soon. We look forward to releasing our first EP in 2023 and playing as many live shows as we can. So stay tuned and be sure to check out our social media pages for the latest on all the goods!
What are your recommendations of a few cool places to visit as a tourist in your hometown of Victoria?
Victoria is a beautiful harbour-type city with lots to do, especially in the summer. Even just a nice walk around downtown is sure to land you in some pretty interesting places. Fun fact: Victoria has the highest number of restaurants per capita in all of Canada. So if you’re a foodie or if you like craft beer, you probably couldn’t hit every restaurant in town if you wanted to.
A couple of my favourites (Damian) are Garrick’s Head (pub), Yalla (Middle Eastern), Shine Cafe (breakfast/brunch), Tacofino, Boom + Batten, Il Terazzo... the list goes on.
Our signature question: If the band, collectively, could be any ice cream flavour, which would you be and why?
Salted Caramel isn’t your ordinary, everyday flavor of ice cream. It’s intricate and complex, the flavours are unique and exciting, and its texture is smooth yet dynamic and fun.
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Thanks to Cody, Damian and Jody for answering our questions! We loved learning more about the band and their music.
To keep updated with Cold Fame, visit their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
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SESSION LIVE - Last Train entre en gare
Last Train nous a dit oui. Oui à une session live explosive, réalisée dans les locaux du showroom Gibson, au paradis de la guitare
Ils sont quatre et ils ont la France à leurs pieds. Les jeunes Mulhousiens revendiquent un parcours atypique, fait de concerts aux quatre coins du pays, d’une tournée qui n’en finit pas et d’un talent gros comme ça. Avant cet été et leur série sans fin de concerts en festival – dont un passage épique à Musilac – nous avions rencontré les Quatre Garçons dans le Train pour une session live explosive. Autant dire que les voisins doivent encore s’en souvenir.
Rares sont les groupes qui appréhendent les tournages de session live comme des concerts en plein Stade de France. Mais Last Train fait partie de ceux-la. Avec l’énergie qui le caractérise, le groupe avait même tenté quelques expérimentations au piano. Une envolée créative qui permet, une fois de plus, de mesurer le potentiel de ces jeunes artistes. Dans cette vidéo, le groupe interprète – pour la première fois en version piano acoustique – la reprise de « Cold Fame », du groupe Band of Skulls. Habitué de cette cover, le groupe ne nous a pas déçus avec une interprétation sensible et brillante.
Nous vous proposons de découvrir le premier extrait de la session live de Last Train :
