LOST AT SEA
Lost at Sea (LS) are a four piece rock and roll band that writes and plays their own original music. Formed in the small town of Russell in 2010, they have since released a full length album in 2018, and more recently, a new music video. We caught up with Colton Snook (lead vocals, bass). Check out their album and read more about their favourite venue, standout tracks, and plans for the rest of the year!
VITALS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LostAtSeaOfficial/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZt3gyVrIJq_ZQ3an3ldiVg
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/lost-at-sea-5
BandCamp: https://lostatseaofficialmusic.bandcamp.com/
Latest Release: Stationary Vacation (Album, Nov 2018)
Upcoming Shows: Stay tuned!
SA: How did you guys start as a band? LS: Three of our four members grew up in Russell, this small town outside of Ottawa. Jimmy, Phil, and I lived on the same street, so naturally we met and became friends. Honestly, Jimmy and Phil, who are brothers, always had a musical family, and had access to instruments since they were kids. I ended up getting my first instrument later on. But the one thing that gave us the idea to start jamming and creating our own music... was the video game Rockband. Stupid, I know. But we figured we were pretty amazing at the game, so why would it be so hard to do that for real? After a good many years of practice, here we are.
SA: What bands, musicians or artists would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? LS: I think with Lost at Sea, it's always been more of a situation where each individual has their own idols, influences, and playing styles, and THEN bring that to the table. We have an amazingly bluesy guitarist, a metal-head drummer, and a jazz-obsessed vocalist. Where I would cite bands like Hey Rosetta! or the Strokes as my influences, other members would cite Megadeth, Hendrix, CCR, or even Frank Sinatra. It's a clusterf*ck that, I think, works well for us.
SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? LS: We released our first full length album, Stationary Vacation, back in late November, 2018. That whole process of booking studio time, working around everybody's schedules, ensuring each song is recorded the way we want it, finding cover art, promoting, I think makes it our biggest success. Just having a finished product is nice to be able to say. Obviously it's far from perfect, but it's been so fun, and a giant learning experience. Hearing our tunes played on the radio stations, LIVE 88.5 and Rebel was also pretty exciting.
SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? LS: Right now our biggest challenge is self-promotion. I, personally, have a very hard time saying to people, "check out my mixtape," or posting about these things. Even the process of booking a show and inviting people is hard sometimes. We're all students or full-time employees as well, which makes it hard to commit 100% to this band. However, we've dealt with this by just scheduling a little better, and devoting at least a segment of each of our time to sharing what we've worked on with our fans.
SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? LS: Phil Baril and I seem to contribute most of the lyrics, and I think we both start off with a chord progression on guitar thats catchy, then hum a melody that sounds nice overtop of it. Then, replace that humming with words that don't sound completely awful or derivative or stupid. After we have a full song out of that, we'll bring it to the band the next time we practice and see if drums and bass can be smoothly added to the song. I'm not gonna lie, marijuana helps with each step of this process. Hahaha.
SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? LS: I'm super grateful for the Ottawa music scene. We've always been super welcome to play on bills even when we were first starting out. It's a welcoming community, and we've met so many great musicians through the scene. Nightlife in Ottawa in general though, it's becoming less and less about live music. This leaves only a handful of bars a band can actually play at, which can become stale when making events. I don't know, we still have a lot of love for these venues obviously.
SA: For somebody who hasn’t heard your music before, which song of yours would you recommend and why? LS: We finally have new material! so I'd say if you like slow acoustic, We Don't Have to Wait is a good one. If you like it heavy, check out It's All Backwards.
SA: What is your favourite venue to play in Ottawa? LS: Each band member probably has a different answer, but I like Bar Robo a lot. Its a smaller venue, but that makes for intimate, energetic shows. Plus their menu is great.
SA: Thus far in your careers, what has been the band’s favourite show? LS: We were younger and less experienced when we did this one, but we played the Tim Horton's Brier a while ago, which is like this curling event at Lansdowne in that big flashy building. Kinda strange. But it was the biggest, most professional stage we've ever been on, with lighting, and this fog machine. Not to mention, there was a backstage area with free beer and food... my god.
SA: What comes next for Lost at Sea in 2019? We wish you all the best, and good luck! LS: We've been on sort of a rest period since about March. But we just put out a music video for our song Just Like Smoke, so I believe we'll be trying our hand at more videos this year. I wouldn't be surprised if we hit up another studio and release a few singles this summer as well. Above all, we'd like to leave Ottawa try touring the east/west coast! Thank you very much!