[ There’s nothing like almost dying while on tour to motivate a young band that much more. Following their 2013 van crash, the guys in Tommy Alto dusted themselves off and hit the road the next year on a more extensive and less painful trek. Now, after renaming the band to Hawking, they’re setting out for another circuit across the country and into the U.S. to promote their five-track self-titled EP. Frontman Tom Vanderkam and bassist Chris Young talked over hot chocolate and coffee about making math rock more commercial, recording a professional sound on a DIY budget and innovative hygiene methods on the road. ]
Let’s get it out of the way: What’s with the name change?
TV: Basically, Tommy Alto was a dumb name. The whole thing started as a joke, everything we did was a joke, and it just sort of ended up becoming way more than we ever expected it to be. As fun as it was, it really just doesn’t mean what it originally meant to us anymore. We’re still a fun band, but we were just a lot goofier.
I think it really just signifies a growth, a maturing of the band. Once we wrote the first few songs for this EP, we just went, ‘This isn’t Tommy Alto anymore. This is something else.’
What’s the significance behind the name Hawking?
TV: Honestly, we don’t know yet. It was one of those things where we knew we needed a new name, and if you’ve ever been in a band and you’re coming up with a name or changing a name, it’s weeks of spitballing and going back and forth on Facebook threads and texts.
I think it was me who brought it up, ‘How about we change the name?’ Everyone was sort of thinking the same thing, just no one had said it yet, and we all unanimously agreed to a name change. Then Chart threw out the name Hawking.
My first reaction was maybe not because it’ll be hard to Google and you’re just going to find Stephen Hawking. But the more we spitballed, we just knew that that was the one stuck in our heads. That was the one that felt right.
You gained quite a following as Tommy Alto. How have the fans responded to the name change?
CY: My mom wasn’t a huge fan at first, but she grew on it. It seemed like 99% of our followers enjoy the name change. Some of them said they like Tommy Alto better, but that was few and far between.
TV: Most of the people who were opposed to the name change were fans from years before, back when it was unmistakably Tommy Alto. But we had to do what was right for us, and we’re glad it went over as well as it did.
The last time we talked, you guys were about to embark on your second big tour. How did that go?
TV: It was killer. It was technically two tours: There was a Canadian leg and a west coast USA leg. We had never toured all the way to Eastern Canada before, and to actually get over to Toronto and Montréal – never mind the west coast, which is amazing in and of itself… Chris, what was the best part of the west coast?
CY: Well, the best and worst part was being in LA in August with our bus that doesn’t have air conditioning. [laughs] Actually, more in Northern California.
TV: The valley between San Fran and LA, just driving through Bakersfield, you’re just inhaling cow poop.
CY: Walking down Sunset Boulevard, we turned a corner and that was the venue we were playing at that night. It was a really cool feel—
TV: It was Hollywood Boulevard – right on Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga, which is one of the intersections with all the cool shit in Hollywood.
What are some things that you learned from being on the road for so long?
TV: Baby wipe showers.
CY: Foot deodorant. That was a key one.
TV: I think the biggest thing is just how you behave as a group of people, not onstage or anything but when you’re together. You have to have amazing communication because it’s a marriage. It’s a four-way marriage, like on that TV show Sister Wives.
It’s the most amazing exercise any of us have ever had in picking your battles. When you’re in a bus with the same people for five weeks and a bit, the way someone breathes starts to piss you off.
CY: Let alone snoring.
Despite those annoyances, it doesn’t sound like the group is breaking up or anything.
CY: I remember us in Abbotsford on the way back and we were like, ‘We could do this for another few weeks,’ after five and a half weeks. It was nice to go home, but we could’ve done another one right there.
You guys booked this tour yourselves, and Tom, you now run Badmouth Booking. What prompted you to start your own booking agency?
TV: I was 17 when I started booking it and I didn’t know where to start. I’d booked shows around town, so I went, ‘OK, I just have to do that, like, 20 times.’ I started researching venues in each town and bands that sounded like us, and it took for-bloody-ever. But other than the fact that our van rolled over at the end and we almost died, the business end of it, all the shows, went amazing.
One guy asked, ‘Who booked your tour?’ And I went, ‘Oh, I did.’ And then he found out we turned a profit on it, and he goes, ‘How the hell did you make money your first tour? Most bands don’t break even until a while into it.’ So everyone started hitting me up for advice, and I at some point realized, ‘Shit, people get paid for this,’ and formed a booking company.
I’m proud to be representing a bunch of really, really cool bands from all over Canada, and a couple in the States. As well as ours. We’re pretty OK, I guess.
It seems like you guys have a pretty good handle on the business side of this industry.
TV: Well, Chris went to Nimbus for music business.
CY: I did the music production course, which also helps us for doing our own recordings. And then I did six months in music business as well, so I have a general idea of what’s going on in the music industry.
TV: Chris has the sort of formal education side and I’m pretty much self-taught. When I was in ninth grade, I just bought Pro Tools and went, ‘Alright, figure it out.’ And now I’m pretty decent at making a record.
We recorded, produced and mixed the entire thing ourselves. We had Brock McFarlane over at CPS Mastering do the mastering for this record, and he did an absolutely amazing job. But everything else on the recording end of it was pretty much me and Chris.
That’s pretty remarkable.
TV: Thank you.
The first thing that hit me about this record was just how well put together each track was.
TV: Nice. [high fives Chris]
I assumed it was a Blue Frog Studios type thing, but to know that this was self-made, self-recorded—
TV: Literally done in an unfinished basement with some carpeting on the walls for soundproofing. [laughs]
CY: It shows if you have good instruments, people who know how to play them and decent microphones, it’s just as good as doing it in an actual studio that costs $500 a day.
TV: A traditional studio setting has never suited us because we’re there for an hour redoing four bars of guitar because it has to be exactly perfect. When it’s $50, $60, $70, up to $100 an hour for studios, we don’t have that budget, we’ve got to do that ourselves. If you want it perfect, you need to be there for hours fine-tuning everything and really tweaking.
How many hours went making into this record?
CY: Me, you and Chart were doing, like, four days in a row, and each of them were 10-hour days…
TV: …for the last three weeks of the process. Me and Chart alone laid down all the drum tracks. Each song for drums would probably be its own eight-hour day. And then guitars, I would just isolate myself and do all the noodles.
Ben’s guitar parts were what went the quickest because he just has his way of doing things – he comes in, lays them down, and leaves. And none of us know how he does it.
What’s the inspiration behind this self-titled EP?
TV: I tend to do most of the songwriting, lyrically, and the most interesting thing for me is, all of our previous work has had a lot of nature themes. ‘Mountain Top,’ ‘Oak Tree,’ ‘Deep Blue Sea,’ ‘Sticks and Stones,’ ‘Birds,’ ‘Driftwood,’ ‘Beneath the Rain on a Strange Rooftop.’
Everything happening on this record is either locationless because it’s an abstraction or it’s indoors. I have absolutely no idea why, it’s just how it came out.
As far as what the inspiration was, I’ve never really known because when I write songs, I just vomit lyrics onto paper and it just happens. There’s a few tweaks here and there and it’s done. The lyrics don’t really go through many stages of revision – it’s all very organic.
Oceans Carolina was an EP, Atlas \\ Patterson was an LP, and now you’re back to another EP. Why return to the short-format recording?
TV: We like it in short bursts. It’s the same thing with live – I’m all for the 25-minute set. Less is always more, especially as a booking agent.
CY: And even if we kept on writing and had eight songs or something, I don’t think those songs would either fit as well or it would just make it too much of a change.
TV: The two final songs on the record – which are ‘Diastole’ and ‘Systole,’ respectively – are very much a throwback, to the Tommy Alto era sound, with more notes than we even know are in there. We knew that we couldn’t just completely change to a totally different indie rock sound without any warning. It’s not fair to them to go, ‘Nope, sorry, we’re a different thing now.’
Compared to previous records, how did you approach this EP?
CY: More even numbers in the time signatures. At least the first three songs are a whole lot easier to follow if you’re not a musician.
TV: The last couple records – especially with Atlas, because half the band was in comas during the writing of it, I did the brunt of everything. The majority of the playing on that record is me, which is not what we wanted, but that’s just how it worked out.
For this record, we actually had a functioning band without broken legs and without brain injuries.
The album comes out in July, but you’re giving out copies at the pre-release party.
TV: Originally, we were going to have this thing released in May, and we ended up pushing it back because we figured it would be a hell of a lot more special if these people could come to the pre-release party. That room only fits like 150, maybe 200 people. If there’s that select number of people who get to hear it before everybody else, I think that’s really, really special for them. I think it helps listeners feel like we actually care.
In order to stand out, you need to do something that listeners can value. Anything that you can do to set yourself apart from everyone else is a bonus.
What do you hope fans will get out of this new record?
CY: It’d be really, really cool if it appeals to more of the commercial side, and people who don’t necessarily listen to technical music. Our fanbase with Tommy Alto was a few indie kids and a lot of musicians. We want more of those indie kids.
TV: There’s something really valuable in creating something that has the artistic merit that you intended it to, but that is actually digestible by people who aren’t musicians. When you’re coming from that math rock background, it’s a very fine tightrope to walk. It’s just been a lot of fun to try to do that, I think that’s what we’ve achieved with the new record.
"Because of the crash and my injuries, I have set some personal goals: 1) Get better as soon as I can, so that I can... 2) Go to school next September. However, unfortunately this means I will be busy for the coming months. I will be unable to be a part of Tommy Alto anymore, much to my dismay. Throughout my recovery process, the band has been almost like a second family to me, supporting me and encouraging me as much as they could. I've always told them that the absolute best part about being in a band was the friendships I have made and I don’t think that will change. I won’t let it change. They are incredibly creative, passionate individuals who will stop at nothing to do what they love, and I know that. I want the best for them. It will be a chapter of my life I will never ever forget, and accident and all, I regret none of it. It’s been such a blessing. I never thought I’d be surrounded by such men, or that I’d get to do the things I've done. They have my eternal support to continue to show love in an incredibly meaningful way—through creation, and they're going to show that love to as many hearts as they can."
We wish Paul a swift recovery and success in all his future endeavors. We're bummed to have to part ways, but sometimes this stuff has to happen. 2014 is going to be a huge year for us, with a new lineup, bigger tours, more shows, some wicked music videos, new merch, and a new record all coming ASAP!
Also, a documentary about our recovery from the crash starts production tomorrow so we're pretty stoked on that!
The members of Tommy Alto (top) and Their There (bottom) may barely be old enough to drive, but the two White Rock/South Surrey-based groups have performed long enough to recognize the latest changes in the music industry when it comes to the availability of music online.
With the popularity of music piracy, it’s harder than ever for any up-and-coming band to turn a profit in the music industry, but two local groups are taking on illegal downloading and other online issues in their own ways in the digital age.
Napster was dead and gone by the time South Surrey post-indie five-piece Tommy Alto and White Rock alternative sextet Their There started, but their members have performed long enough to know how detrimental piracy can be. Additionally, they’ve recognized a shift in the music business model from physical copies to free MP3s, and they’re each addressing these issues on a grassroots level.
Listening on the web
Both bands use online streaming services like Spotify and Rdio that take a monthly fee – usually under $10 - from users in exchange for unlimited access to millions of songs. Streaming has proven to be an effective alternative to piracy: the fee is often more enticing to fans than paying for individual albums, and it’s remarkably easy for bands to upload their work.
Any person that would randomly hear your music is someone who has the potential to come to a live show, which earns a lot more money than recordings.
“We go through a third-party distributor who acts as a middle man and gets everything in there for us,” said Tom Vanderkam, lead vocalist and guitarist of Tommy Alto. “We haven’t had any problems with it.”
But while getting your music online is easy, getting paid anything substantial isn’t – the money generated by online spins simply isn’t sustainable.
“We actually do get a lot of play from streaming services, but the payout isn’t that fantastic at all,” said Vanderkam. “I got a cheque last month for seven-tenths of a cent.”
“I was reading an article on Reddit today and it said...you have to get, like, 134,000 plays a day in order to make minimum wage,” added Tommy Alto drummer Chartwell Kerr.
Last month, Radiohead leader Thom Yorke criticized the poor revenues from online streaming services, noting that shareholders take a significant cut. So if a mainstream, multiplatinum, Grammy Award-winning band of nearly 30 years can’t profit online, how can young bands be expected to make any money?
The members of Their There – whose name is actually a take on Radiohead’s 2003 single “There There” – have differing views on the matter.
“Because we’re on a local level, we kind of don’t think 1we’re going to see results at first,” said lead guitarist and co-vocalist Ross Jenkins. “Somebody like Thom Yorke who’s been doing it for 25 years to instantly go, ’This really doesn’t work at all,’ that kind of shows us that oh, maybe we can’t do that.”
But rhythm guitarist, pianist and fellow co-vocalist Harley Small countered, saying, “I think it’s also maybe an unwillingness to change because he’s had so much success doing it the way he’s done it for so long.
“For bands like us, I think (streaming) works pretty well.”
Percussionist Jess Desrochers noted that programs like Spotify can be valuable to newer bands because they analyzes users’ musical tastes and recommends similar-sounding artists.
“Even if you’re not making any kind of profit off of it, any person that would randomly hear your music is someone who has the potential to come to a live show, which earns a lot more money than recordings,” he said.
CD purism
Both Tommy Alto and Their There got their starts during the transition from CDs to digital. Despite the array of platforms to sell and stream music online, selling CDs is still, by far, more profitable.
“There is the initial overhead cost of creating a CD,” said Desrochers. “The recording costs aside, the CD costs even with the printing do break even and make more money than online sales do.”
Vanderkam echoed the sentiment about traditional formats, even though he’s seen bands try to market their music through more technological means, such as releasing albums on memory sticks.
“As an independent artist, CDs are still really relevant because a lot of music fans still buy them at shows – we were even looking at the possibility of getting vinyl pressed for this release.”
Piracy: just another way to share?
While traditional formats are more popular, both bands still use iTunes and Bandcamp – the former platform to sell their music digitally and the latter to feature select songs for streaming. The guys in Their There don’t mind if people only listen to their free streams, and they have a different approach to sharing music for free.
I got a cheque last month for seven-tenths of a cent.
Under the copyright on the back of the band’s debut album, Familiar Skin, they wrote, “Unauthorized duplication or distribution of this recording is highly encouraged.”
“It’s just better to get it out there than for people to not hear it,” said Small. “If somebody wants to burn a copy of Familiar Skin for one of their friends, then do it.”
“People will burn it no matter what,” added bassist Adam de Souza. “If they like it and they want to give it to a friend, they’ll just be like, ‘Put this in your iTunes.’ That’s what we do.”
Vanderkam also recognizes that music sales are affected by piracy, and that independent bands can’t expect to make a significant profit from online rotation.
“It’s very rare that anyone would actually go to the effort to purchase something, which is really sad, but it’s just the state of the way everything is,” he said. “At this point, (music) has been so devalued as a cultural medium because of the ease of getting it for free. People don’t really invest emotionally in it anymore.”
