Rarity Interview

We were lucky to be able to talk to Evan of Rarity. He told about whats going on with the new album, new members, playing Supercrawl and more. Here is what he had to say:

Info

Genre: Pop Punk, Punk

Years Active: 2014-Present

Hometown: Hamilton, Ontario
Record Label: Rise Records

1) What's your name and role in the band?

Hi there, I’m Evan and play the drums for Rarity!

2) What made you want to be in a Punk band, write punk music?

It was definitely Southern Ontario’s music scene. Me and the guys didn't go to a lot of massive concerts. All of us were way more interested in the shows downtown stacked with local bands not much older than us. That’s how we all found each other! The energy drew us into the music and the fact that these bands were just barely older than us gave us this overwhelming desire to be just like them.

3) Your band is from Hamilton, What is the scene like there?

It’s rad! Tons of great indie and hardcore bands have taken off out of Hamilton. There's a big pop punk scene as well and some awesome hip hop artists. It’s not too big a city either, so mostly everyone is friendly and knows each other. I always complement the sense of community at a Hamilton show. It’s what welcomed us Rarity boys in when we were so young.

4) When you guys did the name change, what was the process like and how did you come to Rarity?

We’re actually pretty terrible at naming stuff. It always takes us forever. I guess some other band with our old band name wanted all the legal rights or something like that, so we had to change our name when we went to put out our first EP on Rise. We spent what felt like forever spitballing names for the band, with most good ideas making us sound too much like a heavy metal band. We needed something that was neutral and would allow us to become whatever band we needed to be. I think something like “The Rarities” was pitched and we all agreed “Rarity” would be a good fit. Of course we now share our name with a singing pony that haunts our social media every day.

5) How does a band go from being unknown in their own scene to signing with Rise Records?

It really was a “right place at the right time” type situation. We self released our first song, and our now manager Christian Wagner was a really big fan. He really helped us out at the beginning, giving us advice and sending our EP to Goodfight Management, which eventually lead to Rise. We put a lot of effort into that first release. We worked our ass’ off on the songs and and thought everything through when it came to our self-release. We made shows happen for ourselves and made sure everything we did was as professional as possible. I mean why wouldn’t we? We wanted this to be our jobs.

6) You’ve taken a lot of time off from touring recently, what has the band been doing during this time?

Your boys wrote an album! We got kinda bogged down at the end of last year and a lot of negative energy kept us from taking any new steps forward. It was a really rough patch for us but thankfully we channeled all the negative energy into something really positive: a kick ass new album that we’re very excited to record in a few weeks!

7 a) With new songs written, how do you feel the new album will be compared to “I Couldn’t Be Weaker”? What can fans expect?

Expect Rarity to come at you at 110%. We’re still your same spicy boys but we’re older and wiser now. We learned a lot from the ICBW cycle, what we liked and what we felt we could do better. We thought a lot about atmosphere this time around, as well as live functionality and how the songs interact with each other. The songs don’t blur together, but they do complement each other in a way I’m really proud of. Plus they bang. The songs rip. I’m so excited to show everyone.

7 b) What has Corbin joining the band brought to the table and how has it been writing with new members?

Corbin’s amazing. Writing this time around has been much more relaxed and passionate because we know what we’re after from our music. Corbin coming in has accented that dynamic and helped us realize a lot of the ideas that the 3 of us we’re previously struggling with. He’s a ridiculously creative guy and lends 100% of himself to every project. The most important thing to us is that he cares about what we’re creating. The group is more a team now than we ever have been.

8) I Couldn’t Be Weaker talks a lot about Anxiety, depression and mental illness. Why is this important to you to talk about?

Because it’s real to us. We go through it and as painful as it can be, it still inspires us to no end. It’s cathartic to us, and what gets us really emotional is when we discover people all over the world that share those emotions and reach out to us. Those people make us feel better and we sincerely hope that bringing them closer and into our world can help them too.

9) Your live show is very energetic and memorable, It this something you try to do, or does it just come naturally?

It was never something we sat down and talked about, it’s just what comes out of us when we get on stage. Maybe it’s a bit of a coping mechanism because we’re pretty awkward and uncomfortable guys. We’ve just always subscribed to the idea that when you perform, you need to leave everything on the stage. If you don’t, then you didn’t do your job right.

10) After finishing two full album cycles and getting to tour the states a bit, How do the American fans react/receive you compared to here?

It’s interesting. Obviously different regions of Countries have different reactions to our music, but I find as a whole that America reacts strongly to the emotional side of our band, while Canada reacts bigger to the live concert aspect. That’s not to say that we haven't played some crazy shows stateside, and that Canada hasn’t brought the tears out, but generally that’s what I’ve noticed.

11)  If you can remember, What was the experience like playing South By So What?

That day was crazy. We drove over night and I remember waking up before the sun had come up, but it was close enough that were some crazy colours in the sky, and we had parked in a huge field surrounded by other white vans. I was so in and out for the next little while and eventually I was dragged onto a golf cart full of gear and taken across the “venue” to find our stage. I remember is was crazy windy even though it was hot and sunny out. It was the only show I’ve ever played in jeans and a hoodie. The set went really well and the rest of the day was spent checking out other bands. I saw Dan from Stray From The Path’s last official show with the band that day and it was crazy. We actually had to shoot the music video for Stranger the next day at 9am in Kentucky so we left South By early and once again drove through the night to make it for the shoot. We were still really late...

12) Tell us what it was like playing Supercrawl on one of the street stages?

Super Crawl was probably the best day the guys and I have had in a long while. That festival is a massive street crawl supporting all of our hometown’s art and original ideas. This year we were asked to play one of 2 main stages and just being there in the heart of Hamilton’s creative super-centre made us all feel a lot of strong emotions. Hamilton came through for us that day and we felt the love for sure. We love playing outdoors too. The drums sound huge and there’s a different energy in the air then at a club show. It brings our best side out of us!

13) Which bands from around the Hamilton scene would you suggest to someone looking for new music?

Check out Coldfront, Gold Finch, Heavy Hearts, Riot Acts and the immortal I Am Committing A Sin!

Published Oct 15th, 2017