To say Kingston, Ontario is a fertile musical community is an almost laughable overstatement. The small city that has generated the likes of The Tragically Hip, The Glorious Sons, Sarah Harmer, members of The Headstones, Moist, Weeping Tile, The Mahones – heck, Bryan Adams was born in the Limestone City – continues to be a hotbed of talent, with a vibrant local scene representing a plethora of genres.
One of the latest local attractions is a quintet of youthful-yet-season of musicians and songwriters who came together less than 18 months ago to form a pop-punk entity known as 8-Bit Heroes. The band recently released its debut album, Try Blowing In It, which has already generated a significant following as well as some pretty darn good reviews.
Comprised of guitarists Ira Smith and Matt Clarke, drummer Sean Davey, bassist Aidan Morris, and vocalist Justin Holland, 8-Bit Heroes brings together musicians and songwriters from diverse backgrounds. All of them wanted to work together to create a unique take on the pop-punk genre which dominated the music industry from the late 1990s into the first few years of the 21st century and included the likes of nearby Napanee’s Avril Lavigne amongst its most successful proponents.
The band’s name, a reference to the resolution of the video games the proliferated throughout the 1990s, was a clever and calculated way to give 8-Bit Heroes and unique brand, and this sense of millennial nostalgia pervades the band’s music, look and stage presentation, while not seeming dated or too cliché.
“The idea was there kind of within the first few weeks of being a band. That was going to be our marketing campaign – we were going to ride that nostalgia wave. I also happened to go to school for marketing, so that had a lot to do with co-ordinating our music and our brand. We all bought into the theme and we’re riding that wave, which is pretty big right now, especially because there’s not really any new genres arising. And 1990s was when we grew up too. Our influences are all those bands, like Blink 182 and Sum 41 and bands like that,” said Holland, adding that he and the other members of 8-Bit Heroes have no problem embracing the pop/punk designation.
“We know what we are, and pop-punk is pretty much what we’re going for. And we are okay with that. And the thing is we could, at some point, slide into straight ahead punk. I have a pretty gritty voice, so there’s no getting away from that. We’re not for teeny boppers; we are talking about subjects that are pretty heavy at times, and even though we are still pretty poppy for punk musically, I think we can stack up right beside other bands at a punk show and I think the audience would like it.”
Holland said he and the four other members of the band already knew one another from seeing their respective bands on the local circuit. Holland is also a music video director and editor, so he had dealings with many Kingston artists and had a pretty good lay of the musical landscape.
“I shot a music video for Ira’s last music project, the Jory Jackson Band and Ira messaged me one day asking if I knew any female vocalists who would be interested in being in a pop-punk band. I said, ‘hey, I want to try out, give me one of the songs.’ So, they sent it to me and the next day I sent it back with my vocals recorded over it. They liked it, invited me to a practice and we pretty much started writing and recording the album then and there,” he said.
“It took a whole, though. We quite literally spent a bunch of months writing it and then a pretty long time recording it. So, looking back, Ira really had everything in the works. Both he and Matt were in the Jory Jackson Band, which was a country act, and I was already working with Aidan and I just brought him in to be the bassist. Ira, Matt and Sean had also been in a band together before, so the three of them were trying to recreate some old magic and added Aidan and I to the mix. We all joined forces and 8-Bit Heroes came together pretty naturally.”
The experience and versatility of the band members paid dividends as once they were in the studio, they were able to pump out songs, as well as recording seven music videos. The songwriting and recording process was protracted because of other commitments, but the actual nuts and bolts of assembling each song was pretty straightforward according to Holland.
“We kind of all know how to record at home. The guitarists sent me folders and together there were about 18 songs where there’s just guitar and a drum machine. I would just sit there and sift through those ideas and pick the ones I want to write to and then write back to them. When all 18 songs are eventually written we skimmed it down to eight or nine so that we’re left with the best ones, and one that we all really like to play,” he said.
“They start with the guitar and give me basic bed tracks and I write my melodies and lyrics to that. And then we bring in the rest of the band and record everything professionally over the top. We did all that ourselves: Ira has a control room built up and he has recorded other people. He has a 16-channel interface and a control room and soundproof vocal room all rigged up. So, we just did it all there.”
Broken Friend is one of the album’s standout tracks and is one of the rare songs that wasn’t autobiographical.
“Many of the songs I have written about myself, but I sometimes put it into the third person and might say ‘him’ or ‘her; so, it doesn’t seem like I am talking about myself. But this one is about a girl I met, and she just seemed to be really sad. The album kind of has a theme: the whole thing is about a relationship. The whole record has a story, but it also acts like a loop. It starts at the end of a relationship and you part ways and then you find someone new and you have it back on repeat where you’re like ‘leave me alone’ which is the first song. So, it has a flow and story about falling in and out of toxic relationships and being caught in this vicious circle,” Holland explained.
“Broken Friend is towards the end of the album and it’s right about at the moment when the relationship is done and then finding someone new; finding another broken person who is going to be the next toxic relationship. And it goes on to the song The Neverending Party, which talks about the overindulgence in substances and stuff like that, where things start to get really toxic. Better That Way is more about the strength of the relationship and how they’re out partying together and it’s just the two of them against the world. It’s two people who fall in love under the influence – they’ve come together because of partying. Some of the lyrics are like, ‘this place is a mess, there’s no food in the fridge, no room in the sink, but let’s go out and get f***ed up.’ It’s like Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love – both think they’re okay, but both are so f***ed up they don’t realize it.
“Set Myself on Fire is like the depression song. It’s at the end of the relationship and the only thing waking you up and getting you out of bed is the need to pee. It’s like ‘leave me alone, let me set myself on fire.’ Get Up, Get Out and Go is the song that says I’m back, so get lost because I am ready to rock, and then it’s back on the circular treadmill again back to Life Is A Vampire and Leave Me Alone.”
The album is currently available from the band off the stage, as well as through most digital download platforms. Touring plans are in the works. For more information, visit the band’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/8bhmusic.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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