Having just dropped their latest record, Soft Party, earlier this week via Telephone Explosion, Toronto’s Soupcans have blessed us yet again with their video for “Crimes 1.” Luke McCutcheon and Michael Yablonski directed the video, and it looks like a set of outtakes from a skateboarding compilation. It’s pretty low on actual skateboarding and high on pure, unbridled rage.The rage on screen seems fueled by the frenetic noise rock the Soupcans pack into the minute and a half. But the band wants you to know that they’re not angry guys, and that Soft Party isn’t an angry record, though it is probably their heaviest. We talked Nick, Dave and Jordan about the video, their new record, coke deals in Senegalese restaurants, their Wolf Eyes cover and soft parties.Noisey: Where did you get the idea for the video?
Nick: The idea started out as a reverse-skateboard video with failed tricks but then that morphed into a sort-of exploration-of (and frustration-at) the denial of "cool". Skateboarding is inherently cool and as three tall guys who could never master the art of an ollie we really identify with the feelings expressed within - mostly via cursing and smashing.We’re hanging out in Handlebar, which is right below where Teranga, a place where you played a bunch of your first shows, used to be. How connected do you still feel to the Kensington Market area?
Jordan: I think your amp is still there.
Dave: When that place shut down my amp got locked in and I never was allowed back in to get it. So in a way it’s like when those ghosts that can't let go because they were wronged, that’s kind of how I feel right now.
Jordan: Is there a new place up there now or what?
Nick: Uh, it’s apartments now.
Dave: Maybe I should go haunt those people. “Knock, knock. Boo. Where’s my amp?” They’ll be like “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “Yeah you do, you can hear it feed-backing behind the walls.”
Nick: To answer your question, yes and no. We all enjoy the market quite a bit.
Jordan: I come here to do groceries every day. I just live around the corner.
Nick: I come here to drink beers almost every day [laughs].
Dave: Those days are kind of a memory. I used to work in the market at the time as well, so I felt very connected. Now it’s just a place I come to to get drunk sometimes. The fondness I have for Teranga is still there. It was a vital space for a lot of people.Is that where you played your first show?
Nick: No we played at the Press Club, for free with our friends Chattering Class, who ended up becoming the Valley Boys, in a weird roundabout way. But then after that I think we played every other show at Teranga.
Dave: There were a lot of shows at Teranga. People hated going there. So many people hated it, it freaked them out.Why?
Dave: It was a Senegalese restaurant, but these two guys were openly selling cocaine. I think it just vibed people out. There were a few people that understood what the space meant.
Nick: They were nice though.
Dave: Super nice!
Nick: It was weird, for sure.
Jordan: I think that’s just how spaces work though. I don’t think anyone thought it was the absolute best place to play…
Nick: But they’ll have us. But yeah, we knew the booker, Mark Mclean, and John Shapiro was one of the sound guys.
Dave: Most of the nights there, they probably had about 12 people.
Nick: But! Sometimes there were 50 people.
Dave: Yeah, those nights! Let me tell you something… But yeah. It was special. Important. And that kind of thing doesn’t really exist right now. The Tranzac is like that, kindof. But there’s this weird library vibe there. It’s not the same. Academic.
Jordan: I don’t think I’ve played a show there before.
Nick: I played when I was in a rock band once, back when they were more open to that kind of thing. It was OK. That front room was nice. You can pack it pretty easily.
Dave: When I moved to Toronto I had this noise thing that I did with my friend. It was largely hated, even by our friends. I remember there was a gig we did there and there was just this pained silence in the room. Those are good gigs to have. Silence gives more than applause, for sure. You’re going to get a lot more from the vacuum.It’s been about three years since Good Feelings, your last LP. At what point did you start writing the material for Soft Party? I noticed that some of the songs are connected to earlier works, like “Crimes Of The Future, Pt. II” is on the Parasite Brain EP, and there’s a version of “Young N EZ” on the split single you did with Crosss.
Jordan: We didn’t really start playing these songs until after the Parasite Brain EP was recorded. So that was April 2013. Sometime after that. I think “Crimes” was just an older song that we had tried to work into some musical form before, but didn’t come together.
Nick: Yeah, everything came together really organically. Even that Parasite Brain EP happened by accident. We were in New York, met up with some friends, and they were like “do you want to come to our studio and record?” So we said “sure!”
Jordan: Yeah, they just happened to have a few days off work…
Nick: As did we.
Jordan: It was Jordan Lovelace, who plays guitar in Pampers.
Nick: Super nice guys. We just hit it off one night after we played a show together at Death By Audio. Retroactively I think we should’ve just recorded four more songs and finished a record right then and there.
Jordan: I think we had a debate at the time… should we just wait, record four more tunes and put out an LP?
Dave: Yeah I think we thought we were going to release an LP like the next year, but I don’t know. I don’t even remember what happened three years ago.
Jordan: I think we liked how it sounded and it didn’t seem feasible to go back to New York to just record four more songs.
Nick: Yeah, by the time the mixing was done it was the winter, and we’d just decided to put it out as is.
Jordan: Oh, you know what it was, Jack Shack records wanted to put out a 7’’ for us. That became the Parasite Brain EP.
Nick: Everything just happened in a weird, stupid Soupcans lazy way. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just worked itself out. There was that EP, then we put out a single. We were demoing the entire time. Three times for this record, I think.Are there any moments on this record that you're particularly proud of? Any time during songwriting when you surprised yourselves?
Jordan: Uh, yeah, but it was more Jim’s performance.
Nick: The guy that recorded it. I’m proud of the whole thing actually. Which is a weird thing to say.
Dave: You’ve never felt proud of a recording before?
Nick: I’ve never felt proud of anything.
Dave: Wow. Holy shit! Well this is huge, man. C’mere, give me a hug [laughs].
Jordan: We put out every track we recorded, which I didn’t think was going to happen. I thought there would be a couple we would hold back.
Nick: Going back to your initial point, about Jim’s work. We recorded this with Jim Toth, who also goes by Jim Tooth on every website out there due to autocorrect. He came into our lives when we had this one set of demos that didn’t work out. Jordan, through a stroke of genius said “my friend Jim is available.”
Jordan: He mastered a record by Town Ship, this other band I play in and did a really good job. He’s always just been a real professional dude and knows exactly what he’s doing.
Nick: So he popped into our lives. We asked him to re-mix the demos. He did it right away. Everything sounded like 90% of the way there. We didn’t need to give him any instruction, it just came out the way we thought it should. That’s what I’m most happy with. Jim was like the fourth Soupcan. We pitched him ideas. We recorded a sound bank in the sessions.
Dave: So to answer your question, Jim’s performance is what we’re most proud of. It was cool. Like having a fourth member of the band.
Jordan: We also got to spend more time mixing it with him, providing instantaneous feedback on things, whereas in the past, with other projects I’ve worked on, you kindof just send notes via email and hope that what you get back is what you want. We sat with him for quite some time, and he looked at it as a labour of love.
Nick: Yeah, we definitely owe him big. There’s no monetary way to equate how many hours he spent on it.Michael Rancic is a writer living in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter.
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Nick: The idea started out as a reverse-skateboard video with failed tricks but then that morphed into a sort-of exploration-of (and frustration-at) the denial of "cool". Skateboarding is inherently cool and as three tall guys who could never master the art of an ollie we really identify with the feelings expressed within - mostly via cursing and smashing.We’re hanging out in Handlebar, which is right below where Teranga, a place where you played a bunch of your first shows, used to be. How connected do you still feel to the Kensington Market area?
Jordan: I think your amp is still there.
Dave: When that place shut down my amp got locked in and I never was allowed back in to get it. So in a way it’s like when those ghosts that can't let go because they were wronged, that’s kind of how I feel right now.
Jordan: Is there a new place up there now or what?
Nick: Uh, it’s apartments now.
Dave: Maybe I should go haunt those people. “Knock, knock. Boo. Where’s my amp?” They’ll be like “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “Yeah you do, you can hear it feed-backing behind the walls.”
Nick: To answer your question, yes and no. We all enjoy the market quite a bit.
Jordan: I come here to do groceries every day. I just live around the corner.
Nick: I come here to drink beers almost every day [laughs].
Dave: Those days are kind of a memory. I used to work in the market at the time as well, so I felt very connected. Now it’s just a place I come to to get drunk sometimes. The fondness I have for Teranga is still there. It was a vital space for a lot of people.
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Nick: No we played at the Press Club, for free with our friends Chattering Class, who ended up becoming the Valley Boys, in a weird roundabout way. But then after that I think we played every other show at Teranga.
Dave: There were a lot of shows at Teranga. People hated going there. So many people hated it, it freaked them out.Why?
Dave: It was a Senegalese restaurant, but these two guys were openly selling cocaine. I think it just vibed people out. There were a few people that understood what the space meant.
Nick: They were nice though.
Dave: Super nice!
Nick: It was weird, for sure.
Jordan: I think that’s just how spaces work though. I don’t think anyone thought it was the absolute best place to play…
Nick: But they’ll have us. But yeah, we knew the booker, Mark Mclean, and John Shapiro was one of the sound guys.
Dave: Most of the nights there, they probably had about 12 people.
Nick: But! Sometimes there were 50 people.
Dave: Yeah, those nights! Let me tell you something… But yeah. It was special. Important. And that kind of thing doesn’t really exist right now. The Tranzac is like that, kindof. But there’s this weird library vibe there. It’s not the same. Academic.
Jordan: I don’t think I’ve played a show there before.
Nick: I played when I was in a rock band once, back when they were more open to that kind of thing. It was OK. That front room was nice. You can pack it pretty easily.
Dave: When I moved to Toronto I had this noise thing that I did with my friend. It was largely hated, even by our friends. I remember there was a gig we did there and there was just this pained silence in the room. Those are good gigs to have. Silence gives more than applause, for sure. You’re going to get a lot more from the vacuum.It’s been about three years since Good Feelings, your last LP. At what point did you start writing the material for Soft Party? I noticed that some of the songs are connected to earlier works, like “Crimes Of The Future, Pt. II” is on the Parasite Brain EP, and there’s a version of “Young N EZ” on the split single you did with Crosss.
Jordan: We didn’t really start playing these songs until after the Parasite Brain EP was recorded. So that was April 2013. Sometime after that. I think “Crimes” was just an older song that we had tried to work into some musical form before, but didn’t come together.
Nick: Yeah, everything came together really organically. Even that Parasite Brain EP happened by accident. We were in New York, met up with some friends, and they were like “do you want to come to our studio and record?” So we said “sure!”
Jordan: Yeah, they just happened to have a few days off work…
Nick: As did we.
Jordan: It was Jordan Lovelace, who plays guitar in Pampers.
Nick: Super nice guys. We just hit it off one night after we played a show together at Death By Audio. Retroactively I think we should’ve just recorded four more songs and finished a record right then and there.
Jordan: I think we had a debate at the time… should we just wait, record four more tunes and put out an LP?
Dave: Yeah I think we thought we were going to release an LP like the next year, but I don’t know. I don’t even remember what happened three years ago.
Jordan: I think we liked how it sounded and it didn’t seem feasible to go back to New York to just record four more songs.
Nick: Yeah, by the time the mixing was done it was the winter, and we’d just decided to put it out as is.
Jordan: Oh, you know what it was, Jack Shack records wanted to put out a 7’’ for us. That became the Parasite Brain EP.
Nick: Everything just happened in a weird, stupid Soupcans lazy way. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just worked itself out. There was that EP, then we put out a single. We were demoing the entire time. Three times for this record, I think.Are there any moments on this record that you're particularly proud of? Any time during songwriting when you surprised yourselves?
Jordan: Uh, yeah, but it was more Jim’s performance.
Nick: The guy that recorded it. I’m proud of the whole thing actually. Which is a weird thing to say.
Dave: You’ve never felt proud of a recording before?
Nick: I’ve never felt proud of anything.
Dave: Wow. Holy shit! Well this is huge, man. C’mere, give me a hug [laughs].
Jordan: We put out every track we recorded, which I didn’t think was going to happen. I thought there would be a couple we would hold back.
Nick: Going back to your initial point, about Jim’s work. We recorded this with Jim Toth, who also goes by Jim Tooth on every website out there due to autocorrect. He came into our lives when we had this one set of demos that didn’t work out. Jordan, through a stroke of genius said “my friend Jim is available.”
Jordan: He mastered a record by Town Ship, this other band I play in and did a really good job. He’s always just been a real professional dude and knows exactly what he’s doing.
Nick: So he popped into our lives. We asked him to re-mix the demos. He did it right away. Everything sounded like 90% of the way there. We didn’t need to give him any instruction, it just came out the way we thought it should. That’s what I’m most happy with. Jim was like the fourth Soupcan. We pitched him ideas. We recorded a sound bank in the sessions.
Dave: So to answer your question, Jim’s performance is what we’re most proud of. It was cool. Like having a fourth member of the band.
Jordan: We also got to spend more time mixing it with him, providing instantaneous feedback on things, whereas in the past, with other projects I’ve worked on, you kindof just send notes via email and hope that what you get back is what you want. We sat with him for quite some time, and he looked at it as a labour of love.
Nick: Yeah, we definitely owe him big. There’s no monetary way to equate how many hours he spent on it.Michael Rancic is a writer living in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter.