B-Lines Talk False Maturity and False Teeth

Photo courtesy of Ryan Walter Wagner

Punk rock authenticity is measured in many different ways: fashion, DIY independence, rebellious nature, three-chord riffs, filthiness. But punk should also be judged by a person’s willingness to perform without any teeth, which Ryan Dyck did to perfection during multiple performances at Calgary’s Sled Island festival last month. Lead singer of Vancouver’s hardcore-pop-punk scrappers B-Lines, Dyck and his front couple of chompers lost a battle with a two pieces of bread that were determined to win. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop him from releasing a new, long overdue B-Lines album, Opening Band, via his very own Hockey Dad Records, which struck gold last year by releasing the debut LP by garage pop gals and Tegan & Sara tourmates, the Courtneys. On the day of departing for a west coast American headlining tour, Dyck was kind enough to answer some of Noisey’s questions about losing his teeth, the importance of acting stupid, and that time as a teenager his band was nearly sued by a dad.

Photo courtesy of Steve Louie

Noisey: Congratulations on losing your teeth. How did it happen?
Ryan Dyck: I fell on my face skateboarding as a teen and knocked out a couple teeth. A few years later a man in a dress punched me in the face and broke my bridge. Then about three months ago I fell skateboarding again and broke the bridge again. It was loose for a while until a sandwich finished it off. The moral of the story is that I'm bad at skateboarding and sandwiches.

How does it affect singing in a band?
When I sing without teeth I have to press down on my top lip while holding the mic to keep from lisping through all the songs. I end up looking like I'm singing in a straight edge band or something.

What kind of reaction do you get from people in public?
People seem to like the no teeth look. It kinda looks tough, but it also looks like I'm a six-year-old who just lost his baby teeth. When I'm talking to people they often bite their lips or lick their teeth and make weird faces like they're wondering if maybe their own teeth are gone.

How long until you can replace them?
I have new teeth now, a partial. It's pretty cool. I get to take my teeth out at the end of the day and put them in a glass like a grandpa. Also, like a grandpa I keep forgetting my teeth when I'm running late for work. It confuses people when you have teeth one day and no teeth the very next day. That being said, I work in the downtown east side of Vancouver, and nobody really thinks much of some missing teeth around there.

I read a description of the new B-Lines album as having "newfound maturity." What made you guys decide to mature?
I don't know if B-Lines have actually matured, but we did write a song that's three minutes long, and that's pretty good! That's some adult-like commitment!

You titled the album, Opening Band. What is the best experience you've had opening for another band?
We've opened for a lot of great bands, but I don't know if many of them have actually watched us. We opened the Apollo Ghosts’ last show ever and it was nuts, I've never seen a local band fill up the venue like they did. People we're going crazy! The Ghosts also paid us really well. We're still coasting off money from that show over a year later!

The album is said to be full of "stupid songs about feeling stupid, being stupid, trying to forget about one's stupidity and finally embracing the stupidness of it all." What was the stupidest thing you did while making this album?
Pretty much every song on the album is about stupid things I've done, or stupid things I see other people do. I feel like every day of my life is the most embarrassing day ever, I never cease to do stupid things. I guess when we play I can just do all the stupid things at once though, and people seem to like it. I guess that's what people want to see? I think the dumbest thing we've done may have been taking so long to get this record done.

On top of B-Lines you also run Hockey Dad Records. How surprised were you at the success of the The Courtneys LP last year?
The Courtneys LP was a surprise, but any record that sells any physical copies these days is a surprise! I liked the Courtneys from the very first time I saw them, I think the songs were great and they do a very good job of promoting themselves, it shouldn't be that much of a shock. That being said, I am in way over my head, I'm used to selling a couple hundred copies of a record and then letting the rest rot in my closet, not having to re-press something three times!

Any other releases you have coming up? I heard you wanna do a Killed By Death type comp featuring pop punk bands?
B-Lines have written a bunch of new songs that we can hopefully record in the fall. Hockey Dad is also working on a new Courtneys 7”, which features an appearance from Young Braised (1080p) and a Bobby Draino (100% Silk) remix.

I would love to put together a Killed By Pop Punk comp! There were so many amazing, shitty local pop-punk bands across the world in the ’90s, and everybody still thinks they suck! I want people to appreciate these inept teens like people love shitty garage bands from the ’60s. There are a lot of post-Green Day but pre-Blink-182 bands I love that all have one word names like Bum, Gob, Sicko, and they all rule. But the true gems are the totally forgotten 1997 to ’99 crop of bands weaned on Warped Tour and X Games, totally inspiring trash! People always talk about ’60s trash and how amazing pop culture was then, but the actual golden age of western civilization was when millions of teens were wearing super wide board shorts and bleaching their hair. I don't know if this project will ever get passed a FB chat with my friend Josiah, but it's nice to fantasize about.

You used to publish a ’zine called Bullsheet. How does one go about getting back issues?
Wow, this is some Nardwuar style research here! I hope nobody can find a copy of Bullsheet. It's super embarrassing! I had no idea what I was writing about most of the time, but I guess it's cool that I made a ’zine in high school to scam promo CDs. It used to take half an hour to download a single track, I had to get my fill of shitty suburban punk!

Finally, you and your brother used to be in the cult pop-punk band Fun 100. I heard there’s a story about you firing a dad from the band who then threatened legal action?
When my brother and I started Fun 100 we we're still kids in high school, we didn't know anybody who would play guitar with us so we asked this 28-year-old youth leader to play. He really liked the Police and Black Sabbath and tried to sound like them both at the same time. Eventually we kicked him out of the band; my brother who was 15 at the time called him up and broke the news. Imagine being a grown-ass man and getting kicked out of a band of teenagers! I guess he didn't take it too well, so he sent these contracts that broke down the songwriting for our awful songs. He wanted his cut in case any of them became super hits! The “contracts” had percentage breakdowns that didn't add up to 100 per cent and were riddled with spelling errors. Years later he put himself into the Fun 100 Wikipedia entry.

Cam Lindsay is a writer living in Toronto - @yasdnilmac