Organizing a Jane's Party

I like to think that anyone who takes listening to music seriously has their own dream-like world where the popular music scene meets all of their desires and preferences. I’m sure you have musical preferences that are unique when compared to anybody else reading this unnecessary drabble, but in your own perfect universe, what is the popular music scene like? In my world, bands rarely surpass four members. A bass, guitar, piano, and drums are the only essentials needed to get people out of their seats and dancing like idiots. Special effects don’t attract fans, catchy hooks do, and lead singers are always accompanied by rich harmonies and backing vocals. Is this too much to ask of today’s musical talent? Maybe so, but at least there’s one group out there meeting my specifications; Toronto indie-rockers Jane’s Party.

Devon Richardson, Tom Ionescu, Zach Sutton, and Jeff Giles have been creating vintage sounding music through modern filters since 2008. Though their musical styling is comparable to some of yesteryears greatest multi-vocalist groups such as The Band or The Beatles, Jane’s Party doesn’t limit their inspiration to that of their parents’ record collections. In fact, the guys of Jane’s Party possess a strong sense of what is real and what is not in the modern music world, and maintain the ability to draw from any genre of music that pleases them. The result is a raw-powered rock sound with infectiously catchy hooks, creatively poetic lyricism, and a certain dance-ability that’s enjoyable for anyone with two ears and a pulse.

I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon with Jane’s Party before they opened for The Sam Roberts Band at Jackson Triggs Winery in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario. With nearly five hours to spare, we dipped our noses into a few bottles of vino, basked in the beautiful spring weather, and talked about everything from the role of drugs at rock concerts to the independent Toronto Music Scene.

Noisey: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us. I understand Jane’s Party has been around since about 2008? How did you guys originally meet and start playing music together?
Devon: Yep, 2008 was the year when the stars aligned. We met north of the city while we were all at York University studying music, and after playing for a while I think we all knew we had to break free of that northern Toronto scene. So, we all moved downtown, balls to the wall, and pretty much said “Fuck it; let’s play as many shows as we can”. It took a little while but we eventually settled and started honing our craft.

And the name Jane’s Party?
Tom: It pretty much just represents the area where we started playing, Jane and Finch. You know, just to represent our area and home turf.

Run me through the songwriting process; is it a collaborative effort?
Jeff: We usually all bring songs to the table, and then add our vintage filter. I think for the most part many of our songs really come to life once we jam it together a few times.
Devon: We have like three different stages; there’s the bedroom demo, then the rough band demo, and then finally the studio demo. Once we bring something to the band we all kind of add our own input. Like I have a bunch of demos that I’ve made in my bedroom that have a ton of crazy synthetic sounds, and these guys will just tell me straight up like “no that’s not going to work”. And then with something like that we just strip it down to the melody and start working at it.
Zach: We all have our own little makeshift studios at home right? So we all play and write songs in our own rooms and homes and then work away at a demo before bringing it to the loft where we all jam them together. Then we jam it even more in the loft before bringing it to the studio.
Devon: Yeah, so we all hate the songs by the time they’re recorded.

One of the first things I noticed when listening to your music is the strong use of harmonies that are comparable to bands like Dr. Dog or even that of The Band. I later noticed that you actually mentioned both of these bands as major influences. What drew you to these bands and how do you think they’ve influenced your own music?
Zach: We never wanted to be a super polished studio band. We wanted to be a band that could really play their instruments, and when you look at those bands they're stuff sounds so incredible because you’ve got this high caliber of musicianship. They all know how to play their instruments so well, and I think we all really look up to players like that.

Is this something that was of strong focus on 2013’s Hot Noise or the album that you are currently working on?
Zach: Well yeah. We’re actually recording our new album with Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, and I’d say we’re really focusing on making our sound as organic as possible. Greg gets that so it’s awesome to work with someone who understands that we like to build things very naturally.

And how would you compare the new album to that of its predecessor Hot Noise?
Tom: I’m not really all that sure. I mean we aren’t even really halfway done yet so I think we’d have to wait to hear how it sounds when it’s fully finished. Right now it kind of feels like Hot Noise: part two.
Zach: Hotter Noise aha.
Devon: It sounds really big though. The sound quality is just so fat and lush.
Zach: I’d like to think that all of us have matured as instrumentalist and songwriters, so I hope that each album we ever release is better than the last. We just want to keep pushing things forward naturally.

You’ve often been associated with fellow Toronto rockers Zeus, partly due to the time you spent in their studio recording Hot Noise. I once heard Carlin Nicholson explain in an interview that perhaps he was born in the wrong era; do you feel the same is true for Jane’s Party?
Everyone: No.
Jeff: I think we draw influences from other eras besides the one that Carlin was talking about there. I mean there are so many modern bands that we are into. I know I’m huge into Foxygen, Tame Impala, Vampire Weekend, and artists like that.
Zach: I think we’ve got a foot in the past for sure though. We all grew up on our parents’ record collections. Guys like Neil Young, The Band, The Beatles. But at the same time there were a lot of other bands that we discovered through our own eyes and ears. I’d say we pay homage to the past but we aren’t stuck in the past. We don’t wear our influences directly on our sleeves - they’re more like patches on our jean-jackets.
Tom: I think the artistry of making relevant music is being able to draw from as much of a music tradition as you can and being able to see what you can take from everything.

With that in mind, who are some other bands or artists that you feel are proper influences to younger kids who aspire to be in a successful rock band?
Jeff: I’d say Sam Roberts for sure. I know we all grew up listening to him, and he continues to make great music with a throwback sound. I mean he never really stops making good music; he’s so consistent.
Zach: I think there are very few bands that I’ve seen recently that have released several great albums. And that’s something that makes you a great band. Like Vampire Weekend has released three incredible albums, and that seems to be more of a rarity in the singles generation. Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, The Sam Roberts Band – they all fall under this category. They’re bands that prove their abilities time and time again.
Devon: I actually saw Arcade Fire on the Reflektor tour and I was going fucking wild man. I fucking love them. They're so influential and always lead me to new stuff. I mean I only got into LCD Soundsystem because James Murphy produced that album. Then that opened up that whole dance-punk world to me; I started watching his live performances and old LCD Soundsystem shows, and he played all that dance music live with real instruments and that’s so fucking refreshing.

You clearly respect and value genuine musicianship, but what do you make of the growing popularity of EDM in the mainstream music scene? Do you feel that it has a negative influence on younger generations of aspiring musicians or perhaps gives them the wrong idea?
Devon: I think for us, we are just so sick of bands that use computers instead of instruments and all these Internet “buzz” bands who, when you see them live, just fucking suck. There’s no drums, just a machine or something. It’s stupid, like pick up a guitar and hire a drummer.
Tom: I don’t think there’s any beef to be had with the EDM thing. It’s the same thing if someone likes white bread over dark rye. I think it’s great if you can take something away from a different genre of music.
Devin: Yeah, but the feeling you walk away with from an EDM show is a lot different than the feeling you walk away with from a great rock show.
Zach: It becomes a point of discussion quite often but who am I to tell someone what to listen to? I’d love for them to listen to our music – the people that do usually get a lot from what we are trying to do — but I would never take that away from another artist. Musicians are all trying to do the same thing regardless of what medium it’s through. I mean, you could take the whole EDM thing and almost compare it to past musical traditions like psychedelic-rock. I mean guys were up on stage playing twenty-minute songs that people probably never knew the name to. It was more about the experience right? I guess my point is that music is going to be experienced very subjectively. Some people don’t care about singing the lyrics — they care about how that music punches them in the gut while they're high on whatever.

With about six years under your belt, and a new album in the works, it seems like your fan base will only grow in size; has there been a point at any time in the bands existence where you realized you had a significant following?
Zach: I think we thought we had a much bigger following at university because the whole school would usually come out to see us play. When we made the move downtown it was sort of like starting over. Our crowd wasn’t used to going downtown to see us. We started getting into NXNE and CMW and bigger festivals so I guess it was natural that more people started hearing about us.
Tom: For me it’s whenever we play a show and look out at the first row and don’t know any of the people. They’ve either heard about us through friends or the Internet, and they’re there singing along with us.
Zach: Actually one time I was teaching drums at Long and McQuade and one of the guitar teachers brought his student over to meet me, and when she saw me she started freaking out because she actually came to her lesson with a Jane’s Party song she wanted to learn. Something like that had never happened before, I mean I was just doing my job, working you know? And she was just so happy to see me in person.
Devon: Those are a lot more far and few between aha.

What advice would you give some of the younger musicians reading this that want to get into the Toronto scene?
Zach: Find people you can look up to as a reference point. See what they’ve done and decide if that’s where you want to go. Talk to other bands and get a better perspective of what you’re getting into.
Devon: Play, play, play and practice as much as you can. Don’t just rely on social media as a means of getting your name out there. Sit in your garage and practice with your buddies until you sound like the records you love listening to.

What’s next for Jane’s Party?
Tom: The new record is definitely the main focus right now. Once it’s finished it will be a matter of playing the hell out of it and getting it into as many peoples hands and ears as possible.
Zach: I really don’t think we will be able to breathe until its actually done and we get the chance to play the hell out of it, as Tom said.
Devon: So yeah. Once we figure out what we’re doing with this record…you know…big things aha.

Adam Lalama is a writer living in London, Ontario - @Adotlalama