You wouldn't expect some kids from an arts high school in Caledon, Ontario to make the best soulectro music in Toronto, but that's what's happening. Meet Unbuttoned. They're a pack of five best friends whose recent album, Planes, is ear candy for anyone who follows electro-pop and hip-hop. Part of it comes from the fact that they play with a certain lightness that makes the darker moments in their music all the more hard-hitting. Take the song "Shy Cry," the album's lead single. It kicks in with a watery lead line over big chords, like a gospel hymn, lifting the listener into the clouds before telling a story about frustration and personal isolation. Casey Manierka-Quaile, the band's primary songwriter, and Kamilah Apong trade vocals like two friends having a heart to heart. By the end, you feel like you've gotten somewhere.When we met the band for beers earlier this month, it became obvious that friendship is a crucial part of their music. They're the kind of group that finishes each other's sentences, easily gets off on tangents about the fun stuff they do on tour (hackeysack tennis, anyone?), and punctuates all of their stories with laughter. They're a fun time, but there's more to it than that. The fun they have with each other, and their openness, comes through loud and clear in their music. It's uplifting and joyful, but unafraid to deal with real shit.The twelve songs on Planes offer some of the catchiest, cathartic, and soul-bearing pop we've heard in a while. Maybe it's their grounding in soul music, or talent for laying down a good hook, but either way, this album digs deep. We spoke with them about their songwriting process, their influences, and the ridiculously story of how they met (spoiler alert: there's a middle school hip-hop dance contest involved).Noisey: When did you start working on the new album?
Kamilah: Some of the recording began as long as two years ago, when we finished the last album, but we've really been focusing on it over the last year. There was a period of time when Casey was writing lots of tunes, and we would come in to practice, and he and say, "Hey, check out this thing." We would rewrite from there and sometimes bang something out in three hours. Casey wrote 50 songs at least, and over the past year, we had to narrow that down to an album.So is there a whole second album's worth of songs sitting around? I'm always fascinated by songwriters who have a whole vault of unreleased material.
Casey: I'm not sure if there's a second album, to be honest. They span over two years, right? It was in 2012, right after releasing Electric Kingdom, when we first got going on this album, and then there was a lot of writing. There are songs that were written in 2012 that are on the album. The lead single, "Shy Cry," was written then. The other songs just more or less reflect the entire album, but I would say it'll be really fresh on the next batch of material we release a new album.With that many songs at your disposal, did you find yourself gravitating toward a theme or any particular sound when you decided what to put on the album?
Casey: I wouldn't say there was anything we were striving to do. I do think it naturally turned out to be a dark album, but we never said we wanted to "sound like this" or "make it about this."Kamilah: There were some conscious decisions we made on this album, but those had more to do with the way we played than our sound. Things like like I would sing more and write more, more guitars. We wanted a more cohesive sound, in terms of everyone in the band having a voice together.Alexei: We also like making sure we're still pushing forward. Ya know, making sure it doesn't touch anywhere near the previous album's territory. I think we're all conscious of that.A lot of people call your sound "electric soul." Does that label resonate with you?
Casey: We've kind of adopted it. We get a lot of people asking, "What kind of music do you write?," and we say, "I don't know," but we've started saying "electric soul." We like soul a lot and listen to a lot. Marvin Gaye, Prince, lots of stuff. I don't think those things hand an effect on the album directly, though. We really like listening to a lot of different things. There's a lot of overlapping musical background between us. We have albums that we'll share with each other.Jon: We have complimenting personalties when we hang out as friends, and it seems like we just naturally have complimenting musical tastes too.Yeah, it seems like your friendship is a pretty big part of the way you play together. How did you all meet?
Casey: The three of us (Kamilah, Jon, and Casey) went to high school together. I've known Kamilah for something like twelve years now? Maybe thirteen.Kamilah: We met in our eighth grade hip-hop dance competition.What, what? More on that, please.
Casey: (laughs) We were in the same dance studio in sixth grade. We danced to "Momma Said Knock You Out" and "Let Your Backbone Slide" and House of Paine. And then we went to the same piano studio, and we played piano and had to sing The Lion King together.Kamilah: We ended up at the same arts high school, where Jon went too. We had to sing some more weird shit together. And then Casey was like, "Be in my band!"Casey: Making music had always been what I was doing, and I was still learning how to use the computer in terms of recording, continuing to develop songwriting. By the end of high school I had a batch of material and no one to play it with.Jon: Casey and I had been playing all through high school, in a couple other bands. We also were all in the same vocal jazz ensemble together too.So you were all studying music there?
Casey: I was actually in drama, Jon and Kamilah were in music. I just ended up running over and joining all the music stuff. Jon: Not to rag on (the school), but the music program isn't very good. It used to be really good - my brother went there a few years before me, and they had really top tier musicians doing cool things. When I got there they were really going down hill. In my year, the music director got fired and a lot of students left. So I would say going to a music school negatively affected my passion for music at the time.Kamilah: They were also racist. There was a blackface incident with the vice principal a little while ago. You can look it up.I noticed that you're releasing the album independently. Is that a deliberate choice?
Kamilah: Yeah. We've had opportunities to talk with people, but unless they can offer us something that would really fit with us as a band, we're not going to do it.Jon: If can do something for us that we can'd do for ourselves, like expand the range of shows we can play, then sure.Alexei: Today, a major label, is kind of a scary thing. Like the 360 rule. Since they can't make money off of music anymore, then anything you do, they own.Unbuttoned are holding [the official release show](http:// https://www.facebook.com/events/1508650269354934/) for Planes at The Drake Underground on July 11.Greg Bouchard is a writer living in Toronto. He's on Twitter.---Weaves is pulling tracks from everywhereGay is getting down with being a bandDorothea Paas is ahead of her time
Advertisement
Kamilah: Some of the recording began as long as two years ago, when we finished the last album, but we've really been focusing on it over the last year. There was a period of time when Casey was writing lots of tunes, and we would come in to practice, and he and say, "Hey, check out this thing." We would rewrite from there and sometimes bang something out in three hours. Casey wrote 50 songs at least, and over the past year, we had to narrow that down to an album.
Advertisement
Casey: I'm not sure if there's a second album, to be honest. They span over two years, right? It was in 2012, right after releasing Electric Kingdom, when we first got going on this album, and then there was a lot of writing. There are songs that were written in 2012 that are on the album. The lead single, "Shy Cry," was written then. The other songs just more or less reflect the entire album, but I would say it'll be really fresh on the next batch of material we release a new album.With that many songs at your disposal, did you find yourself gravitating toward a theme or any particular sound when you decided what to put on the album?
Casey: I wouldn't say there was anything we were striving to do. I do think it naturally turned out to be a dark album, but we never said we wanted to "sound like this" or "make it about this."Kamilah: There were some conscious decisions we made on this album, but those had more to do with the way we played than our sound. Things like like I would sing more and write more, more guitars. We wanted a more cohesive sound, in terms of everyone in the band having a voice together.Alexei: We also like making sure we're still pushing forward. Ya know, making sure it doesn't touch anywhere near the previous album's territory. I think we're all conscious of that.
Advertisement
Casey: We've kind of adopted it. We get a lot of people asking, "What kind of music do you write?," and we say, "I don't know," but we've started saying "electric soul." We like soul a lot and listen to a lot. Marvin Gaye, Prince, lots of stuff. I don't think those things hand an effect on the album directly, though. We really like listening to a lot of different things. There's a lot of overlapping musical background between us. We have albums that we'll share with each other.Jon: We have complimenting personalties when we hang out as friends, and it seems like we just naturally have complimenting musical tastes too.Yeah, it seems like your friendship is a pretty big part of the way you play together. How did you all meet?
Casey: The three of us (Kamilah, Jon, and Casey) went to high school together. I've known Kamilah for something like twelve years now? Maybe thirteen.Kamilah: We met in our eighth grade hip-hop dance competition.What, what? More on that, please.
Casey: (laughs) We were in the same dance studio in sixth grade. We danced to "Momma Said Knock You Out" and "Let Your Backbone Slide" and House of Paine. And then we went to the same piano studio, and we played piano and had to sing The Lion King together.Kamilah: We ended up at the same arts high school, where Jon went too. We had to sing some more weird shit together. And then Casey was like, "Be in my band!"
Advertisement
Casey: I was actually in drama, Jon and Kamilah were in music. I just ended up running over and joining all the music stuff. Jon: Not to rag on (the school), but the music program isn't very good. It used to be really good - my brother went there a few years before me, and they had really top tier musicians doing cool things. When I got there they were really going down hill. In my year, the music director got fired and a lot of students left. So I would say going to a music school negatively affected my passion for music at the time.Kamilah: They were also racist. There was a blackface incident with the vice principal a little while ago. You can look it up.I noticed that you're releasing the album independently. Is that a deliberate choice?
Kamilah: Yeah. We've had opportunities to talk with people, but unless they can offer us something that would really fit with us as a band, we're not going to do it.Jon: If can do something for us that we can'd do for ourselves, like expand the range of shows we can play, then sure.
Advertisement