Black Rebel Tour: The Lazys Come Back to Canada

We’re always told not to judge a book by its cover. BUT, when you look at the boys from The Lazys with their long hair, healthy beards, ink, and beers in their hands – it’s hard not to see rock and roll.

This week we sat down with lead singer Leon Harrison and guitarist Matty Morris at Lou Dawgs on King St. West in Toronto to talk about the transition from Australia to Canada, the rock scene back home, condos, venues, chicken wings, what’s coming next, and more.

Big thanks to the boys for meeting up with us before a hectic 5 week schedule – we’re pretty sure every interview from now on should include beer and BBQ.

Just over 24 hours after they landed in Toronto (via LAX), The Lazys were already gearing up to hit the 401 east for a Kingston show before playing 22 more shows on the ‘Black Rebel’ Tour (in support of their new single, Black Rebel) between November 14th in Arnprior, ON and December 19th in Saskatoon, SK. With a total of 23 shows in 37 days, covering well over 3,000km – including a stop at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, November 20th – these Australian rockers know that they need to walk the line between preserving some energy and enjoying the hell out of the experience.

This isn’t the first trip that The Lazys have come to play for Canadian crowds. In fact, they were just here for Canadian Music Week, playing shows at The Horseshoe and The Rivoli and loving every minute of it. It’s why they’re back. Matty and Leon love the fact that rock and roll is alive and well in Toronto and across Canada (they’ve hit the prairies before and been to the east coast), and sad that it’s not the same at home in Australia. The scene has all but disappeared according to the boys, with the local venues they went to as young music fans being sold, torn down, and the land used to build condos.

When we talked about the same thing happening here (with the Guvernment as one example) Leon started to wonder out loud if there wasn’t a song in there somewhere.

Note: Maybe we’ll get a little love in the liner notes if anything comes from that idea.

And speaking of new music, The Lazys have some writing, recording, producing time written in pencil on their 2016 calendar. It would be another trip to North America (frequent flyer miles are piling up) with some time spent in Canada and the US, with Nashville as a hopeful maybe on Matty’s agenda.

Producer GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Nickelback, Mötley Crüe) has told the boys to have songs in mind, to get the writing process going when they have it in them, and be ready to make a record. It’s something that they’re excited about judging by the way they talk about Richardson and writing.

As we sat and talked and ate (Leon loved the dry rub chicken wings, and the guys are all about poutine as a late night party snack) it felt a whole lot more like hanging out than an interview – and we’re totally okay with that. Matty and Leon both got comfortable and showed who they are… 2 dudes that play in a rock and roll band, that love to make loud music, and can’t wait to get on stage to show everyone what they’ve got 23 times before they fly home to Australia for Christmas.

Thanks again to the guys for hanging out, to Lou Dawgs for treating us well and giving Leon a new pint glass to take home – and we’ll see you all at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, December 20!