When you think about family bands, do you think punk band? The Discarded is ready to change your mind.
We had the chance via email to chat with the lead singer of The Discarded, J.P. , prior to their tour premiere and support their latest EP, Not From This Town about the new record, and more.
The Discarded are are an Orangeville-based, punk rock, garage rock, trio made up of J.P. the dad, (we're not telling you his age) on guitar and lead vocals, Caden Jax, 16 on drums and backing vocals and Jared Dean, 20 on bass and backing vocals. We asked J.P. all about their history, musical tastes, touring with family, and so much more.
Before we head into the question and answer portion of this post, we want to let you know that we've got a pair of tickets to give away to their Toronto date at Duggan's Brewery this Saturday night. Head on over to our socials to enter, and it's an all-ages show so tell all your friends!
Let's do this!
Q1: I've read your bio, but could you please tell us more about how you came together as a band?
J.P.: We always had fun jams down in the music room of our house with all of my four kids. 2016 found my two eldest and I living together full time after my separation and divorce. Jared had seriously taken up learning the bass and Caden had gotten a full-size drum kit of his own the previous October for his birthday.
At that time they wanted to try out the band thing a bit more seriously with real songs. I picked five or six that were fairly straight forward and we learned them for a show at a friend's birthday party. My regular band wasn't able to play so I suggested that we could do a few tunes. At the same time, I had a show later the same month (April 2016) and slotted us as the opener. The first show was received well, and it seemed like a fun thing to be doing together. Caden was thirteen at the time and Jared seventeen.
Q2: How'd you come up with the band name?
J.P.: For the first show we called ourselves JP And the K!dz as that's what people referred to us as at that first show. K!dz was also the name of my first punk band in high school so it seemed like a funny throwback for me.
But we wanted a real name before the second show so jokingly Caden said we should be called "The Discarded" alluding to the divorce and separation. I laughed and said that's a bit dark but funny, but really the band came together also be a positive outlet during that time. It was to sort of discard all that wasn't working or negative and move forward with good times, feelings and make music. Finally, we thought it was a cool punk/garage rock name.
Q3: Can you talk about influences and the music you listen to at home, together and apart?
J.P.: I like the Ramones, The Beatles, Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, The Buzzcocks, Stiff Little fingers, The Jam, early punk, hardcore, Dead Kennedy's, Flammin Groovies, rock and roll, 50's, first wave rock and roll, 60's rock and roll, The Who, Stones, garage rock, The Sonics, really most guitar, bass, drum foundation music that has some real energy in it. We're pretty eclectic about what we listen to. I listen to a UK band called Dream Wife with my daughter.
Jared is a big Sloan fan, a local band called Locomotive 8. And he just produced a local band called "Sharky!" that he plays keys on. Plus obscure Japanese anime music composers.
Caden has a wide-ranging taste from modern to classic rock, Ska, Green Day, Zeppelin, Nazareth- recent adds have been- Making plans for Nigel, Talking heads, Teenage head Flamin Groovies and Spill the Wine- War
Again if we like it, we listen to it and we don't tend to listen to just the same style. The rule in the car is if you are the deejay no three same band songs in a row unless we agree to listen to a band's whole album. The other day Caden mixed in Funky Town, and it was hilarious in between the punk tunes he was playing.
J.P.: It was at a friend's birthday party. Caden and Jared had only been playing seriously for about 3 months. We did five songs- four of which ended up on our first record. People liked the Cramps, Ramones sound of it and the reaction was good, so we decided to continue, and after seven months we thought we'd capture this embryonic stage of the band with a recording.
Q5: Is it tough with underage members to play/book gigs, or how does that work?
J.P.: It's tough to book gigs in general. The rules around underage performers are straight forward. They don't walk around the club, they stay backstage, they are identified to staff and you can put an X on their hand. They can't be around alcohol. That part is straight forward, and was more evident when Caden was 13 and looked young. Jared is twenty now so not an issue. Caden understands what he needs to do but he's 16 and 5'10" now so he doesn't look like a kid like he used to. We follow the guidelines and that is not an issue. Some places are special event rooms or restaurant so like any restaurant; underage people are around the service of alcohol.
We're a funny band, we drink water at shows, I'm the only driver, Jared doesn't like to drink, and Caden is underage. So alcohol is not a big lure for us or something that fuels our performances. Booking in general, the tough part is they want you to find the bands from that town and put the show together. I get it for clubs; they need to have a good night especially the weekends. Canada has been hurting these last few years. A band that can play to five to six hundred people in the U.S. play in Canada to one hundred. So unless it's some huge mega show at an arena for hundreds of dollars or a festival, people don't just go out to clubs to see original live music as much anymore. That's the problem.
Q6: What's the best thing about playing together?
J.P.: We make a glorious noise/songs/sounds together, and nothing is as fun as playing music together. From my own standpoint, yeah it's rare to have your kids want to play with you. All bands have a window of time that they are together, making music and creatively writing new cool music. It is not lost on me that this is that window for us. That it's with two people I love, and that makes it all that much cooler. I can relate to them like peers instead of just a dad.
Q7: What's the worst thing about playing together?
J.P.: Well you know each other really well and therefore you know what bugs the other person. Ironically, you tend to be more civil to people you don't know than to those who are closest to you. So you can be rather harsh to one another at times and very pointed and personal in criticisms.
We all cringe a bit at the moniker of "Family Band", like some sort of hokey partridge family thing. We want our music to stand on its own. That it's good and we play heavy and well, that the songs are cool.
Q8: Not from this Town is your current release, and you're doing a release show at Duggan's and then touring to support it, can you describe the writing and recording process?
J.P.: We write quite frequently. When we started, it was me with a song and showing it to them. I was originally a drummer for many years so I could even describe to Caden the general beat or show him. But the last two albums has seen both Jared and Caden totally come into their own as players. A lot of these songs were developed as a group in the rehearsal room at our house. I would have an idea and maybe a little bit of a structure, but everyone adds their parts. Some were even jammed out together during rehearsal. Then we usually cell phone record the idea so we don't forget the feel or the structure.
After that I might go away and write or tidy up the lyrics I wrote. Jared is all about developing a more melodic intricate baselines. With Caden I want him to develop his own feel and drum part that is his style.
On this album Not from this Town was totally developed together at rehearsal. We'd played the last show of our record release tour last year and it ended in Orangeville where we live. But we didn't grow up there and we have a bit of a feeling that although this is where we go to sleep at night we are not really from this town. Caden's drumming sets the whole feel of the song and Jared has a very busy bass line under my wide swath Ramones guitars.
With the recording, we have been working with Ian Blurton at Pro Gold Studio. Ian's legendary for both his bands and the sounds/recordings he gets. This is our third album recording with him. The first he understood that this was both Jared and Caden's first time in a studio and they had only been playing for seven months. We did nine songs in one day but he was good with just a few take and us saying that was good. The second album he pushed a bit more because both Jared and Caden had improved as players. We did more takes and did ten songs over two days. This album we recorded seventeen songs which we will never do again that way. This EP is the first five of those (Act 1), and later this year we will release the next twelve (Act 2 and 3). Again he pushed us to get a good take which we tend to do as all three of us doing the bed track together without any vocals. But even on this one, Ian made suggestions on minor song structure changes for example on this recording Not From This Town and Joyful Bits he suggested a couple of changes we incorporated.
He's the producer, and I think I went with whatever suggestions he had. The guitar sounds were all him. The first two albums were me doubling my guitar with a Les Paul sound underneath and a more trebly fender tele deluxe sound over top and blended to make one guitar sound. But basically playing the same thing. This one the guitars are not a dense one guitar sound. The intros and the four bars before singing would have a different guitar sound added as well with different effects that Ian would get the sounds on. The choruses might have the doubled guitar and then another hitting full power chords ringing. I even added some small picking parts or a couple of songs.
As far as the rest of the songs they were all written in the last year or so. We tend to write and then play the songs a bunch for the year and then record them. We tend to be an album ahead of ourselves that way. Jared came up with the riff for I Like to Get High, and I wrote the words and melody. Caden's drumming changed it from his original riff to give it a bit more of a groove.
Joyful Bits was one of mine taken from a band's name from Orangeville and has a seventies punk rock feel.
My Life Story is a slower heavier tune around a riff I jammed on during a rehearsal.
And Leg on his Shoulder is a story type song about a woman taking charge of a romantic encounter.
All of the songs have some killer bass lines by Jared and some powerhouse drumming from Caden. The title track, My Life Story and I Like to Get High have been a part of our live set for over a year now. So they were well road tested before we recorded them.
Q9: I watched the video for Not from this Town, and I loved seeing the Toronto venues and locations, when did you shoot the video and who came up with the concept? (It looked chilly!)
J.P.: I (JP) wrote a loose concept and some basic shots for the video. The album cover has the old Toronto city hall with us in front of it and the back is that same clock tower from down Bay Street as we cross the road. The idea was to tie into that, so two shots are the same locations as the album.
The overall idea was to show clubs and locations around Toronto and a loose narrative. Jared walking around and these two guys, Caden and I, are always walking by him and giving him the eye. At first he doesn't notice, but then he starts to. It's also meant to be absurdist like is this really happening like are the two guys really just standing behind him at lunch. And then they start targeting him, bumping into him and laughing to the point where he's paranoid and runs when he sees them in the third verse. Finally, they jump him and rough him up. But the fight scene is totally absurd with the way Caden and I box him and at one point it's actually Jared over top of himself yelling freak.
Caden threw in the ideas of the fight scene and his dancing to make it seem silly and surreal.
We filmed on December 8th and yes it was cold- hence the lunch shot that was not planned but we wanted to warm up, and Jared was hungry- ha!
Q10: Where do I get one of those badass The Discarded patches?
J.P.: We have t-shirts and hoodies with that logo on it, but those patches were made for the shirts the band wore last year on tour (so only 6 ever made)- I like them though and will probably get some made soon.
Q11: In 50 words or less, what can people expect from a live show?
J.P.: We play like we sound on record- loud, fast and a lot of energy. We like to be tight and reproduce a great sounding song. We have a bit of a Ramones hurry up offence when we play live, so very little chatter in between songs and when one song ends the next one starts. After 4 or 5 we'll come up for air and say something for a short second. But we like to keep the flow and energy going throughout a show, and that's not happening if there is a two minutes speech between each song. We tend to practice that way too unless we're learning new songs.
Thanks to J.P. for taking the time to answer our questions and if you'd like to check out the band, you can find them here.
March 8 Waterloo - Harmony Lunch
March 9 Toronto - Duggan's Basement
March 16 Peterborough - The Garnet
March 22 Newmarket - The Grey Goat Pub
March 23 Oshawa - The Atria
March 31 Hamilton - This Ain't Hollywood
