Small Town Artillery sound like nothing else you've ever heard.
The Vancouver-based band (originally from Kaslo, BC) bring together funk and rock, with a large serving of horns, and the result is outstanding. But exceptional music isn't the only thing that this band has going on. They bring great energy and lyrics that deliver important messaging. Signed to JumpAttack! Records out of East Vancouver in late 2017, they continue to release music that makes a difference.
They toured extensively in 2019, and in early March, prior to live music shutting down from the pandemic, they released the first in a series of four EPs. Bright Side Bandits, a four song release was supposed to be the jumping off point for a cross-Canada tour but between controversy, cancellations, and then the virus, things took a turn.
A Knock At The Door follows Bright Side Bandits, and "It's the 2nd chapter in a story of growth. The rat-tat-tat of new information. The wider view you didn't see. Having your principles challenged, tested, tilted. Standing for what you believe in while being open to the beliefs of others."
We'll let Tom tell you the stories.
Thanks to Tom for taking time from his day during isolation, to answer our questions, to not pull any punches, and to shoot a 5 Quick Questions video for us.
5 Quick Questions with Small Town Artillery
Most of the time, I send of questions to artists and bands, and when they come back I put together a story from the answers. This time around, I didn't want you to miss anything that Tom had to say, so I'm going old school Q&A style.
Small Town Artillery Q&A
Q: What brought you to the music business?
TvD: When I was 9, I took a series of piano lessons that I did not enjoy. My teacher was a sweet elderly lady named Agnes who lived in Argenta, BC. She instructed me to hold my hands like igloos (the arched domes) and I suppose being instructed was not in line with the rebellious persona I was trying so hard to cultivate. I abandoned the piano soon thereafter. A few years later, I was at the Kaslo Jazz Festival and saw Colin James headline. It was raining, and he leapt from the floating stage to run through the crowd with a wireless rig dangling off his stratocaster. He ran by the blanket I sat on with my family. I could smell the nickel and bronze burning in the rain. It was like falling in love. I bought a guitar the next week, and the fire was lit. I couldn't get enough of the guitar and rock & roll music. That feeling hasn't left!
Q: How would you describe your musical style?
TvD: Thoughtful Rock & Roll with a robust horn section.
Q: Who are your biggest influences?
I grew up with a few favourites from my parents collection - Supertramp's Crime Of The Century, the Blues Brothers soundtrack, etc. Then came the music I would adore and call my own - Billy Talent, Green Day, Fat Freddy's Drop, The White Stripes... the rock and funk of the 2000's. A lot of our music has roots here - now as a grown man I have so many favourites that trickle down into STA music; EMEFE, Seu Jorge, Five Alarm Funk, Matt Corby... so much gold out there. Also a large nod is due to my other band, The Boom Booms - I spent more than a decade touring with them and lead singer Aaron Ross's musical stylings along with the other members of the band have had a big impact on me too.
Q: Could talk to us about what happened in March, with the anti-pipeline show cancellation, and then having to cancel the tour because of the quarantine?
TvD: When the hereditary Wet'suwet'en chiefs of northern BC declared non-violent war against the pipeline project that was being pushed through their lands in the tail end of 2019, we became involved as a band to help get the message out. It is one of the seminal battles of our time, energy development vs Indigenous sovereignty, renewable vs fossil fuel - though of course it is so far from that simple. I write songs about the world & issues around me, and we wrote & released a tune called "Day As An Arrow" that was born on the banks of the Xingu river in the Brazilian Amazon in 2012 when I was there on tour. At the time the Belo Monte dam project was set to displace 40,000+ native people and their way of life. It broke my heart. Very similar issues have challenged the people of BC on all sides for a long time, and the song was completed with the Unist'ot'en people in mind. So we released the song, and offered up 50 free tickets for our upcoming Vancouver tour launch show to Indigenous Land Defenders & Allies protesting in the streets. The way I see it, all issues have merit, but when you're willing to take your comfort and freedom and risk it by blockading highways and ports, angering a lot of people and leaving the comfort of your home for weeks at a time - the heart and will of these people is where I want to be.
I had booked us a 42 show cross-Canada tour that passed through the beautiful Prairies, and most of the venues were in smaller centres - we come from a small town and many of our favourite shows have been in places off the beaten path. Beyond asking touring friends what smaller towns they like to play across Canada, I spent a lot of time on Google Maps looking up communities of 10,000 people and under. Kindersley SK was one of the towns and we booked a show at the Norman Ritchie Community Hall there. After hearing word of our political & social leanings, some residents in the town raised an alarm and there was a pushback against our band that ended up snowballing online and leading to the cancellation of 5 shows in Alberta & Saskatchewan. It was partly a timing thing - with the blockades challenging the working class and the very polarized conversations happening, our band just was another agitator to a long history of proud Oil & Gas workers & their families. So we lost some shows from this, but still prepared to embark. Then COVID-19 hit and it became impossible to go at all. All this over a 2 week period, after 6 months of working to build this tour every day.
Q: Why 4 EPs?
TvD: After a heavy tour season in 2019, we had a large batch of half-finished new songs. We wanted to shape them into a structure that had a narrative, to help finish them with purpose and to tie them all together as a unit. We settled on 4 EPs based around the 4 stages of self-actualization: Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence & Unconscious Competence. We were all going through our own versions of growing (aren't we all, all the time) and I have parts of myself that live in each of these stages. Also, releasing smaller batches of music in the current music industry climate felt like a smarter play.
Q: You released A Knock at The Door on May 7th, 2nd in the series of 4, is there a specific message with this piece?
TvD: The songs on this 2nd EP pick up where the more sure-footed and self-assured Bright Side Bandits left off - a more introspective dive into murkier waters, the soft fleshy stuff under the shiny exterior. We wanted to talk about the slow death of toxic masculinity and colonial thinking, the endless hours of grinding it takes as a working, touring band, the barriers standing in the way of self-actualizing... keep our little flashlight on these things so ourselves and the people around us can see them a little clearer.
What's incredible is that between the release of these two EPs, chapters if you will, of already finished music - we encountered a landslide of resistance, support & growth, and some critical lessons about standing on principle. A version of the story we hoped to tell through our music happened to us in real life, leading to a slew of cancelled shows before COVID-19 even hit and opening our eyes further to the harsh divide that unnecessarily exists between points of view. It is remarkable & humbling, a type of benevolent sorcery, to finish a painting and walk out the door of your house right into the very tableau drying inside on the easel.
Q: Tell us about the team that came together for the project.
TvD: We're signed to a Vancouver label called JumpAttack! Records, and this comes with a great team from the recording and production side. We tracked it entirely at Blue Light Studios in East Van, engineered and mixed by Kaj Falch-Nielsen. It was mastered by Suite Sound Labs. I wrote the horn lines in collaboration with Five Alarm Funk's lead trumpet Kent Wallace, and they were recorded by our touring horn section that didn't even get to tour this year - Phil Austrom on trumpet & Alex Maher on saxophone. The cover photo for the EP was taken by Louis Bockner who we grew up with in the Kootenays, and the publicity for the tour & releases has been done primarily by Fritz Media, with a helping hand from Beachwood Entertainment out of Los Angeles.
Q: I'd love to hear all about how the video for Yellow Light came together?
TvD: After our entire Canadian Tour went down in a roaring ball of fire, I did an about face and found some work and a place to isolate through family connections on Pender Island, living in a remote cabin with a workshop. We had planned a music video for another song that could no longer be made given the proximity dangers with COVID-19 and with the nucleus of the band spread far apart, it became apparent that if we were going to stick with our release schedule, we'd need to improvise.
This song, Yellow Light is about the barriers that stand in the way of self-actualization. It all hit me at once - the H.G. Wells words "adapt or perish" - and I was thinking about the heartbreaking divide and anger we saw between ways of thinking as our shows were cancelled on the prairies earlier this year. And honestly, I needed a friend. So, I made this video in one day, in isolation. From a 7AM coffee and a scribbled storyboard on a piece of 1×8, through to a 10PM finished edit. Shot on a Sony A7iii.
Q: How are you keeping things going during this unusual time?
TvD: Each of us has been pushed to invigorate ourselves in new ways, pushing for meaning when our main hustle lies dormant. I am tree planting in a very remote camp near the Chilcotin, watching wild horses hang out outside my window at night, and keeping a close watch on the entertainment industry. Lots of songwriting and working out what the next musical endeavour will be, with far more time to plan and think than the usual breakneck pace we run at.
Q: What's the best way for people to support you?
TvD: Get to know us through our last 2 albums, 2 EPs and a slew of singles - get in touch with us - and most importantly, look to the artists & venues in your own communities. It's a very hard time to keep a gathering place open when we can't gather, so if you want to see bands and shows again when this is over, reach out and see if there's a way you can help!
Small Town Artillery's Links