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| Bike Thiefs (Toronto) from left to right: Kris (bass), Marko (guitar + vocals), Andrew (drums) |
N: So, Mississauga and Toronto -- I've seen Bike Thiefs listed as a Mississauga band and a Toronto band at various points. The cities are very close to each other right?
Andrew: They're about half an hour apart.
N: Are there any big differences between the two?
Andrew: Mississauga is more of a suburb and Toronto is more of a city, the metropolis.
N: And which do you all live in now? I've seen you listed as both.
Marko: Andrew lives in Toronto. Kris lives in Mississauga. I'm in the process of moving to Toronto. Not downtown Toronto, but I'll be in Toronto proper.
Andrew: He's on the subway line.
Marko: Yeah. I think that the difference is for bigger tours when we're further from home, people don't know what Mississauga is, so it's just easier to say we're from Toronto. When we're in southern Ontario it's a lot easier to just say we're a Mississauga band. I know there's definitely a little bit more hubris or pride with being like Toronto band . . .
N: Like a scene pedigree kind of thing?
Marko: Yeah. . . Mississauga has a handful of really good bands, but ten years ago there were a lot of bands, it was very active but now . . .
Kris: . . . the scene is dead there.
Marko: Yeah, it's moved out into the city and people just kind of have to focus on playing in Toronto. It's also just Toronto's proximity to Mississauga. It just doesn't feel like there's a point to compete with that when you can just work with all that we have available in Toronto.
Andrew: And also, a lot of the venues in smaller towns and cities have shut down and nothing has replaced them. There are fewer and fewer places to play.
N: Is Toronto very very urban? Densely packed and all that?
Marko: Yeah.
N: Do you have a practice space there?
Marko: So, we actually practice in Mississauga.
N: It's easier to get a space there I'd imagine.
Marko: Yeah, and it's my mom's basement [laughter].
N: Cool. We don't have basements here in Florida, and practices and shows and everything would be way easier if we did. I've seen you describe yourselves as a "grammatically-inept three-piece rock band." What prompted you to use that phrasing? Did any big grammatical errors in some Bike Thiefs lyrics prompt you to use that particular descriptor?
Marko: No, it's just trying to beat people to the punch with the name because it should be Bike Thieves, not Bike Thiefs. I think the name came from our friend Kyle who used to be in the band. It was an homage to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the hockey team, and it just kind of stuck. I don't think there is any grammatical ineptitude in the lyrics. I'm really picky . . . I like when things don't rhyme and when rhymes are a little bit off, but the grammar I like to keep tight, unless it sounds good to not.
N: That makes sense. I didn't even notice the error in the band name before. So, you're a three-piece band, but the songs sound really big on the recordings. I can hear guitar overdubs I think, but are there any other techniques, tricks, or gear that you use live to fill that sound out?
Marko: I will say that Kris' bass parts have become more complicated where it sounds almost like a lead or he's hitting arpeggios or chords. The rhythm section definitely fills it out, and to make the highs sound more high I definitely like to pull back more and play simpler riffs or thinner chords where I'm only hitting two notes at once, even if they're ugly chords, instead of full bar-chords.
Andrew: It's a less is more type situation.
N: So you think it sounds bigger by kind of minimizing what you're playing a little bit?
Kris: Yeah, dialing back a little bit.
N: Do you have anything to add on that, Andrew?
Andrew: I think we try to keep it so that the live show is as close to the record as it can be, that way people don't come expecting one thing and it be too thin. . . We've been told we're loud [laughter] I think we're just a loud band naturally.
*Editor's note: I mentioned what I thought were guitar dubs on the Bike Thiefs record, but when I saw them live, I was very surprised that the recordings contain very few dubs if any. The band is actually just very tactical about their sound. Marko and bassist Kris both know how to utilize the entire fretboard of their instruments in a way that makes things sound huge, from Kris' impressive bass harmonics to Marko's dashes from center stage back to his guitar amp, holding his Fender Jazzmaster up to his amplifier at just the right moment to create some feedback before dashing back to his microphone to bark out a lyric.*
N: Is it hard pulling off some of your riffs and singing at the same time, or do you have that down by now?
Marko: I think I write to my strengths. I'm good at dodging my weaknesses. Some of the new stuff we are writing is more rhythmic and more weird, so I have to push myself and make things a bit more difficult to manage that.
N: The new stuff is difficult lyrically?
Marko: It's usually just difficult matching the rhythm of the guitar with rhythm of lyrics and not tripping over one or the other. With the new stuff we definitely want to add more layers and studio tricks because the last two things we did we kind of pulled back, and I'm really happy with how that turned out, but I do want to pepper in some stuff too.
Andrew: Spice it up a bit.
N: Of course. Any favorite pieces of gear right now that you've picked up that's surprised you with how much you've come to use it?
Marko: I got this TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb pedal, and it has this one effect on it that's got that real natural kind of shoegaze woosh sound, and if you turn it all the way up it sounds like you're using like a tremolo bar to bend the notes. As they decay, the pitch also kind of falls down, so you get some real blurry sounds.
N: Cool. Kris, Andrew, anything to add?
Andrew: I don't have it yet, but I just locked down an Orange County Snare. It's a studio snare and kind of a dream piece of gear that I've always wanted but it's always been out of my price range. I found a really affordable one in Texas.
N: What make it so unique?
Andrew: They were hand-built in the US. Now it's all machine-made overseas, so there's a lot of love that's gone into it. This one is completely custom, but it just happens to be what I would've gone for if I were to submit my own order. It's really nice, a nice green.
N: Anything from you Kris?
Kris: I've been using a really subtle tremolo on the bass to make the cleans sound a little prettier. It's surprised me how well it works, so I've stuck with that.
N: You all sound like a band to me that gets thrown on a lot of diverse shows because you pull from a lot of musical traditions, and so people can kind of listen to you and hear something that reminds them of a multiple kinds of music at once. With that kind of sound which in my opinion enables a wide appeal, what's your experience been like in the Toronto and Mississauga scene? Likes, dislikes, or frustrations? Are there any bands you particularly enjoy playing with up there?
Marko: As far as bands go, I think the best band right now in Toronto is maybe Casper Skulls, who are friends of ours. They're just incredible. They're tight. It's remarkable not only how great a band they are but how quickly they've figured out how to work together. They always blow me away. There's a bunch of other bands in the area that we love. Greys, Beliefs, The Dirty Nil we're huge on, and our friends in Output.
Andrew: Mass, Pup.
Marko: Yeah. There's so much fantastic music coming out of Toronto and southern Ontario right now, it's overwhelming.
N: It's a good time to be there I take it?
Marko: Yeah. New Fries are really weird and amazing.
Andrew: Single Mothers from London.
N: London, Ontario?
Andrew: Yeah.
N: So do y'all not have to play bad shows anymore? Or like shows or lineups where you feel like Bike Thiefs is the weird band out?
Marko: We definitely have done that, but Toronto's really good . . . like if we play with another band that doesn't sound like us, but if they're just as weird or niche, you'll get an audience that wants weird music even if it's a really disparate group of bands. We're pretty lucky that way. Every once in a while there's shows that feel off, but in Toronto though, that doesn't happen much anymore. On tour it happens here and there.
Andrew: In Toronto we try to limit how many shows we play and I think because we do that we get to be a little bit more picky about who we play with.
N: You've been a band since 2014 and put out three EPs so far, the latest of which is 2017's "Lean Into It." Do you prefer the EP format or will there be a full-length coming down the pipeline in the future?
Kris: We're definitely going to be putting out a full-length. The EP thing . . . we've basically gone through a run of drummers. Andrew is actually our fifth drummer so from the first EP to the third EP, I think there's four different drummers. This is the first time we've kind of solidified as a band unit. We've got the people that we're all comfortable with and can start writing and put out a full-length.
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| 2017's "Lean Into It" |
Marko: I like that you got church from that, that's interesting. That song is very much about agoraphobia. I have periods of that . . . I can't say acutely because I don't want to self-diagnose but I wouldn't leave the house enough. I think social media is a really terrible thing, and it really isolates people, and the lyrics are in some way verbal affirmations of "Hey, you should go to this thing," especially rock shows or whatever. The song is a little snarky with the line about networking opportunities, which is almost self-affirmation. There are healthy places to be. Don't be afraid of leaving the house or face-to-face communication. I think that's one of the best things. I think one of the things that causes lots of anxiety and depression in people is not enough community and not enough social interaction.
N: Okay, so the song is more of an affirmation of community. I originally read it as more of a critique almost, maybe it's the tone in which the vocals are sung.
Marko: Yeah. I like when things sound funny and snarky, but it's actually very sincere.
N: I saw elsewhere that the song "Cosmetic Damages" is written from the perspective of a character. Is writing characters for songs something that you like to do a lot or is some of the material autobiographical?
Marko: Lately, I've been gravitating towards the fiction. Especially with this last EP I think I spent a lot more time on writing songs that have a big picture as opposed to throw-away lines that sound cool or are stream of consciousness . . . you can get away with shit by calling it that, but really you're taking your audience for granted and not giving them enough credit. When I put in more time and effort into writing a story, I can explain that song with somebody a lot faster and a lot clearer and with a lot more sincerity. That being said, I do like writing stories that I make up, and I also like taking a subject and commenting on it. I can add fictional lines or characters or semi-fictional characters as long as it works within that world.
N: So like you're experiencing something and then expanding upon it in a fictional way?
Marko: Yeah, when something is too hyperrealistic it's either too absurd or it's too mundane. And I like some mundane, but not too much.
N: Yeah, writing characters or just being willing to engage with making some things up when writing definitely lets you manipulate the space between absurd and mundane a bit. You're more in control I guess. So what is non-tour life like for Bike Thiefs? Did you have to quit your jobs to go on this tour?
Andrew: Kris and I are really lucky to have awesome jobs. We both work at bars. I work at an arcade bar right downtown, and Kris works at a pool hall. We have great bosses.
Kris: They've been pretty supportive.
Marko: I'm also lucky [laughter] I do like an Uber Eats thing, so I make my own hours as a contractor. We get to kind of just disappear for a while. The people in our lives are really supportive, and we're really lucky to have that. Especially as people start seeing how much work you put into a band and music, they start to respect it . . . I think people can sense if you're just fucking off and like "I'm on tour," you know what I mean? No, you're just playing forty-five minutes away from home every weekend. Which there's nothing wrong with that . . .
N: You guys are past that point now. You're like what, probably two-thousand miles away from home, something like that?
Kris: Three.
Andrew: Three-thousand.
Marko: Yeah, we've driven just under four-thousand miles.
N: Where is next on tour?
Andrew: Baton Rouge. Going back west after that for three shows in Texas, then two shows in Oklahoma, Cincinnati, and Chicago, then home.
N: Awesome, good luck, thanks for talking to us.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BikeThiefs/
Bandcamp: https://bikethiefs.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2L7BMqZTuuDupOzN7afzr7
