Meet: Perfect Strangers
Photography by Mike Neal and MG Ommert. Writing and editing by Kian Gannon
Perfect Strangers! You guys have been together for about a year now, right?
Anthony: Yeah, we’re roughly at a year. Our current lineup has been together since November of 2021 but we weren’t really doing too much. I was just writing some songs and sending them off to everyone else to add to them. Then, we started recording our first EP in February and released it in July.
Gotcha. Tell me about getting the band together, did you know the rest of the members beforehand? How did it come together?
Anthony: So, I’ve known our other vocalist Ryan since kindergarten and elementary school. So, I had asked him if he wanted to start a band and it was just us two for a while. We kept on trying to find bass players and drummers, and we couldn’t really find anyone that was willing to fully commit. There also used to be Jam Nights at Long and McQuade and I had seen our drummer Brian and bass player Erin there before. So, eventually I emailed my guitar teacher and asked them to pass the message along and next thing you know, they were in the band.
That’s like the most early 2000s “coming of age” movie sounding way to start a band ever, haha. Had they already been in bands before? Or was this a first for everybody?
Anthony: Well, for Ryan and myself, this was our first legit band. We originally had a different name, but we switched it because everyone would compare us to a Led Zeppelin cover band. As for Erin and Brian, they had a cover band going on themselves and had played a few shows, but nothing had really come of it. So, they broke up as a band, and then we sort of brought half of the band back together with us.
You were talking about covers a little bit there, is that something you guys heavily got into when you first started? If so, how was the switch between playing covers and making original music?
Anthony: It was weird because when we first started in November, I put together a small list of covers for us to learn and start playing. Nobody ever learned them, and I was writing originals, so I just said screw it and we skipped those covers. I was always down to do the covers, but it didn’t seem to go anywhere so we started getting together and working on some of those originals I had written.
I think that’s a blessing in disguise. Covers give you confidence on stage but jumping into originals is more so like throwing yourself in the deep end, and that can take you to another level with the band.
You mentioned having an old name, how was the name change to Perfect Strangers? Who came up with that idea?
Anthony: For once, it actually wasn’t a me thing, haha. I couldn’t come up with a good name, no matter what I did. I kept thinking of other bands, and names that sort of followed traditional band names. So, our bass player Erin just made a huge list of names for songs and there were a few that stood out to me as a band name, rather than a song name. So, Erin recommended Perfect Strangers and we put it to a vote, and it passed. There were two others, but this one worked the best for us.
That’s cool. I really like the name because I think it sits in that pocket of curiosity that people have when they hear the word strangers, plus it just sounds cool.
I wanted to jump into talking about Brampton a little bit. There are a lot of bands and artists from Brampton, and I was curious about how that has impacted the band. Have you found yourselves involved in that community?
Anthony: As you said, there are a lot of bands from Brampton, but when you really dive into it there aren’t many bands that fit into our genre of rock or hard rock. There are a lot of hardcore bands, punk bands, and metal bands, but there aren’t too many hard rock bands. So, we never really got to know too many people from Brampton. I’ve talked to the guys in Koroshi and went to one of their shows, and that was my first local show. It was at this place called Ellen’s in Brampton that’s not too far from where I live, but they closed down. That’s another thing, after the pandemic there wasn’t really much going on in Brampton. There aren’t a lot of venues anymore and everyone has headed toward Toronto or Hamilton for shows.
I’m curious, you’ve been playing quite regularly in Toronto and the surrounding area, tell me about making that jump.
Anthony: The main thing for me is that I’ve always wanted to do shows in Toronto and that translated with the rest of the band. It was a big priority for us to go play in Toronto and be involved in that scene. Also, playing Lee’s Palace was one of the big things for me, because that’s kind of the highest you can get as a local band in Toronto, before progressing onto Danforth Music Hall and stuff like that. As for getting into the scene here, it was pretty easy. We originally went with a promoter here in Brampton, Jesse. I know that a lot of bands are going to know who I’m talking about when I say that. Anyways, we did a few shows in Toronto with him and he helped us kick off with our first show at the Handlebar. That show went really well and I think some people from Toronto started liking us, so I started handling the booking from there. I think the first show that I booked us for, was at Bovine Sex Club and I’ve been doing it ever since.
I’m glad to hear that everything went well with that big push into the scene. How was it learning the booking process and dealing with the logistic side of being a band?
Anthony: At first, the booking process was interesting because I didn’t know what to say in our emails. I would send out a lot of basic emails and hear nothing back, and eventually, I started to learn that there are specific things that the venue wants to see. At that time, it was difficult though because we had no music out. So, I would just provide them with as much information as I could and over time have developed a template of what I should include. Whether it’s a breakdown of which shows we’re playing leading up to the proposed show or even after, or a picture of us and a summary of our music. It’s very specific.
I’m sure releasing your EP really helped with that too. Walk me through the creation of the EP and how that came together.
Anthony: So, track three on the EP “Brainwashed” was actually the first song I had ever written. I wrote the lyrics and the guitar on the same day and knew that we had to release it. Originally, we thought that we had to release an album or nothing. But, when it comes down to it as a smaller band, it’s a lot of money and resources to put together a full album. That’s when we decided to do an EP instead and eventually cut it down from six songs to four. Those two songs just didn’t seem to fit the formatting of the EP and we decided that it would be best to rewrite them and revisit them at another time. Also, one of the most important parts of releasing the EP for us was to give people something to listen to, but not have it just be a single. If they hear a two-minute song and they like it, we wanted there to be more for them to hear.
I think that’s definitely the right call. An album can be a lot for a newer band and putting an EP together as your first impression on people is a solid idea. Talk to me about the tracklist and the writing process of some of the other songs.
Anthony: Yeah, so “Brainwashed” was guaranteed to be on there, that was one that we had in the bank. Then, the first song on the EP “Need Some Lovin”, I wrote a month before we recorded everything. I had the riff going and I sort of got into the mindset of some classic rock and eighties stuff. It was tough to find any other way to write during that time, because it was the middle of the pandemic and I’m not going to be writing about the colour of the walls in my basement, haha. So, that song came together pretty easily, and the band really liked that one.
As for “Tonight”, me and Ryan co-wrote that one together. He had the idea, and I just tweaked a few things and wrote the guitar for it. Also, after that Ellen’s show, I was sort of in the mood for punk rock stuff and thought I could write a song like that. So, I wrote “Call Me”, and the band really liked it at first, but I think at this point we’ve outgrown it and don’t really care for it. It’s fun to play but isn’t our favourite song of ours. I’m probably the one that likes it the most, but the lyrics I wrote feel cheesy.
When it comes to co-writing, how do you guys start that process? Is it the riff that comes first? The lyrics?
Anthony: So, for the EP and most of the songs we’ve written so far, it’s usually my guitar that comes first. It’ll either be a riff or I’ll write the entirety of the guitar for a song and then we write lyrics for it. I typically like to format the lyrics to the guitar. For example, when me and Ryan co-wrote “Tonight” I already had some parts of the guitar and he had some of the lyrics, so we just clicked them together. Then for the last part of that song, the big finale, we wrote that after finishing the song because we knew it needed something bigger at the end. It really kicks off the song and it’s a lot of chords going over and over again to build up to the end of the song. We ended up putting it on the EP as well because it fits as the perfect closer.
When it comes to playing some of these songs live, how was the reception the first few times you played them? Especially with that big finale on “Tonight”.
Anthony: The first show we played, we did the whole EP and I remember before hitting the stage, we all had the nerves and we thought we were going to crash and burn. As soon as we started playing though, we all realized that it isn’t as scary as it seems. As for the reception, everybody thought we did really well for our first show. One thing that everyone would agree on, is that we had to work on our banter and talking between songs because we had no clue what to say. Also, we finished that set with “Tonight” and even right now, it’s still our closer. Everyone likes it and thinks it’s the perfect closer for our setlist. We switched it a few times with a different song, but it just didn’t have the same effect, so we’re keeping it as our closer.
Also, it’s amazing that you guys are getting out there on a regular basis and have played at a bunch of different venues across the city. Is that going to be the plan moving forward? To continue a regular schedule of playing shows around the GTA.
Anthony: Yeah, so our idea is to play as many shows as possible without oversaturating one area. Ideally, we want to play in Toronto once a month, as well as spreading out into other cities and getting to a different crowd. We’ve also found that we can’t play certain places as much as we want, or as much as we thought we could. For example, we only play in Guelph two or three times a year because we don’t pull as big of a crowd there as we do in other cities. Hamilton is one that we are looking to play a lot more, we know a few bands from there like Felkers, so we’re looking to explore that as well. So I guess, overall we want to play as much as possible without overdoing it, and putting ourselves in a position where we don’t have anywhere to play the next month because we’ve done them all in one month.
Yeah, and you definitely want to keep it steady but if you play every week, it’s not going to be as enjoyable for the crowd and it’ll be hard on you guys as well.
Anthony: Yeah. Especially with all the traveling and spending money on gas and food and stuff like that, it can become a lot. This month we had a show nearly every weekend, and it’s been great but it’s a lot and we couldn’t do that long-term.
Exactly, something like that isn’t sustainable. I’m curious, have you guys played “A Song For You” live yet?
Anthony: Yeah, we have!
How was the reception for that? It’s a very different sound than the EP so I’m curious to hear how the crowd reacted to it.
Anthony: Well, the first time we played it was our first show of the year at Lee’s Palace. So, it was a pretty big thing for us to throw in a new and different song at the biggest venue we’ve played so far, but the reception was good. A lot of people thought it was a good song to give them a break from the loud rock stuff. We played it right in the middle of our setlist so that worked out well. Plus, it’s a song that has a lot of meaning behind it and a lot of people can identify with it, no matter who they are.
Yeah, I think the placement of that song being in the middle of the setlist is a great call. It slows things down for a few minutes and then you can pick it back up again.
Anthony: Exactly, and it makes it so that you’re not sitting through half an hour of heavy rock, because not everyone can handle that. For example, my parents and some of the other band members' parents were at that show and they mentioned to us that having that break in the middle was good.
Definitely, and sonically that song is such an interesting change from the EP. Talk to me about pulling that together, how did that idea come about and what were the reactions from the rest of the band?
Anthony: Essentially, I felt that we needed a slower song and I had written a song for my girlfriend, so I brought it to the band and after the first few chords they wanted to write something for it. Originally, it was only going to be the guitar and vocals, but after having the rough track made we decided to add bass and drums to it. That was also the same session that we recorded our newest single, which comes out on February 25th. So, everything came together pretty smoothly and there wasn’t too much more that we could do on it. We couldn’t go crazy on the drums or anything due to the tone of the song, so once we had it, it stuck.
Tell me about the process of changing how you guys play for that song. I’m sure it was quite different for you guys to tone things down, especially with this being your first slower song that you’ve released.
Anthony: It was interesting, because I remember Brian, our drummer, asking me what he could do on the song. So he just laid down a beat, and sort of found out that it wasn’t as easy as he expected. Staying on time and playing on a song like that, as a rock drummer is difficult. It’s really easy for him to want to speed up and do something different. So, he really liked recording that song because it was something different and gave him a bit of a challenge.
I could imagine he was pretty much fighting his instincts during that process to not speed up and play it like a heavier song.
As we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask what the future for Perfect Strangers is going to look like. What are some of your goals and plans for the rest of the year? Are there any venues you want to play at? Any bands you’d like to play with? Etc.
Anthony: Yeah, so starting with this month we have a new single coming out on February 25th and we also have a show that night at Sneaky Dee’s. We like to line up our releases like that, so it’ll be a fun show and will give a bit of a bigger meaning to our set. Looking forward, we have those two singles we spoke about, which will eventually become a part of an EP. We’re aiming to release that in April, towards the end of our tour when we play in Ottawa and Montreal. So that’ll be a pretty big step for us, getting away from the GTA and seeing the reactions to our music in different areas. We’re also going to do another tour this year, I’ve started putting it together and the goal is to release another EP towards the second half of the year, maybe a single beforehand as well. As I mentioned earlier, we originally wanted to do an album but for us, it made more sense to split it into two EPs throughout the year and have them be a part of one bigger project. For example, the last song on one EP is going to lead into the first song on the other EP.
That’s great! It seems like you guys have a lot planned for this year. When it comes to recording for these new EPs and releases in general, are you looking to adventure into some new sounds like you did with “A Song For You”?
Anthony: Definitely. We have a couple of songs that will eventually be released that have their differences. They aren’t as different as “A Song For You” but they have some different sounds and stuff that reminds me of bands like The Black Keys, or Arctic Monkeys. It’s not necessarily loud rock, but it’s rock. Actually, right before we sat down for this interview I was writing a song and it has a very steady rhythm behind it, with a lead solo at the end. It’s a pretty interesting song so we’ll see if that releases at some point.
That’s amazing. A nice sneak peek for anyone reading, haha. Thank you so much for joining me today, that’s all I have for you. If there’s anything else you want to say, let the people know!
Anthony: Thank you. We have a new single called “Are You The One” releasing on February 25th! We’re also currently on tour and everything can be found on our Instagram!
