Self-styled as music for misery, quintet Canvas pride themselves on having built up a formidable reputation on their own steam, solidifying a fervent following in the UK and European underground scenes. “The phrase ‘hardest working band…’ is put out there a lot, but we definitely put a lot of work in to touring and keeping busy,” states vocalist Jack Rodgers.
Taking a break from their throbbing touring calendar in August of 2013, Canvas entered the studio with producer Ed Sokolowski to record their debut opus, No Love, No Hope, No Future. Released on October 20th, via Transcend Music (Dead Harts, Heights, Liferuiner), it is down-tempo and mournful, weighty in both sound and subject matter. Here vocalist Jack answers the A-Z Interview…
A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music:
The first time I heard Burn Out by Green Day, the opening track from Dookie.
Best Album Ever Written:
In my opinion probably Nimrod by Green Day, They are the reason I wanted to start making music and be in a band.
Craziest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band:
We met someone at our show in Prague a few weeks back who had our album titled tattooed on them. That blew our mind.
Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features:
Love has died, Hope has gone, I can see no future to carry on
Easiest Song You Wrote:
Probably Griever. We managed to write that in an afternoon whilst demoing the album.
Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played:
Probably for me Milan or Verona in Italy, It was the first time I had pretty much the whole room shouting every word to almost every song back at me, the energy in the room was amazing.
Guest You’d Most Like To Feature On A Your Record:
I’d love to have Jeremy from Touche Amore feature on a track or someone ridiculous like Dave Grohl!
Happiest Moment In You’ve Experienced In The Band:
The first tour we ever did.
Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members:
Jon and Chris are brothers!
Jokes You Have In The Band:
Haha, we have WAY too many inside jokes in this band. If anyone listened to the conversations we had in the van on the way to shows we would all probably be sectioned and sent to some sort of asylum. When we get together things tend to get really weird really quick haha!
Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song:
We currently open our set with No Future, the intro song off of the album. I have really enjoyed opening with this especially if people know the words as its very vocal based and fun to shout along to!
Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show:
Longest distance as in time it took to get to the venue would probably be Italy to the Czech Republic it was like a 14 hour drive. But the furthest we have played away from home I think is Poland.
Most Inspiring Musician You’ve Ever Experienced:
Most recently for me probably Frank Turner, My brother dragged me along to go see him a few months back as he is a huge fan and I wasn’t really that into him, but after seeing him live and doing a bit of research into his career I have been so inspired by his work ethic and how many shows he has played, that dude is a machine! He is constantly touring and playing shows!
New Band You’d Recommend:
Bad Sign, Those guys are going to explode next year! Quality band.
Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal:
I would love to open for Defeater or Touche Amore that would be epic.
Place You’d Most Like To Tour:
America for sure!
Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers:
No Love, No Hope, No Future
Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release:
It just seemed the best way to describe how I felt at the time of writing the record.
See Us Live At:
06|12 – Barfly, London
13|12 – The Intake, Mansfield
22|01 – White Hart Hotel, Bridgewater
23|01 – Tiki Bar, Plymouth
24|01 – The Alma Inn, Bolton
25|01 – The Library, Leeds
The Old Days Of Music Were Better Than Those Current, do you agree:
In some ways yes, I mean now a days you have the internet which means anyone can record and release music for free and have a platform to show the world, so there is more variety and ways you can access music, but this can also put the musician at a disadvantage when it comes to album sales and making any profit on their music, as illegally downloading an album is so easy to do now a days. Back in the day if you wanted to listen to the record you had to go BUY the record.
Unusual Merchandise:
We have always really stuck to the standard merch (Tees, Hoodies, Crew Necks etc) so nothing too over the top from us unfortunately haha
Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs:
I would love to rerelease some tracks off of the album as a ‘Post-Rock’ EP. We have been speaking about the idea of possibly doing something like this but nothing is set in stone at the moment. I hope we do get to have a go at that though!
What Bands Have You Seen Live and Regretted:
There have been a few smaller bands I have seen live that haven’t been as good as I thought they were going to be, but nothing I have really regretted.
X-rays or any other treatments needed for band related in juries:
Haha yep! Two days before our first European tour I got a phone call from our drummer (Jon) at about 10PM saying that he had fallen off his skate board, he couldn’t walk and was in A&E waiting for his X-Ray results haha! To cut a very long stressful story short both his legs were fucked BUT we still went on tour and luckily managed to add the kick drum to our backing track for those shows. It sounded surprisingly good haha!
You could have written any song in history, which would you pick:
Sire Duke by Stevie Wonder. That song is unreal!
Zoo animal that best describes the personality of your band:
Haha we are not cool enough to be a part of a zoo we are more like some lame goat or rabbit on a farm wishing we were a cool animal in a zoo.
