Mid December, I took the opportunity to speak with Toronto rock band, Highway Lights. I asked Josh Velez, singer and guitar player for the band, whether before or after the show was good for an interview. He replied through text: "knowing us we will probably play until someone shuts us down, so before the show will be better." I was intrigued to say the least, making me eager to get to the Magpie Taproom where the release party for their EP, Go, was being held. Little do I ever hear of a band playing until the get kicked out, and can only romanticize about concerts decades ago where bands like Zeppelin would play 2 hour encores.

 

I get to Magpie and noticed it was small, intimate, and already booming with music. Perfect for the show that was about to happen - bad for my interviewing needs. I realized the interview would either have to be a) outside in the cold and rain b) up the street at the MacDonald’s or c) in the washroom. The answer was a slight adjustment to option c), a little area in the basement between the mens and ladies rooms. We agreed to use the couple chairs and boxes that were there; even if people would come down looking confused and a little embarrassed that there was a group of people right outside the open washroom door. But in good spirit, I sat down with the members of Highway Lights: Adriano Bertuzzo on the drums, Mike Macdiarmid on guitar and vocals, Chris Cheung on the bass, and Velez. (“The other” Mike, Mike Guinane, was M.I.A)

 

The band has all it’s original members and formed in late 2010, with Bertuzzo “being the new guy by a day”.  

 

“Mike and I went to high school together and the other Mike and I played hockey when I was like 14,” said Velez. “Chris, Mike and the other Mike were all jamming together for the last 10 years. Another band is here called Ravyn Red. We’re all friends and in some ways have had something to do with each other.”

 

Since they all have other jobs, the guys have the freedom to have fun with what they do, and not rely on the band for income. They speak of influences from classic rock, to technical guitarists, to grunge bands. (We spoke of a Venn diagram with each band member’s musical tastes and their commonalities, but unfortunately I don’t have the knowledge to make it. But trust me, I considered it). They pass music ideas around and generally agree on what should be added and layered, putting faith into the creativity and talent they each bring to the band.

 

 “I think where anything happens where we have to make decisions is the bridge,” said Velez. “I think that’s when we all start looking at each other like ‘what are we gonna do here now’ and then we kind of made a little niche of doing our 70’s style instrumental bridges that we have. A lot of our songs have nice instrumental bridges.“

 

It helps that the guys have known each other for quite some time since it allows the dialogue between their songs to feel smooth and casual. “I’d say that’s one of Josh’s strengths, getting the audience involved, knowing what to say and not just being like ‘hey everyone how’s it going’,” said Macdiarmid.

 

Bertuzzo then added: “I remember one time we played at York University and I think we were starting ‘Mony Mony’ and Josh was just like ‘alright everyone look at your chairs, and then say screw you chairs and then stand up, turn around and kick the chair, say forget you chair I’m dancing’.”

 

Velez places a lot of importance on either giving the crowd the energy they want, or giving them the energy they need. This could come from their time as a cover band. It seems at though its now a part of their live shows as Highway Lights. They have their own original songs but people will yell out requests for classic songs, and they are happy to perform them even if one of the guys doesn’t know it. They enjoy the spontaneity and the energy that comes from a show that is almost structured around knowing that it wont go according to plan. At times they’ll even initiate the disorder.

 

AB: We’ll turn around and look at each other, we’ll try to egg each other on to do something, we’ll even throw stuff at each other.

 

JV: I do that to Adriano a lot and usually,” said Velez. “I’ll just say, LOUDER, LOUDER until he hits the symbol right on my ear and then I’ll be like, too loud, too loud.

 

MM: The band chemistry helps us to get through sticking points. We’ll play a song and people will be like ‘play this song’ and all the guys will look at each other and be like ‘I know it, you know it?’ And then there will be the one guy, usually me, who’s just like looking around ‘uhh guys help me out’

 

JV: We like to give people choices, give them an era like the 80’s 90’s whatever and we’ll just go with that.

 

MM: We just pray to god they say a song that we know.

 

AB: There are points in the set that we know we can vamp or drag out to interact with the audience. We get them to clap or sing or Josh will talk to them.

 

JV: I like talking to them

 

AB: There are a lot of points where we can just have that break where the audience participation.

 

JV: Tonight is the first time I’ve ever printed a set list. I never print them, I just remember them or I just do how I feel what’s going to be next and I just call them out. I’m probably gonna throw the list out.

 

AB: We’ll get 4 songs in

 

JV: and then I’ll just say scrap that and take requests.

 

I asked why it was decided that tonight was a good night for a set list, and if the CD release party had anything to do with it.

 

JV: Yeah it’s because of the big release; I thought it’d be organized and proper

 

AB: So just you know all the songs you know.

 

JV: Mike likes it

 

MM: As the boring structured person.

 

JV: I know a lot of bands that script the entire show.

 

AB: Script the dialogue too.

 

JV: They script the banter. It’s not our style.

 

CC: It’s easier to play to a crowd that’s involved rather than one that’s doing their own thing.

 

JV: I think people can tell if it’s scripted. I think the audience is pretty clever. Musician or not they can tell if something doesn’t seem genuine. I’m not going to say the same thing I said last gig. It’s not going to happen. Sometimes I speak at different times too just to throw them [the other guys in the band] off. Mike will look at me sometimes like what? Aren’t you gonna talk and I’ll be like you know what mike, no! I won’t talk right now.

A lot of people told us we should do it because it helps our organization. I feel so dumb in rehearsal talking to a crowd that’s not there. That makes me feel way worse than naturally talking to a crowd. I’m more embarrassed with just us five and going “Okay guys, lets do this!” and they’ll be like who are you talking to.

 

I kind of believe that the crowd involvement is a clever ruse for them to feel like they are performing, but also watching the show and partying with the crowd. Several times in the interview, they either mention it or insinuate that they really do enjoy creating music and performing, and rarely think of it as a business. They put a lot of importance on taking things really casually, which is part of their appeal. They are a less obvious Andrew W.K. party style, and genuinely want to have fun and be there for the music.

 

Highway Lights have been featured on numerous online radio stations including Band Soup, Mediazoic, and Music Lynk. Velez is the unofficial spokesperson for the band, and although he is not thinking about the money the band can make, he is passionate about what they create.

 

“I harass people all day,” said Velez. We all laughed about this, but he continued, “I’m not gonna lie I harass them. I’m gonna do it because there are millions of bands and as far as I’m concerned I love our band, I think we’re one of the best bands you could see and I think we’re very talented and I don’t think that makes me arrogant so if you believe that, which I do, I want people to hear us so I’m not going to sit in my basement and say come to me fans, come to me people. You gotta get their attention.”

 

            Velez grabbed the attention from the folks at inDspotlight, a radio station in Los Angeles, with this persistence. The show is a platform for unsigned “inD” (pronounced indie, but for some reason my head went to a more ghetto slang version) artists to help get them more airtime on public radio. Although there is this stigma around LA, and the notion of being on a radio show, the guys in Highway Lights still take their music career lightly and focus on the music.

 

Highway Lights has a profile on Soundcloud, and you can download two of the song off Go for free. The rest of the songs can be previewed for about twenty seconds each, but this almost doesn’t do justice to the novel-like structure of their songs.

           

“I feel like if people are patient with the music, it’s rewarding near the end, or the middle, or the bridge,” said Velez. “It’s worth listening that two minutes in.  Everyone has musical ADD now, we’re kind of going against that.”

 

 

 

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/highway-lights

Bandcamp: http://highwaylights.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HighwayLights