Five Questions With The Nursery

In case you’re unaware of who The Nursery is, they are an alt-pop band from Toronto, ON. We were more than happy to chat with the band for a brand new segment of Five Questions With!

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

The Nursery is made up of 4 close friends who grew up in the 90’s. 3 of us are from Toronto and Josh who plays drums is an American from Buffalo, NY and still lives there. We’ve been making music as The Nursery for 3 years and all come from various backgrounds of being in bands and playing music before that. We easily get obsessed with video game soundtracks and finding bizarro records to share with each other in long van rides.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

We have insanely eclectic musical backgrounds. We don’t like genres very much because they tend to reduce songs into small boxes with constricting labels and rules. Music is more organic than that! We love great songwriting with inspiring lyrics and inventive, catchy melodies. I guess that makes us “pop” or something. We all grew up listening to various forms of punk rock, proggy bands, English glam rock and electro – and it all finds it’s way into our music. If you need a word just call it Freak Pop.

These days I write down exactly what I want to say, then maybe add some chords that would support a melody. This way I find the point of your song or expression stays intact – raw and direct. We then all take the idea to our studio and create the atmosphere, feel, arrangement together. That’s where the song gets most of it’s character. We all contribute riffs, melodies, chords etc. We try and leave the ego’s at the door and work with the ideas that excite us most.

Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?

We actually just finished up all our live shows for the year! Lots of great memories. Come 2017 we’ll be back with lots of touring. We’re recording a live 360 degree VR performance in December which I’m really excited for and plan to release the tracks for other musicians and producers to remix and twist our parts into something new.

For traditional shows we like to keep our performances organic and spontaneous – stretching out parts, improvising interludes and or bending the songs around. It keeps the live experience fresh and exciting night to night. More than ever a live show is still the best way to experience a band and their music. Our recordings can get pretty layered but every sound is played by one of us onstage, even if that means lugging another synth to a gig. The live projections we use change every show too.

If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?

The song “Everybody’s Famous” sums up the spirit of the band really well. I feel music is best when you just open up, drop the pretentious veil of “cool” and let all the ugly, raw, intense and ultimately beautiful things come out. We all challenged ourselves to open up more than ever on this track. It does put an artist into a very vulnerable position – but one where you can connect with somebody beyond a superficial level because there isn’t anything to hide behind. From that track’s manic drums and bass – to the woozy synths – to me howling like (what I’ve been told) sounds like a screaming pig – we didn’t hold anything back.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?

My favorite Canadian bands are the ones who allow their unabashed weirdness and unique qualities to shine through. I always feel that Canadian artists are excellent at distilling pop culture and flipping it on it’s head when they are confident enough to do so. Roboteyes is a new favorite, Kate has one of the best voices I’ve heard (check out their Klaus Nomi cover). Mother Mother’s early stuff is deliciously wacky. Timber Timbre are always getting more and more special. Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People and Grimes are great too. They all inspire me and prove that Canadian musicians do push boundaries and can lead instead of follow.

Connect with The Nursery:
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