PREMIERE – Breakfast is a Scam / I Can’t Wait

Ontario based, The Survivalists is made up of Zach Smith and Kristy Bryans. You could say that this single has already made it around the world, as Kristy is currently living in South Korea, and Zach residing in Canada. The duo have released a 7″ with limited copies (50 clear vinyls) featuring “Breakfast is a Scam” and “I Can’t Wait”. The two tracks combine raw folk sounds with a sort of lo-fi feel that will more than likely have you playing the two on repeat.  I found myself singing along with “Breakfast is a Scam” in no time. “I Can’t Wait” is a bit more upbeat, and less folk-ridden than the former, and a gives off a bit of a art rock vibe. Here at Canadian Beats we are stoked to premiere the tracks. The release comes to us via Tapetown and we are more than happy to present the video for “Breakfast is a Scam”. Be sure to grab a copy of the 7″ HERE!

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Zach: Hey! I’m Zach and I make up half of The Survivalists.

Kristy: I’m Kristy and I’m currently a 14 hour flight away from Zach. I usually play bass but somehow ended up playing a lot more instruments for The Survivalists.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

Zach: We play folk.. but It’s this kinda weird hybrid of a bunch of styles of music that we’re into. I’d say it’s alternative folk. We like to keep things fresh and sticking to one specific genre/style can get boring.

Kristy: We generally write our own songs then get the other person to write parts and play on them. It’s easy to see that with our “Neato Speedo” EP because there’s a ‘Zach side’ and ‘Kristy side’. We wrote like that even when we lived in the same country.

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

Kristy: I wish we had upcoming shows. I’m trying to get Zach over here to do a Korean tour but otherwise it’ll be another year before I’m home. Our live show that we did play was toned down and more acoustic because it’s only two of us and a dude on keyboard so far. Once I get back to Canada we’ll be looking to expand to match our recordings.

Zach: We played one gig before Kristy left. It was a cassette tape release show for our album ‘Counting Down the Days’. We had our friend Nick Reynolds (the guy that mixed and recorded the album) come and play piano/organ. It was really great and I can’t wait to tour when she gets back. There’s some footage on Youtube of that gig if you look around.

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

Zach: I’d say ‘Human Shell’. I think it was the first one we recorded together and it really has a lot of guts for a folk song. The dual vocals through the whole thing are great too. I really like those kind of songs.

Kristy: Africa-Toto.

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

Zach: I recently picked up a 10″ record called ‘Crows’ from a Canadian crust/hardcore band called Cetascean. It’s insane. It’s definitely on rotation here. Seek it out!

Kristy: I’m really into Birthday Massacre and the Flatliners.

The Survivalists: We wanna thank Canadian Beats for taking the time to talk with us and do this premiere. Cheers!

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