Five Questions With The Discarded

We caught up with Ontario rock band, The Discarded for a segment of Five Questions With. The trio consists of a father and two sons, but don’t let that fool you, they know how to rock! The band will be touring throughout Ontario shortly in support of their upcoming album, Manifesto which is set to be released on February 24, 2018, via Rock Bottom Records, see dates below, and take a few moments to find out more about this talented Canadian band!

Feb. 24 Toronto @ Duggan’s (Record release party) with The Same As Always and Soraya Soul
Mar. 2 Barrie @ Mavericks with Lowest Of The Low
Mar.3 Kingston @ The Mansion with Lowest Of The Low
Mar.8 Ottawa @ The House of Targ with The Fly Downs and Splintered Fate
Mar.15 Peterborough @ Red Dog with Socialpathics
Mar.16 Niagara Falls @ The Geekery with Kill Sid, Left on Bowery
Mar.17 Toronto @ Duffy’s Tavern with Kill Sid, Left on Bowery
Mar. 23 Guelph @ Jimmy Jazz with T.B.D.
Mar.25 Hamilton @ This Ain’t Hollywood All ages Punk Slamfest
Mar.29 Orangeville @ Black Wolf with Resolver and Joyful Bits

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi, we are The Discarded from Orangeville Ontario. We are a three piece intergenerational garage punk sounding band. Jared Dean is on bass guitar and is nineteen years old, his brother Caden Jax is on drums and is fifteen years old and their dad, JP- is on guitars and vocals. We started playing as a band in February of 2016 with Caden and Jared taking up their instruments for the first time. Seven months later we recorded our self-titled debut album with Ian Blurton at his Pro Gold Studios. We did all nine songs in one day. That album was released last February then things really picked up. We opened for the legendary Sonics at the Danforth Music Hall in March and did a tour of southern Ontario in the summer playing steadily until we went back into the studio again in August 2017. This saw us record our ten songs album called Manifesto with Ian Blurton at his Pro Gold Studio again. We are releasing this album February 24, 2018.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

We play an energetic garage punk sounding music that has blitzkerg drumming, distorted ’70 punk rock guitar and intricate bass playing. We write original music that has been compared to The Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers or The Buzzcocks. We live together so to date we have well over forty original songs. Our dad has many songs from writing in previous bands but the majority are new originals that we developed together. Even when we went in to record this album we already had been playing the songs live for the last year and have most of the songs for the next album already written and are playing them live as well. This helps make them well-rehearsed and ready to record by being road-tested at live shows. J.P. writes most of the songs but of late Jared has been bringing a couple of tunes to the band as he develops his songwriting. Sometimes we get an idea at rehearsal and we will jam on the parts. It’s good to have a full band, a rocking drum beat to get a good feel for the song. Then we’ll record the idea on a cell phone so we won’t forget the arrangement or chords/ feel. Then J.P. will work on the words or he might already have had words and fits that with the music we came up with. That usually solidifies the arrangement or he might add an intro or outro, a break or a bridge to flesh the song out more. Jared likes to develop a more interesting bass line to play often with a countermelody to JP’s straight rhythm guitar to make it sound more interesting than just root notes. Caden and JP usually work together to develop the drum part but lately, Caden has got very strong at developing his own parts that go with the feel and transitions of the song. JP has always felt strongly that even if he has written the song it truly becomes the band’s song when each member brings their own unique flavour to their part instead of him imposing what should be played. Jared for his part has challenged his dad to move out of his comfort zone and come up with new and unusual chord progressions. For this album especially the lyrics are very socially conscious and talks about the world we live in and how we would like it to be. There are no “she leaves me” or relationship based songs on this album- hence the title Manifesto which is us throwing down what we believe or in few instances – what we don’t believe in.

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

We have a record release in Toronto Saturday, February 24th at Duggan’s Brewery. It will be all ages with wristband and runs from 8 pm to 11 pm. After that, we are doing a small southern Ontario tour in March to promote the release of the album, Mar.2-3 opening for The Lowest of the Low in Barrie and Kingston respectfully. March 15-16-17 in Peterborough, Niagara Falls and Toronto and finally March 23-25-29 in Guelph, Hamilton and Orangeville. Some other shows are shaping up in April so we expect to be fairly busy again throughout the summer until we record again hopefully in August.

As far as a live show we like to play a very tight energetic set of music. A lot of time when one song ends the person who starts the next song will go right into that song. We don’t give long drawn out stories in between songs or fiddle about for five minutes changing instruments and getting the sound for the next song. We like to keep the tempo of the show flowing and easily play 13 or 14 songs in the time most bands play 10 songs- well our songs are fast and some are only 2 to 3 minutes long- ha! Sometimes people see us and think – how nice, a dad and his two kids and then- wham, we come out and hit them with the full rock, in your face show- no stopping, big sound just like the recording. As well we are wearing matching shirts and ties and they aren’t expecting that we are a very good punk rock band with that aggressive sound or that level of intensity, so we kind of play against our type in what we look like. It’s always good when you are underestimated then you can only pleasantly surprise them. We all probably enjoy playing live more than anything else we do. So it doesn’t matter if there are twenty people there or hundreds- we will give the same “give it all” show regardless.

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

Toxic Reasons gives a good indication of what we sound like right now. The punk sounding guitar, meaningful lyrics, rocking drums and a clever bass line- then a good melody, song structure underneath all the heavy instruments or…okay you said one.

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

Caden- Sloan (seen them twice now, recently on Canada Day this past year) – I don’t get to go see many bands beside when I play and even then most times I have to sit in the dressing room because I’m 15.

Jared– Yeah I’m a big Sloan fan and a local band called Locomotive 8 who played with us at our last record release, also Ethel and the Mermen. We are a bit insular but have got to see a lot of great Canadian bands by playing with them.

Joel– I like Beaches, Pup, Hollerado and Said the Whale when I hear their tunes on the Radio- they all write a catchy song but they still are played by people with real instruments. I like Ron Hawkin’s songwriting and voice either solo or with LOTL. There are a lot of cool bands from Dine Alone and New Damage that have a heavier edge like Biblical and Silverstein that I like when I hear them- they should probably have us open for one of those bands or sign us to their label- ha!

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