Five Questions With Cursed Arrows

Photo Credit: Al Munstero

Toronto’s Cursed Arrows is a duo made up of Ryan Stanley & Jack E. Stanley. They have released a video for their new single, “Jumpers”, which is a Sleater-Kinney cover. You can check it out below, and find out more about the duo in our newest segment of Five Questions With.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi! I hope anyone reading this is feeling good mentally and physically. My name’s Jackie, and I’m the drummer, sometimes guitarist and singer in Cursed Arrows. I also just started up a little zine aimed at helping women heal from trauma called Stolen Sex Tapes, and I make and sell punk jewelry under the name Cursed Arrows Trading.

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

We started out writing with just electric guitar and drums live in a room together. This has been our bread and butter, writing and recording this way live. I guess our music is angular, lyrically dense, and heavy. As the years have gone by and we’ve become more exploratory, we’ve utilized baritone guitars and bass, drum machines, and now some orchestral sounds and other sonic layers to what was once a very simple set-up. We still thrive just playing loud punk rock in a room together, Ryan on guitar and me on drums, but we love diversifying. It keeps us from swirling around in one school of thought or one genre of music.

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

We’re not planning to tour again until August, when we perform a bunch of dates with our new third band member, Scott, and promote our new record, “Rebirth.” There’s a fierceness, sexuality, and rebellion in our delivery that definitely keeps us interested, and hopefully, anyone who has seen us perform. I usually sit behind the drums for at least half of the set, then come out and play guitar and sing out front for the rest while Ryan or Scott plays drums. We like fucking with people and subverting their expectations as much as we love just playing crowd-pleasing, sincere rock music. I have a hard time playing a set without covering an Elliott Smith song.

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

What a perfect question! We’ve been around for a while, so I really had to think hard about this. The track “Laundry Room“. The refrain is “So frustrated, so in love” and the song’s about being poor and pissed off, and Ryan and I harmonize through the whole thing. It’s us in a nutshell.

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

As I write this down, I’m realizing that it’s a pretty varied list!

-Eiyn Sof
-The World Next Door
-Beaver Slap
-The Do Good Badlies
-Familiar Fiends
-Blondest
-Whoop-Szo
-John Orpheus
-Tanya Tagaq
-July Talk

Connect with Cursed Arrows:
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