TINA PEEK: Hello Andrew

ANDREW WALKER: Hellooo

TP: October Sky was formed in 2000, how did all the band members meet?

AW: Well, it started with Alex (Racine) and Karl (Raymond), the drummer and the singer. They went to high school together and started jamming just for fun, They had a little band and were jamming all the time and it got to the point where they were spending so much time playing music, they decided they'd try and do it as a career. Maybe not as a career, but push it a little farther and see what they could do with it. They did a couple of contests, like a battle of the bands type thing, pretty big contest. One of them had 85 bands and the other had 45 bands and they won both of them. And that's really where they started thinking, "Maybe we should do something with this." You know, pursue it a little bit and they moved to Toronto last year, I say "they", because I wasn't with the band at the time. Yanik (Rouleau) joined the band in 2004, and bringing keyboards into the band, really changed the music a lot. They came to Toronto last year, no two years ago, in the fall of 2006, so they moved here to explore the Indie scene and learn a bit more about the music industry and especially Toronto, because the Toronto music scene is huge and it thrives here. So that's the place to be if you're going to be an Indie band. It's a little harder in Montreal for Indie artists because there's a lot of attention on French music first of all, and so already that cuts down your chances being an English band. The Indie scene is different there, so they came here to test the waters and stuff, try to build a new fan base, because they already had started building a good fan base in Montreal. And when they came back, well how I met the band was, they ended up renting out my dad's house. I was still living in Montreal and my dad was living in Toronto and so they randomly just rented my dad's house.

TP: Get out, are you serious?

AW: Yeah, so I inevitably joined the band after that.

TP: So how did you come to meet them, did you go over and hang out with them?

AW: No, no, I was still in Montreal, I was going to school...

TP: So how did you hook up with them then?

AW: Because they ended up changing their bassist. They were having some trouble, so um...

TP: But you already knew them in Montreal?

AW: No I didn't actually.

TP: You didn't even know of them?

AW: I didn't know them at all!! The only reason I know them, was they were guys renting my dad's house, I'd never met them, I didn't know anything about them, I just knew they were a band.

TP: So now they're looking for a new bassist...

AW: Yeah, they came back to Montreal to start working on an album and stuff, and they were looking for a new bassist, and my dad was like, "Hey, my son's a bassist."

TP: Get out! That's so funny!!

AW: Yeah it was pretty cool.

TP: Yeah that is pretty cool! And you've been with the band for how long now?

AW: About a year and 9 months.

TP: So who are the band’s musical influences? I'm sure it varies.

AW: That's a good question, but it's going to be a long answer because we each have our own influences, which is maybe why we have a fairly unique style of music.

TP: Very diverse.

AW: Yeah, and I think if you listen, you can hear each of the styles I'm going to mention. Karl and Alex, the singer and the drummer both have a hard rock influence, with bands like Thrice, obviously Rage Against The Machine, Linkin Park, you know, the stuff you can really headbang to, good heavy stuff. And then Yanik has a mix of classical, movie scores and techno.

TP: Really, that's interesting.

AW: Yeah, which makes sense because it's all kind of keyboard, piano oriented music, so that's his kind of influence. And mine is more, I grew up playing music with my dad, a lot of blues and jazz, along with rock, with some hard rock and alternative bands.

TP: Any particular band that influenced you growing up?

AW: This might sound contrary to what I just said, but certain bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jamiroquai, and certain blues artists like Johnny Winter and Led Zeppelin, who aren't blues, they're rock, but a lot of different stuff.

TP: Well a lot of those bands are very diverse, including Zeppelin.

AW: Yeah exactly.

TP: At what point did you guys realize in your hearts that this was something you wanted to do, not only to make music, but to make October Sky into something very real?

AW: Well I think it's kinda' like I was explaining before, it just kind of consumed our lives I guess you could say. We just spent all our time playing music and we love it. That's our passion. And then, when we realized we were getting a good response from people and of course, winning those 2 contests, we thought maybe it was time to take it to the next level.

TP: The band has won quite a few contests over the years, so tell me about those and which one, or ones, meant the most to the band, one that stood our from the rest, or an award the band received that meant a lot?

AW: There was one particular one called Studio 6eme Sens, which translates to 6th Sense Studio, in Montreal. Winning that contest gave the band the opportunity to work with that studio, with these two guys, Yulay and Jimmy. They really fell in love with the band and pretty much took them under their wing, gave them pretty much the keys to the studio practically, and they showed them the ropes. They had a whole year to record our first album and really learnt how things work in a studio, just got a lot of experience. So that really helped the band a lot.

TP: I bet. And that was all free, as part of the contest?

AW: Yeah, part of winning the contest was studio time, but then they developed a relationship with them, a really good relationship.

TP: So do you still keep in touch with them?

AW: Oh yeah, of course.

TP: Right on, that's good. Well today is another cog in the wheel for October Sky because it's the night of your official CD launch in Toronto for the new album titled, Hell Isn't My Home, how difficult was it for the band to get to this point?

AW: A lot of investing of time and money.

TP: You guys have all chipped in financially as well?

AW: Yes, because we self-produce everything that we do...so we self-produced our album, like, we worked with the studio for our EP, but our album we recorded at home. We have our own studio. We mixed and arranged and wrote everything on our own.

TP: You built your own studio?

AW: Yeah we built our own studio.

TP: Good for you guys, Wow...

AW: Yeah, so we self-produced that whole thing. We self-produce our own shows and um, sorry what was the question again?

TP: [We both laugh] How difficult was it for the band to get to this point?

AW: We're doing music full time, on top of having full time jobs.

TP: You guys all work, have other jobs?

AW: I just finished school actually.

TP: University?

AW: Yeah, I have an Engineering Degree.

TP: Do you really? That's great, what about the other guys?

AW: They stopped school to do music.

TP: But you all work?

AW: Yeah

TP: Give me an example of what jobs you all do, besides the music.

AW: Two work in a hospital.

TP: Who are the two that work in a hospital?

AW: Karl and Yanik.

TP: What do they do at the hospital?

AW: They do disinfections...

TP: Disinfections? So they're like cleaners in the hospital?

AW: Yes.

TP: Okay, gotcha. So what do you and Alex do?

AW: Alex works at a hotel doing room call service. And I'm currently unemployed.

TP: Well you just graduated too, though, right?

AW: I just graduated, and I was working in engineering actually, and I got offered a full-time job, but I declined it because it meant doing the 9-5 thing. You had to be there every day and stuff like that, really intense.

TP: No regrets about not taking that job though. You're happy with what you're doing, your decision?

AW: Yeah of course.

TP: What does Hell Isn't My Home mean to the band, why that title?

AW: It's the title track to the album, but the lyrics of the song are about duality, how there's a good and a bad in everyone, so it's like fighting the bad so that the good can prosper. I also think it's a good representation of the lyrics on our album. I think if you look, a lot of our lyrics are about that, about the beauty and the bad in the world, so it's trying to show that's there's always good in everything and we try to bring that out.

TP: October Sky is also releasing their new video, featuring "Hit The Ground". Where was the video shot and what was that experience like for you guys?

AW: Ohhhh, [laughs] that was pretty tough.

TP: Was it? Why?

AW: Yeah. We filmed it at a plant in Montreal and it was all outdoors and it was winter and I'll tell you that Montreal winters are a little harsher, just a little bit [laughs], than here.

TP: Than Toronto? Oh yeah, definitely worse than what we get!

AW: Yeah, you guys get it pretty easy here.

TP: No kidding...

AW: Especially this past winter, it was off the record for snowfall compared with other years.

TP: And this was when you filmed it, was this past winter?

AW: It was early January and it was for a whole day of filming. We started at five o'clock in the morning until around five at night, pretty much during sunlight. It was in the morning and it was not that cold for January. It was maybe minus 5 degrees and sunny, so everything was okay, but by 10 a.m. it was super windy and with the wind chill, it was like minus 25 and we were outside all day freezing and trying to do the shots.

TP: Did you still have a good time though?

AW: Yeah it was a lot of fun, a lot of fun!! It was a tough day, I don't know if I would wanna film outside in the blistering cold again. [laughs] It was tough, but it was worth it.

TP: Well, this was your first video, and after filming in that weather, the rest of them should be a piece of cake!!

AW: [laughs] It was alot of fun though and the crew was amazing.

TP: You guys are starting a Canada-wide tour this month, so what is the band trying to achieve while out on tour, besides winning over new fans, clearly, you're going to want to do that, but what are October Sky's plans, what do you want to accomplish on this tour?

AW: Other than winning new fans? Well every band has to tour right?

TP: Right.

AW: And we've never really done a tour...we've done a lot of shows around Ontario and Quebec.

TP: Yeah, you've been here numerous times, but you've never done a tour.

AW: No, but we've done a lot of shows in Montreal and Quebec, but not really outside of that and so every band has to tour and it's a must do, right?

TP: Clearly. You have to get your name out there.

AW: And also it's to try and promote the album, we're being played on radio on stations across Canada.

TP: I've heard even as far away as Vancouver...

AW: Yeah!! Being played right across the board! So we had to follow up on that, it's part of that whole idea.

TP: I also heard that the song for the video, "Hit The Ground", debuted on...don't tell me...Musique Plus, did I say it right?

AW: [laughs] Yes, do you know what that is?

TP: It's Montreal's version of Toronto's Much Music, right?

AW: Right!

TP: And it debuted at number four, that's really fantastic, you guys must be very excited?!

AW: Yeah and it was out of the blue too, so we were like, "Alright!"

TP: Well you guys have been working very hard in Montreal to get a fan base going.

AW: Yeah we have.

TP: So if someone wanted to check out your live show, how would you describe it, what would you tell them about the band? [At this point, Andrew picks up the October Sky Press pack lying on the table and starts reading from it verbatim, which makes me laugh]

AW: "An uplifting adventure, October Sky has the power to [we're both laughing] propel explosive lights...

TP: [laughing] Never mind that, tell me in your own words smart ass!

AW: [Andrew is laughing] They're good words right here though!!

TP: Yeah, but I want you to tell me in your words...did Asher write this? [Jon Asher/Asher Media Relations]

AW: Yeah. [laughs] But he puts it nicely!

TP: Yes, but you can put it nicely too! If someone wanted to check your band out, what would you tell them?

AW: Well, if I had like five minutes to explain it to them...

TP: You do, take all the time you need!

AW: Okay.

TP: Go ahead.

AW: Alright. Well, what we want to do, the reason we self-produce our shows, is because we want to offer as much as we can to the fans, because sometimes you go see a band and they're just on stage playing music. And that's great but we want to offer more of a show and our music is very theatrical, very cinematic I find, because of the keyboards and all that stuff, the sound....I find our music needs a visual, um...

TP: Element?

AW: Element to it, yes. So when we self-produce our shows, we have huge lights like you can see in this picture here. [shows me a picture in the press pack, where clearly, the lights and light show are quite predominant] We have these huge, huge blasters, but we couldn't bring them with us for this show.

TP: Sure, give me the smaller version of your show!

AW: [laughing] There's no room to bring it all though!!

TP: Yeah, the stage here is small, but it's a nice venue.

AW: Yeah it is a nice venue, small, but good.

TP: Okay, didn't mean to interrupt you, go on...

AW: Well we want to offer a great light show, like our last show in Montreal, and the one we're doing next month with big screen TVs and a projector...and for visual effect, we have two live cameras, more like roaming camera men shooting live footage, sometimes for effect on the screen, sometimes we have crazy lights, like strobe lights or lasers, everything… All self-produced.

TP: And who came up with the idea for the lights and lasers, everyone in the band decide on that?

AW: Yeah, everyone in the group. So basically, the reason we try to do that is try to offer a real show, it's not just like four guys on stage playing instruments. People can go and be entertained, they can enjoy the show visually, as much as musically. And I find that our music goes well with that kind of show, so it's a good mix.

TP: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing your show tonight and I'd like to thank you for the interview Andrew!

AW: Thank you very much!