Poor Young Things: A Force of Nature in Toronto
CD Shopping Spree at HMV
My week started off pretty high up on the awesome scale. I had the privilege of meeting up with Poor Young Things at the Yonge and Bloor HMV for a little CD shopping. I chatted with Matt about the band and the EP and then we picked out some awesome CDs.
TC: Let’s start by talking about the EP – “Force of Nature”, specifically let’s talk about funding and how you made that happen.
PYT: We did it through Pledge Music.
TC: And what about granting?
PYT: We couldn’t. Usually we’d apply through FACTOR but we were going out of country. We were going to New York to record. So it was all crowd funded through Pledge. It was awesome. We got exactly what we wanted. We got more than our goal. It was good to see the support was there.
TC: Do you think there’s a trend towards EP vs full albums?
PYT: I feel like you don’t necessarily have to release things in an old fashioned form because people are consuming them digitally and there not necessarily consuming them as one big thing. They’re picking and choosing anyway, so why release twelve when you can release six and then release another six, and then another six. I feel like that’s kind of the new model.
TC: I think you’re right. I think there’s a lot more of that now.
PYT: It’s almost like the 50’s where there were just singles, singles, singles and everyone’s buying singles.
TC: And people are. We talked a bit about this and I can’t remember the last time I came into an actual record store to buy something. Anything I buy is usually at a merch table and it’s to support the artist. I’ve probably already got the digital copy downloaded. Hopefully artists are still able to make a living off the digital downloads.
PYT: It’s definitely better for people to buy from the merch table than it is on iTunes or wherever they buy music, but either way, that’s kind of the way it’s going.
TC: You did your CD launch at The Steam Whistle Brewery. Who came up with that. It’s brilliant!
PYT: Strut actually helped us out with that one but we’ve done things with Steam Whistle before. They sponsored our first music video. They let us have the room and they took everyone on a brewery tour, we played a couple of songs acoustically. It’s such a cool, old style train station. It’s a great venue and they’re so nice. It’s like a big company but they’re still like a small company.
They have a concert series that they do, they have all this stuff that they do and it serves Toronto better. There are a lot of brewers in town but I think they’re one of the best.
TC: Do you think the process was different on this EP vs the debut?
PYT: The debut we had years to write and this one was a shorter period of time but we definitely had… we’d toured for “The Heart. The Head. The End.” and then we had about a year and we wrote songs and songs and songs. We had the opportunity to edit them ourselves. So you’d write it, you play it, you record it, you’d let it sit for a couple of weeks and then we come back to it and then you’d ask, why did we do that. I guess we got a chance to sort of self-produce before we got to the studio.
TC: Your touring schedule is pretty crazy and that seems to be your “normal”. How do you stay sane doing more than 100 shows a year? And not kill each other?
PYT: Well, we like each other. We’re friends from high school so. So… for the most part (Matt smiles) we really like each other.
TC: It’s like family sometimes you wanna kill them.
PYT: (Matt laughs) You wanna kill them, you wanna hug them it goes and forth. We really enjoy the opportunity to get out and play for people and talk to them and talk to them on Twitter and Instagram. It’s such a cool thing. There are people who do the 9 to 5 all day and they hate their job and we get to do what we love. It’s just a blessing.
TC: Are you the social media guy?
PYT: Yeah I usually do the Instagram. Instagram is the easiest so they let me do that one. It’s just pictures. I do a little bit of stuff on Twitter. Any time there’s a post, it’s usually me.
TC: Do you feel like the social media helps you connect with fans?
PYT: I do. I think it’s something we could probably do even better than we do now but we’re getting there. I’m the least tech saavy guy so I’m still trying to learn. I like it, it’s great how you can just talk to people. Sometimes you meet people and you know them by their twitter name.
TC: I notice on your profile you talk about junk food. What’s up with that?
PYT: We really like to eat. Well we stop at a lot of gas stations driving across the country and we like to eat everything.
TC: Favourite junk food?
PYT: I like Corn nuts a lot. Cheap and quick. It’s the crunch. It’s like chewing glass.
TC: Do you get to see other bands?
PYT: We try to get out as much as possible. We know certain people who’ll get us on their guest lists. All the bands that we kinda liked when we moved here are broken up.
TC: That’s kinda sad.
PYT: It is kinda sad, but we’re still kicking.
TC: I read that you opened for The Lumineers at The Horseshoe just before they broke. How weird was that?
PYT: It was so great to be on the crest of… you could see… it was just like… it was at The Horseshoe and people were going insane. The club was rammed and it was like a week later and they exploded. It was cool to be there.
TC: Last thing that you listened to and how do you listen?
PYT: Everything is digital. Google Play. The last thing I listened to was probably the Bleachers album. I don’t remember what it’s called. It’s black and white. It’s him on a bed. (It’s the Strange Desire Album).
TC: Were they at WayHome? No, they were at Riot Fest.
PYT: I like them a lot more than I liked Fun. I think it’s a really cool album. I listened to the new Kurt Vile album but I didn’t really get it.
TC: I haven’t heard it. I’ll have to give it a listen. Should we shop!
PYT: Yes, let’s do it.
We headed off to browse the HMV and make our final choices. Thanks to HMV and Poor Young Things. You can see the band this Saturday in Toronto at The Opera House.
We’ll have a contest coming up after the show Saturday. Check back for show review, photos and contest details!
Final purchases
Trish:
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
Lindi Ortega – Faded Gloryville
Tom Petty – Damn The Torpedos
Poor Young Things:
Kanye West – Late Registration
Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World
The Killers – Direct Hits
MGMT – MGMT
You can find Poor Young Things on the internet at these fine locations.
Website: pooryoungthings.com
Facebook: pooryoungthings
Twitter: @PoorYoungThings
Instagram: @pooryoungthings
YouTube: PoorYoungThings
iTunes: pooryoungthings
Google Play Store: Poor Young Things
Writer/Photographer/Editor
Toronto Music Blogger
