BASEMENT JAMS, A SATURDAY SHOW AND THEIR UPCOMING 7″
Story by Poppy desClouds
Photo Provided
In an absolutely charming phone-date, Shaun Axani of Toronto’s Little City discusses new records, great shows and busy cities – all the elements that have helped make up the band. They’re a lovely, lively indie-rock ensemble that will be taking Toronto by musical and technological storm this Saturday. In association with Plug TO, Little City will headline a live-streamed broadcast from 918 Bathurst with The Elwins and Rival Boys!
How did Little City come to be?
I wanted to try writing some simple pop songs. It started differently than it ended up. I went to school with our bass player and our singer, and asked if they wanted to take part. I knew Trevor through a friend – he was an amazing piano player. And then my brother, I wanted him to be part of it as well. It all began as a recording project (or at least that’s how I pitched it). When we started jamming together as “Dreamband”, the whole thing was all still very hypothetical. We recorded some pop songs and started jamming. Then, we started to have a lot of fun. Very quickly, everyone began to feel that they had a little bit of ownership over it. The project advanced quicker into a band than we ever would have thought. Everyone has been really responsible and easy to communicate with. Everyone’s been really mature. So far, it’s been a really nice thing.
You’re based out of Toronto, but are you all Toronto born and raised?
Nope. Two of us are. To a certain extent, Little City is about our small town roots and evolved as an “after school” kind of thing. Fran is from Guelph. Trevor is from Saskatchewan. My brother and I came from a little ski town just north of the city. We had nothing else to do when we were growing up except play music in our basement. We would just jam out on really bad 90’s songs for hours – I’d play drums, my brother would play guitar.
And what do you think of Toronto? Do you guys love the big city?
I don’t know if it’s just me, or a lot of people, who have this love-hate relationship with cities and urban areas where you’ve grown up. There are certain parts of cities that everybody loves, but then there is always that part that makes you go ‘but…’. We often get talking to people and they say, “Oh, you guys sound like a Toronto band!” I don’t really know what that means. The city is so diverse, and I don’t know what a Toronto band is supposed to sound like specifically, but apparently, say the folks, we fit in with that. It’s a cool place. It’s a diverse place. And I guess I’m proud to be from there.
Where are your favorite places to play and do your “thing” as a band?
Well, kind of… in my basement? That’s where a lot of the action happens. We worked on soundproofing it, and put all this money into making a way-over-the-top basement to jam in. Before, we had been in a rehearsal factory. You’d walk down the hall and there would be 1000 bands playing at once. And it is always horrible music – loud metal bands coming through the vents in your space, and it smells like cigarettes and weed all the time. It’s just a miserable experience. So, coming out of that and having our own space was great. It’s where we’re able to be creative.
Also, we played a show at the Drake Hotel. It is a very special venue – in a basement, no cell phone reception, no one texts for the entire time you’re playing. And it just has fantastic sound. Up on stage you can make anything sound however you want. At our first show I think we were by no means a tight or well-developed band, but it sure sounded like we were up there. They must have some effect on their outboard that says, “Make this band sound heavenly”.
Tell me about the new record! And this super exciting event coming up on Saturday…
People in our band are busy, they work full time, or they’re in school getting masters degrees. People kind of got burned out just playing shows and not doing anything new. So, we did something new. We decided to record a 7-inch. We always liked records, and in our adulthood have gone back to our parent’s records a lot. We began to think, “wouldn’t it be cool to make a record?” So, we made the 7-inch. It is just two songs. The cost of producing a record is so expensive and we had a problem with selling just two songs for 7 dollars, so we decided to include a digital download; now it’s 6 songs total – six songs that span the 3 years of the band.
We had been working for months on all of this stuff and had the release show coming up on the 21st. But, as all of this stuff was going on, we were put in touch with a production group (Plug TO) that wanted to live-stream a show by an indie-band. That stuff… live-streamed concerts… are things that are usually reserved for well-established bands through Vevo and on YouTube. But, here we were, presented with this really great opportunity, paired with the fact that we had been recording already. We didn’t want to have this huge, live-streamed event for ‘just another show’. We wanted it to be something important. So now, with this being the release of the 7-inch as well, this is a whole new step for the band: It’s going to be live-streamed and people all around the world are going to be able to tune-in and see us awkwardly jumping around on stage.
What’s next for you and what’s next for the band?
I think a bit of sleep would be nice. We’re booking a tour, going out east in April and we’re going to be playing lots of major cities, every other weekend throughout February and March. We’re just going to try and keep it up through the summer – Canadian Music Week, North by Northeast. We worked with a producer our first go around, and this time we decided to self-produce, so it’s a full team effort. Through this, I think our studio experience, our recording experience, and our ‘making music’ experience have been rejuvenated. Within all that, I hope we’ll have new inspiration and a lot of new material.
Little City play their release show this Saturday, January 21st at 918 Bathurst with The Elwins and Rival Boys.
On Tuesday January 24 the band will independently release a new 2 track 7-inch vinyl and digital single (which expands to 6 offered tracks), ‘Sperry’/’Capt. Kendall’. “Like” Little City on Facebook and they’ll reward you with a free download of the new single!
