Your music tackles a lot of personal and internal struggle, do you find that candidness resonates with fans more so than just a solid track with semi-filler lyrics?
Yeah, I think that people have come to expect that from us – because writing about really subjective experiences is the only kind of writing that I am any kind of okay at. I also just grew up on emo and post-hardcore music which are both pretty candid genres full of big old feelings. As one who suffers from multiple mood and anxiety disorders, “candid” is just how I exist in the world, I guess. Sadly, for my parents, when I have tried to write more poppy/happy tunes, they just do not work.
What are your thoughts on the never-ending stage of social media, mental health, and arts promotion?
My main thought is just, “tired.” I would really like to be off of social media, but I continue to engage in it to promote our band. If it were possible to not be, I would not be. That being said, socials have also been a platform for me to write and express myself outside of music, and I think it can be a positive space to inspire positive change. It has also helped us to grow and engage with our audience. Because social media can so easily become a metric for how we judge our self-worth, it has tremendous opportunity to do harm. Unfortunately, humans will continue to be flawed, there are a lot of bad actors controlling the social media world, and we all are incredibly vulnerable to being taken advantage of by those bad actors. I try to track the content that I engage with, by curating who I follow (which voices I want to center), but the algorithm will still get you, baby.
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to spend time alone at my friend’s cabin. I turned off my phone and hung out in the snow with a campfire. Nature is so nourishing. Trees are so nourishing. Go outside.
Who are some artists and groups that helped inspire the unique Basement Revolver sound?
My all-time favorite band is MewithoutYou – I have listened to so much MWY that I am fairly sure it is written into my DNA. I also listened to a lot of Death Cab growing up. The bands and artists inspiring me the most lately and having the biggest effect on what I like are mostly my friend’s bands or local Ontario bands like Ellis, Ellevator, Chastity, Dizzy and Dilly Dally but also it feels like everyone is coming out with bops this year and I haven’t been this excited for new music from bands I already listen to in so long – the new Tomberlin, new Snail Mail, new Turnstile and other major acts had really been sitting well with me lately. (I am currently a little stony-baloney and I feel like that may have been the biggest run on sentence ever). It is like a global sense of trauma inspired people or something.
Do you find counterculture scenes being brave enough through music, art, and expression still as misunderstood by the wider public or is progress and enlightenment reaching more people in these polarizing times?
The internet is a wonderful place to be misunderstood and likely to misunderstand other humans. It is beautiful that social media can be a place for people to create, I think that often it can be a platform for positive change. That being said, we are all learning increasingly how corrupt companies like Meta (what a stupid name) can be – how they benefit from capturing our attention which is more easily kept by exposing us to an endless cycle of bad and polarizing shit. There are clear right and wrongs, do not get me wrong. I think that vaccines are good, that abortion should be legal, I think that people are the gender that they identify, we are entering into an extreme climate crisis and likely our own extinction, guns are literally only good for murdering people, Black Lives Matter, indigenous communities need clean drinking water, missing and murdered indigenous people need justice, healthcare and dental care are human rights that should not be monetized, prisons are the essence of evil, and so on, and I believe all those things so so so deeply that I physically feel them in by body. They are clear, black, and white boundaries to me. How could anyone disagree with those things, right? But then some of the people I love the most in life, some of my own flesh and blood would believe that I drank the leftist cool aide or the lesbian agenda or whatever have you (thank God for TikTok #iykyk), they would believe the polar opposite and be concerned about my salvation or worse, that I am a `*~*c0mUn1st*~*’. And I know for those people, the people I love the most, they would be so deeply hurt by how I view their beliefs. And I am sorry that they are hurt by those beliefs that I hold on to so tightly, but to me, they are clear clear clear right and wrongs. All that Canadian Government grade weed is getting to me
Have you ever decided as a songwriter to purposefully be vulnerable, even if playing that song could become painful?
Hah yes with every song I have written. I am feeling it especially with social media lately. I owe it to people to be honest though. “Vulnerability” has become such a buzzword lately, but I cannot really think of anything better at the moment. Of course, being vulnerable is painful – it is the act of exposing your weaknesses, your shadow – nobody wants to be an asshole, nobody wants to do the wrong thing (unless you do, if you know what I mean) and nobody wants to be weak. We are so afraid that other people might see our mess that we manicure and edit it out. Being vulnerable can be the antidote – until it is not, and being vulnerable becomes the thing that we manicure and edit, which can be super yucky narcissism,
Playing a song when it is painful to play said song is healing, to quote my favorite band, “the cure for pain is in the pain.” The only way through it is through it.
With the pandemic retreating, do you plan to hit the road again?
Yes, as soon as physically possible. I miss touring more than anything. Touring is the thing that I want to do with my life. I do not care if we go broke, I do not care if I die, I just want to play shows to humans again (just want to acknowledge my privilege here as one who is able-bodied with access to free healthcare). I also do not want people to die because I played a show and mask mandates were outdated. Tricky tricky tricky.
Favorite existential dread background noise lately, The Office, Friends, Sunny, TPB what have you been finding repetitive nostalgic comfort in as the world stage continues to push hair-raising events on us?
My partner and I made our way through all forty seasons of Survivor (if you want a fun trip, go watch a vintage episode of any early reality tv show and cringe at all the racism, homophobia, and transphobia and all the other things WASPs are afraid of). Oddly, The Prince of Egypt is a deeply nostalgic movie for me, and I have watched it a lot in the past two years. So much Gilmore Girls, and of course the classics like Parks and Rec and The Office and Community and Arrested Development. We are also big fans of Taskmaster. Personally, I have been in a big Killing Eve binge. I also am not ashamed to admit that I love Love is Blind and The Circle. I AM however ashamed to admit that I have a group chat going for The Bachelor and all Bachelor Nation™️ affiliates called “roses, roses, roses everywhere.” Okay, also, Euphoria. That show is pure art. And, well, I have developed an embarrassing YouTube obsession with #vanlife and Isabel Paige type of content.
What is the origin of the name Basement Revolver?
I was living in a shitty basement apartment at the time, and I was trying to think about something that sounded pretty with the word basement. Honestly, I want to change it so badly but that was too late 6 years ago, we tried to produce a new name but none of that spaghetti was sticking to the wall.
Being women’s history month, how has your experience been as a frontwoman, and where are areas lacking equality and respect in the music business?
My experience as a “front-woman” (front human?) has been mostly positive aside from my absolute fear and embarrassment and shame surrounding my body, and then also the occasional sexism. The sexism has gotten a bit better in the past few years. While I am stoked that we celebrate women, woo woo yes, we need that, but like, can we please celebrate trans people and enby’s and include them into our feminism?
As everything comes in cycles, have you noticed Gen-Z starting to return to guitar music after being raised on a pop culture diet of EDM and Hip-Hop?
Oh, the zoomers, I envy the zoomers. I feel like Gen-Z kids just know themselves. I hope that is true! I honestly hope that that is the case, it would be great for the sake of my career. I feel like as humans and pop-culture junkies, I feel like there will always be people who are nostalgic for a different time. Also, recycling helps the planet.
