My sincere apologies to the Luke Corriea Damude for the delay for this interview. This interview was originally done on January 27th, 2009; days prior to the band’s EP release show at the Whippersnapper Gallery on January 31st, 2009. Again, we’re really sorry!

The Singing Lamb: Who are Boys Who Say No? How would you describe the band for someone who may have never heard of you before?

Luke Corriea Damude: I don’t think genre is really a way of describing it; many people have a really hard time describing the kind of music it is. I think its just four friends that play music that we enjoy writing. We have a really great time playing and it’s eclectic, fun, most of the time danceable music.

Yeah, you guys have so many different sounds! Where do you see yourself going in the future with that, especially since you guys are relatively new?

Luke: Yeah, we’re just about a year old and we only really started playing a lot of shows in the last six months or so. Definitely, we want to make a full-length. Money would be the thing because we made our last EP entirely independent. We do want to do a full-length maybe using some of the stuff from this EP because I do think the songs that we have on the EP are strong songs but they don’t necessarily represent the canon of our work. We have lots of different sounds to the songs which is a criticism that some people have but is also a compliment that some people have. But for us, we’re not trying to make anything in particular; we’re just writing music and that’s the music that we’re playing. We’re not really screening the process, we’re just doing what we feel is the best thing we can make together.

Are you excited for the EP release?

Luke: Mhmm! I’m really excited; I think it’ll be really fun. Lots of great musicians are playing. Will Kidman from the Constantines is playing his side project, Wholly Leaves. A really great guy who plays Elvis Mondays a lot [at the Drake Hotel] named the People of Canada is playing. But then we have Provincial Parks who are more poppy so we try to cover our playful side, our poppy side, our country side so the other acts that are playing do cover up some of everything. It’s going to be super fun! And its one of the few times you get to really have your own show; play what you want because it’s your CD release…not that we play things we don’t want! But you can play things your normally won’t play because audiences are kind of fickle or something like that. The people who are here will be here for a reason that night and that’s to see your release so that’s good!

Do you find it easier to book shows since it’s your venue?

Luke: Yeah, well I don’t normally book the shows so it’s great; well I book the shows here at the Whippersnapper but not for the band! We’ve thought about a lot of different places but we used to rehearse here. Once it started getting more serious, we actually moved to a real rehearsal space but we’re really comfortable with this space and I have a lot of fun at music shows here so it just seemed natural. We can also treat the other musicians and ourselves a little better than maybe a normal club could, in terms of drinks and stuff like that.

It’s a really nice place!

Luke: Yeah!

What are some other venues you like in the city?

Luke: I like the Cameron House for certain shows; the back room is fun. I’m not going to say I dislike any venue! We played the Horseshoe last month and that’s always a stepping point in your band’s career; when you play the Horseshoe! There’s like a cast system of playing venues, you know? So things like that are exciting when you’re playing places like that. I go to a lot of shows at the Dakota. I like alternative venues! I like playing and booking shows at the Whippersnapper and there’s an art gallery in the junction called Smash that do music shows sometimes. The whole vibe of alternative venues is really great, like Extermination Music which is a couple of times in the summer; they find an abandoned building and they put on a big art/music show. So that’s exciting. There’s definitely a need for some refreshed venues.

Definitely! Speaking of cast systems though, would you ever see yourself moving up to Kool Haus level?

Luke: Haha, I think there’s a lot more steps before that! I would play there if I was asked, in a second! But I think there’s a lot more focus on before we start trying to fill those venues. We’ll try to fill the Whippersnapper before we try to fill the Kool Haus!

The Whippersnapper does a lot of all-ages shows so I was wondering what your opinion is on all-ages shows in Toronto?

Luke: I don’t think there’s enough and it’s hard because of insurance and licensing and that’s why I’m glad to be offering that at the Whippersnapper. I think there should be more all-ages shows but I think it’s hard for the promoters that do these shows because they get really discouraged because it’s hard for the under-aged kids to figure out where they need to be looking to find cool music because they’re in high school. You’re more into mainstream music when you’re in high school because that’s what you’re hearing on the radio.

Well not all high school kids…

Luke: Oh no, definitely not. We don’t do all-ages shows all the time but we certainly try to do as many as possible. If there were more places in the city! There’s a place out of town called the Ford Plant and they just do all-ages shows.

Do you plan on playing any other shows soon?

Luke: Yeah! We were going to play CMW but there were some complications with the venue so we might not. We want to take some time to write new stuff though. So hopefully we’ll take some time in March and do that.

Oh, I heard that your EP was having issues lately…?

Luke: Yeah, because we’re so DIY we got our good friend Simone at Punchclock Printing to handprint all of our discs and they’re on cardboard. Since we’re trying to pinch every penny and do it as DIY, as cool as possible, we had to glue them all together ourselves. Turns out that one batch, the specific type of glue we used leaked onto a lot of the discs. I think it was only five discs that were actually given out; we destroyed about 60 but I think we only gave out 10, max, before we realized! So if anyone has a glued disc, tells us whenever and they can exchange it for a new, unglued disc.

Okay, one last question: If you were a singing animal, what would you be?

Luke: A singing animal? Let’s say a singing…oh man, I’m trying to be clever now! A singing horse!

Haha, why?

Luke: Because I saw that picture of a horse there! It’s powerful!

For more Boys Who Say No, check out their MySpace! They will also be playing a free show at the Drake Hotel on February 26th with Sports (The Band) and Great Bloomers, as part of the Drake’s 5th anniversary!