Everything All The Time
The Singing Lamb: So tell us a little bit about the history of the band!
Joseph Shabason: Well the history of the band was that Kieran, the drummer and I went to school together for jazz and a year out of school I had a quarter life crisis and I realized that I hate playing jazz and I didn’t know what to do with myself; I’ve worked all these years towards something that I don’t want to do. Then I started writing rock songs because that’s what I listen more to than jazz, and I started writing rock songs using Garage Band. Then we had a few jams and a whole bunch of permutations of people and we sort of developed from there. Kieran and I were the original members and then Jeremy the bass player and then from there we’ve had a rotating cast but right now we’ve kind of arrived at the line up that we’ve had about a year ago, especially with Alanna whose vocals are just kind of like it for me anyway. But it’s kind of stemmed from me writing songs just at home and we’d just kind of jam them out and kind of took shape and that’s basically it I think.
And the story behind the name?
Joseph: Okay there was a bunch of friends after high school that moved to Montreal and there was this weed dealer named Hydro Stan and Hydro Stan was like a 40-year-old weed dealer. So one day Hydro Stan was like, “I’ll come and smoke you guys up for free,” so they went back to Mike’s house which was kind of a big place to smoke weed at the time and Hydro Stan, after they got high and watched movies, they probably watched the Chappelle Show or something, Hydro Stan left and was like, “You know I really had a great time guys. Thanks; thanks for everything all the time.” They thought it was really funny that he thanked them for everything all the time, this all encompassing thank you so they started saying thanks for everything all the time and we said it for years. We had this original, stupid name for the band called Joseph and the Shabasons and we were like, “This is the dumbest name; this is a joke! We’re a joke!” So after, when we decided to pick a name, we settled on Everything All the Time which is better than what Kieran wanted to call it which was Vinyl Richie.
I love that name!
Joseph: Maybe like DJ Vinyl Ritchie but as a band name, it was a weak call.
Do you remember how your first band rehearsal went?
Joseph: It was fucking weird. It was in the Cactus Rehearsal Studios but when they moved directly beside my house. It was me, Kieran, this guitar player named Thom Gill who is in Thomas, who is like my new favourite band in the city; they’re incredible, and this keyboard player named Dafydd Hughes who plays in the band now but quit for a while. But it was a lot of nothing; a lot of us trying to play songs that I had written and then none of us knew what to do and like fiddling with sounds forever and like Kieran trying to facilitate things and me not knowing how to run a band and it was just all over the fucking place. Nothing came of is and it was super discouraging because it was like “Oh, nothing’s ever going to happen!” It got better after that but it was really bad!
How is it nowadays?
Joseph: Amazing. You see the way it works is I’ll write a song or an idea or a verse or chorus and then I bring it into rehearsal and then like we all work together, we write together, we talk things out like what works and what doesn’t work and then you kind of get into a spot that’s good and maybe I’ll go home and rewrite something or Kieran will write a chorus idea and it’s kind of a really nice dynamic; we all work really well which is kind of rare so we kind of lucked out in that respect.
Are you guys currently recording?
Joseph: We just finished!
Oh! How was that?
Joseph: It was amazing! We just finished an EP, we went up for four days to this studio up north where actually, if you want to see the studio watch the video for “Tom Sawyer” by Rush – that’s where it was! And anyway, we recorded there and there is a 5-song EP that we’re going to officially release, maybe mid-October but will be on sale tomorrow and we all couldn’t be happier. It’s like huge, massive pop songs and like we’re really happy with it, it’s going to be great!
That’s awesome! Are you guys planning on touring in the fall then?
Joseph: Well, we’ll see! We don’t have any money. So we’re going to be playing a show in Peterborough and some small, one-off shows in southern Ontario. We’ll try to do a mini-tour at the end of October like leading up to the 23rd when we’re doing our CD release but we need to find some management and a label and also apply for some grants to help for like facilitate a tour because there are six of us, it’s a fucking pain in the ass. Everyone’s so busy; Kieran plays with Sarah Harmer and Dafydd just had a baby and so everyone’s so busy and unless we can actually get enough money… And everyone’s working so hard on getting this off the ground but it’s hard to get six people to be like, “Okay we’re taking two and a half weeks to drive across the country and lose money.” So it’s difficult. But at least a mini-tour and hopefully something bigger later.
You said you were starting a job in September; what are you doing?
Joseph: I teach music lessons to high school kids; like private schools!
Oh cool!
Joseph: It’s good! And it pays okay that I only have to work three days a week. Yeah, it’s really good so the rest of the time I can spend doing fun stuff. It’s good and it allows me to take time off for tours because I play with other bands and it’s nice to be able to hire one of your friends to substitute for you and take as much of your time as you want.
Well The Singing Lamb may be working on another show soon…
Joseph: Oh cool!
Yeah, our last one had Hexes and Ohs, Winter Gloves, Maylee Todd…
Joseph: Oh Maylee sang with our band for like a minute!
Oh really?
Joseph: We finished recording our first album and things didn’t work out with the original singer of the band and then Maylee sang with us for like two rehearsals and then Alanna came and it just sort of gelled right away and Maylee understood but she is amazing! And did you see her new video? It’s incredible!
I love it!
Joseph: Its like her dancing on Mars and then these weird Brazilian space rock, it’s fucking amazing, super cool!
Tell us more about your show tomorrow!
Joseph: It’s going be great! We’ve got costumes; well not costumes. Our friend Vanessa makes costumes for TVs and movies and called and asked if we wanted to choose a bunch of stuff so we got a bunch of clothing today which is going to be really great and we’ve got the Magic who are amazing and the Balconies are also great so we’re just excited to play. We’re playing a bunch of songs that we’ve never played before! We’re going have a blast and we’re headlining which is kind of rare for us so it’s going to be fun to be able to play more than a half an hours worth of music.
And your EP? What is it called?
Joseph: It’s called EP! It was almost called That Was Zen, This is Wow.
Oh my god, that’s amazing!
Joseph: That’s a good name. Fucking Kieran vetoed it! And the thing is Kieran thought of that name!
And finally, if you were a singing animal what would you be?
Joseph: A singing sloth; like that clip from Saturday Night Live – watch it; it’ll blow your mind!
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For more Everything All The Time,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/everythingallthetimeband
Don’t forget to catch them tonight at the Horseshoe with The Magic and The Balconies! Tickets are $5.00 at the door and their upcoming EP will be on sale in advance at the show!
