The Carps
Contrary to what you would believe, a crowded Starbucks in downtown Toronto on a Tuesday afternoon makes an ideal location for holding an interview. I discovered this firsthand recently when I got the chance to interview drummer and lead singer of the Toronto duo The Carps, Jahmal Tonge. Tonge, and guitarist Neil White, started the band three years ago after growing up together in the suburban paradise (hardly) that is Scarborough. Since then they have released two well-recieved EPs, the latest of which is entitled Waves & Shambles. The duo’s sound is as diverse as their lineages; Tonge being from the Caribbean island of Antigua while White is of Sri Lankan heritage, and their music is a melting pot of rock, hip-hop, electro, and world music. The Carps have opened for likes of The Hives, had their “Heaven’s Gate” single remixed by every hipsters’ favourite underground rap duo Cool Kids, and have been featured on the online hip-hop and alternative music website Okayplayer. Our hands wrapped around steaming, overpriced coffees and watching from behind the glass the swirl of businessmen and other pedestrians outside, Tonge was kind enough to speak with me for over two hours about everything from gun violence in Toronto to the recent Canadian election to the musical collaboration he would like to see (50 Cent and Bright Eyes?).
Taking a sip from his coffee, Tonge explains that he grew up in North York and moved to Scarborough as a teenager where he met White. In Grade 12, the two decided to form a band, drawing their namesake came from a scholarly lesson of White’s. “Neil was taking a Latin course, and it was from “carpe diem” – which means “seize the day”. I said to him “that’s the lamest thing I’ve ever heard, all the cool bands have ‘the’ in the title: The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes…” and so we ended up going with The Carps. I still think its a terrible band name,” said Tonge. He laughs and claims, good-naturedly that he’s “come up with about 60 band names over the course of the year that I think are better.” On the band’s MySpace page, the duo describes themselves from being from Scarborough, a “pretend ghetto”. I ask Tonge what they meant by that.
“Scarborough has a lot of faux gangsters,” said Tonge, “We’ve been fortunate to live and visit in places like Chicago, places that are really bad, like parts of Brooklyn. Still, you can’t discount that there are people where I’m from that are really poor. When you are poor you have nothing to live for. You take pride in the things that you do have, and for some people that’s a gun.”
After listening to this story, The Carps’ single “Compton To Scarboro” suddenly makes more sense, which begins with the line “This is a story about a man with a gun…”. In the music video for the song, Tonge plays a man who walks into a convience store and decides to hold up the place until a clerk, played by White, intervenes. Tonge shoots White and escapes, only to be handcuffed and shoved into a police cruiser at the end of the video. In a city where there were approximately 336 shooting victims in 2008, this is a chilling reminder of how gun violence is out of control in many cities. A special report in a September issue of Toronto’s NOW magazine calling for a national ban, was just another example of the media and public alike are seeking answers as to what can be done to reserve this disturbing trend.
Tonge strongly believes that there should be limitations put on peoples’ rights to bear firearms freely. “I think that there should be heavy regulations,” he said, “You don’t go hunting with handguns.” Tonge laughs as he says, “That’s what I get for being a socialist. There goes my political career.”
Talking to the charismatic front man, it becomes quickly evident that politics is something that even if he isn’t heavily into, Tonge has plenty of opinions on the Canadian government. “You can keep me talking about politics all day,” he said, “I’m really not heavily into politics. But I’m just a guy that reads the newspapers, I don’t go to convocation hall. I try to find my own viewpoints, my own opinions.”
“We’re the kings of hipsters,” says Tonge, referring to the band, “But we’re part of the fringe denomination, the one that actually cares about politics.”
The Carps recently lent their voices to the Democracy Now! campaign, which is a non-profit organization with the goal of encouraging more Canadians to participate in municipal, regional and national politics by voting in elections. Yet even this noble effort didn’t stop Canadians – in particular, the youth voters – from not showing up at the polling stations in the last federal election. “We had the lowest voter turnout. It [the Canadian election race] looks boring. In the States they had a black man against an old, white man. Here we had a old, white man versus another old, white man. Now I know that there not always old, but in general they do it from when they’re 40 to 60-years-old, and than they retire to become consultants,” said Tonge, “Kids are still feeling apathetic, they don’t feel like they have anything to care about. You don’t have to be an environmental activist, a gay rights activist, an activist of any kind to have an ideology.”
“I didn’t like Stephen Dion and what he had to say. I was telling people not to vote for the Conservatives,” admitted Tonge. When asked what he made of the government’s decision to cut funding to the arts in Canada, an evidently frustrated Tonge hits his forehead with his hand. “I don’t know where to begin. My friend Justin runs We Kill You [a Toronto-based art company that designs everything from toys to silkscreened t-shirts] and we were both talking about being artists. People think that being an artist is easy – which it is because I love it – but its also hard. A person that works in government, gets up, get dressed and goes to a 9-5 job. The minute I wake up I’m working and I’m working all day.
Politics aside, our conversation turns back to the music that helped inspire Tonge and the artists and bands that have had an influence on The Carps. He tells me that his listening preferences range from the Latin progressions of soca (“As a drummer, it makes me feel good that I can connect with my culture.”) to Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” (“Black people think that song is an old, ancient call of our people. Even though Phil Collins is kind of cheesy. He was the worst part of Genesis.”) to The Hives. The Carps were asked to play a show in Toronto with the Swedish band, something that Tonge couldn’t say no to. “They said they couldn’t pay us very much, and it turned out to be barely enough to get from Stockholm to the airport,” said Tonge, “so I ended up calling my parents and asking for money, something that any musician knows never, ever, ever to do.” They ended up opening the show for The Hives and than flying back to Europe to continue the tour.
Tonge is also quick to point out the old-school punk influences, such as Elvis Costello and Bad Brains, that had an impact on the band’s sound. At one point during our conversation, he pauses to compliment a student waiting in-line at the Starbucks on his choice in Bad Brains attire.
“I think there is something more soulful about world music. Even if a Connor Oberst record doesn’t have as much swagger, there is so much soul,” said Tonge, “That’s what hip-hop is missing, soul. Modern hip-hop anywhere. I would like to see a 50 Cent and Bright Eyes collaboration. The album would be called Swagger and Soul.” He laughs. “No, make that a capital ‘N’ in-between. Swagger ‘N’ Soul.”
And speaking of hip-hop, what about the band’s collaboration with Chi-Town’s (Chicago) finest, the Cool Kids, who remixed “Heaven’s Gate”?
“I did the beat. They were playing here, I harassed them into the studio, and we did the track,” says Tonge, “Those guys are really good friends of ours and their support definitely helped make our careers.”
One look at the comments from fans on not only the band’s MySpace but on online forums, you can’t help but notice that there are numerous comparisons to the now defunct dance-punk duo Death From Above 1979 of Sebastian Grainger and Jessie Keeler. But albeit both bands are a drum and guitar duo, use heavy distortion, and are uniquely Canadian, Tonge says that The Carps are still “a lot different”. However, he admits that “I don’t really worry about the comparisons because Jessie is a fan of ours.” Tonge sang on two of the tracks on the upcoming, much anticipated MSTRKRFT sophomore album, joining a guest list that included E40 and John Legend (who shares a manager with The Carps). He also divulges that The Carps may get Keeler and Al-P’s remix treatment in the near future, depending whenever the very in-demand MSTRKRFT has some free time.
When asked what’s next for the band, Tonge shares what looks like a very busy schedule for The Carps as well as himself. Tonge says that in the future, himself and Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids will be in the studio together producing beats, and recording stuff for the likes of Ebony Bones, Res and other unnamed artists. He also says there is a mixtape in the works, which he “got the idea when I was listening to songs off Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreaks. What day is it today, Tuesday? I should go pick that up, except that I’m broke. We could put an album tomorrow, but there are four tracks that I consider filler, so I want to do four to five new songs. We’re also in talks with U.S. labels trying to get a deal.”
While The Carps are signed to URBNET Records in Canada, they are currently in the process of finding a distribution label in the United States, so that they can attract a wider audience. “I’m not trying to be a millionaire,” explains Tonge, “I just want the same standards for myself as my parents had for themselves. To own a car, to own a house, to be able to one day drive my kids to soccer practice.” This laid-back approach to life has served Tonge well. “My whole thing when I was younger was to get in a rock band and live downtown,” said Tonge, “Now I’ve done that.”
In the meantime Tonge and two friends have recently starting working with teachers, volunteering their time to give free music lessons to kids between the ages of 7 and 11, an experience he describes that has been “a lot of fun”.
“We want to give them a mega-start on creativity,” said Tonge, “When you stimulate the mind creatively, you can see things differently. Two plus two is no longer four, you can see behind that. Your thought process becomes more fluid.”
When I mention, that you never know – one of these kids might eventually start a band that ends up opening for The Carps – Tonge laughs but admits that nothing would make him happier. He credits playing sports, but mostly picking up a guitar in high school, for avoiding the trappings that he saw so many in his neighborhood fall into. “A lot of them after they got of school are now drug dealers or in jail. That would have been me if I hadn’t picked up the guitar.” he said.
Our interview coming to a close, it comes time for the trademark Singing Lamb question – “If you were a singing animal, what would you be?”. Tonge hesitates for a moment before answering. “A singing boar. The boar is a very isolated animal; sometimes it likes to be alone, sometimes it travels in packs. It can kill or maim only if it needs to, but sometimes it happens.” Tonge shakes my hand and we dispose of our plastic coffee containers into the proper waste receptacles. With a heartfelt goodbye, we part ways into the concrete jungle, the last drops of caffeine warming our bones against the cold November afternoon.
This interview was done in November 2008.
