"It's what you're going through, and then you're like, 'Is this really a fucking song about this guy's other band being not together anymore? Get over it!'" Clay Shea has had some serious shit to work out in the last few years; as a founding member of Edmonton math-punks Choke, he spent 13 years literally defining technically proficient punk rock. Then, two years after the release of the career-defining Slow Fade Or: How I Learned To Question Infinity, the band imploded.
"When we started jamming again, it was just about writing songs to write some songs again," says bassist Shea, who continued to play with Choke guitarist and vocalist Shawn Moncrieff after the break-up. "I guess in the back of our minds we were hoping to put out a record, but getting going, we weren't looking at it like it had to be anything." The pair joined up with drummer Allan Harding and former Fullblast and fordirelifesake guitarist Ryan Pudlubny and began crafting the music that would eventually become Passenger Action, looking to branch away from the hyper-technical sound each of their bands had been known for in the past.
"This came out as a more accessible version of things we've all done," says Shea. "We're really comfortable where we're at, and ultimately just happy to be playing." The band's self-titled debut is a testament to that simple statement; a more sweeping melodic vision than Choke's angular, mathematical approach, it's a record that sonically disposes of past restrictions and lyrically deals with the skeletons in the closet of a Canadian punk rock institution. "A band is like a girlfriend. It's a relationship," says Shea. "But those songs can fit into any context. People always read into it and take their own thing away."
"When we started jamming again, it was just about writing songs to write some songs again," says bassist Shea, who continued to play with Choke guitarist and vocalist Shawn Moncrieff after the break-up. "I guess in the back of our minds we were hoping to put out a record, but getting going, we weren't looking at it like it had to be anything." The pair joined up with drummer Allan Harding and former Fullblast and fordirelifesake guitarist Ryan Pudlubny and began crafting the music that would eventually become Passenger Action, looking to branch away from the hyper-technical sound each of their bands had been known for in the past.
"This came out as a more accessible version of things we've all done," says Shea. "We're really comfortable where we're at, and ultimately just happy to be playing." The band's self-titled debut is a testament to that simple statement; a more sweeping melodic vision than Choke's angular, mathematical approach, it's a record that sonically disposes of past restrictions and lyrically deals with the skeletons in the closet of a Canadian punk rock institution. "A band is like a girlfriend. It's a relationship," says Shea. "But those songs can fit into any context. People always read into it and take their own thing away."
