Since releasing their first EP in 2004, Welland Ontarios Attack in Black have proven themselves to be one of Canadas most impressive and versatile new bands. While their catalogue of releases includes everything from aggressive hardcore punk to straight up soulful folk, and theyve moved on from touring with bands like Billy Talent to the Constantines, theyve managed to impress and uphold an equally diverse fan-base along the way. Singer Dan Romano answered some questions for Exclaim! while somewhere near the Mississippi River, en route to SXSW in Austin, Texas.
You seem to tour across Canada a lot and have built quite a fan-base, but how is your music being received internationally?
Other than Canada we've only been to England and that was only one time with Moneen. It seemed to go over relatively well there; there are music lovers in that area and there were some kids who seemed to enjoy it and told us that they liked it and stuff. I don't think we've done enough touring to really be able to tell, yet. This is our first time in America other than one show that we played in Rochester that we played like three years ago. We haven't really played anywhere other than Canada though.
Do you feel more in your element when youre in the studio or on tour?
Different elements. It's tough to say. Playing night after night and really getting in our groove and performing to the highest calibre that we can is something that we definitely enjoy doing and something that does only come with being on tour. And we do write a lot on tour as well so I guess being on tour brings our music out in the best possible way.
The way your sound has evolved from the Widows EP to The Curve of the Earth is a well-discussed topic. How would you yourself describe the evolution?
Well, I don't know. We all listen to lots of different kinds of music. We don't really want to stop ourselves from doing anything we want at any time so we don't. So whatever element we happen to be in it always luckily seems to be the same one. We all seem to get into the same grooves at the same time. None of us ever seem to disagree on the certain things that we're doing or the types of music that we're playing and writing; it all just seems to work no matter what that type of music might be. It comes relatively easy and I don't seem to notice whether we're changing. Only other people notice us changing, I just notice us becoming more ourselves and understanding what we're doing more as the writing continues and understanding our goals as a band and as musicians. As for our transition, none of us really know how that happened or why that happened or when its going to happen.
Have you noticed a change in the fan base at Attack in Black shows as the music has changed?
No. I mean, there are still familiar faces from the very beginning. There are a couple kids from Hamilton and a couple kids from the Greater Toronto Area that have stuck with us no matter what we've done and no matter how outrageously different the records we put out are. So I guess we're really lucky to have people like that. Other than that I don't really notice whether we have a fan-base at all other than a few people. But I mean people come to our shows sometime and that's pretty awesome.
Curve of the Earth was released less than six months after your first full length, Marriage. What made you chose to release the two so close together?
It wasn't really ever a plan to make that record, it just kind of happened one night. We were just way more proud of it than we were of Marriage in the end of it. It was something that was more pure and organic than Marriage could ever be just because of the process that Marriage was. Curve of the Earth just kind of happened over the span of a few days without thinking about it or stressing about it. It was the most organic thing that we've ever done as a band and as of now definitely the best thing that we've ever put out. We just felt like we needed to get it out as soon as possible and because of weird contractual reasons that you can't release music within six months of your prior release we just had to find a way so we just put it out on the internet and on vinyl because I guess that somehow goes around whatever the contract says.
Anything else you want to say?
Long live Freddy Mercury.
You seem to tour across Canada a lot and have built quite a fan-base, but how is your music being received internationally?
Other than Canada we've only been to England and that was only one time with Moneen. It seemed to go over relatively well there; there are music lovers in that area and there were some kids who seemed to enjoy it and told us that they liked it and stuff. I don't think we've done enough touring to really be able to tell, yet. This is our first time in America other than one show that we played in Rochester that we played like three years ago. We haven't really played anywhere other than Canada though.
Do you feel more in your element when youre in the studio or on tour?
Different elements. It's tough to say. Playing night after night and really getting in our groove and performing to the highest calibre that we can is something that we definitely enjoy doing and something that does only come with being on tour. And we do write a lot on tour as well so I guess being on tour brings our music out in the best possible way.
The way your sound has evolved from the Widows EP to The Curve of the Earth is a well-discussed topic. How would you yourself describe the evolution?
Well, I don't know. We all listen to lots of different kinds of music. We don't really want to stop ourselves from doing anything we want at any time so we don't. So whatever element we happen to be in it always luckily seems to be the same one. We all seem to get into the same grooves at the same time. None of us ever seem to disagree on the certain things that we're doing or the types of music that we're playing and writing; it all just seems to work no matter what that type of music might be. It comes relatively easy and I don't seem to notice whether we're changing. Only other people notice us changing, I just notice us becoming more ourselves and understanding what we're doing more as the writing continues and understanding our goals as a band and as musicians. As for our transition, none of us really know how that happened or why that happened or when its going to happen.
Have you noticed a change in the fan base at Attack in Black shows as the music has changed?
No. I mean, there are still familiar faces from the very beginning. There are a couple kids from Hamilton and a couple kids from the Greater Toronto Area that have stuck with us no matter what we've done and no matter how outrageously different the records we put out are. So I guess we're really lucky to have people like that. Other than that I don't really notice whether we have a fan-base at all other than a few people. But I mean people come to our shows sometime and that's pretty awesome.
Curve of the Earth was released less than six months after your first full length, Marriage. What made you chose to release the two so close together?
It wasn't really ever a plan to make that record, it just kind of happened one night. We were just way more proud of it than we were of Marriage in the end of it. It was something that was more pure and organic than Marriage could ever be just because of the process that Marriage was. Curve of the Earth just kind of happened over the span of a few days without thinking about it or stressing about it. It was the most organic thing that we've ever done as a band and as of now definitely the best thing that we've ever put out. We just felt like we needed to get it out as soon as possible and because of weird contractual reasons that you can't release music within six months of your prior release we just had to find a way so we just put it out on the internet and on vinyl because I guess that somehow goes around whatever the contract says.
Anything else you want to say?
Long live Freddy Mercury.
