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TV Freaks
Dave O’Connor was born in Fort Erie but ended up moving to Toronto when he joined former Hamiltonian Chris Colohan as bassist for the band Burning Love. But a few years ago, he was invited to join Hamilton’s Vatican Chainsaw Massacre for the recording of their debut
Sonic Unyon release. O’Connor made the choice to move to Hamilton and start a new life making art and music along James Street North’s burgeoning arts community. As his tenure in Burning Love came to an end and Vatican Chainsaw Massacre went on hiatus, he was invited by some old Niagara area friends – Justis Krar (bass) and former Rocket Reducers TJ Charlton (guitar) and Nathan Burger (drums) – to have a go at fronting a new project and TV Freaks was born. This weekend, their Schizophrenic Records debut full–length vinyl release is unleashed.
“I pretty much joined the band because of how much I love the band name,” smiles O’Connor. “We’re all pretty young, I’m the oldest member of the band and I’m 25, and I feel we’ve grown up in a generation where you’re plopped in front of the TV and that’s kind of your babysitter. I enjoyed the freedom of being a frontman and just letting loose, so when I left Burning Love it kind of put TV Freaks on the front burner for all of us because Rocket Reducers had just ended around that time as well. We’ve been going hard since then.”
A product of their environment, O’Connor and company offer a wild, loud and out of control drunken party captured in song. The lyrics are not premeditated, rather written almost while recording and O’Connor admits they’re not necessarily offering a message but rather just documenting the realities of their lives.
“I guess I’m instinctively a person that likes to criticize everything about everyone else and then at the end of the day I think about that and everything I criticize everyone else for is what I don’t like about me,” opines O’Connor a little more philosophically than expected. “Especially some of our newer songs, they really explore the idea of punk rock and what it means to be punk and what it means to be part of that community. Just because you can’t pick me out as someone who listens to punk when I’m walking down the street doesn’t mean that you’re any more punk than I am. I think a lot of the things I’m hating in the songs I could probably improve about myself.
“That negativity is a huge part of life,” clarifies O’Connor. “When you’re young and all starry eyed, you think, ‘I’m going to join a band and do this and that and never have money problems’ and then you’re out on your own and failure becomes an everyday thing. It’s not an issue anymore. Being let down and not succeeding are just parts of life – a huge part. I guess that’s just me trying to cope with the fact that all of my shiny dreams from when I was younger aren’t going to happen and if they do it’s not going to be easy or happen overnight.
“Do you really just go for it and keep driving this car until the wheels fall off and become a legend?” notes O’Connor on the debauchery that often permeates punk. “Do I taste that and try to maintain some sort of life? Some people will probably call me less punk or less rock and roll because of that but at the end of the day there is no cookie cutter way to define that. If you like the music, the lifestyle doesn’t have to come with it.”
Recorded at the Hardy Family barn by Tapes and Plates, TV Freaks official debut is adrenaline fuelled, reverb soaked, blasts of red–lining punk that individually barely last as long as an official television commercial break. As snippets of the harsh realities of life as they see it, the songs could be examined as some strong social commentary but in the end, TV Freaks’ focus is playing live and that’s when the more important facet of this band is underscored.
“We just want to have fun,” says O’Connor. “We want to play fast and fun songs but if people want to take something away from the lyrics I always try to tell them don’t take it too to heart because I don’t spend too much time on it. We want to play a good show that when you leave maybe you’re disgusted because I took all of my clothes off or was so obnoxious – at least you’ll be talking about it. Nobody has fun if all of their arms are crossed. I want to create a space where people can have fun and not worry how their hair looks while we’re playing. I want them to let themselves go and have fun.”
TV Freaks play this Saturday, January 21 at Homegrown Hamilton with Sailboats Are White, The Snips and Elk. Doors open at 9pm and $5 gets you in.
Click on teeveefreakzz.bandcamp.com or scixophrenicrex.com
Kojo ‘Easy’ Damptey’s The EP
We first learned of Kojo ‘Easy’ Damptey over a year ago when he was offering a special charitable song released to aid those dealing with violence against women. This weekend, the local singer/songwriter offers his debut collection of songs that tackle as many heady and heartfelt subjects.
“It’s an interesting record because it talks about a lot of different things,” ruminates Damptey. “This EP is basically the telling of an African immigrant that is trying to make sense of the world that he is living in. Many other people go through the same thing and that could be struggles to get a job, struggles to earn enough to take care of your family. It’s a lot of little things and I tried to put them in the songs and hopefully there can be people out there that either can understand it or are going through it and can relate to some of these struggles. That’s the premise of most of the songs. They are observations of our world today and hopefully people can latch onto these observations and make a difference in their community, in their countries – wherever they might be.”
Damptey left Ghana at the age of 17 to study Chemical Engineering in Hamilton at McMaster University and a few years later has since built a family and a local musical following for his passionate lyrics set to a more soulful soundtrack. Damptey’s EP is a catchy blend of soul, R&B with a sprinkling of hip–hop courtesy of Canadian Winter’s Kobi Annobil.
“That is just a little taste of more things to come,” smiles Damptey on the CW guest rapper. “I grew up with hip–hop music, always listening to the likes of Biggie Smalls and Nas, old school hip–hop. As you grow older, you tend to shift and that’s what happened to me. I started listening to people like Bob Dylan and other songwriters so that has also had an influence. My music takes from both. Most of the production and instrumentations have that hip–hop, soul feel and then in terms of the lyrics I tend to borrow from songwriters like Dylan, Randy Newman and Joni Mitchell to bridge the two. Apart from trying to inspire people, I also think that musicians should create something aesthetically pleasing so I hope to do that as well.”
With a full band in tow, Damptey offers his debut disc with the hopes of not just developing new fans but also developing people that want to be involved in the thoughts and the experiences of the music he’s creating. As Damptey sees it, he’s the instigator of these thoughts and sounds but the music belongs to everyone.
“I hope for a great night of music where people can just come and enjoy the music and hopefully it touches them and builds a greater sense of community as well – that’s the kind of atmosphere I’m hoping for,” notes Damptey on this weekend’s CD release party. “I write the
songs but they are not mine – music is to be shared. I try to make my music a collective thing – I do the writing and production but the people have to participate.”
Kojo ‘Easy’ Damptey releases The Ep this Friday January 20 at the Artword Artbar with Tafadwa Mzofa opening. Show starts at 8pm and tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door.
Click on easythepianoman.com
Crown A’ Thornz’ Core-A-Nation
Leon Robinson has built a name for himself as a leader in the Hamilton community. You might know him as the husband of soul singer, Queen Cee, or as an artist, photographer and videographer documenting hip–hop from his vantage via Hip Hop Homage – an internet video vehicle and art book of his hand drawn favourites. But Robinson also is a class act MC known as Eklipz with a collective known as Crown A’ Thorns. While the outfit has been making fans across southern Ontario
releasing a few singles, this weekend Crown A’ Thornz celebrates their debut full–length release, Core–A–Nation.
It was five years ago that Toronto DJ, DTS, brought three MCs together to form Crown A’ Thorns. J Wyze [Jelani Nias], Kolor Brown [Roan A. Brown] and Eklipz [Robinson] had all been making their own music but together they found something special.
“DTS knew me since I was young and admired my determination,” offers Robinson. “We all had our own thing, Kolor Brown had his own barber shop, J Wyze was an on–air personality at [Toronto radio station] Flow and I had my own thing but we all had a similar mentality and we were all pretty good lyricists and musicians so when he brought us together it naturally clicked.
“We all have solo musical projects on the go as well,” adds Robinson. “We all worked individually but we dropped all of that just to come together as a collective and formulate the Crown A’ Thornz project. We find there’s more power generated in numbers. We could have done it all separately but there’s a synergy that came from all of us being together. It pushes us to being better lyricists and put more into the songs.”
Crown A’ Thornz puts an emphasis on the lyrical content in contrast to the more benign content offered from the more popular pap in music videos these days. It’s a philosophical undercurrent that focuses on their collective heritage and the lives they’ve formed in Canada as the sons of immigrants.
“We’re the first born of parents that came from Jamaica, Antigua, Africa and more,” says Robinson. “Hip hop was born in the South Bronx but even that has its roots in Jamaica. You can definitely hear that
influence as well as the reggae undertones, R&B and all of the influences of just being Canadian – everything from classic rock to hip hop to jazz – all that circulates in our music.
“It’s a mix of all of that but lyrically we named the album Core–A–Nation because in our reality, the youth are the core of our nation because they’re going to dictate what our future looks like so we’re trying to empower the youth through music,” adds Robinson. “The
music they get from radio is like fast food but there’s also other music that you can search for that is more of a meal that you can digest and see different things in rather than the images and content of popular music. We try to give them a full plate to look at.”
Rather than ADD influenced samples, musically Crown A’ Thornz focus on a heavily stylized and melodic affair with rhyming that hopes to uplift as much as it might incite. With their debut available for a free download, Crown A’ Thornz believes getting the music out there will be the first step in helping to get their name out. With the live show, the re–education can perhaps begin.
“We’re out here independently putting out our music, putting our money behind it and not relying on anyone to sign us – that’s the hustle,”
offers Robinson. “It’s about our willpower and drive and word of mouth. If you’ve got good music, it’s going to spread. We wanted to give away the music and get people into the music first and foremost and develop a more organic and wider fan base rather than the local one we’ve had.
“We’re excited to play on this bill with these other exciting performers,” he adds. “We’ll be performing with a live band, the Harbour Sharks, so you can expect energy, extreme lyricism – a fun show, a good vibe and leaving there with a good appreciation of what hip hop really is about.” V
Crown A’ Thorns play this Friday January 20 at This Ain’t Hollywood with Lee Reed, Adam Bomb and Vision. Show starts at 10pm and $10 gets you in.
Click on crownathornz.ca
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