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Young Empires
Young Empires formed in Toronto back in 2009 when Robert Aaron Ellingson (guitar), Jake Palahnuk (bass) and Matthew Vlahovich (keyboards, vocals) came together. Veterans of other bands, they came together with a clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish and it seemed to touch a nerve with the international music community. Without an actual CD release, the band became the darlings of the blogosphere with a series of demo songs uploaded to youtube.com and it wasn’t long before they were being asked to play shows across the country and across the world. International tastemakers like England’s NME magazine have gushed about the band, fashion designers use their music on the runways and Young Empires is an international sensation opening for artists like Jamiroquai, Dragonette and Chromeo. While Young Empires may already belong to the world, its partial roots lead back to Hamilton and for one member it’s an auspicious return to debut the band and their new CD, Wake All My Youth.
“My family came to Hamilton when I was in Grade three and I graduated from Westdale – Go Warriors,” recalls Thunder Bay–born bassist Jake Palahnuk. “I had some cover bands in school. I had a band that performed Green Day’s “Hitching A Ride” at the Grade 7 talent show at Ryerson middle school so that was my start I guess. It was nothing really serious until after high school when I joined a band in Toronto.”
After cutting his teeth in the city for a decade, Palahnuk left Hamilton and joined Turn Off The Stars in 2004 but the bassist would be left looking for new inspiration once that band ended a few years later.
“I met Aaron when we were playing with another band but we decided that project wasn’t what we were looking for but we liked each other’s style,” explains Palahnuk. “We made a couple of demos but realized we needed a singer to take us to another level. I had met Matt at one of Turn Off The Stars’ last shows when he was doing a solo project at the time called Golden Girls. I remembered him, rang him up, and invited him to join. We jammed and after that, it all came very naturally. We fell into our own style. We all grew up on indie rock but as we got older we seemed to go more into electronic and house music and that’s kind of where those two elements collided in terms of our influences.”
With a sound that easily harkens back to the birth of electronic to its more modern contemporaries, Young Empires captures a vibe that just works well on the dance floor and off. As fans of music, Palahnuk quips you’ll hear everything from indie rock to hip hop, pop and who
knows what else in the band van but they’re also well aware of a growing electronic community and a fair bit of bands back from Palahnuk’s old hometown like Caribou and Junior Boys.
From the world wide web and international stages, Palahnuk and Young Empires are excited about living up to their current notoriety and bringing their live show to new audiences and with an actual CD for fans to take home.
“That’s the power of the Internet – you put up a couple of tracks and a few people start to like it and things spiral from there,” remarks Palahnuk on all of the advance praise for the band. “Every time we see a new review, it seems to say something nice about us and it always seems like a miracle. We’re very honoured. The NME is one of the best magazines at breaking new bands in the world and it was one of our career highlights to get that review, especially because it was about our live show. We’re excited to be getting on the road again.
“And we finally have something official to sell at shows,” he adds. “We’ve been this online blog band for a few years and it’s nice to offer something real to our fans. We’re really excited to have this come out. We’ve been sitting on the finished EP for about eight months now but the label just wanted to wait and do things right. Now, I’m really excited about returning to Hamilton to see some old friends and of course to debut this band that has never played Hamilton before.”
Young Empires plays this Saturday February 4 at the Casbah with Kidstreet, New Hands and the Good Fridays. Doors are at 9pm and $10 gets you in.
Click on youngempires.com
Daylight for Deadeyes
Back in 2003, Chris Gormley (lead vocals/drums), Matt Gormley (guitar/vocals) and Andy Neill (bass/vocals) formed Daylight For Deadeyes in Mississauga with a love of making catchy hard rock that took influence as much from the Beatles as it did AC/DC. When it came to taking the band out of the garage, the trio decided to take perhaps the road less travelled.
“No offense to Mississauga but there are no places to play so you either go to Toronto or you go west to Hamilton,” remembers Chris Gormley. “We used to hear about this band that played at the Lazy Flamingo on Tuesday nights about 10 years ago so we checked out Freedom Train and kept on coming back. We were just starting out so my brother was going to ask [lead singer, bassist] Carl Jennings if he could pay him to hang out and teach him to do the live sound for bands. But we showed him our songs and he liked them so much he decided to help us out with a live gig and while we were in Hamilton so much we recorded with Carl producing. Hamilton became our adopted rock and roll childhood home.
“We grew up musically in Hamilton,” adds Gormley. “We learned to play loud and hard playing at the Flamingo every Thursday for two and a half years, sweating it out rocking. That’s where and when we learned the most about ourselves as a band and as guys. With producer and friend–for–life Carl Jennings, we have recorded all our music in the Hammer. It’s just the city where the band is at its best creatively and artistically.”
Recording with Jennings at Westmoreland Studio, the band had gone about three or four years between releases but now it seems will go three or four months before their next release is planned as inspiration is at a peak. The current new disc is a bit of a departure for the hard rocking trio.
“We’re a working band, we make music as a living so we do cover songs to pay the bills but we regularly play shows that focus only on our original material across Ontario,” notes Gormley. “We put the CDs out to keep the fires burning. Our second CD, New York was inspired by going to that city. After it came out in 2008, we kept doing the same thing but we also started going overseas. We played Scotland and Liverpool – we’re going back to Scotland this year because we’ve got a little bit of a following there and we’re going to be going to places like Paris.
“The new CD is called Winter because the songs are a bit more mellow
and have a winter feel to it,” adds Gormley. “We released it on the first day of winter but we’ve got another batch of songs already so we’re looking at releasing another disc on the first day of summer. That’s definitely a little more upbeat and rocking. There are a couple
of harder songs but there’s a lot more roots,” says Gormley. “The majority of the tunes are a bit more laidback or romantic but we write what we want to write and what comes out is what we go with. That was the vibe we had over the last year in making this CD and we decided to go with it and the next one can be the return to the more rocking stuff.
“Don’t get me wrong, they’re not so mellow that we’re going to bore you to sleep,” adds Gormley. “They’re still rocking but a little more heartfelt and just maybe not as rocking as from our last disc. We’re going to play the Casbah like we always have and it’s going to rock.”
Daylight For Deadeyes plays this Thursday February 2 at the Casbah with Smash the Hammer, Common and Coy and Danielle Beaudin. Doors open at 8pm and $10 gets you in.
Click on facebook.com/daylightfordeadeyes
Emma Rush
Native Hamiltonian Emma Rush found a love for guitar at an early age – so much so that she’d spend 12 years studying her craft in Halifax and Germany and has become an accomplished international performer. Upon her return to Hamilton a few years ago, Rush realized a market for her talents and developed a series of concerts dubbed Guitar Hamilton.
“I played classical guitar mostly,” remembers Rush on her beginnings. “I sort of messed around with other genres of guitar like rock and got nowhere. A couple of friends of mine were studying guitar at Mohawk and I heard them playing and fell in love with it. It was a life changing experience and I got a guitar and practised 24/7 and went to school for guitar shortly thereafter and I’ve been in love with the guitar ever since.
“It wasn’t always easy but it has been very rewarding for me,” she adds. “Things have taken off for me in the last few years in terms of touring and performing. Since I’ve been back in Hamilton which to be honest was not the original plan, I wound up back here and saw a hole in the market. There isn’t anyone here really playing the guitar the way I do between Oakville and Brantford. So over the years, I’ve developed a solid list of private students and I’m on the faculty at Mohawk and Redeemer Colleges.”
While an educator, Rush remained a mainstay on the stage and decided in 2009 to put a spotlight on the guitar with a regular series dubbed Guitar Hamilton.
“It’s a concert series that runs throughout the year,” explains Rush.
“We bring in a lot of international artists as well as a lot of Canadian superstars. We celebrate the art of classical guitar, which is a pretty wide umbrella. It’s not only just Beethoven but also a lot of Spanish, South American and world music as well as traditional classical music. And there are a lot of modern composers writing interesting music for guitar. Guitar Hamilton encompasses all of that. Things have just worked out so well here, Hamilton’s been so
receptive.”
With a regular schedule of shows available on the Guitar Hamilton website, a guitar weekend festival is scheduled to happen this summer with a wealth of international talent but this weekend, Rush herself takes to the stage with a few female friends for a Girls’ Night Out showcase of their individual styles and then in duo and even trio form. It’s an exciting night for anyone intrigued by the guitar.
“There’s a wide range of people in our audiences – there are young teenagers and the older traditional classical audience members – so we have a wide demographic,” notes Rush. “I think no matter what the age, people think guitars are cool. And the guitar bridges the gap between classical and other kinds of music because it’s an instrument that
everyone can relate to. Everybody knows someone who plays guitar. And even anyone that might be skeptical, when they show up to one of our concerts – the sound of the classical guitar is so beautiful it seems
it really draws them in. Once they’ve made it out to one show, they really come back for more.”
Guitar Hamilton’s Girls’ Night Out happens this Sunday February 5 at the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts (126 James St. S.) with Emma Rush, Eva Beneke and Tracy Anne Smith.
Tickets available for $25 or $15 for students at www.guitarhamilton.com
Rob “Robo” Degrunt
Rob Degrunt made music in the Hamilton/Burlington area for a couple of decades. As part of Mortal Annoyance in the ‘90s, he’d lend an
incredibly fast and heavy guitar riff to the music of the Vapids, Horrorbiz, an early incarnation of the Steeltown Spoilers and more over the years. While the music was always aggressive and in your face, Rob was actually more often soft spoken and kind. It was with huge sadness that we heard Rob Degrunt had suddenly passed away last Friday, January 27 at the age of 43. Rob’s life in music touched many locally and he will be sorely missed by his family, friends and fans.
Visitation will happen at Smith’s Funeral Home (1167 Guelph Line in Burlington) on Thursday, February 2 and Friday, February 3 from 7–9 pm with family tributes Friday at 8:30 pm. Cremation to follow. V
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