Q&A with Kasador
by Paige Ardill
2018-03-15
WRBB’s Paige Ardill caught up with Will Hunter of Kasador, an up and coming indie rock band from Kingston, Ontario, before their performance at The Middle East.
Hey guys, Paige Ardill here at WRBB 104.9 here with Kasador’s Will Hunter, how are you doing today?
Will Hunter: I’m very well, we’re all a little tired, we left Kingston around five this morning, it’s been a pretty long day.
You all went to school together at Queens University in Ontario, Canada. How did you all originally meet?
I was at Queen’s and I started going to this thing called Queen’s music club, and I was just meeting musicians and through friends of friends and friends of friends of friends we ended up all meeting each other and jamming and writing songs.
How do you feel as though your new new EP release “Come Get Yer Money” differs to that of your older music?
I think that it was a natural procession and I think it sounds different because the year in between releases – September 2016 – we put out this EP that we’d worked on for a few months, and we had all this time to write those songs then we toured and while we were on the road we wrote songs. ‘Come Get Yer Money’ and ‘Skeleton Park’ speak more to that life on the road and more experience so I don’t know if it was a conscious effort to change sound, it just kind of happened because of the circumstance.
How is life on the road?
It’s different, it has its ups and downs but it’s mostly ups. It’s really cool. We’re in a beautiful 12-passenger van with a U-Haul trailer. We used to drive a 2010 KIA Sportage with a U-Haul, which is a 5 person SUV, and we’d do 10 hour drives… it was a nightmare. A smelly nightmare.
What is the music making process like? Do you all go about it the same way, or does each individuals differ?
We all kind of came to music in different capacities so we have different writing styles, but over the years we kind of learned how each other works. Most of the time, it starts with someone having an idea or bringing in a demo of a song and we kind of deconstruct it and rebuild it so it’s more cohesive and put together by the four or five of us. It’s different than how some bands work, jamming for days and days until you feel like you’re happy with it. We’re really methodical in our own time and we bring that to the group.
Who or what are your main inspirations?
I think we all come from different things so I’m just gonna talk about mine: I grew up with The Who, which was the only band that ever existed to me for a while, but I really like the Arctic Monkeys and Canadian bands like Sam Roberts, The Arkells, etc. More contemporary groups have been my inspiration recently.
In January of 2017 Kasador was selected to perform the song “So Hard Done By” for the Tragically Hip’s 30th Anniversary celebration on The Strombo Show. Was this a breakout moment for Kasador?
I think yes and no, I mean, it was a national stage, which was the first time we’ve ever been given that opportunity, but I look at it as more of a cool experience to be a part of especially because of our connection to that band and to Kingston. It was very nice of them to invite us, but I wouldn’t consider it a breakout moment.
Boris, as the son of Rob Baker, Tragically Hip’s lead guitarist, was this a special moment for him? Or do you, as a band, prefer to keep a creative distance? I noticed on one of the Tragically Hip’s “Yer Favourites” album your is spelled the same YER way as your new EP “Come Get Yer Money.”
Yeah yeah for sure! And it’s nice to have those little Easter eggs in there. We also thought of “Come Get Yer Money” as more of a way people say it, if you have an Ottawa valley accent it’s going to be YER not YOUR so it was… I don’t know, there are a few references to things. We’ll let you keep finding those. Glad you picked up on that.
You guys have mentioned that Kasador brings “the energy of a party to the stage and into the audience”, how do you achieve that?
If you looked at every night and every show as though someone has taken the time to come and see your band and see what you do, in my mind you at least owe them an event, you owe them a party, something exciting. You need to be their night about because they’ve saved up and got their ticket, brought their friends, it’s an event and you need to be like the ringleader of a party. I guess it’s more of a why than a how.
You’re performing alongside Vista Kicks, have you done a show with them yet or is this your first night on stage with them?
Yea, we played with them on Sunday. The past two months I’ve been listening to their album “Booty Shakers Ball” consistently, I love their music. It’s been cool to get to know those guys.
Is there new music coming our way?
Oh absolutely. After we’ve done this run, we’re writing some stuff and actually, during sound checks, our guitar player Cameron and I have been fooling around with this idea we’ve been working on and hopefully we’ll have new music out in the spring, early summer. We wanna make sure it’s as good as it can be so we’re gonna take our time on it.
That’s it for Kasador! Thanks so much for chatting with us here on WRBB 104.9FM. You can catch Kasador live on tour this year. Check out kasadorband.com for more info including tour dates. They’ll be playing at the Middle East tonight in Boston and afterwards they’ll be making their way to New York City before finishing up in Philadelphia.
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