It doesn’t get much more independent-Canadian-music-esque than interviewing an established band in the men’s washroom of the Mod Club. To be fair we did try sitting upstairs but with White Lies, tonight’s headliners, doing their sound check on the stage it wasn’t really possible. Hometown heroes and tonight’s openers, Dinosaur Bones, are content to carry on with the interview, despite the smell.

Dinosaur Bones have combined talent with working like dogs. They’ve already receive international press and their first full length album is only coming out in March. Working hard has certainly helped continue and steadily build their success. Plus, good ‘ol fashioned exceptional music certainly helps. To describe Dinosaur Bones is tricky. The second you think you can pick up an influence it disappears and song becomes something else, growing until the last chord. It’s a testament to the band’s talent that with only five guys they can create full, engaging, yet still accessible music.  

Like anything of substance, there are no shortcuts or quick fixes. It was an instinct singer Ben Fox had when the band began. “Branko [Scekic -bassist] and I were both going to university in Montreal and I was writing a bunch of songs up there but the guys I wanted to be making music with were all in Toronto. And with the exception of Josh we played a lot of music together in high school. When the stockpile of songs grew big enough I decided to move home.”

With their new album, My Divider, being released by Dine Alone Records the recording of it became a chance to regroup and refocus. “By the time we got around to recording our full-length, we’d toured a whole bunch and played a lot and figured a lot out,” explains Fox. “We definitely had a better sense of identity when we got around to tracking it. With the first EP we recorded, we were just in a rush to get something on the merch table.”

“We spent a lot of time in the studio too, about a month and a half,” adds Scekic. “It was a lot more organic because we got to hang out and live in the studio, it kind of became like a clubhouse. Ideas were able to get fleshed out a lot more.”

This time around veteran producer John Drew was brought in to produce. Having worked with bands like the Arkells and Tokyo Police Club, Drew pushed Dinosaur Bones to create the unique record that only they could make. It became a mater class in record making. “He’s like the best guy in the world,” says Fox. “Having someone like that at the helm of your record is an incredible luxury. He’s a really good guy to be around. He’ll push your ideas further, in ways you wouldn’t be able to without him. It turned into a huge learning experience.”

“But in a not-pushy way,” clarifies Scekic. “He’s very encouraging. He doesn’t have an iron-fist or anything. He wasn’t like, ‘what was that? Do it again!’ He’d be more like, ‘that was amazing, man. That was the one. Great take...Now do that again.’ He had a lot of good ideas to bring to the table he wasn’t there to just turn knobs and record. He had ideas about what works and what doesn’t. And obviously he has a lot of experience.”

One of the things about Dinosaur Bones which becomes clear in our brief time in the washroom, is their willingness to grow and be pushed, which is a rarity in an industry notorious for resting on its laurels. “It’s exciting for sure to get to be around people that we’ve looked up too,” says guitarist Josh Bryne of sharing a label and management with larger local bands. “At the same time, we’re totally aware that we’re the baby-band.”

“We’ve been pretty fortunate to work with a label like ours.,” says Scekic of Dine Alone. “They’re low-key and they’re helping us grow. It’s not like they’re plastering our faces on billboards. Then it would feel like there’s pressure. It feels more organic this way. We’re getting bigger shows and bigger tours so it definitely feels like it’s growing. But it’s pressure we’re putting on ourselves to be on the same level as the bands we’re touring with.”

With the album recorded their next priority is touring. And touring wider than before. They’ve been active users of Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to get the gospel of Dinosaur Bones out. “Josh is learning how to breathe fire,” says keyboardist Dave Wickland of their live show.  “It’s a case by case thing based on what we can do. We try not to live beyond our means, we’re still growing that way a lot. Some of these tours are not nearly as glamourous as people might think. We’re still in a van, sitting with all our gear, sleeping against the windows. But as far as the show goes we try to make things exciting for us and the audience by working in new aspects, whether it’s changing the way we play something or doing a cover, it’s just a matter of feeling the night out. Also, when you’re there sometimes you have to make last minute calls to make a show work.”

For all their success they’re your regular guys in their mid-twenties. They all work and have to survive.What sets Dinosaur Bones apart is their collective commitment to the band. They are calm, focussed, charming and wearing varying degrees of skinny jeans in the interview. “We’re all trying to find alternative ways of making money,” begins Scekic. “When you’re on the road you can’t really work a job and you’re always spending, spending, spending. When you get home there are bills so you’ve got to slowly rebuild. And when you finally rebuild it’s time to go on tour again.”

Luckily most of the band has jobs DJing, fixing guitars or something else cool as I go around the circle and ask what they do. When I get to Dave Wickland he smiles and says, “I roll burritos. At parties where I’m being introduced to people more often than not they’re like ‘oh my god! You work at the burrito place!’ Then they’re like, ‘what’s Dinosaur Bones? A band? Everyone’s in a band.’"

Images from thinkContra.com

Alex West
		About the author:
		After a five year stint in Montreal Alex moved back to her native Toronto to do her Masters and began writing for different publications. When in doubt she always asks, what would Nick Cave do? Luckily the answer almost always involves velvet, wine and writing. In her spare time she enjoys watching civil war reenactments, sharing her James Bond level charm and talking about that girl who did that thing that one time. Read more of her work at: www.scare-tactic.blogspot.com
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