It’s been a long and busy summer for The New Cities band, but members David Brown, Christian Bergeron, Nicolas Denis, Francis Fugere, Philippe Lachance, and Julien Martre have no plans to start getting lazy now. They’ve just released their second album, KILL THE LIGHTS, and they’ve just announced that they’ll be touring with Avril Lavigne on her Black Star Tour! The Mag got the chance to chat with front man David Brown and bassist/vocalist Julien Martre when they stopped by our office downtown Toronto…
How does it feel to have the album out?
D: Really good.
J: Awesome.
How do you feel you guys have grown since the last album?
D: Well, we’re definitely more mature.
J: We definitely matured, and we’re older. I think we wanted to be better so we worked harder. We took almost a year and we wrote thirty tracks and we did twelve out of that. It was pretty much working for two and a half years, so we had a lot of stories and a lot of things we were going through. I think there was a lot of substance on the record [because of that].
Your last album title was called LOST IN CITY LIGHTS and this one’s KILL THE LIGHTS. Is there some sort of story about lights you’re telling through the titles?
D: No, you know, with the first album we were “lost at sea” and everything was new. Now it’s more about what’s happening in the industry. It’s kind of a statement and nod to “killing the lights”.
J: And the party starts when you kill the lights.
D: Exactly.
J: It’s basically a statement and it adds more meaning to the album overall. You know, with songs like “Murder Me”, “Mugshot”, and “Love Me Deadly”—there’s definitely an edge here and the look of the album is edgier.
So, you’re growing a bit more edgy?
D: Yeah, I think we’ve always been edgy with the first record when we were just lost in city lights.
J: The live show was pretty edgy.
D: Yeah, exactly. The live show was edgy, and the band and the people, it was for real. We didn’t get much of that in the first album. Like the comments we got were people telling us we were “way better live” and…it’s edgier, it’s crazier; and when you look into the album, it’s like blue and pink—we have both of those things. So, yeah, that’s why we wanted to do this.
You just said that you went from thirty songs to twelve songs. Tell me about that process, how hard was that for you guys?
J: We both just kind of wanted to add more parts and we were ready, so it turned out to be a no-brainer to choose these ones. Everyone drew a list of the ones we thought would be on the record and we all ended up with a bunch of the same ones, so I guess we all went for the better songs in the end. It wasn’t really a big struggle for us.
D: We cut “Mugshot” out of there [at one point], but that’s one of the best tracks on the album, so…
J: Yeah, I don’t know what we were thinking. We were like, “No, it’s never going to work on the album.”
D: I think it’s because it was never really produced at all, and we were so used to singing on [the album] that it got kind of addictive. But it was good. It was good but it was different, and the demo was good but we could almost see through it. But we were like, “No, this song is really good,” and we did it and it was awesome.
What’s the most ridiculous thing that’s happened during a live concert?
J: Well, me and Nick got attacked by a bee onstage. [Laughs] So that was pretty ridiculous.
D: That bee, Nick was just talking about it this morning. I heard the bee saved your guys’ life.
J: No, he killed it. [Laughs] It was a wasp, but yeah.
Did it sting you at all?
J: No, but it was very persistent. Yeah, it was a wasp.
D: I actually think the craziest thing that happened to me was when we opened for Hedley on Crescent Street in Montreal for the NHL After Show. It was during winter, and it was about minus 30˚ [Celsius], and I was wearing these stylish British cowhide boots. And I jumped—and during shows when I jump I just land pretty hard—and I fell on my back. And my mom and my dad were there like, “Oh my god, are you dead?!” And I just stood up and was like, “Oh my god, nobody saw that, right?!”
You guys have already mentioned “Mugshot”, but do you have any personal favourite songs on the album?
J: I really like the first song, “The New Rule”. It has a very grungy type feel to it, and I really like it—it’s a fun song.
D: I like “The New Rule” because I’m singing really low in the first verse and the second verse in the first part. Someone asked me, who’s singing that part in “The New Rule”? And I said it was me, and they said, “Wow, you can go really low.”[Laughs] I said yeah, I can go low, I can go high. I think on this record we just made sure we wouldn’t push too much—you know, I just wanted to feel comfortable singing these songs.
J: And I did all the high parts.
D: [Laughs] Exactly.
J: I guess it’s a tough job.
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with or feature?
J: Katy Perry would be cool, we opened for her and it was a very fun show to play. Personally, I think it would be cool to collaborate with her on an album.
D: I’m a big fan of Lights, you know Lights? We like her… we’ll call it “KILL THE LIGHTS—featuring Lights.” We won’t actually kill Lights.
You guys are showing some 3D video’s on your Youtube channel, who came up with that, how did that come about?
J: The label.
D: I remember, I think, we had this shirt with 3D glasses on it and we were like ok, let’s put 3D glasses on the shirt because everything’s 3D now. I think Ian came to me and suggested 3D videos and he got the idea from that. So yeah, he got that new camera that shoots in 3D and we upload them on YouTube.
J: It’s pretty fun, going to Canada’s Wonderland one day and then being able to see it in 3D. We used all these tricks and did a lot of stuff with the camera.
Do you know what your next video will be like yet, or no?
J: No, we’ve been doing brainstorming and I have no idea.
So, you guys are from Quebec, was there ever a point in your musical career where you had to make the decision between doing French music or English music? Or was it always just English for you?
D: English, only thought English.
J: We just did a French version of “Mugshot”, actually.
Is that on the album?
D: No, we just did it about three days ago. It’s going to be cool, and it’s going to go up on iTunes—it’s cool because it has both French and English mixed together, so it’s cool because the chorus is going to be English and the verse is going to be French, and the bridge is going to be in French…it sounds cool, and we’ve been told that. I’m not really used to singing French and I didn’t have any ideas to make it sound more Quebecois or more France, but we didn’t make it sound weird like it can sometimes, if it’s too Quebecois. I don’t know if it’s dirty, but it sounds different and we wanted to make it more international.
When you listened back to the same song, in English and French, did you have a moment where it was weird?
D: Oh, yeah.
J: Well, I mean rock always sounds better in English, for some reason. There’s something about it that makes it sound more natural, I don’t know if it’s something in time, but it’s interesting.
D: It’s hard, we just focused on making the words clear and making sure that people understood it whether they were English or from Montreal or something.
J: It’s more like an instrument, not singing in English.
D: It was definitely a challenge, but we did it.
J: It turned out pretty well, too. I didn’t even know I could write French words. My mom and dad are from France, so they know all about French words.
Yeah, that would have been my next question, who translated it?
D: Well, we were kind of all doing it together, but we gave Julien all the lines. [Laughts] We were like “You know what… no wait [Julien], keep going”.
J: And I was like “Thanks guys for coming out” [Laughs].
You just found out that you’ll be touring with Avril Lavigne, have you already performed with her or met her?
D: No, first time. Can’t wait to meet her. We’re really stoked for that… It’s just crazy that it’s happening right now.
J: Yesterday we thought we were just going back home. Next thing you know we’re going on tour. But that’s our favourite thing, being on the road, and personally, too, in the whole business. I’m stoked.
D: That’s why I’m still single, too. [Laughs] Hard to do the long distance thing, didn’t really work out.
Last thoughts about the new album?
D: Check out YouTube.com/TheNewCities for our 3D blog. Buy the CD! Yeah, don’t download it illegally.
Thank you, David and Julien! For more info on tour dates, check out the bands website for updates. To see some of their 3D video’s, click here.