The Cutting Edge Music Festival is coming up August 1-3, 2009 and with headliners like Protest the Hero, The Roots, Mix Master Mike, Bedouin Soundclash and Ill Scarlett, CEMF offers 3 days of choice music and camping in a beautiful outdoor setting.
Protest the Hero is one of my personal favourites, not only because they champion the indie rock ethic but simply because They. Kick. Ass. Semi-literally; you can almost feel the music giving you a beating, and it’s soooo good. All gushing aside, I recently talked to Rody – the band’s lead singer – about the upcoming CEMF festival and how Protest has avoided the trappings of the music industry.
Looking forward to an awesome show coming up at CEMF; how's the band - are they ready?
Funny you ask, they're down practicing at our Toronto jam space right now. It's way down by Lakeshore, so they can go wild - just an apartment we rented out.
Is this more of a show for you? Or a party.
I don't know, we're headlining so I'm not sure how much time we'll have. Which sucks because there's nothing better to me than AFTER the show. You know, fuck the band - let's fuckin' party!
CEMF boasts some big artists like yourselves... but you guys still seem 'indie'. What's your take on the whole indie label and Protest the Hero?
Yeah... I guess we are. We've always owned complete creative control as artists, and you have to. You totally have to because in this industry, there are tons of people that want to influence you.
When we were writing our last record, everyone – management, label, agency, all sorts… wanted radio singles. It's like, can we make something more radio friendly? Fuck. But not our manager, he's been with us since we were like 13.
At the end of the day you have to do what you want, and always do what you want for yourself. Every contract you ever have should made sure complete creativity is in yourself.
Absolutely, that's basically the thinking behind Supernova.com ...but a lot of artists still fall into the trap. How did you avoid signing your lives away?
Well part of it is Canadians don't realize their talent... One problem a lot of people have is that when they think of having a career in Canada, they think of getting on radio. But Canada makes up 3% of international music industry, and people don't just listen to radio anymore.
So what's the one thing you'd tell an indie artist trying to kick start their career in the industry?
Well, I'll quote the final episode of 1st season of X-files – and this is absolutely true in almost every situation – Trust no one.
And maybe get a lawyer, because people in the industry will bend you over and fuck you - it’s a brutal industry.
Good advice. Are there any new artists you're listening to, anyone who deserves some attention?
Well there's this amazing band I can't believe hasn't gotten big here yet, called Spastic Ink from San Antonio. Ron Yarzenbech, look 'em up. Also I think we're playing with our boys Ten Second Epic at CEMF in a few weeks.
Ok one last question... your music is so technically proficient, but also hard and heavy. It's probably one of the hardest things to play on Rockband to boot - how do you describe it?
Heh well we did play the Halo 3 show for Xbox... and got billions of free Xboxes out of it. But I guess of our music, I have always said progressive and aggressive music doesn’t have to be hard to listen to.
I love protest the here, we have a friend who's older brother, Billy, used to know them and they would stay at his house and party after shows haha small world. Their technical side is sososo inspirational with all of the things they do with their insturments, love it. Oh and the way they keep all their creativity is perfect, they got their with their music, why change for some greedy bastard!
