Interview with Niagara's IVY GARDENS

 

When I caught word that Ivy Gardens was coming to town to meet up with Halifax's Earth Altar and Montreal's Mooch - I knew I had to see this show and I reached out to Ivy Gardens in hopes that I could line up an interview. 

The release their sophomore album, GOON, in April of this year, had me immediately become a fan. 

Ivy Gardens has just wrapped up their tour and are still reeling from the high a band gets from sharing their musical creations with their fans, old and new. I imagine they are feeling very inspired and we will likely be hearing something new from them in the not-so-distant future.

NOD: How did the band originally come together?

Ivy Gardens: Ivy Gardens began, at least in spirit, many years ago when we were all very young.We found our footing playing together in high school under a different name, and many years later we reformed as Ivy Gardens when we had a clear vision for exactly what we wanted to do with our art.

NOD: What inspired the name of the band?

Ivy Gardens: "Ivy Gardens" is the name of a street in our hometown (Niagara, ON). It's a street where we learned our instruments, learned how to play together, burned our first demos, and a whole lot more. We've moved on from the old HQ, but the name will stay.

NOD: Which artists or bands have had the most significant influence on your music and how would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?

Ivy Gardens: We're hugely inspired by early stoner rock, metal and sludge stuff. Kyuss, Sleep, the Melvins. Right now we've been into a lot of Weedeater and Eyehategod. We're going for a wall of sound with a deep groove anchoring it, and tons of punk energy that a lot of those early underground metal bands had. To describe our sound succinctly: DOG ASS MUSIC. Interpret it as you will.

NOD: Can you walk us through your songwriting process? How do your songs typically come together?

IG: Typically, we build our songs off the back of one riff. Anyone of us will bring something to the table, and we hammer it all out together. Adding, subtracting, and building until an idea has turned into a full piece. Then we road test it. Everything gets played live, no reliance on any studio tricks in the arrangement, just blasted from huge amps and pounded into eardrums so we can see how it does.

NOD: What themes or messages do you try to convey through your music?

IG: Generally, our songs detail outbursts of extreme emotion. Sometimes violent scenes. We don't want to impose an interpretation of any of our lyrics though, however someone hears it and processes it, whatever it means to them is what's important.

NOD: What has been the most memorable experience on this tour so far and how do you handle the challenges and stresses of being on the road?

IG: Radstorm in Halifax for sure. This was the final Maritime show on this run, and we didn't know what to expect on a Monday night, but, we were here, and were tight as hell after 15 shows. The all ages scene in Halifax gave us a very warm welcome and packed the place with energy. Love to get a bunch of young people in a room going as hard as possible. Very cool to see a safe, DIY, all ages space like that. Venues like Radstorm are absolutely critical for any music scene.

It's tough sometimes, but we're all very close friends sailing on the same ship. We push through it. In Ottawa we had some van transmission troubles, and Joe (drums) had to crawl under the van to push the thing into park while someone reached over and held the brake down - right next to moving traffic! Some metal zip ties, muffler tape and the indomitable human drive to play loud as hell kept us going, as it always does. Just another day on the road for the Ivy gang.

NOD: How do your fans typically respond to your live performances? 

IG: We've been lucky to find a lot of people that get what we're doing and get really into it. We've noticed a lot of people don't really know how to move to our music at first. We've got a lot of songs with weird rhythms and timing changes that seems to throw people off, but people always find their own way to get swept up in the energy and it's been really great on this run so far.

NOD: As an independent band, what are some of the biggest challenges you face? How do you manage the business side of things, such as marketing, booking gigs, and distributing your music?

IG: It's a ton of work being independent on this level.We're recording our own music, filming our own videos, designing our own art, booking our own tour and we wouldn't have it any other way.If you're willing to put in the hours and have a really strong opinion about every aspect of your band, you wind up with a true passion project that is uniquely yours.

Delegating different roles is important. Joe (drums & vocals) did all the booking for this tour - 18 shows - that's no small feat. myself, Sebastian (keyboards), handle all the visuals.I made flyers for every show, designs for our merch, album and single artwork, directed and edited four different music videos for this album cycle. Andrew (guitar & vocals) has been handling the financial aspects, taking inventory every night and documenting all of it for our own records. Our friend, Lucas, joined us on this tour. He has been a huge help, taking photos and video, as well as the tour grillmaster with a sick little coleman grill stashed in the back of the van. It's a tight ship and everybody's got a part to play.

NOD: What are your goals for the band in the next few years and are there any upcoming projects or releases that you can share with us?

IG: We have some pretty ambitious plans for the next record.We're planning on scoping out a spot in the woods somewhere in northern Ontario, firing up a generator, ripping through our material and blasting amps into the open air. It's going to be a hell of a recording session, and documented extensively.

Before that though, we're still working on writing it, and it's gonna be road tested extensively before we commit it to recording. We'll be doing a lot more touring, with a lot more new tunes before we head into the woods and track it all down for good. We'll definitely head out to the Maritimes again, maybe even out West. We'll see what we can manage.

NOD: How do you stay inspired and motivated to create new music? What do you do to unwind and relax when you're not making music?

IG: Inspiration comes in waves.Hearing new music and seeing new art is huge, but mostly our inspiration comes in a shared love of playing stuff that feels good. We're loud as hell and that volume comes with a physical presence in the air, and that feeling is what we're chasing. The lower you tune, the more the floor vibrates, and the weight of that sound in the room with you is the biggest thing that inspires us.

We're all close friends, we play a ton of D&D together. I've been reading through Moby Dick on this tour and getting some fantastic 1800s sailor lingo in my vocabulary.

NOD: How do you feel about the current state of the music industry, particularly for independent artists and what advice would you give to other independent bands trying to make a name for themselves?

IG: The music industry remains a great big mess, as it has always been. There's a lot to be said about the devaluation of music, streaming, and the modern band's social media obligations. I'm not gonna moan about it here. Ultimately, you can dodge the worst parts of it by sticking to your guns, being independent and honest to yourself and your fans. There's a long DIY tradition that goes back to all kinds of outsider bands in the early 80's that did their own thing and committed themselves to it, and in doing so, carved out their own path without ever having to interact with the big fish of the music industry.

If you're in an independent band, all I can tell you is that the grind goes on forever. Keep going, and keep doing your own thing. Ultimately, it's your art, and if that doesn't motivate you to  wade through the mud, nothing will.

NOD: How do you decide on the cities and venues for your tours? What is your favourite and least favourite aspect of touring?

IG: We did a more exploratory run last summer, and found all kinds of cool scenes and spots to play. We tried to return to our favourites and explore even more new places on this run.

We keep these tours sustainable by basically living in our van. Waking up in a steel box that's been broiling in the asphalt wasteland of a Walmart parking lot can get real tough. It can be really uncomfortable, sweaty and dirty, but also really satisfying when we pull it off and the tour can keep going. Our van is basically packed to the brim at absolute maximum capacity. It all feels worth it when the amps get switched on and we start blasting the hell out of whoever's showed up to see us.

follow Ivy gardens on their instagram @ivygardensofficial

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