Lead guitarist Allan Gauthier and drummer Mike Laing sit in the corner of a dimly-lit Mavericks bar in the heart of Ottawa, hours before playing another set with their Ottawa-based band The Love Machine. For the two bandmates, this is something they’ve experienced many times before, all over the city’s various venues.
“Personally, I think Mavericks is my favourite venue we’ve ever played in,” Laing said.
“It’s actually one of the venues that’s actually a venue as opposed to being a bar first, and then a venue,” he said.
“It’s sole purpose is for shows, so I feel it has an advantage over other places.”
Born out of the breakup of two other local bands, The Love Machine has been gracing the Ottawa music scene with their unique brand of indie rock, while also weaving eclectic influences such as pop and soul into their sound. The four-piece has been playing together since 2004, a longevity that many local bands do not achieve. When asked what keeps them together, they were quick to attribute it to their passion for music and respect for one another.
“I consider being in a band like riding a roller coaster,” Gauthier said. “There are ups and downs. When you’re down, you’re really down. But when the ups come around they really keep you going.”
“We keep getting these great opportunities, and we’ve put up with each other for eight years.”
Gauthier added that he believes their “recipe” is working.
The great opportunity arose last year, with the band winning a grand prize in local radio station Live 88.5’s annual Big Money Shot contest. This competition saw the band walk away with $50,000 in talent development money.
“We re-released a record on vinyl, we went on the road, and we used a little on press as well,” Gauthier recounted. “We still have banked a whole lot as well. We’ve been like little squirrels, keeping it all really close.”
“After working so hard for so many years, it was nice to finally get some gratification,” Laing said. “It’s been a long couple of years of working at it, so that was one of our first big moments where we felt we were getting recognized.”
For a smaller city, however, recognition within the local music scene can be hard to come by quickly. While Laing and Gauthier both agree the city’s music scene is alive and well, they both feel it is missing something when compared to those of bigger areas.
“I think Ottawa is a great place for music, but where it has trouble is its lack of a number of good venues,” Laing said.
“If you look at a city like Montreal or Toronto, they have endless amounts of good music venues thanks in large part to their size. With Ottawa, you don’t quite have that.”
Despite the lack of venues compared to other cities, Laing cited Ottawa as a city that has a knack of producing quality musical acts throughout all genres. However, he feels a stronger sense of community amongst the acts would help as well.
“I would definitely like to see more bands playing with one another. I think most bands right now are in the habit of playing with their friends and staying within these little cliques. I would love to see a greater Ottawa scene where these cliques aren’t very prominent.”
“Ottawa is a great place to launch your career as a young band,” Gauthier said. “There are still a lot of great venues, and there used to be even better ones, but now I think it’s a natural progression of the music industry to move to bigger markets.”
In the end, Gauthier, Laing, and the rest of The Love Machine are proud to stay true to their local roots. The band has recently finished recording their upcoming record in the city, and plan to expand the fan base from their hometown through music video projects and live performances into the new year.
“We really started to branch out with the last record, and I feel we’ve continued to do so,” Laing said.
“We’ve always been a band that likes to push our boundaries”
