Ottawa-based rock band AHRF released its first album, Extracurricular, on Jan. 5 as a blunt ode to the band members’ life experiences as recent university graduates.
AHRF was first formed in 2014 by Carleton alumnus Miles Lawlor, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist, and his friend James Feschuk, the second lead guitarist. The band also features Liam St. John on drums and Nicholas Lee on backing vocals and bass.
At the time of formation, Lawlor and Feschuk were in Grade 10 at Nepean High School. The band’s acronymic name stood for “All Hail Rob Ford” to represent an inside joke concerning the former mayor of Toronto’s cocaine use while in office.
After Ford’s passing in 2016, Lawlor and Feschuk agreed to discard this meaning but wanted to keep the acronym because of the mysteriousness it invokes, according to Lawlor.
“We really like AHRF just as its own, stand-alone acronym,” Lawlor said. “People are like ‘What does AHRF stand for?’ They think about it and they remember it.”
“At school, you’re just trying to find the right answer to everything and it really limits your creativity,” he said. “It was really refreshing to exercise that other part of your brain where you can shut out the outside world and do something you really love.”
Feschuk said one of the album’s characteristics that he is most proud of is how blunt the lyrics are.
“Don’t look into our lyrics too much cause it’s kind of right there on the surface,” he said. “It’s pretty obvious how we feel about everything.”
For example, Lawlor said the song “I Hope My Degree Is Worth It” is about the anxieties they felt about earning a university degree in a field they may not want to work in.
“It’s a lot of time and effort into something that seems like a bit of a gamble,” Lawlor said. “To this day, I still don’t know if my job is what I want to do or if music is what I want to do.”
Jeremey Desjardins, a communications student in his last semester at the University of Ottawa, said he likes AHRF’s new album because he can relate to the song’s themes.
“When they’re exploring things, like their new song about drugs and how his buddy doesn’t wanna try them, sometimes you’ll have those experiences yourself,” Desjardins said. “It’s cool that they’re going through that stage of life and writing about it, as a lot of my peers and myself can relate to it.”
According to Lawlor, although the band’s school experiences were a main source of inspiration for Extracurricular, they’ll be moving on to new subjects in their music now that they have graduated.
Due to the pandemic, Lee had to record backing vocals remotely for this album, while away from the band’s studio on Raven Street in Ottawa. Extracurricular also features Dan Turenne on bass in place of Lee, who could only record vocals remotely.
Turenne and AHRF are members of the Resigned Arts Collective, a music label run by Lawlor and Feschuk. Lawlor said the name was based on their desires to quit their jobs and make music full-time.
“That’s any young musician’s dream and to get there, we have a lot of work to do,” Lawlor said. “The next steps for us [are] to keep writing and play a string of shows.”
“That would have been our first experience [being on] the road, [figuring out] how it works, booking our own venues and meeting new bands,” Lawlor said. “We were really looking forward to that.”
Despite the hiccup caused by the pandemic, Lawlor said the band is hoping to do a tour this summer.
Meanwhile, AHRF plans to host a Facebook live stream on Feb. 14 to showcase songs from Extracurricular in a pre-recorded studio performance.
Desjardins, who first saw the band perform live on Jan. 3, 2020 at the now-defunct bar Pressed, said he was also disappointed in the cancellation of January’s tour. He added that he is looking forward to seeing them perform live again when the pandemic permits.
“They’re a lot of fun to see and a lot of fun to sing along with,” he said. “Just to see them live again would be incredible.”
Featured image provided by Resigned Arts Collective.
