With a new record, Beauty Community, The Elwins are currently on tour with a show in Ottawa on Nov. 25. The Charlatan spoke with drummer Travis Stokl to learn about the new record, tour highlights, and favourite jokes.
The Charlatan (TC): Why don’t we start with the record, tell me a little bit about the songwriting process.
Travis Stokl (TS): Well, each of us wrote a lot of songs for the album . . . then it was just a matter of whittling all of our songs down to what we thought would be cohesive and kind of have a vibe. We tried to get started maybe between a couple of tours in the Play For Keeps album cycle just to get a headstart which helped.
TC: What were you guys looking for as you were paring down the tracklist?
TS: Good question. I think we were looking for something that was kind of hybrid—with real instruments and also synthetic things happening. Thematically, none of the songs really connect, it’s just songs we thought were good.
TC: Do you have a favourite track off the record to play live?
TS: I think “This Is It” is my favourite song off the record, but we’re not playing every song off the record live just yet. So, I can’t really say. I like playing that one though. I think playing “Never Felt So Good” is really fun live.
TC: What makes [these songs] fun on stage?
TS: I think something about the energy within the songs and when you see people singing back or even generally just moving. It’s like a sign that it’s working, and people are liking it, and it’s encouraging for us to . . . I don’t know if I want to say write more songs that are like that, but it’s a good indicator . . . it’s like “Ok, we’ve succeeded in writing some energetic songs, and people like them.”
TC: What’s been your favourite fan interaction?
TS: Gosh, there’s so many. I think something that comes to mind, and maybe I speak for all of us is when we went to Japan twice. Each time, people always do their best to speak English for us, since we don’t know how to speak Japanese or understand it. So, whenever they can try their best to communicate with us, it’s just very heartwarming. Sometimes you don’t fully get the entire message, but you can get the gist of it and it’s good enough. It’s really cute, and it makes us feel good.
TC: What’s been your favourite tour moment?
TS: I think it was one of the last shows we played in Japan on the first tour. It was really packed, and everyone was singing along to the words for pretty much every song. You’ve got to keep in mind, this was our first time there and we didn’t really know what the expectation was going to be. It was almost like a vacation for us really. So they had people singing along, and then they also give applause within songs. If there’s a guitar solo, they’ll clap for it, or if there’s a part they just like, they’ll just clap. They let you know they like that. It’s just like so friendly there.
TC: Complete this sentence: I never want to go on tour without my “blank.”
TS: Pillow. Pillows are important. I started bringing them on tour a couple years ago, and then I thought “I’ll bring it on planes. Although sometimes it has been a bit of a nuisance, it does pay off when you bring it in the van you’re renting. The vans we rent are nice, but sometimes finding a position can be difficult, and having a pillow can really soften things up real nice.
TC: Is there a band that you’d particularly like to hit the road with sometime?
TS: Oh my gosh there’s so many.
TC: Give me like a top three.
TS: I think Sloan comes to mind for me. I really like Sloan, we all do. It feels like they’re kind of like our dads, a bit. We’ve learned a lot from them. Another one, some kind of wacky band would be neat. Someone like Battles—someone who’s just really different from us, but we also like the music. People might not expect a show billed as Battles and The Elwins. People would be like “That’s kind of odd,” but it would work out. Since I’m having a hard time thinking of bands like that, I’ll just stick with Battles because we like them anyway. A third . . . we were listening to a lot of Vulfpeck on the drive back recently to Ontario from Vancouver. It’s like an ever-changing core group of people. It’s like an interchangeable kind of band it seems, like there’s a couple core members but they’ve had different people on tour with them and featuring on their songs, so I think getting to play with them would be kind of fun. Their music is so fun, and you would just get to meet new people every night.
TC: I feel that last one. Just being in the presence of [Vulfpeck bassist] Joe Dart would be enough for me.
TS: Oh my gosh, I feel that hard. He’s so good!
TC: What direction would you like to see The Elwins take on future records?
TS: Something more rock ‘n’ roll. Maybe something a bit more raw, like kind of brash, distorted things happening. Maybe some more keeping mistakes. I don’t know if it would be the same record, but playing with kind of like wavy sound textures . . . You know, like having an intro that would be 53 seconds long with lots of musical builds.
TC: Was there something in particular that influenced you guys heavily for Beauty Community?
TS: No, actually. I don’t think there was. I’m not sure if someone else in the band would say there was, but to me there wasn’t. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think we were just working hard trying to put out a record as soon as we could. We knew we had songs and we kept writing. It’s not like got a bunch then stopped, we’ve continued to write even since the records been done. So, nothing like an overriding influence. I think just wanting to get better at the craft and trying to explore new things we hadn’t done before.
TC: What was the moment for you guys that made you realize “We need to be a band together?”
TS: It started as a duo with [singer/guitarist Matt Sweeney] and I. I knew I’ve always wanted to do it really seriously. [guitarist/keyboardist] Feurd joined eventually, then it became serious. We had couple member changes and then [bassist Frankie Figliomeni] eventually joined. I think just before Frankie joined it became a really serious thing for everyone . . . We started getting an audience and started getting paid. Yeah, we figured we were like “We don’t suck at it, we know what we do, it feels right to keep going.”
TC: How did you guys know that it felt right?
TS: I think I’m going to say positive reinforcement from family and friends. Not just saying like “Good show” or whatever, like actually having heart to hearts and saying “That’s a great song for this reason.” “You guys put on a good show because of this.” I think just know that someone so close to you can actually have such a real feeling from it is very nice. To me, it lets me know that there must be some good in here.
TC: What’s your go-to joke if someone asks you to tell them a joke?
TS: There’s a joke I like lately that’s like what’s the difference between a good joke and a bad joke timing? That got laughs the first night I said it at a show, and maybe I said it at another show but it didn’t, so sometimes it goes over well or maybe not.
TC: If somebody asked you to fill in for their class one afternoon, and you had to teach a class, what could you effectively lecture about for the length of the class?
TS: Wow, nice question. I think it would be creativity and the idea of listening to others and taking in what they have to say and not just like spewing out all kinds of ideas yourself, like actually collaborating and how it’s a great thing and it often yields better results. Some kind of creativity class.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
