Young Rival took the stage in front of another sold-out crowd at House of TARG on Jan. 29 to play tracks from their latest album, Interior Light. Local Ottawa trio Ornaments and Kingston’s Lost Cousins opened for the Hamilton-based indie rock band.
Before the show, The Charlatan spoke with Young Rival’s bass guitarist, John Smith, about the release of their new album, a potential EP, and their upcoming European tour.
The Charlatan (TC): What can audience members expect from tonight’s show?
John Smith: They can expect that I will challenge them to a game of Mortal Combat. Maybe Street Fighter. I know we’ll be playing arcade games. But for the actual show, I’d say they can expect lots of gold sequins and rock and roll.
TC: How do you want an audience to feel after they’ve seen your band perform?
Smith: It would be an amazing compliment if somebody was inspired by it because I know I’ve seen lots of shows where I felt inspired, and I know as a music fan that’s a really nice feeling. Ultimately, just happy I think. Hopefully we’re not bumming anyone out.
TC: You’ve recently released your third full-length album, Interior Light. How has it been received?
Smith: So far, it’s been amazing. All the feedback we’ve gotten so far has been really solid. We feel really happy with it. If you make something, at the end of the day, you just have to be happy with it no matter what other people think. But it’s nice that other people also seem to like it. It’s like the cherry on top.
TC: What inspired Interior Light?
Smith: There’s lots of inspiration that we had about the sounds of things, the textures and the way we shaped it up. Lyrically though, I think it’s all over the map. In any album, I think there’s going to be a blend of some self-reflection and a bit of inspiration that comes from various relationships and experiences. I think the biggest drive for us was we just felt really excited to make something that was really fresh and exciting, and we feel like we accomplished that.
TC: Are you already working on another album?
Smith: We try to never stop writing. I think we might be putting an EP together for the spring. We’re just going to keep the ball rolling and the songs flowing. I think that after we get back from Europe, we’re going to book in some studio time and get down to it.
TC: Speaking of Europe, your band will be performing in France and Belgium in February. How does it feel knowing that you have fans across the world?
Smith: Surreal. It’s a really weird, strange feeling to think that other people in other parts of the world are listening to something that you just put together in your home town. We had this one really weird experience where we took this show [to] Lithuania. We showed up expecting nobody to be there and doubting ourselves as to why we decided to drive that far for one show. We showed up and it was a sold-out room of about 500 people. I had no idea that we had recognition in Lithuania. That was the strangest feeling ever. That was the furthest we’ve been from home and to have a full room there was just completely bizarre, but really fun.
TC: What are your ultimate goals for the band?
Smith: We’ve always prided ourselves on our collective work ethic, and we never stop working at music because we all really love it. Ultimately, our goal would just be to be able to do this for as long as we can and just keep whatever momentum we have building.
