{"id":149032,"date":"2012-03-16T18:56:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-16T18:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/cancer-bats-take-flight\/"},"modified":"2012-03-16T18:56:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T18:56:04","slug":"cancer-bats-take-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/cancer-bats-take-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Bats take flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eight years into its existence, the fermentation process of Toronto hardcore heroes Cancer Bats may finally be complete.<\/p>\n

At least that\u2019s the opinion of lead singer\/shouter\/screamer Liam Cormier, who says the comfort level between himself and guitarist Scott Middleton, drummer Mike Peters and bassist Jaye Schwarzer has never been better.<\/p>\n

If you need more proof, turn your ears toward his band\u2019s latest opus, Dead Set On Living<\/em>. \u201cThis being our fourth record, we\u2019re really trying to step up our game as a band,\u201d says Cormier. \u201cWe\u2019ve figured out what we want to be musically, so at this point it\u2019s less experimentation, and more just really driving home those ideas.\u201d

\u00ab\u00a0Writing lyrics, I always want to be as honest as possible. \u00a0\u00bb \u2013 Cancer Bats singer Liam Cormier <\/div>\n

If Dead Set On Living<\/em>, replete with Middleton\u2019s thundering fretwork and balls-to-the-wall rhythm support from the Schwarzer-Peters tandem, is indeed the breakthrough Cormier is wishing for, the quartet will have certainly earned it.<\/p>\n

Since 2006\u2019s introductory Birthing The Giant<\/em>, the band has shown remarkable evolution with their subsequent album releases Hail Destroyer<\/em> (2008) and the Juno-nominated Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones (2010)<\/em>, pummeling crowds at home in Canada, in the U.S. and on the U.K. club and festival circuit with their aural aggression.<\/p>\n

And the fact that Cancer Bats has generated an international profile without the support of mainstream vehicles affords them the luxury of creative freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us a confidence,\u201d he admits. \u201cThe fact that we actually take a chance and play music that we really want to… and then to see that translate and work out not only in Canada \u2013 where we have our friends and peers \u2013 but with people we\u2019ve met all around the world indicates that what we\u2019re doing is working. And if this is working so far, let\u2019s do whatever we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

While conceding that most of Cancer Bats\u2019 earlier material dwelled on negative content, singer and lyricist Cormier initially had greater aspirations for Dead Set On Living<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal was to write the most positive record that I could,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe fans said Bears was really harsh and dark thematically. Some of them mentioned that they missed the positive songs we had on Hail Destroyer and Birthing<\/em>, and it made me think a lot about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, at the time the album was written, Cormier\u2019s best friend, at the young age of 29, suffered a heart attack. \u201cThat had a huge impact on me,\u201d he admits. \u201cThat\u2019s what the song \u2018Dead Set On Living\u2019 is about. Life went on and we started making this record, and I realized that it was unfair to write strictly about the positive, because life isn\u2019t always positive.\u201d
\nThe friend has since recovered, but the ordeal gave Cormier plenty of grist for the mill. \u201cYou know, with my best friend being in the hospital, there are obvious songs that came around that,\u00a0\u00bb he says, \u00ab\u00a0like \u2018R.A.T.S\u2019 and \u2018The Void,\u2019 some of these more negative things that you can\u2019t help but deal with. It was really helpful to have this record to work through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctuary where Cormier and the rest of Cancer Bats developed their ideas was a rehearsal space in the Lakeshore\/Islington area of Toronto \u2013 one close enough to the hospital that the singer could visit his friend every night. The location also allowed them to bicycle to practice, an exercise that helped keep them fresh and contributed to their stamina in writing and demoing a song a day in their rehearsal studio.
\n\u201cEveryone would ride 14K out of the city, get some fresh air and exercise, and then lock ourselves in a windowless room,\u201d Cormier recalls. \u201cWhen it came time for me to write lyrics, I found there was nothing better than working on verse ideas while pounding it out on the bike, because it\u2019s all that you\u2019re thinking about. Your mind is clear. You don\u2019t have a lot of distractions.\u00a0\u00bb
\nWhen it comes to the songwriting process, Cormier says Cancer Bats takes the communal line of attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no egos,\u201d Cormier insists. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no single person who kind of writes everything in the band. In the practice space, we throw around ideas, and even trade instruments. I had a second drum kit set up so I could write ideas even when we\u2019re making the skeleton parts. Mike\u2019s not worried that I\u2019m going to step on his toes, because I\u2019m not nearly as good a drummer as he is. Jaye can play guitar, and we\u2019re comfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Cormier said Cancer Bats\u2019 biggest concern is maintaining its integrity, and he feels that Dead Set On Living<\/em> more than fulfills that mandate. \u201cFor me, I always want to be as honest as possible and as specific as possible to my own life. It\u2019s that honesty in the song that people are able to relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hardcore rockers balance the negative with the positive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}