Sights And Sounds

Canadian four-piece Sights and Sounds have been making some serious waves recently, receiving heaps of acclaim for debut album ‘Monolith’ since its release, and setting out on their first European tour this past October. We caught up with guitarist Adrian Mottram before the band’s recent Brighton show to see how it’s all going. 

How’s the European tour been so far? You’ve toured quite extensively around Canada over the last couple of years, so has it been refreshing to cover some new areas this time around? 

Adrian Mottram (guitar): Yeah, absolutely. The band has always talked about doing things globally, at a large level; we’ve all come from different backgrounds and we’ve all been in bands and toured, so this is something that we love to do, we would love to tour the world, and all of us in the band are inspired by music from around the world. We’ve always talked about going to all these places, about going to Africa, India, as well as touring all these different places, and kind of setting up a studio or finding a cool place to record our ideas that we get in those areas. The whole notion behind the band is to write the biggest music we can, touring those places, experiencing those pieces of life and culture, and sitting back with it... This tour has been great because we’re finally rolling at the same speed that we’d like to be. Before we’ve been, not necessarily stuck, but we’ve had other obligations and trying to fit this in between all of that, it took us two and a half, three years to record our first record, but we did need that time. I think that it’s turned out just smashing (laughs), we’re very very happy. So being over here, I made sure to take out a week before the tour to hang out in Portugal. Any opportunity to dive in to a different country, to hear what they have to say musically, with the landscapes, the sound of their voices... I want to spend the time and hear it; I just want to hear everything you know? So I was lucky because I feel like I’ve started the groundwork on some more music. We have met the most incredible people, and the most friendly, rad bands, we’re having an awesome time. 

Touring alongside you around Europe have been Portugese four-piece Men Eater, with Rinoa joining you for the UK dates. Have you had the chance to check them out so far, and any thoughts? 

Adrian: Well, I saw a few of their (Rinoa’s) songs last night, very cool... I’m really into Dark and, heavy stuff... and they fit the bill. Yesterday was kind of our first show with them, I was busy running around, so I only caught a few songs; but I like what they’re doing, and looking forward to spending the next five or six days with them. 

You recorded debut album ‘Monolith’ around a year ago in British Columbia... how did you find the studio experience overall? 

Adrian: Yeah, on September 1st we started pre-production... and it was absolutely phenomenal. I’ve always wanted to do records out on the west coast; I’ve done several records in Los Angeles, and those were really good experiences. It’s always crazy, there’s an awesome energy that hits that west coast... and I’ve always wanted to find that in Canada, though I know it’s existed. I’ve done most of my recording on the east coast, in Toronto, and it has a certain atmosphere that isn't always conducive to the process. I've wanted to move out to the west coast for a while, I’ve always felt like there’s been something pulling me there, and sure enough we found a producer who was out there. We went out there and checked it out and hung out with him, watched him record some songs for Misery Signals; I was like ‘holy shit,’ this is the guy. It didn’t take much; he was really into the songs and the band, so we just went from there. We went out there and recorded all of the material that’s on the record, and it was an incredible experience. We had pre-production in the forest, and a lot of the drums, bass and guitars were recorded in this huge studio in Vancouver. That was a phenomenal experience too... I think the last band that was in there were AC/DC, and it still smelled like smoke (laughs.) It was a pretty cool thing. And then we went back to our producer’s home studio, where we lived and recorded the rest of our record. That was on ten acres of land; you’d have to go through this gate to get to the house, and behind that there were these really dark trees. It was great, kind of spooky and old, secluded, and we were just left to be in the music. We have always talked about doing a record on the west coast, like, ‘wouldn’t it be great to do it in a studio, in the mountains... in the forest, or near the ocean?’ And sure enough if you talk about it enough it just appears, so it was perfect. 

So, on ‘Monolith’ you worked with Devin Townsend, (renowned for his work with Strapping Young Lad, along with countless others) did you find him to be quite a ‘hands on’ producer? 

Adrian: Absolutely... He’s an interesting guy, and I was lucky enough to spend about seven months with him during and after our record. I was interested to see what kind of approach he took on his own music, I’ve worked with a lot of producers and everybody’s got a different style. Some guys I don’t get along with, But Devin was different he just sat and listened, and listened, and listened... and he added. He didn’t try to cut things up, or subtract anything, or be like, ‘I’m going to throw this chorus in here.’ He was like ‘Ok that’s great, I see the band here but I’m going to add this atmosphere behind and around.’ I had a feeling that he was going to be like that after watching him produce previously, it was just tasteful. Working with him was really inspiring too because I was able to get so many answers about things that I was really looking for internally; as a writer / producer and someone who’s involved in all that as well. To see someone a little bit older say ‘ah , this is the thing that I did to help me find that,’ He invited me to help record his solo record after that, ‘KI,’ it was a pleasure. It was a record that I’ve always wanted to do as well, it’s a heavy rock record but done live off the floor, with so much vibe. There was an old dude playing drums who was super inspiring to watch and concept was very basic but there are so many subtle intense moments, so it turned out so huge. Big rock & roll songs. Yah....it's been an awesome year for me. (laughs.) 

Ah cool. It’s been a few years now since you first came together as Sights and Sounds, so was much of the material on the full-length completed before recording...carried over from touring, demos etc, or did you construct much of the music in the studio environment? 

Adrian: We’ve always been a band that, once we see an opening, like a couple of weeks where we can do some writing and recording, and play some shows, we’ll also get a couple of songs done. So we’ve built the record over three years, and we’ve had a lot of time to refine it. But I’d say that over the last six months prior to the recording we’ve put it all together, it was all completed before we got to the studio... except for ‘Sorrows II’ which was an amalgamation of things that we were jamming. 

When it comes to songwriting, do you tend to totally collaborate on songs, combining and fine tuning ideas, or do you seem to write songs individually and kind of flesh them out together? 

Adrian: One really cool thing about Sights and Sounds is that we all write the songs. One of us will come with a full song, or someone will come up with a riff, or a melody, and then we’ll all piece it together... sometimes we'll have a tonne of riffs, and we’ll spend time to arrange it. Every song on the record was written completely different, and there are four writers in the band, so I think that’s why there’s a lot of diversity with the album, it all seems to fit. 

So there’s no kind of formulaic process involved... 

Adrian: Not at all. It’s the most inspiring band that I’ve ever been in; it’s not just one person, it’s not just one idea or one perspective on an idea, it’s several. So it’s always changing and morphing, and it’s an amazing experience. I love writing with these guys. 

Sights and Sounds is in many ways a great stylistic departure from the bands that you have belonged to in the past and currently belong to, Comeback Kid, Sick City and so on. Where would you say that you’ve derived inspiration for the expansive, emotive sounds and themes of Sights and Sounds? 

Adrian: I don’t want to sound like an asshole or anything, but I listened to a lot of classical music, watched a lot of concerts, and symphonies growing up. I’ve always enjoyed that side, and that’s what’s inspired me. Those chords, melodies and harmonies, the depth that is created from the flutes to the contra bass, is always something that I’ve wanted to hear, but express with heavy guitars. I think that the idea of that size, the dynamics... combining that with the strength of Andrew’s voice, and the weight of Joel’s drums...I've been able to achieve it. We listen to every style of music, and it’s just the way that it comes out. There’s a lot of punk rock, we’ve all grown up to a lot of that, mix all that with the four of us and it comes out as what you’ve just heard. Every record’s going to sound a lot different. Sometimes I’ll read interviews where someone says that they only listen to Mozart or Miles Davis and it can come across pretentious, but it’s true; I grew up with classical and jazz. That ambiance is what has really inspired me, there’s a texture of life that’s been captured there, and I long for that. 

With a number of the bands that you collectively comprise very much ongoing projects, have you any ideas as regards the long-term future of Sights and Sounds? Could it be a matter of finding time between other commitments, or...? 

Adrian: Well, it all started off as like, Jamming in a room, and then ‘this is kind of a band, when can we do this again,’ to, ‘wow this is a band, this is a band that tours, this a band that tours and makes records.’ So we’re just going to continue to do this. I don’t really see things as black and white as, one band then the other or one commitment then another... It’s just filling in the time until you die (laughs.) Every time that I go back from doing this Sights and Sounds ‘thing,’ whether it’s weeks or a month long, I’ve always got something that’s completely different to be doing, whether it’s writing songs for somebody else or producing a record, helping somebody else put a record out, making pizza or selling soap. We all have the things that we love to do, and it seems to work really naturally, which is really nice. 

Finally, is there anything that you’d like to say to readers who are into the band, or are coming/ have come down to a live show? 

Adrian: Thank you for wanting to listen and check us out, hopefully it’s everything you’ve expected from seeing us, or from wanting to come to the show. We really appreciate all of the support that we’ve had in the UK and Europe, it’s been really cool, awesome people and an awesome time. We’re really glad that we’ve been able to march over this soil, and get a move on. Oh yeah...First Act Guitars and T-rex pedals are very inspiring to me.