Preview
THE CARNATIONS
Wednesday, November 19
The Castle
What's in a name? For The Carnations, not much.
It's a gutsy move, naming your all-male rock band after one of the most vilified flowers on the market – a cheap, bland botanical. In an industry where band names are used as phallic armour, The Carnations are coming up roses.
As a Canadian band, The Carnations have found an unusual way to make money. "I lost the tour float playing blackjack in Regina," says lead singer Thom D'Arcy. "It was a thousand bucks but I replaced it." Was he at least on a roll? "Nope. I was losing the whole way. After that, we all had to agree to play together when we're going to waste our money at the casino. We lost."
Aside from perfecting their gambling skills, the band actively blogs and uses their website as a way to keep in touch with their fans and promote upcoming shows while they are on the road. Steve Krecklo, the band's guitarist, is responsible for keeping the site updated and regularly uses the medium as a way to journal progress on tour. When the band was playing on the East Coast, the audience was mostly made up of people who had visited the website and followed their tour online.
Offering up energetic pop The Carnations are all veterans of Canadian music and have spent most of their adult lives playing and touring with established bands such as All Systems Go and Tricky Woo.
They've immersed themselves in the Toronto music scene, borrowing and stealing musicians from other bands. This revolving door swings both ways and D'Arcy admits that he recently quit All Systems Go to concentrate on playing with The Carnations.
The band is not immune to losing members – it has gone through 10 drummers, which has become a sad joke for The Carnations, who are notorious for keeping drummers only two or three months.
"Being a drummer is hard," says D'Arcy laughing. "You sit at the back and are the first to leave the stage. Nobody recognizes you. You end up in the crowd after playing and get a beer. People will come up to you and say, 'Weren't The Carnations great?' A good drummer is usually playing in five different bands. You borrow them and lose them. Our new drummer (Patrick Conan) made it past the one year mark, but he was kicked out of his last band (Tricky Woo)."
Although The Carnations aren't being promoted as a Canadian band, D'Arcy likes being an independent band in Canada. They're loyal to Ductape, their small record company, and have no ambitions to break into the American market.
"In Canada, you're supported by the government, which pays you to make records. I have no desire to go down to the States and tour. It's pretty strange down there. Maybe if we had a record company pushing us and publicists, but still, I don't know. I don't think about it much. I like playing in Canada." |
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