Preview
THE WAKING EYES
Thursday, December 9
MacEwan Hall (U of C)
It’s only been five months since Joey Penner joined the ranks of The Waking Eyes. Whisked away from studying for his degree in music to begin his professional career, young Penner is still stunned and amazed at his good fortune.
"It’s a dream job, really," says the bassist, a tad nervous at the prospect of giving his first official press interview while his multimedia-addicted cohorts watch DVDs of Arrested Development in the background. "You can’t complain. You can only hope that things go well enough that you are able to sustain it into the future. When I was a student in Brandon, Manitoba, the thought of being in a rock band was just that – a thought. Now that it’s solidified into something real I can’t believe my good fortune. It’s something I didn’t expect to happen. It sure beats mowing lawns for a living."
Since their formation in 2000, The Waking Eyes have led a red-eyed, heavy-lidded rampage across Eastern Canada. Stinting in Toronto and Winnipeg until their fingers bled, the hard-rocking threesome, named for a Pink Floyd lyric, garnered much praise for their debut album Combing the Clouds. Stretching their talents and reaching for the starry heights, guitarists-vocalists Rusty Matyas (Novillero, Duotang) and Matt Peters, along with drummer Steve Senkiw, decided to incorporate a crucial fourth element into their sound, thus Penner’s baser nature was added to their eclectic lineup.
Proud to be a part of the new formation of The Waking Eyes, Penner admits he was blown away by the volume of work his teammates had compiled prior to his arrival, thanks to their handy home-recording system.
"Rusty, Matt and Steve pretty much had over 150 songs written and recorded on their computer when we came together," says Penner. "I listened to a good percentage of them and got a feel for the direction they were heading in. Since then they’ve managed to whittle the list down to 11 tracks, which eventually made it onto the new album Video Sound."
From 150 to a mere 11?! How on earth do you cull so many songs and what criteria do you employ in undertaking such a mammoth task? According to Penner, this process of sonic distillation was directed by the band’s overriding philosophy of sticking to the basics.
"The idea was to select songs that best represented straight-ahead rock ’n’ roll. Songs that wouldn’t be a huge effort and require 50 people onstage to perform live. Our evolution from a three-piece to a four-piece allowed us to pull out the heavier beats and riffs of the ’60s and ’70s. I don’t want to brag and say they’ve gotten better since I’ve joined… but they have. Really," he says, chuckling amiably.
Polishing their much-reputed affection for the Fab Four, The Waking Eyes continue to pay tribute to The Beatles and rock giants The Who in their live appearances. While the subtleties of these historical references may be lost on younger generations, the feedback from parents shelling out the bucks at the merch table assures The Waking Eyes that their efforts have not fallen on deaf ears.
"We love hopping from town to town and putting on fun, high-energy shows for people who truly appreciate what we’re doing," says Penner. "My parents are both musicians who love bluegrass. I’m a fan of punk-rock music – my favourites include Green Day and Rancid – but my musical education led me to jazz. The rest of the band really digs The Beatles. We do a few covers during our shows – ‘I Am the Walrus,’ ‘Come Together,’ and a couple of tunes by The Who. I guess our ideal audience is a little older than your average all-ages crowd, maybe 18 to 30. But really, I think our garage-rock sound can appeal to any age. It’s been so long since those songs were popular and there have been so many genres since then that I consider it a breath of fresh air to play them again."
Breathing deep and bracing themselves for stardom, The Waking Eyes recently converged on an abandoned storage depot in Toronto to record their very first music video for the single "Beginning" from Video Sound.
"It was a very surreal experience," says Penner, adding that fans should visit their message board at www.thewakingeyes.com, and inundate MuchMusic with requests for their video.
"We spent the entire day playing the same song over and over and over again in front of a 20-man crew," he says. With all of the lip-synching and miming, it must have been like being at an Ashley Simpson show. Penner is quick to reassure their future fans. "We would never stoop to that level," he says. |
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.