DETAILS

SSRIs with This City Defects & I Kill You
Broken City
Thursday, November 4 - Thursday, November 4

More in: Rock / Pop

Love it or lump it, it’s safe to say spazzy Vancouver quartet SSRIs has carved out a signature sound. Pitched somewhere between the nerve-racked pop of The Dismemberment Plan and the Castlevania angst of Blood Brothers, with bleepy synths, breakdowns and singsong-y Unicorns-style vocals tossed into the cauldron, the band has earned a rep through its breakneck-paced live shows and this year’s debut long-player, the wickedly titled Effeminate Godzilla-Sized Windchimes.

This sound would be far less distinct without the contributions of bouncing bassist Aaron McKinney and the especially monstrous skills of drummer Tony Dallas, yet Joe Hirabayashi and Elliot Langford (co-founders, vocalists, multi-instrumentalists and roommates) have been the group’s only consistent members since SSRIs’ inception in 2006. In fact, the four-man formation is only the latest in a string of incarnations, none of which have come by choice.

“It’s been super pragmatic working through all these different lineups,” says Hirabayashi. “All of the incarnations have simply been what we’ve had at each time, and the stages we’ve pushed through to get to play live. The most extreme form was when we played as a duo, because Elliot and I performed an entirely new set of material that we’d written the day of the show just because we didn’t want to turn down a bunch of gigs.”

“Each of the three drummers we’ve had have made a huge impact, just based on what they can or can’t do and their instincts,” adds Langford. “It’s not a limitation by any means, but it has definitely shaped the band’s sound. John, our first drummer, was more technical and jazz-schooled, but he didn’t hit as hard as Tony, our drummer now. Tony is messier, but he rushes everything and can’t play quiet, so we don’t play quiet anymore. He’s a speed monster, and we couldn’t have done a lot of our songs with anyone else because they wouldn’t have the stamina.”

Between these two drummers, however, Hirabayashi and Langford had invited longtime friend Tommy Milburn to man the traps. Tragically, an accident took Milburn’s life shortly before the band was set to release its 2008 EP, Teems, throwing SSRIs’ entire future into question.

“He and a friend were drinking beers and decided to climb on a roof,” says Langford, with clear sadness. “He ended up falling through a skylight that was painted black, got a really bad head injury and passed away. He was a really good friend of ours for way longer than we played music with him, so at that point we weren’t sure if we would even keep the band going.”

Two years and two cross-Canada tours later, it’s heartening to see the Vancouverites persevering with what they love. Windchimes is devoted to Milburn, and both Hirabayashi and Langford now sport tattoos as a tribute to him. Smaller scale bad luck struck again in 2009 when a vehicular breakdown left SSRIs stranded in Thunder Bay, Ont. for a week, so the band has now begun rethinking tour strategies.

“We’re just not going to travel across northern Ontario for a while,” laughs Hirabayashi. “We did it last summer successfully, so now realize it’s possible, but it’s not really feasible. Our van just got another big repair bill, so it looks like we’ll probably have to sell it and use rentals from now on.”

“I think we’ve done pretty well compared to some horror stories, as we actually ended up coming out $20 ahead on our last tour from selling merch,” he says. “Usually, you lose money on your first tour, break even on your second and start making a profit on your third, but there’s never really any money playing in a noisier band. It’s basically not-for-profit volunteer work.”