Art Of Dying In The News
February 03 2009, 08:14 PM
Filed in: Music News
Link to the original story here.
By Kristin Froneman - Vernon Morning Star
Published: February 03, 2009 7:00 PM
It’s usually so quiet up in the hills that surround Vernon, you can hear an icicle drop. But on this particular wintry day, all that suburban calm melts away as soon as you enter the door.
The sound of guitars being strummed to their maximum power chord strength and drums pounding reverberate.
It’s an unassuming place to find a bunch of rockers, but for band Art of Dying, Vernon has become a second home.
Down in the “dungeon,” the basement where singer Jonny Hetherington, bassist Cale Gontier, drummer Jeff Brown and guitarists Greg Bradley and Tavis Stanley have been working out songs amongst the storage boxes, Art of Dying has been enjoying life to its fullest.
Looking out at the snow-covered hills of the Aberdeen plateau from a hot tub on the deck, Art of Dying is in town this week to write music, play a couple of shows and unwind from seemingly endless strobe-lit clubs and hotel suites.
“We like to come here a couple times a year. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’ve known this area since I was a kid,” said Bradley, who is originally from Calgary and now lives in Vancouver along with bandmates Hetherington and Brown.
“When we get home from a tour, we’re lost for a while. It’s a drastic change,” said Brown, who originally hails from Guelph, Ont. “This keeps us grounded, getting away from it all.”
The band gives a shout out to their host, Shane Melenko, who has not only given them a place to stay and rehearse at his family home, but has arranged two gigs for them –– an acoustic show at The Saloon at Silver Star Mountain and a plugged-in set at newly-renovated Boomers Nite Club, where Melenko works.
“We played Boomers a few years ago, and have a few friends who live here, so we thought this would be a good place to hole up for a while,” said Lacombe, Alta. native Hetherington.
“Most of us are from small towns, and we love touring small towns where the people are starved for live shows.”
The band has another local connection through its song Get Through This, which was picked up as the theme for reality TV show Making the Cut, which saw both its shows, about young hockey players trying to make it to the NHL, filmed at Vernon’s Wesbild Centre.
“I network a lot and send my songs out to different people. Someone heard Get Through This and wanted the song for the show,” said Hetherington, who wrote the song when he found out his dad had cancer.
“He got through it. The lyrics are meant to be inspirational... I’ve heard some of the greatest stories from that song, from kids who say that song saved their life.
“Music is a force, it’s almost a sense. It’s said that if you listen to music, you will be 25 per cent less depressed.”
Fresh off touring the U.S. with Chicago band Disturbed, Art of Dying has been, well, dying to write new material for its next CD. It’s been two years since their last recording was released in Canada on the band’s own label Thorny Bleeder records. (A 2006 release in the U.K. coordinated with a tour of Britain with South African rockers Seether.)
With two members living in Toronto, and the other three in Vancouver, getting together to woodshed new songs can be a challenge. The last time band members were together was when they finished the tour in St. Louis a week before Christmas.
“We started writing when we were on a four-day break in Chicago on our tour with Disturbed,” said Hetherington. “We got a hotel and Chicago producer Johnny K (who has worked with Disturbed as well as bands 3 Doors Down and Finger Eleven) let us use his studio as a rehearsal space. We wrote two songs in two days.”
Before that, the band recorded the song, Die Trying, with Seether’s Shaun Morgan at a studio in Vancouver. (The bands have kept in touch since touring together.)
The song has since been leaked through the Internet, and has caused a bit of a sensation.
“It’s great to have people talking about your music whether you want them to or not,” said Hetherington, adding the band isn’t sure if it will include the song on the upcoming CD.
“It may be one of those rare gems we keep in the vaults,” said Bradley.
Art of Dying is still waiting to hear from their manager when and where they will record the new album.
“If we record it tomorrow, we would have three records,” said Hetherington.
“We will have a greatest hits by the time we’re done,” laughed Bradley.
After their Vernon stay, Art of Dying hopes to reconvene in Toronto in mid-March for the Canadian Radio Music Awards, where they have been nominated for Best New Group, and Canadian Music Week.
In the meantime, locals can catch their acoustic live act at Silver Star’s The Saloon Thursday, starting at 8 p.m. The band will also perform at Boomers downtown Friday with opening act Channel Eight of Vernon. The free show starts at 10 p.m.
