Superheroes Anonymous Volume. 3
This past weekend, Red Rocks was taken over by Rowdytown. TMN has the chance to sit down with the Canadian boys of Adventure Club and learn more about their musical pasts, their love for macaroni and cheese, and why you will always find them wearing bunnyhugs.
TMN: This evening I have the pleasure of sitting down with Christian and Leighton, the duo who we all know as Adventure Club. Guys thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us at Rowdytown.
AC: Bonjour Music Ninja, c’est bien?
TMN: First I have to say, welcome back to Red Rocks, how many times is this playing here for you now? What are a few things you love about playing at this incredible outdoor venue?
C: This is our second time here. The first time we played here was during the day and today the sunset and the light projection on the rocks is such an unbelievable experience.
L: You get to see everyone with their glow sticks up in the air
C: (Laughs) Even if they are throwing them at you!
L: With really big drops you would see all these glow sticks just go flying in the air is was incredible.
C: I can’t get over the projection on the rocks.
L: And we got to play with our favorite Big Gigantic…well and of course Carnage and the boys.
C: We hadn’t been playing for too long and we weren’t too experienced with a live set yet. So we figured the music we were playing was the music we knew and no one else knew. We came into Colorado and played more than one show and everyone knew our songs.
L: And they knew our songs, like our original songs which was a huge shocker. We were shocked and impressed. I give a lot of that credit to Nick from This Song is Sick for spreading our shit around Colorado he’s been a big help with that.
TMN: Let’s rewind just a little bit, when you two were growing up, were either of you musically trained or was there any music in your households?
C: This guy (points to Leighton) has a masters in classic piano.
TMN: Are you serious?
L: (Laughs) I have a masters degree in piano.
C: At the age of fifteen I was playing blues guitar at little bars in Quebec.
L: Christian pretty much has a masters degree in guitar
TMN: The master of the guitar maybe?
AC: (Laughs) Exactly, the master.
TMN: Who were your musical influences? Any Canadian ones?
C: It changed over the course of our lives. I had a lot of blues influence at the beginning of my life BB King, all that stuff. Then we progressed, I met Leighton, we started making music and went from the emo/pop/punk, then the hardcore scene, then went into the dubstep scene with the big heavy breakdowns and from there we went to electronics.
L: I would also like to make a shout out to Third Eye Blind, they were my gateway into anything rock related. Before that my dad got me into classical piano and bagpipes. I had no idea into the real world until my mom gave me their CD.
TMN: You and TEB kind of have a deep connection don’t you?
L: (Laughs) Man, I really love them.
TMN: Then in high school is where the two you started to make music. Can you tell us the “how you met” story?
L: You make this sound so romantic.
C: We were in grade eight or something? It was through a friend of a friend who said this guy was starting a band so I decided I would go try out.
L: I was terrified of Christian back then.
TMN: (Laughs) Really?
L: Oh yeah back then he had a shaved head and all these piercings on his face he showed up flexing with a tank top and jeans on.
C: (Laughs) At sixteen I weighed thirty pounds more than I do now, I was such a freaking gym rat.
L: We didn’t talk for the first month, we just hung out around one another and I would say just play this and he would play.
C: Oh we aren’t giving that out, you have to dig deeper for that, have to work for that.
TMN: Not even one song name?
L: You have to do work for all of those too.
TMN: Alright boys I will do some work.
AC: (Both laughing).
TMN: The dubstep thing kind of happened on accident correct? It was a side project that you messed around with when you were in the recording studio for your other music. Tell us when you decided to actually take on that type of music, when you decided to shift over to that sound?
L: We were big into the hardcore scene and our friends showed us this remix album they had and Tech 1 did a remix of “Sleep with One Eye Open” and it blended electronic and hardcore music together. We loved it so Christian started messing around with those kind of sounds.
C: And then we were like why aren’t we doing just this? Stop touring with our instruments and really try to do this electronic thing.
TMN: The big first break through song for you was your remix of Brand New’s “Daisy”. From there, you have remixed some incredible songs such as “Youth”, “Everything to Me”, and “Crave You” while also developing your own songs and sound. Tell us about the songs you remix and what they have to carry and have in them in order for you to remix them?
C: Right now it really is all about the vocals. We hear something we can kind of use vocally, that’s what makes us jump on a remix.
TMN: You also have a new EP “Calling All Heroes” coming out towards the end of October. The hero outfits and masks, the constant reference to heroes, can you tell us more about where the idea came for that?
C: We are really just the biggest nerds. We had the chance to do our first music video and all we wanted to be were superheroes.
TMN: Well what else would you want to be, either that or dinosaurs really.
AC: (Laughing) Yes, superheroes and dinosaurs.
C: We made these helmets for ourselves out of fiberglass, spent a month making them. Cut out these big monsters and went to town. A ridiculous concept but it grew from there.
TMN: Besides this much anticipated EP, what else is on the horizon for Adventure Club for the rest of the year and what can we look forward to in 2014?
C: Well the EP is coming out, we have a big production we are bringing with us starting early November.
L: We are bringing our musician roots back, try to have live guitars, drums…
TMN: Maybe a piano?
L: (Laughs) Maybe a piano. I want a piantist to be out there too.
TMN: Of course now we have to shift to some fun questions I am going to throw in a few Canadian facts to make things real interesting.
TMN: Favorite fan moment, either one you love to remember or wish you could forget.
L: Getting flashed by a very hairy chested woman.
TMN: Where did this take place?
L: Um, somewhere in Texas.
TMN: Well of course because everything is bigger and apparently hairier in Texas.
L: (Laughs) Exactly.
TMN: Canadians consume more macaroni and cheese than any other nation. What is your favorite Canadian food/dish to eat? (Leighton it’s totally acceptable to say bacon here)
C: I have, or kind of still have, I have a rule that if there is mac and cheese on the menu, I am ordering it. The best I have ever had is this place in Montreal where they bring it out in this steaming pot, so good.
C: Excuse me?
L: What the fuck is a bunnyhug?
TMN: It is a hoodie, what you are wearing now.
C: Oh God, we always wear hoodies.
L: That’s a hoodie? We are kind of shy, like to hide on our way to the stage and then after when our hair is all messed up we put them on again.
TMN: What posters hung on your walls when you were kids?
L: I had Slipnot, a poster of the sexy ass girl from “Resident Evil” and Glass Drop.
C: I never did posters, not a single poster in my entire life but for fun the first CD I bought, I was twelve, and it was a Nofx
TMN: Girl crush…
C: Well he has a love of his life, Miss Krewella.
TMN: So sweet man. Man crush?
L: Gerard Butler.
C: Oh me too.
TMN: Finally, if your music were an animal, what type of animal would it be and why?
L: The majestic lemur…like a big steroided one with feathers.
TMN: Leighton, Christian, thank you so much for spending some time with us. Best of luck tonight and the rest of the year!
AC: Thanks!
