What are your names?
Big Coco Butter
Stuccimayne Downie
J-Baby
Fudge
What is the band’s name?
The Crowleys
How did you come up with the band’s name?
Coco Chanel’s cous is into occult stuff and so Aleister Crowley came into the conversation one time. He had such an interesting and bizarre life that we couldn’t help but be fascinated with him. We were originally The White Crowleys due to another band already being called The Crowleys, but they have since stopped releasing music so we stole the name.
What is your genre of music?
Psychedelic Panzy Pop
Give us a little bio about you as individuals and as a band.
Steaming Hot Coco is the Raphael of the group. Stustubabe is the Donatello. Justyn Time is the Leonardo. Elmer Fud is the Michelangelo. But in reality, I don’t think it’s fair to describe us as individuals, only as a band. We are brothers and spend every single waking second just sending it.
Describe each other in 2 words.
Go Loco For Coco: concerned, scared
Stuing My Thang: lost, what?
J to the R-O-C: curly hair
Fudgeo: lovable idiot
The Crowleys: Send it
What made you go in to music?
All of our parents were involved in music and encouraged us to learn an instrument at a young age. We had always been the “music kids” at school and we just naturally drifted together. We started sharing our musical tastes within the group and realised we all had similar tastes and a love for the same bands. We really connected through dad-rock, and The Strokes, Radiohead, and Tame Impala. We started playing our respective instruments together and we could not stop, it was addicting.
Are you signed?
We are not signed, if you have any connections though… 😉 (YO FLIGHTLESS/FAT POSSUM WE LOVE YOU)
Your single ‘Midnight Blue’ is out, tell us more about it.
The song is about those sleepless nights and how your mind seems to wander endlessly. It is pretty upbeat and pop-oriented compared with our other work (maybe a look into The Crowleys future, who knows???). It features a vocoder pedal on the vocals, which turns up the weirdness to 11.
What was the naming process like?
This song, unlike most of our songs, was actually named after the lyrics of the song. More often than not our names are not related to the lyrics. The lyric “Midnight Blue” is referencing a deep blue sea or some type of void that you can’t seem to get out of at night.
What was the writing process like?
Studley the dragon came up with the original framework of the song, from there we explored it as a full band like we do with all our songs. Fudge the wise added a real fat offbeat bass line that really grooved it up. J-baby laid down some righteous, jangly-guitar licks and Cohen held it down with that succulent rhythm and vocals.
What was the recording process like?
We recorded at Threshold Studio in Hamilton with Michael Keire. The process was pretty straight forward, but a bunch of studio upgrades meant the finished product took a long while to come about. We were struggling to get the vocals to work in the mix when Mike suggested a vocoder pedal on the vocals. This finally had the effect we were looking for and it took the song to a different level.
You also released the video it, what was the inspiration behind it.
We came up with the idea for the video while in the studio after adding the vocoder to the song. We gave a general idea of what we wanted to our good buddy and absolute beauty Evan Bond, and just let him run with it. We couldn’t have been more stoked with what he came up with.
Will we see a EP or Album early next year?
You will. An EP is coming up soon.
Do you play any instruments?
We dabble.
Who are your influences?
King Gizzard & The lizard wizard
Badbadnotgood
MGMT
Tame Impala
Pond
Our parents
Bob Ross
How do you get inspiration to write songs?
A ton of different ways, there definitely isn’t just one way we all get inspired. It’s important to take inspiration from every aspect of your life, and to be true to what you feel. When writing, someone in the band usually comes up with a chord progression and brings it to show the band. We then work from there to turn it into a song. The lyrics are typically added last, as they are the hardest part of songwriting for us.
Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Playing music with the band. In what context we have no idea, but we play because we love it and not for any end goal.
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
Sending it through some dungeons in DnD. Hanging out with friends and watching other bands in Hamilton.
What was the song you listened to most that influenced you to go more into the music scene?
Toxic – Britney Spears
Probably a Beatles song like She’s So Heavy or A Day in the Life or something because they pushed production and songwriting so far. They were doing crazy stuff in the studio way back in the day so it pushes you to want to get creative. It also shows you don’t have to have tons of crazy modern equipment to create break through work.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
Only release your best work.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
Make sure you are constantly writing/creating, eventually good stuff will come about. Also try to limit the tools you have to create – if you have a hundred synths on hand, tons of plugins on the computer etc., you can get lost in it all so try to keep it simple and work with that you are best at.
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
JUST SEND IT! – Larry Enticer
Where in your hometown is a must go to visit?
Lulu’s or Bonanza, because their food is off the chain and cheap. James Street is an awesome stretch, and the art-crawl on the second Friday of every month really shows you how many talented artists are in the city.
You’re straight off tour;
1/ where do you go?
Bed
2/ who do you see?
Our SO’s in bed
3/what do you eat?
Food in bed
Where is the go to place to go in Canada?
Montreal is a great city in Canada as the music and bar scene is great there. Toronto always has something going on no matter what time it is, and you could eat at a different restaurant every day for a year and never be disappointed. Lastly, we have to shout out our hometown, Hamilton. It may be smaller than the other two, and a little rough around the edges, but that gives it its charm. The food here is amazing, and there is a great little music/art scene.
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
Guitars
Stuart
Self respect
A hair brush
A good smile
If you had to give your younger self advice, what would it be?
Keep writing music and playing together. School is for suckers. Don’t eat the egg salad sandwich from that sketchy gas station.
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
