What are your names?
Eric & Brianna but as Freedom Baby, we are one.

Tell us the story behind the name ‘ Freedom Baby’.
Man, oh man. Names suck. We spent literally two months trying to come up with a band name. We went through books, magazine and newspapers. We brainstormed about common themes that pop up in the music – and tried to find something that worked. Nothing did. One of my friends, who is this very seamlessly cool guy – like, doesn’t have to try, people-gravitate-towards-him-kind-of-cool – came up with the name. Thanks, Tyler. You’re cool.

What is your genre of music?
I guess you’d call it Indie Rock, whatever that means. We’re independent, it’s rocky. Maybe orchestral rock. Most of our songs have strings and horns on them at some point.

Give us a little bio about you as a duo and individuals.
We both met at a concert a few years back and kept in touch and became friends. And then we started dating. And after a few months of dating and a particularly slow month of Netflix, we decided we’d cobble together some songs.

Are you a signed?
No, labels are for chumps, man.

You have released ‘ When We Go’ from the upcoming EP, tell us more about it. 
Oh shit, okay. So that first part was about the single. Uh. So the single is about death. It feels like kind of a default theme for us…death I mean. Got a lot of anxiety, so naturally the brain goes to some dark stuff. I feel like I always think the worst. The album is kind of about death and faith and not knowing what your place in the world is.

Take a Listen here;

What was the writing process like?
For When We Go: it was fun. We got a trumpet player. We played some ukulele. There’s a guitar solo. There aren’t enough guitar solos in the good ol’ indie rock genre. It’s a super simple ditty. But being the first song on the record, it feels like the proper way to say hello.
We recorded everything in a bedroom in an apartment, which makes it really easy to be creative and make things happen at any time. We were able to experiment with different ideas, and brought some talented musicians to play on the tracks to bring them to life.

You’re set to release to release an EP ‘How You’ll Grow’, tell us more about it.
About the EP? It’s pretty sweet. It’s four songs. It feels like it’s taken us forever to put it out. We’re slow with things. We wanted it all to make sense thematically, and we wanted it to flow together. Ideally we’d like to just release the EP and have people listen to it as a whole, because that’s how we wrote it. It’s a shame that we live in a world of singles, and playlists, but it is what it is.

Describe it in two words.
Really rockin.

What was the writing and recording process like for this?
A lot of fun. We worked with a bunch of cool instruments that we hadn’t necessarily worked with before. It was fun orchestrating and writing counter melodies and such. Have you ever heard a baritone sax in a bedroom? It sounds fuckin wild. We have a song called The Stranger that was pretty much written for the baritone sax shots. Wait for it.

When will it drop and where can we pre-order?
The EP comes out March 16th! You can pre-order it on bandcamp right now, and we’re giving you a sweet little extra song you can download right away that is exclusive to Bandcamp purchases . It will also be on Apple Music and Spotify and every other streaming service that exists. But if you’re the type of person that likes the idea of supporting a band, then Bandcamp is definitely the best way to do that. And if you do do that, we thank you very much. But if you don’t wanna, that’s fine. My general rule is, I’ll listen to an album on Apple Music and if I really love I’ll go out and buy the record. But you do what you want.

Will you be touring or have any shows this year?
We’ll be playing our release show for the EP at The Drake in Toronto on March 16th, and plan to tour more this summer.

What made you go in to music?
It’s kind of that one thing that we know how to do. If I have spare time, I’m working on music, or listening to music, or writing lyrics. This ain’t a hobby.

Do you play any instruments?
Yeah between the two of us we play pretty much everything that you need in traditional rock music.

Who are your influences?
Everything influences everybody.

How do you get inspiration to write songs?
It’s always different. If I hear a song that excites me that can sometimes get the inspiration going. The weather too. Super dreary days make me want to write. Feeling the sun on my face when i wake up in the morning makes me want to write. First snowfalls make me want to go tobogganing.

Where do you see yourself now in 5 Years?
Japan & jogging.

When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
Seeing new movies, searching for the best spaghetti & meatballs in town, bouncing around at trampoline parks.

Where would your dream venue to play in your hometown?
I would love to play at Massey Hall. It’s always been my favorite venue in Toronto.

If you could collaborate with one UK Artists or Band who would it be?
I’d like to collaborate with Morrissey so I could smack him in the head with a hunk of Tofurkey.

If you could collaborate with one US Artists or Band who would it be?
Anyone but James Murphy.

What was the song you listened to most that influenced you to go more in to the music scene?
I don’t think it was one song. And I don’t think there was ever a conscious thought of wanting to go into a music scene. It was more a by-product of wanting to be a songwriter.

What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
Do what you wanna do, not what people tell you to do. Cause at the end of the day, they’re living their life with their decisions and you’re living your life, and you don’t want to be living the life of someone’s shitty idea of what you should have done.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
I wish someone would give us some advice. Make music for you, not for money. Not for plays, clicks or likes. Just do what you love. If it’s true, people will gravitate towards it. Listen to Deaf School and learn to play the oboe.

Where is the go to place to go in Canada?
Au Diable Vert in Montreal. You can sleep in a treehouse with a woodstove and go hiking. Bon Iver’s probably there right now with Emma… waiting to cook you dinner.

Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
We’re on Facebook , and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter    and Bandcamp. And Spotify. And Apple Music and Soundcloud.