7" Survey: The Lonely Parade

Every edition of this season’s Long Winter, we’re releasing a free split seven-inch, each side featuring a song from one of the night’s featured artists. To compliment the releases, we’ve issued a seven-part questionnaire to each of the artists involved, giving the subjects an inch (about 85 words) of space to answer each of our questions.

This month’s 7” features a track each from The Lonely Parade and Army Girls. Here, The Lonely Parade collectively explain how they were family friends before they started the band, and they reminisce about spending Peterborough winters bombing down old ski hills on toboggans. Read the full questionnaire below.

Long Winter: Who are you and how did The Lonely Parade come together?

Three fun-lovin, rock 'n' roll gals from Peterborough Ontario formed a band because our parents made us hang out together when we were little. We've known each other for 11 years and played music together for 3. Augusta Veno (guitar) learned guitar at Rock Camp 4 Girls Peterborough at age 12, and Anwyn (drums) and Charlotte (bass) started off in their elementary school's jazz band. The Lonely Parade was formed in 2012 because our younger brothers' band organized a show at the Spill Café and needed another band to play with.

LW: How about “She Can Wait” – what inspired that?

Initially “She Can Wait” was written about a certain person who we thought acted falsely mature and was over-informative on social media sites... but I think as we've evolved as people and musicians, the meaning has evolved for us as well. We came up with the riff after Charlotte went for a walk break while studying for exams and heard an ambulance siren, sort of the up and down wailing of it is what inspired the main riff.

LW: For lots of listeners, this will be their first point of access to your music. Where does this song fit into the rest of your catalog?

“She Can Wait” is probably one of the surfiest and simplest songs in our repertoire... It's a milestone in our songwriting for sure, as it's one of the first songs we wrote and have since held on to. It was also the first song we put on our Bandcamp. When we first started playing at the Red Garnet in Peterborough, that was the track that people would share around to say "Hey, this is The Lonely Parade!" – so it definitely evokes memories of the start of playing exciting shows.

LW: Once they’re turned on to this, what releases (songs, EPs, albums, or otherwise) should people pursue as logical next steps to getting to know your music?

“She Can Wait” is a track on our album Sheer Luxury. It's our first album and the songs on it are all the songs we'd written up until the point we recorded, about 2 years worth of musical evolution. It's a mix of our simpler and catchier earlier songs, most of which we don't play any more, but there are also a lot of monumental songs, like “Sad Li(f)e” and “Depressing Song,” which we still play often. Our upcoming EP SplendaThief is more intricate and evolved – vocally – than Sheer Luxury, and is more representative of our current sound and style.

LW: When you think of winter, what’s a memory that stands out for you?

We live a short drive away from a conservation area called Harold Town off old Norwood road just outside of Peterborough. It used to be a ski hill, so you can imagine riding a small piece of plastic down that thing is terrifying and exhilarating for a kid. We used to take hot chocolate, graham crackers, and shitty toboggans up to the steepest old hill of the bunch. Many valiant attempts were taken to stay on our flying saucers for the duration of the ride. No one’s made it all the way down yet.

LW: How do you survive winters in Toronto?

To survive long winters in Peterborough, we come to Toronto! When we’re stuck in our little city in the middle of winter, Kensington, Sonic Boom, Pho Hung, Black Market, Active Surplus, etc. are escape! Toronto’s always special for us, no matter what the season! None of us have drivers’ licenses, so we take the bus on rare occasion. When we’re stuck in Peterborough, Insulated rubber boots are fun, tobogganing, tea, seasonal cookies, long baths, procrastinating…

LW: What are you most looking forward to for the December 12 edition of Long Winter?

I think we’re all looking forward to seeing Army Girls play! Augusta’s been a fan of Diana/Carmen Elle for a while, so that’s exciting. Also glad to see Sean Conway from Peterborough on the bill! He’s great! Wish, Iris, Sean Nicholas Savage are other artists that we’ve been told to check out so we’re expecting them – and everything else to be awesome! Also it says there will be art. We like art. Art is cool. Looking forward to art!

Listen to The Lonely Parade at http://thelonelyparade.bandcamp.com

Interview by Tom Beedham
@Tom_Beedham