New interview with Original Pairs

April 01, 2024

Q. What’s been inspiring you lately?

A. Well I have to say that we are consistently inspired by the real people who remain committed to making, playing and sharing authentic music – not factory, comped together crap, but the real deal, done with heart. In Toronto we are so lucky that you can still turn on CIUT FM89.5, the community radio and hear live DJ’s who are curating the most incredible variety of music. Shows like High Noon, Ruby Slippers, Dementia 13 and Dreaming in Stereo bring rare, wonderful sounds ranging from lost deep retro psych to up and coming indie acts that blow your mind. The great thing is these DJ’s plug into and promote the live music scene in the city. And there again, we are so lucky in Toronto. If I need inspiration, I get my ass off the couch and walk out the door. Just the other night I stumbled into the venerable Groassman’s Tavern on Spadina Avenue and I caught two sets by the Action Sound Band with Eric Shankman on guitar and Glen Milchem on drums – the most lethal blues and rock n roll I have heard in eons. Thes musicians are masters of their instruments, and they are milking the best, most expressive tone imaginable. Pure feeling, pure energy! When I hear players like that I go right home and start playing my guitar, trying to re-imagine what they were doing. I generally fail at this, but I often end up writing a new song from it all. There is something about the way music hits you in a live setting. It gets in your head, sticks to your viscera and become part of you!

Q. Do you have any new singles, videos, or albums out that you would like totell me and your fans about?

We sure do! Right now we have a new Album ready to drop, Original Pairs, Long Play or OPLP for short. We are super proud of this record – it’s a punchy crunchy rock’n’roll record with a nice, live garage vibe and layers of psych, pop and even a dash of blues. It’s all original and I think it’ll knock your socks off! We recorded in a very organic way, live off the floor with John Dinsmore at Lincoln County Social Club and the production is fantastic. We feel like we captured the band’s live energy while getting great fidelity on the vocals and instrumentation. The guitars are so crunchy, you are gonna want to eat them up! ( but don’t please as we have shows coming up)

Our advance single, “Not Grow Old” is just out now and it’s getting a very positive reception. It’s a real barn burning slab of rockabilly garage with a cruel tongue in cheek lyric about the dangers of aging out on your lover.

For “Not Grow Old”, we had a really cool video made by video artist Jubal Brown. He took live footage from one of our gigs and collaged it together with a delirious assortment of found footage. The result is this really menacing, and frenetic atmosphere that supports the track wonderfully. Its sexy, funny and truly terrifying!  He is a great artist and its actually the fourth video we have done with him. Check them all out – its like going a driven-in horror triple feature!

Q. Do you have anything else that you would like to talk about or promote?

Yes Indeed – live shows! We are playing at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern on April, 2nd as part of a triple bill and then we have our LP release event at the Piston in Toronto on May 9th. The Riches (a fantastic Toronto art rock band) are going to be supporting us that night so its going to be a full evening through to early morning of great, heavy (but smart) musicQ. How can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want peopleto check out?

If you want to know what we are up to, follow us on social media:

 You can also stream our new single, new album (when it comes out May 9) and our earlier releases:

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