There have been a bunch of incredible bands to come out of Canada in the past year and a half, and one of the most exciting recently is Castlefield. Straight out of High School and right on the road, the guys have been touring their home country non-stop and just recently embarked on their first run of the U.S. If you’re looking for a band to get you excited about alternative music again, then Castlefield are your guys.
I was able to catch up with Matt (Base), Ryan (vocals/guitar), Connor (guitar), and John (drums), at their show at The Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ on Friday. We talked about their new EP Tunnel Vision, favorite tour memories, and how many The Office references it’s appropriate to make in Scranton.
So since you guys are from Canada, how have the states been treating you?
Matt: Awesome!
Ryan: So far so good. Taco Bell is cheap so that’s the best part. Show’s have been cool, it’s been awesome.
Has there been a good turnout at the shows so far?
*Collectively* Brooklyn was good last night!
Ryan: The first two shows were Rochester and Scranton; Rochester was great. As we were pulling into Scranton we were like ‘I’m pretty sure this is only a date on the tour because everyone knows it from The Office. It was cool to go because of The Office but we got there and were like ‘so this is Scranton’. But yea, Brooklyn was the first major city of the tour last night and it was the best one, it was a good one. Very surprising that kids came out to see us in a place we’ve never really been before.
Did you make a lot of The Office jokes on stage?
Matt: Overgrow did.
Ryan: I feel like I forgot.
Matt: Yea I think he shouted out Michael Scott and made a lot of jokes on Twitter before.
John: I think every band that comes through there might do something like that, so everyone’s heard every variation.
You’ve just recently signed to Penultimate Records. How do you feel that has gotten you more of a following/ grown your career?
Ryan: It’s been awesome. We had never heard of the label or anything before and we just got a random Facebook message one day from the guy who runs it. We’re still a relatively small band for sure and we’ve just done small tours in Canada, this is our first time in the states and we weren’t really expecting a whole lot from this EP so as soon as someone messaged us and was like ‘we’re gonna help you put this out and put it on vinyl and stuff’, we were like ‘yea, we’re gonna do this for sure’. And it’s definitely helped build a following because the label is based in Australia so it’s cool because they definitely have a reach in Australia and we get people on Twitter who are like ‘this band’s fucking awesome’ and they’re from Australia, which is surreal. That’s the future, ya know? Australia’s not even living in real time, it’s already tomorrow there. There are probably people who heard the EP before we even did. But it’s been awesome, awesome label, stoked to be a part of it.
Because you have a remote label that pushes you heavily on social media, I’ve seen a lot of local bands from the areas you’re playing on this tour show support. How do you feel about that recognition and do you feel that social media has helped you significantly as a band?
Matt: It feels cool because we’re so far from home but over the internet people are stoked on our music.
Ryan: It’s something we never really expected because a lot of bands, it takes them a while. They’ll put out 3-4 EP’s before coming out to the states or whatever and for us, we’re achieving goals we’ve had forever early on as a band. Even last night, we played New York and a few people came out just to see our band and even that means the world to us because we’re not even used to that happening four hours away from home in Canada so having it happen in a different country feels like it’s the start of something really cool.
Connor: It’s been a sense of achievement every step of the way, whether it’s having the records made or having the songs performed. Pretty much every step of the way, it’s felt huge.
Your debut EP, Tunnel Vision was released about a month ago; what was the writing process like? Was it hard to choose the four songs you put on it or did you feel like you wanted a common theme for the EP?
Ryan: In a way I think we did. We recorded those songs back in January of this year so they’re pretty old to us now. Matt just graduated high school this past year and I’m only a year older than him, so we were young when we were writing that. It was written between a time where I was struggling to graduate High School, that’s what Joyless is about, and dealing with a lot of relationship stuff that happens in early High School. I don’t think that we really sat down and said that this was the theme we wanted to have of the EP, it was more of a thing where we looked back and when we had all the songs written for the EP it was just written about that period in my life. That’s the coolest part about it. We didn’t go in expecting to have a theme or write a concept album, it just came out and now it’s a representation of that part of our lives.
Are you guys also going to school on top of the band or just doing the band thing full time?
*collectively* Band full time.
Ryan: It might be cool and reassuring for my mind to go to school but at the end of the day this is all our passions so we’re gonna do this for the next couple of years.
What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve gotten in regards to the band?
Ryan: The best advice that we’ve gotten from tons of bands is just to screw the backup plan. Just go out there and do it and play the shows and play to no one and do the grinding and it’ll pay off.
Matt: You’re only young once.
Ryan: If it doesn’t pay off and this ends up not working out or we just decide it’s not fun anymore, which I don’t think is gonna happen. In 30 years we can all sit down and tell our kids about this crazy thing we did when we were 18/19 and that’s the best advice. Go out and make the memories with your best friends. Sounds super pop-punk but I’m shameless.
You guys have already achieved so much as such a young band, so what do you hope to achieve come 2019?
John: I think as soon as we get back from this tour we wanna start brainstorming. This will be our first time writing as the lineup we have. I just joined lately and that’s something that I wanna tackle when we get back, writing our first songs out of adulthood I guess. Maybe seeing if we can create a longer piece of music within the next year.
Ryan: For sure! We’re down here grinding right now, and I’m down to grind forever but I think our goals are to get on some bigger support tours and put out more music. John didn’t even play on Tunnel Vision, because we had a small lineup change. So we’ve never even written music with John and we know he’s got a lot of good ideas in his head so it’ll be cool to come up with some songs that represent Castlefield as we are right now.
Who would be your dream to support?
Matt: The Story So Far!
Ryan: I know that Connor and John would say Dance Gavin Dance. It wouldn’t make any sense but it would be cool.
Connor: Tiny Moving Parts too.
Matt: I think The Story So Far is biggest in my mind.
John: I would love to tour with Touche Amore. That would be tight.
How has your DIY scene in Canada helped you get to where you are today?
Ryan: I love America, it’s been really fun down here, but I will never talk shit on Canada. It’s the best place in the world, especially when you’re starting a band. I don’t think that we’d be doing a U.S. tour right now if we hadn’t started doing the Canada tours. We’re from Ottowa, which is kind of at the end of Ontario. We’re like 4-5 hours out of Toronto which is where the happening music scene really is. All around Toronto there’s tons of college and university cities, so we leave Ottowa and on the way there’s Kingston, and then Hamilton, and Oshowa. So it was super easy at the beginning before we had a van or anything to hit up a friend and be like ‘hey you wanna come tour with us and let us use your car for the weekend’ and they’d be like ‘sure no problem’. You do that 4 hour drive to Toronto and then you get to play those little University town’s around it and there’s a lot of people there who are really supportive of smaller bands. We received a ton of support from the minute we released our first song and we haven’t had any of that experience with any of our other bands before. All because we broke out of our hometown and found some supportive people out there. It’s given us a lot of energy to take this as far as we can because from the get go we were like ‘holy shit, people care’. Canada’s great for that.
College town’s are also great for that!
Ryan: Yea, and there’s also a ton of colleges and universities that have music business programs which really helps with the scene. We’ve played house shows for music business programs that we aren’t even a part of. But we go out there and the whole programs out there and it’s great because you’re networking with kids who are up and coming in the industry.
Matt: Another huge thing is that all Ontario bands love each other. We’re all so tight knit.
Connor: Very wholesome.
Matt: Yea, wholesome’s a good word for it. We tell each other we love each other all the time. Everytime we’re together it’s just a big pal fest.
Ryan: Every one of those towns there’s one band in it that you’re gonna be best friends with automatically. Another band we’ve toured with before called Romancer, they’re from Waterloo Ontario, they gave us a lot of support since we started out; took us on our first tour and everything. It’s that kind of comoradore that really helps.
Matt: Yea shoutout to Romancer and Certainty and Goldfinch and Rarity and Bearings; all the Ontario people.
Okay so now onto some more fun questions. What’s your favorite Christmas Tradition?
Connor: My family has this chocolate fondue fountain that we use. Take some bananas and dip it in a fountain you feel like a badass.
Matt: Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family is similar, we have chocolate fondue with our whole family.
Ryan: I’m a fondue guy too. My grandparents are swiss and they owned a bunch of Swiss restaurants growing up. We do cheese fondue every Christmas. We just sit around with bread and dip it in the cheese and eat it and it’s fucking great. I love it.
Favorite Christmas present that you’ve gotten?
Connor: My first ever electric guitar.
Ryan: Damn dude, I was gonna say that.
Matt: I don’t think my base was a Christmas gift, it was a birthday gift, I can’t lie.
Ryan: My grandma always hooks it up with the American Eagle underwear and it’s pretty comfy so that’s my favorite. Also money, I love money, if anyone’s listening. To be generic, first electric guitar was a gamechanger. It was a good Christmas for sure.
Matt: I’m just gonna be generic and say my base. It wasn’t Christmas but whatever.
John: My first drum kit I got when I was eight that I brought on this tour with us.
Favorite album of 2018?
Ryan: Bay Dream by Culture Abuse. I heard the name Culture Abuse and thought it would be really heavy and I wouldn’t like it, but it sounds like Tokyo Police Club, which is a band from Canada but it sounds like if Tokyo Police Club lived in California which is the coolest thing for me. My second is Between You and Me, Everything Is Temporary; great album. The last track on that album, which is called Everything Is Temporary is about being in a touring band and the first time I heard it I was in the van and I almost started crying and it was the best moment of 2018 for me.
Matt: Blue in The Dark by Bearings is just phenomenal in every way. Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V; that album is just really well put together. I listened to a couple songs and was like ‘eh’ but then I gave it a whole listen through and it’s just really, really good, all the features are fantastic. And also Proper Dose by The Story So Far.
Connor: Swell, by Tiny Moving Parts, that was January of this year, it’s amazing. I Wanna Die in New Orleans by $uicideBoy$ and Noise by Ghost Mate is sick.
Ryan: It’s been a hip hop year
John: I’ve personally been a big fan of the new Dreamcrusher EP. I love the new Daughters record and the new AFI EP came out yesterday so I’ve had that on heavy rotation and nothing else since last night at midnight; been very thrilled about that.
Ryan: We were driving to where we were staying last night and John was just sitting there quietly and then all of a sudden you hear “OOHH”. He’s never loud in the van, we were like that album must be really good.
Matt: And then every so often we’d hear him drumming along.
Favorite tour memory?
Ryan: On our first tour ever with Romancer, it was during the summer and we had one day where we decided to find a beach and we went to the Scarborro Buffs by Toronto and I didn’t expect it to be as pretty as it was. I didn’t know that we had a place that pretty so close to home. We just went swimming and built sculptures out of clay and stuff and it was just the best day ever.
Connor: When we were in Hamilton in August with Parkside, we went up this mountain and we were just chillin, smoked a joint, looked over the bridge, and it was awesome. I loved it.
Ryan: Oh yes! We went with Brandon, our photographer on that tour, and he showed us all around Hamilton. It was pretty fun.
John: When Ryan and I got lost in Hamilton. Not as lost as we could’ve been, I was subconsciously hoping we’d get more lost.
Ryan: That was John’s first tour with us. We were trying to find the 7/11?
John: We were trying to find where we came from which we didn’t have the street name, general idea of what the area looked like, or phones!
Ryan: We just went out and got lost until 4am.
John: We got lost in this other suburb/town and we asked if anyone knew of this other town in Hamilton.
Ryan: He was like ‘you’re far from home buddy’.
Matt: Oh my favorite was when we were on that Parkside tour in Hamilton and we all went for a walk with Brandon, the photographer we were with and this woman came up to us and started to talking to us because Brandon was taking pictures of John at the time and then she was like ‘oh what are you guys doing?’ and Brandon immediately puts on this brilliant acting face and goes ‘oh, I’m taking pictures of John Weed, he’s the richest man in Hamilton right now’ and she goes ‘really?’ and meanwhile the rest of us are pampering him and making him look pretty and Brandon goes ‘yea, richest man in Hamilton, straight out of Los Angeles California’ and he just kept it going longer and longer.
Ryan: We convinced her that he was a model for American Eagle I think.
Matt: Yea, we said that there was a convention or meeting or something in Ontario, but that he was the richest man in Hamilton right now and she was blown away.
Ryan: So to wrap that up, Matt’s favorite tour memory is manipulating some innocent woman in Hamilton.
Thank you guys so much for taking the time to sit down with me! Is there anything else you wanna add?
Matt: Listen to Tunnel Vision!
Ryan: Follow us on Twitter because we have the best name on Twitter ever, it’s just @castlefield, nothing else and we’re very proud of that.
It is obvious in the way that the guys’ eyes light up as they talk about their music and their witty banter on stage that shows how much fun Castlefield is having with this band. It was a pleasure to talk to such genuine and excited people, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for the band because I know that it’s only up from here. You can also keep up with the band on Instagram and Facebook and don’t forget to stream Tunnel Vision on Spotify.