Sometimes, the unhipness of a sound is a pretty good measure of a band’s dedication to their craft. While some bands chase trends and recording perfection as if precise alignment will translate directly into merch sales and Facebook likes, other artists burrow their own tunnels, regardless of what they think will be hot this afternoon.
Rhino are one such band, a Montreal quintet with all ten of their eyes set on the sludgy soundscapes that were shoved to the fore of our scene a decade ago by bands like Isis and Cult of Luna. Lots of metal devotees will tell you that the style played itself out years ago, but Rhino disagree and have turned in a 22-minute argument in their favor. The Footnotes EP, released in June through Deathbound Records, stomps through four succinct craters of unhurried speculation that include all the really good qualities of the genre.
While you check out the full EP, streaming here from Bandcamp, we thought you should read through the band’s responses to our probing questions. And if you’re a Montreal local, you should get out to Petit Campus to see Rhino play a show with SubRosa and Near Grey this Wednesday, August 6th. Support!
Who are Rhino? How did the band get started and settle on its sound?
Guillaume [Duguay, guitar] started what would later become RHINO with Vincent [Seguin, guitar]. They grew up in the same home, listening to the same bands, so their musical references were in perfect sync. Maxime [Legault-Venne, drums], who had previously been playing drums in a hardcore band with Guillaume, joined the guitar bros, setting up RHINO’s backbone. They started writing songs together, but creating an instrumental band was never in Guillaume’s plans. I [Simon Blaquiere, vocals] knew Guillaume and Maxime, I had been playing music with them, so I was called after a few months to add a little aggression to the mix with lyrics. Over the years, the 4 of us played with several different bassists. We’re glad that Patrick joined us lately, he brought RHINO’s sound to a higher level.
What are the musical backgrounds of Rhino’s members?
We all grew up listening to a variety of different rock styles which serves as our real foundation. Eventually, we all discovered the heavier side of music with punk, hardcore and metal but this represents just a fraction of our individual backgrounds which go all the way from electro and trip-hop to jazz. Of course, a lot of our common and more obvious influences for RHINO can be found in the post-rock and post-metal scenes with Cult of Luna, ISIS and Neurosis, each playing a big role in our sound. It was actually upon discovering ISIS that Guillaume wanted to start the band.
What do you enjoy about the Montreal music scene right now?
Lots of new webzines, distro/record labels, booking teams and cool new venues have emerged over the last couple of years. For smaller bands like us, it really helps a lot to get booked on good shows. Exciting times for the Montreal scene!
How widely have you traveled to perform? Who have you shared the stage with?
Montreal is as far as where we have been playing. Our very first show this year was with THE OCEAN and THE ATLAS MOTH back in April. Later this year, we played with THE GREAT SABATINI , FUCK THE FACTS and APPALACHES (an awesome post-rock band!). In the past years, we shared the stage with many good bands such as GODSTOPPER, HAMMERHANDS, LUTHER HIGGS and IN AEONA.
Can you describe your process for writing songs for Footnotes?
It generally starts off with Guillaume coming up with a main heavy guitar riff. We then jam it and lock it to a tight time signature. From there, we make the structure of each song evolve, keeping some riffs more empty guitar-wise to let the vocals breath through their parts. When composing, we record our jams and listen to it on our own until our next practice. At our following session, we try out new ideas to improve the sound that best represents us and the song we are writing. Repeat until satisfied.
Footnotes is pretty short, especially for the norms with this style of music. What were your goals with this set of songs?
When writing, we don’t give much importance to the length of the songs. We’re not going to write a 12-minute song just for post-rock/post-metal’s sake. If a song feels right for us after only 5 minutes, then that’s what it’s going to be. For Footnotes, we gave ourselves a strict deadline. We were finalizing “Fading inn” and decided to cut off some of the intro to use it as an appetizer for the EP intro. We went on writing a last “5-minute short” one called “Tinnitus of the deaf,” and that was it. We’re ok with the fact that Footnotes is pretty short. We hope that people enjoy every minute of it and that it leaves them wanting more after their first listening.
What are you working on now… new songs, tour plans, other stuff?
With Footnotes officially released, we’ve taken most of the summer to play shows to do promotion for the EP and it’s been a lot of fun. With that said, it’s also time to start writing again! We’ve basically just started working on new music so it’s quite early, but we can tell you that it will most likely be another EP. This one is going to be more of a concept EP, but it’s still a little blurry even for us, so we’ll just see where it takes our sound. We also want to keep working on having new merch available because… who doesn’t love merch!
