Photos courtesy of The Reason

Canada and The Reason Things Couldn’t Be Better

Kathy Chan

I usually know I’ve stumbled upon a truly sensational album if upon first listen, I can make it through the entire album without changing any tracks. Some time during one of my many restless late summer days, I managed to get my hands on The Reason’s Things Couldn’t Be Better. Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario, The Reason is a five-piece group featuring Adam White on vocals and keys, James Nelan on guitar, Jeremy Widerman on guitar, Cam Bordignon on drums, and Ronson Armstrong on bass. With an album of honest lyrics, catchy riffs, and sweet melodies, The Reason provides an absolutely genuine and respectable sophomore record. I recently got the opportunity to chat with Adam just before the boys get ready to launch their Ontario tour. 

GLOSS: In my opinion, Things Couldn’t Be Better is a huge statement about the album and an amazing title. How did the band decide on the title?
Adam: We actually titled the record long before any of the songs were even written. We had a bunch of ideas and were putting them together, and we hadn’t started working with the producer yet, and we just wanted a general theme of how everyone in the band was feeling. We were at the beginning of the point where we were taking a couple of months off, or I should say, it turned out to be a couple of years off. We had toured our last record for a long time, and you kind of take a step back and away from it for a bit. You see people you grew up with starting careers, finishing school, starting families and stuff, and your time just whizzed by. You think about things and where we want them to be. This is where we want to be. This album felt like, to us, our university degree; this was a good spot for us musically. We were all just happy to be playing the stuff we were playing at the time. All kinds of crazy things happened during the recording. We look back and think, even with all those things happening, would you rather be working a shitty job or be sitting in a desk in school? It was a theme that put everyone in a good mood.

GLOSS: How long did the entire writing, producing, and completing of the record take?
Adam: It took a year and a half. We started writing in August 2005, and it was released in March 2007. 

GLOSS: The creative process all started in a cottage by the lake in Southern Ontario?
Adam: Yes, we started off there. We needed to focus and just sit there and jam. We would just sit and write what naturally came out. Not thinking about the previous record, and not thinking about anything else. A lot of the stuff that was coming out was very different from our old stuff, but we were happy with it.

GLOSS: Creatively, does the band ever disagree?
Adam: Gavin Brown (the producer) was our spiritual leader. The very first day we started working with him, we hadn’t played anything yet, and we went out and had a little talk. We told Gavin our ideas, and he told us what he felt about the band. We came up with a goal, and the whole idea was that during the making of a record, not everyone will agree. But if there is a common goal, then we can always refer to it and know that the goal always wins. The common goal set helped stop a lot of arguments from happening because we were all really into the idea of that goal. Well, it was the title of the record, basically.

GLOSS: How was it like working with Gavin Brown?
Adam: He had come to watch us play and thought we were good live. He wanted to hear some demos, and we met him at the cottage. He decided to work on it, and Gavin works with a lot of large stuff, and we were fairly unknown. But he was really into it, and we got along well from the start.

GLOSS: What is your favourite song off the album?
Adam: I like “Sleepyhead,” because it reminds me of when the album is done. It’s about everything finally being done. All the year and a half you put into it. You’re like “I’m going to get wasted and not have anything to do tomorrow!!!” That’s what the song is about, and it’s just great when you do something every day and you finally finish — it’s just such a relief!

GLOSS: My personal favourite is “Unquestionable.” What inspired the song?
Adam: “Unquestionable” is a super-personal song. I had this baseline that we would always jam out at practice, like a hip hop kind of thing. Everyone would be adding little parts to the song. We had a tiny little country guitar riff and we showed it to Gavin one day, and he was like “Why don’t you make it into a song?” and we thought, “Well, it’s nothing like we usually do.” “Who cares, it’s great!” I don’t like to talk about lyrics for that one.

GLOSS: “We’re So Beyond This” features Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara. How did this collaboration come to place?
Adam: We’ve been friends for awhile, and it was always something we had joked around about, and then it just gradually became more serious. Our records are sort of timed, and they both come out around about the same time. It worked out because she had some time off, we had some time off. The original plan was to have her on “Unquestionable,” and that didn’t really work out because we didn’t write it with her in mind. We had a bunch of time because our drummer broke his hand, and so we grabbed one of the songs on the album that weren’t so good and just wrote a new one with Sara in mind. We were sending files back and forth and just sharing some melody and lyrics idea. We had the chorus written before, and she came down in the studio for a couple of days and hashed out all the lyrics, and made it a cute little guy and girl song.

GLOSS: How do you think the Canadian music scene has changed since you first entered the scene?
Adam: I don’t know, I think we’re still getting to know it. When we were first started this band, it was the Our Lady Peace and Matthew Good Band time. We didn’t really know, we just booked our own tours, put out our own records, and did everything ourselves, and now we’re still learning it. Now we’re doing videos, getting to know radio. Well, no one buys CDs anymore.

GLOSS: Who were your musical influences growing up?
Adam: When I was super-young, it was anything my mom listed to. She was really into music and always had some sort of cassette or some sort of radio on. Lots of stuff with melody: Phil Collins, Hall & Oates, and Duran Duran. My dad listened to The Police and Bruce Springsteen.  When you’re in your early teens, you rebel and don’t listen to the stuff your parents listened to anymore. I’m 26 now, so during that phase I was into grunge, so Nirvana and Alice In Chains.  And then when you get older, you lose the punk thing. [When] I was 22, I grew a new appreciation for the things I used to listen to when I was young. You’re singing along, thinking “Well, this is mommy’s music,” and you just grow a new appreciation for music that is timeless.

GLOSS: What is the best thing about being in a band?
Adam: Just having an outlet to express yourself and share what you’re feeling with other people.  If I didn’t have music, I don’t know how I’d get stuff out. That’s my favourite part, putting your personal stamp on art and getting it out to people.

GLOSS: What is the best thing about being on tour?
Adam: The best thing about being on tour is seeing old friends, being able to savour the couple months you’re on the road. It feels pretty good to say “Hey, this is my job.” You play for people every night, and you go to sleep every night and work the next day, but it doesn’t feel like work.

GLOSS: How is life on the road with four other guys?
Adam: We tour in a van with a trailer. We drive ourselves around. We try not to drink in the van.  It’s fun, it’s good. We tease each other, talk about crap. I love the van rides. It’s the thing you miss the most. At the end of the day, when you’re not on tour, that’s where the majority of your days are spent.

GLOSS: Right now, what are the top five songs with heavy rotation on your iPod?
Adam: “I Feel It All” by Feist, “Are You Ten Years Ago” by Tegan and Sara, “Roscoe” by Midlake, “The Queen is Dead” by The Smiths, and the new Wintersleep song called “Dead Letter & the Infinite Yes.”

GLOSS: Finally, when are you coming back to Vancouver?
Adam: We’re looking to head back across Canada before Christmas. We’ll be back, hopefully soon.