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Canons
Genre Metal/Doom/Hardcore
Home town Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, NY
Home on the web
www.myspace.com/CanonsNY
Past material The Day of Burning Streets EP
Current project Untitled EP
Places where music is available for purchases Free on Last.fm and
canons.bandcamp.com
Interview questions
· How did you get your start in music?
Joe (Vocals): I started hanging out with Myles Dyson, and started my own
side-project called Sword Fight!. Those bands eventually split, when Canons
formed I started out as the lead singer, and we're off and running from there. I
always wanted to be in a band because I always loved music...
Tony (Guitar): I had always had a mind for creativity in different spheres, most
notably art and film, but I felt the urge to pick up my first guitar when I was
in my mid-teens. I simultaneously learned more about music itself and the dearth
of underground music around the same time and this link has evolved steadily
into where I am today, which is Canons.
Jay (Drums): My entire family plays music in some shape or form. My grandfather
played a pretty mean harmonica heh
· Who are your biggest musical influences?
Tony: In short, Neurosis epitomizes it all from. Every note is a gift from them
and what I can’t say in words I’ll pay my gratitude to them with my music. Bands
ranging from Kyuss to Napalm Death told me that there was music the radio didn’t
butcher and that there are writhing giants under the sand: High on Fire, Melvins,
Mastodon, His Hero is Gone, Fall of Efrafa. From there I kept digging. As of
right now I’m listening to a lot of grindcore, crust punk, doom and post-rock.
Jay: Porcupine Tree , Mastodon , Baroness , Meshuggah , Tool , Primus , ALOT
more, some Doom , Progressive and Power metal to.
Joe: I listen to a lot of genres, I know everyone says that but I'm really open
minded. I guess it would be easier to say what my influences aren't: Country
music, gangster rap and polka. Favorite bands I guess are TOOL, Radiohead, Mars
Volta, Graf Orlock, Mastodon.
· What is your biggest inspiration when creating music?
Joe: My biggest influences for song writing is mostly hardcore, power violence,
crust punk and some hip-hop. Anything with a message, anything that is
protesting something and upset about some shit. Music that gets people going, or
just straight-up pisses you off.
Tony: To get rid of that knot in your stomach whenever you see something you
can’t articulate! I have a healthy vocabulary but there are things music can say
which words can’t; it’s a classic cliché (maybe I’m not so articulate?) yet it’s
true. I read a lot about history and politics for lyrical and thematic
inspiration but it basically comes to down authoritarian ignorance, injustice
and inhumanity in the realms of government and religion that churns out my
inspiration for making music in Canons.
Jay: My girlfriend Rachel. When I'm in a rut and my brain is overflowing with
ideas which is always heh, somehow she knows how to level it out and push me
forward.
· Could you give us the details of your current project.
Joe: Canons is sort of our socio-political answer to modern social problems of
our generation. We try to explain, solve and shed light onto things that we
currently see as causing a divide in this country, and other countries as well.
It's a sort of anti-fascism, pro-free inquiry, it's the anti-
anti-intellectualism.
Tony: We’re just switched the delicious Danny Dance Party to second guitar and
brought in out great friend Jay to play drums. We’re in a transitional period
where we’re going to work on a new EP about the history of anti-intellectualist
persecution. Once we get in sync with one another we’ll finish a few badass
tunes and then proceed to a concept album inspired by the Jörg Buttgereit film
Der Todesking.
Jay: What Tony said, we are in the writing process, trying to get out a few
songs before our next project.
· What is the next goal you would like to achieve with
your music?
Jay: Ideas for a concept album have been thrown around recently, which would be
a great way to really work together and project our passions through music.
Joe: Goal of it for me is just to see our fans and friends having a good time. I
want to make them rage, dance, enjoy themselves and really take away something
from the experience. That's pretty much it, what it's all for, for me. I
thinking getting an emotional reaction from music, whatever it may be, is the
ultimate.
Tony: Combine the frenetic mind fuck of Today is the Day with the fuzzy dirge of
Electric Wizard. That’s been one of my personal goals since discovering music
like that. I’d like to say what I can about society, philosophy and atheism
within the sweet confines of music that I enjoy.
final four
· When the zombies take over the world where will you be?
Joe: Hard to say. I'm sure everyone would like to think they'd be in 'the shit',
eradicating hordes of zombies. I realistically think I'd be one of the first
ones to go, not much about my personality would indicate otherwise.
Tony: Hot air ballooning
Jay: On the top of Mount Everest with an AK47 and C4.
· Jedi, Ninja, vampire, were-wolf, pirate, fairy or
Spartan?
Joe: Most definitely Jedi, baddest shit of all time.
Tony: Although they get pwned ridiculously in any 80’s action movie, I’m gonna
have to go with ninjas.
Jay: Ninja
· What one piece of art, be it music, book, film or
picture, do you think people must experience before they die?
Joe: I feel that everyone should experience the art of sleeping. One day, just
wake up, by yourself, and do nothing for 1 whole day. It's amazing. No stress,
no commitments, no one to answer to. Don't think about work, your significant
others, your parents or any of that. It's exhilarating.
Tony: If people don’t universally shake their ass to Curtis Mayfield’s “”Move on
Up” then bring on the apocalypse. We aren’t needed anymore.
Jay: "Anesthetize" by Porcupine Tree
· Give one fact that most people would not believe about
you?
Joe: I am a gigantic Steely Dan fan. I think they're really awesome, great
dynamics and intelligent song writing. Groovy all sorts of other adjectives. I
get some shit for it, but who really cares? I love it.
Tony: Since most people know I’m a huge movie nerd, I guess I’d say the fact
I’ve never seen The Shawshank Redemption. Whenever I get asked that I look at my
shoes and use the ol’ “oh, I haven’t seen it in a long time…” in order to avoid
the standard reply of “YOU’VE never seen the Shawshank Redemption?!”
Jay: I'm a sucker for Barry White.
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