LAB COAST

FORGING FORTH TO NEW LANDS

An all-you-can-eat sushi joint or a Chinese restaurant both seem like ideal, low-key places to discuss the progression of one of Calgary’s most effortlessly low-key bands, Lab Coast, and their latest effort, Walking on Ayre, a self-proclaimed attempt at taking the lessons learned from previous cassettes, splits and albums to create something a bit more cleaned up, or as they would tell me later, “a lovely mess.”

But instead, guitarist Christ Dadge and lead singer David Laing of Lab Coast decide on beers at a pub close to the rented house that also doubles as their jam space. Dadge, Laing, bassist Henry Hsieh, guitarist Samantha Savage Smith and drummer Dice Parks have been busy running through material in preparation for a U.K. tour, the band’s first foray outside of Alberta.

“We’re kind of dreading it,” Dadge says jokingly. “No, it’s going to be great. We’re nobodies over there, we’re just a bunch of punks. But we’re getting some good gigs.”

“We’re going to be sharing a lot of Marks and Spencers sandwiches,” Laing says.

Despite their nonchalance, Lab Coast has created a steady fan base overseas, with a sold-out split with Calgary band, Friendo, an invitation to play at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and tour dates booked all over England. Still, the band maintains strong ties to the local scene.

Referring to a recent tour fundraiser put on by the band, Laing notes: “It was a great night. Lots of friends showed up; lots of support.”

But in terms of playing live to audiences that may or may not have heard of Lab Coast before, Dadge admits that one the band’s biggest challenges is replicating the quirks and occasional mistakes on the album, all of which was recorded by Dadge, with Laing’s vocals and Dadge playing many of the instruments.

“In the demos, we tried to capture the freshness of just having written something and maybe capture something a little sketchy.”

“[The album] is the product of immediacy,” Laing adds. “It’s reverse in a way with the band, where the band puts a lot of time and effort into learning something that took two hours to create.”

Yet the messy, imperfect moments from the album will likely remain in the live shows, with the intention of preserving each song as they sounded on the first recording. As Laing tells me, “Every time we rehearse, I feel bad if I don’t replicate my own mistakes.”

Though the band continues to evolve their sound, Walking on Ayre, their longest release to date, sounds like solid benchmarks of what’s to come.

“I hope people listen to it on headphones. Or when they’re driving around in their cars,” Dadge says of the album. “It’s got a lot of our own personal hits on it.”

By Stephanie Wong