By Will McGuirk
Oshawa rock ‘n rollers The Standstills make a hometown stop at the Tribute Communities Centre on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. The duo will be opening for Three Days Grace. The Warning is also on the bill.
The Standstills are Jonny Fox on guitar and Renee Couture on drums, and when not on the road, they reside in Oshawa. They are touring their latest album ‘Shockwave’ which features a collaboration with Jesse Hughes of desert rockers Eagles of Death Metal.
Being on the cold road of touring in Canada can be eventful. The couple were caught in a snowstorm on their way to the first date in BC. After the pandemic restrictions its must have seemed like the band would never stand on a stage again!
So we asked them.
Slowcity.ca: Obviously Covid shut things down and now you are on tour and then it was a blizzard!!, You must be thinking WTF!! but it takes something to keep going through such adversity, where does that motivation come from individually and as a couple?
Standstills: “The motivation comes from the music we create. We believe ‘Shockwave’ is our best album to date and we stop at nothing to bring it to life to fans across this country waiting to see us. Life will always have its challenges but it depends on how you look at it. To us overcoming the challenges is a great recipe for great songs. And we touch on a lot of that in our new album.”
Slowcity.ca: Tell me about the new album, was most of it pre-written during the pandemic, or over your time in L.A, how did the songs emerge and come together?
Standstills: “We wrote it during the pandemic. Because of the state of the world we felt like this might be our last album so we wanted to start from scratch to push ourselves from a different perspective. We also changed directions with the team we worked with. Neil Sanderson of Three Days Grace produced it and Grammy winner Howard Benson mixed it. We also invited our friends in Eagles of Death Metal to join us on a song. It is our best album because of how much we pushed ourselves but also because of the people we worked with. It really reflects our love for big catchy chorus’s and the power of a great songs derived from personal experiences. It’s a rock and roll love story that’s playful and passionate. Something that we know very well as a couple living in the rock and roll world.”
Slowcity.ca: Your time with Neil must have been great as you are on tour with him and the band - What did he bring to the band during production, I hear a much more solid cohesive sound on the tracks, how is it for you guys?
Standstills: “Neil is a great friend. We worked together in the past prior to hooking up for this album. He just gets us. And that’s incredibly important when seeking someone that is excited about putting in the hard work to make great sounding songs. We spent a lot of time hanging out and listening to music we like and talking about great lyrics. We are grateful the Three Days Grace team brought us on board for the tour. It has been an incredible experience so far and our new songs seem to be really connecting with their fan base as well.”
Slowcity.ca: Some interesting musical 'interludes' - such as on ‘Maple Sugar’, when playing live will you be expanding on these or keeping things tight?
Standstills: “Sometimes certain songs just beg for a juxtaposition. I think with more experience under our belts in song writing we have a good sense of when to change things up in a song, and not just for the sake of change. Sometimes live we will play around with those sections to make them more special.”
We guess we will have to see them live to get that answer so.
