Interview with BALM Squad

As part of the upcoming Buckfest Festival in March, I spoke with one of the bands from the line up: BALM Squad.

Who are your main musical influences, not just your favorite bands, but those that shape your sound?

If you asked each of us separately, you’d probably get a very different answer. We listen to a pretty wide range of bands similar to us, but I think of it’s a balanced mix between Oxymoron, Syndrome 81 and Poison Idea.

Tell us about a tour anecdote, something that happened before, during or after a show.

On our last tour out West, we had to start in Vancouver to meet up with Total Chaos and make our way back East. The problem was, just three days before the tour kicked off, we were playing Punx Make Noise in Quebec City. That left us with only three days to cross the entire country, meaning a couple of all-night drives.

While driving through Saskatchewan, our trailer lights went out in the middle of the night in a really heavy fog. Since we didn’t have much time to fuck around, I found the nearest trailer repair shop, about four hours north of the highway. It would’ve gotten us there just in time for the opening, but we didn’t realize just how far off the beaten track we actually were…

We drove for miles down a dirt road in thick ass fog, running on no sleep. Everyone was pretty stressed out and on edge, but at some point we passed through a town that claimed it was founded by poets or something like that. Between jokes about running off the road or getting kidnapped and murdered by religious cults, we were all pretty sleep deprived and joked that half the town spoke in rhymes and the other half in haikus, locking both sides in an eternal civil war.

Eventually, we found the shop, they fixed us up quickly and we made it to Vancouver just in time for the soundcheck.

Who is the best opening band from one of your shows?

We’ve played with a lot of great bands, but I’m going to use this question to shout out some of my favorites: Motherfuckers, Riefer Madness, Unwanted Noise, Willful Disobediance, The Ruffianz, The Defamed, Destuctive, Defaillance, The Hacked, Vestigio and Random Killing, only to name a few!

What other bands have each of you already played before?

My main project before BALM Squad was Whiskey Shits, with our current guitarist Moik on drums. I also played in The Adhaeros and Ripcordz. Moik played in The Adhaeros and in a Montreal band called Fister. Aaron has played in many bands, but off the top of my head, he played guitar for Alcohol Fueled and bass for Ciggie and The Darts. He also played the drums in a band called Magic Mommy. Ricky played bass for Dogma, and Griffin and Ricky both played in The Gormless before.

Which lesser-known bands would you recommend checking out, emerging ones if possible?

Some of these might not fall into the emerging or lesser-known category, but the albums that have been getting the most attention on my turntable recently are : Syndrome 81 (Prisons Imaginaires), La Inquisicion (LVX), Amyl and The Sniffers (Cartoon Darkness), Complete Control (We Want Your Drugs) and The Drips (Self Titled).

Have you ever been to Saguenay?

YEAH! I’m pretty sure it was last year. We went and had a blast (even though we were extremely hungover from the afterparty in Quebec City the night before, it didn’t take long for the energy of La Baie to get us back up and running again and we couldn’t wait to go back).

Do you prefer your poutine with cheese curds or shredded?

This is a trick question! I might be from Toronto, but I’ve lived in Montreal long enough to know that poutine isn’t poutine unless you use curds!

Matty, bass for BALM Squad

Redaction: Patrice Belley

Correction: Val Girard

Review: Jess Peach