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January 2009, Cover Stories, Artists
State of Shock - Best I Ever Heard
Meet Canada's hottest new export, State of Shock!
Since bursting onto the main stream Canadian rock scene in 2007 with the release of their hit single Money Honey, State of Shock has been winning over fans across the country with their brand of high energy rock n roll. The group based out of Vancouver, BC consists of Cameron Melnyk on vocals, Jesse Wainwright on guitar, Johnny Philippon on drums, Simon Clow (Kadooh) on guitar, and Alison Toews on bass. They are now posed to hit it big in the US with the recent digital release of their album Life, Love & Lies on Universal Republic Records. After spending the last few months opening for bands like Seether, Staind and Papa Roach south of the border, the group has returned to Canada for a few shows. I had a chance to talk with Cameron and was later joined by Jesse and Kadooh before their show at Jet Nightclub in Edmonton, AB.
Angela: What was it like touring with Seether, Staind and Papa Roach?
Cameron: Incredible. Anytime you get an opportunity to play with professionals who’ve been on stages in the size of arenas and stuff we were playing in all you can do is take anything you can learn and steal from it and use it for your own show or kind of modify it. Just learn from the pros always cause those guys have been doing it for awhile and they’re the best people to learn from. And its also we’re fans of music and all of those bands that we played with, Seether, Staind and Papa Roach especially. We’ve watched their shows a dozen times and stand in line up for tickets to watch those guys and all of a sudden you’re playing with them and watching them from the side of the stage, it was remarkable. It was kinda like a dream come true for all of us.
Angela: If you could work with any other artist, who would it be and why?
Cameron: Dead or alive? (laughs) I’d work with anybody I could. We’ve always taken that road where no one’s better than us and there’s enough room for everybody so we just want to work with as many musicians from any genre you know country to rock to pop to hip hop, why not you know, to anybody. So I can’t really name you one. I’d love to work with Chris Robinson or someone from the Black Crowes. Or I wouldn’t want to work with Axl cause he’d fire me. I don’t know, anybody, shit a lot of singers, I’d work with a ton of singers.
Angela: You’ve recently been touring in the US. Do you notice any differences between the Canadian and US music scenes?
Cameron: The crowds, they’re all there right at the start of the show ready to go. Everyone wants to see the opening band to the last band on the ticket, on the bill, so everyone’s there. It was such a great reception that we received, everyone was very welcoming. We were a little petrified cause our songs weren’t on the radio totally out there yet; you know the single is just going to creep out in January here. The record’s not coming out yet til March but its online now. So there’s a bit of a difference but not really. I mean you’re just playing the crowds; you’re trying to work your ass off to win them over. Pretty much the same work ethic we’ve had from Canada, we just took it to the States.
Angela: When Money Honey was first released did you have any idea it would be such a huge hit? How have things changed since then?
Cameron: Absolutely not, more people are looking for money from us, they want their cut. No, Money Honey was one of the last; I think it was the second last song that we all wrote for the record. It came out of a trip to the strip club I think one night with a couple of the guys, heard it from a stripper off the stage and kinda took it and probably put it in their blackberry’s or something and wrote a song about it the next day. Came across very quickly in the studio. It was a song that was catchy, came to us quickly like I said. But no we didn’t have a clue it that would be as popular as it has been and that’s due to the support of all the fans and stuff seeking it out online. Same thing that kinda happened in the States, is a listener wanted to hear it on Sirius Satellite Radio and then it just kinda of organically grew in the States through them playing it on the radio. It was nothing to do with our label or management or anything. It also helped us get signed to Universal Republic so it was huge. And how have things changed? Not much. Still working our butts off, we’re still touring through the Canadian winter. We had one show in Grande Prairie for New Years and we said why don’t we just do like a week in western Canada cause we love playing out in Alberta plus some of us are born, like I was born here in Edmonton, Alberta so its pretty cool.
Angela: Are you working on any new projects or are you concentrating on the US release?
Cameron: We are, we’re always writing. We’re always in the van or the truck or the bus writing songs in the hotel room. There’s a lot of time sometimes to kill so while can we try to write as much as we can. We’re not totally focused on completing a second album just yet. We’re going to work the shit out of this record in the States for the next year, do a little tour here in Canada and then obviously throw out a new record. That’s mostly in the bag but we’re not going to share or tell anybody anything yet.
Angela: Do you have a favorite song to play live & why?
Jesse: That’s a hard question. I like them all.
Cameron: Yeah it’s kinda cool whenever the crowd reacts to your music and you see them singing your songs it’s always a very cool experience, it’s very warming.
Jesse: Very great, good feeling watching people sing your music back.
Cameron: So anytime someone’s singing your song back or even throwing something at you during a song, you’re kinda like it’s always an experience every different night it’s a different little story.
Kadooh: I’m a big fan of Honeymoon, Honeymoon’s Over. I really enjoy playing that. The riff at the start is kick ass. And Day After Day.
Cameron: Day After Day, I like Different Day.
Kadooh: I like the rockers cause you get to just lose your mind, its kinda fun; it’s the best part about rock n roll.
Jesse: I thought that was after the show.
Cameron: And of course Money Honey cause the whole crowd just screams that song, just goes crazy during it. The whole show.
Angela: You quite often meet with your fans after shows, are there any memorable moments from those fan meetings?
Cameron: (laughs) Not much we can talk about.
Jesse: I have an actually very touching story. A guy came up to us, we were in Brandon. We were probably out for an hour and a half meeting people, we were playing an arena there was thousands of people and this guy was standing over off to the side crying and we had gone through the whole line up and we're what's going on? He was like that was amazing, you know what, I just got diagnosed with cancer I skipped my chemo treatment to come see you guys. And first of all don’t ever do that but thank you. I had goose bumps for a few days.
Cameron: Yeah, those are the things that really get us and that really hits home. We know we’re touching people with what were doing as much as we’ve been touched by listening to bands that we’ve loved our whole life. There was a time in Halifax too that we spent after playing with Nickelback were outside in the rain for about three hours, three and a half hours just working the crowd as much as we could and somebody brought a eulogy card for us to sign cause it was their favorite band, the person that had passed away their sibling or whoever it was. So those moments are touching, they’re sad obviously. There’s a lot of great moments.
Kadooh: Someone that finds support in our music is, you couldn’t ask for anything better than that. Somebody that’s getting, if it helps them get through a tough time like it’s us writing them, letting out our experiences.
Cameron: It’s great to hear how people have interpreted our songs. Best I Ever Had for one, if you go to You Tube and you see the video on You Tube and then you see the comments and it’s like people counseling each other and just complete strangers helping each other through. But there’s people on there just like counseling each other and they’re complete strangers so it’s neat to see how people connect and interpret, develop the song into their own life.
Angela: What is the one thing you can’t live without on the road?
Cameron: (laughs) Again probably can’t answer this one truthfully.
Kadooh: Sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Jesse: I can’t live without each and every one of you.
Cameron: I guess each other cause we wouldn’t be here. And our credit cards and our phones. Yeah, we’re pretty simple. We stay at Holiday Inn Express across the States.
Jesse: We only eat red M & M’s though.
Kadooh: If there’s a blue one Johnny usually cries and Jesse wrecks the dressing room. (laughs)
Life, Love & Lies is currently available in stores across Canada and available online in the US. And if you ever have the chance to see this band live, go see them! They put on an amazing show.