For a musician to transcend genre while maintaining captivity over a varied audience is no small feat.  Yet this is something that Canadian quartet Attack In Black has successfully done.  Their eclectic mix of influence and taste has resulted in an alluring sort of amalgamated style.  They have managed to create a brand of music that fits the band, rather than fitting their band to a type of music.

Originally formed in 2004 by Daniel Romano (vocals/guitar), Ian Romano (drums), and Spencer Burton (back vocals/guitar), the earliest release from AIB was an EP on a local label, Skate Ahead Records.  The addition of Ian Kehoe on bass was exactly what these Welland, Ontario natives needed to make the move from friends who make albums together to a serious musical project.

They soon grabbed the attention of the renowned Canadian label Dine Alone Records, whose offer they accepted without so much as a second thought.  AIB has since released two more EP’s, a full length studio album (Marriage), a self-recorded LP (Curve of the Earth), and are planning the release of their third full length in March, 2009. 

The last few years have bore witness to breakout performances, critic and audience acclaim, and a nomination for an Independent Music Award in 2008, among a plethora of praise-worthy accomplishments.

I chatted with the proud, yet humble foursome this past Halloween, before their Amigo’s performance with Ladyhawk and Shotgun Jimmie.

So initially, when you released your self-titled EP, you released it on Skate Ahead Records.  Now you are on Dine Alone Records.  How did this move come about?

Ian Kehoe: We were approached by Dine Alone.  They wanted to put out our records, and we kind of just said “yes” without even thinking about it or waiting for offers from anyone else.  We thought it was just a good idea at the time.

When you switched to a more illustrious label, did you notice there were any creative challenges that came with that?  Did they give you the freedom to keep doing whatever you wanted to do?

Daniel Romano: No… we were sort of young and naïve at the time.

Ian K: Still kind of are…

Dan: Are, totally, yeah.  We’re sort of realizing how things work a little more these days. 

IanK : Although I wouldn’t say that there were all that many creative differences, either.

Dan: No, it was more just like we didn’t know where we wanted to be; and they had their own idea of where they wanted us to be, so we just went along with that for a while.  We sort of learned things and learned from our mistakes as we went along. They let us do pretty much whatever we want now, though, at this point.

When you first recorded Marriage, [Dine Alone] wasn’t satisfied, and sent you back to re-record the entire thing. 

Dan: I guess initially no, it was not satisfactory to their ears.  I don’t really even remember what it sounded like.

IanK : Yeah it has been a while now, actually.  I was wondering, actually the other day, if I was to go back and listen to it, if I would think it was really good. But we thought it was a good idea to re-record it, too.  It wasn’t just them.

Dan: Yeah, I mean there was a lot of people, and it was our first release, you know.  I mean, it seemed really important and I think we over-thought it, to be honest. It lost all of it’s ‘organic’ feel from being totally overdone or overproduced – to the point where we had to do it twice.

IanK : Which is kind of a shame, because now we look back on songs that we were in love with then in almost a bad light because it was so unpleasant. 

Since that happened, has the label given you some slack? Have they backed off a little bit?

Dan: Yeah, we kind of just took creative control without even really talking about it.  We made a record ourselves and they didn’t even really  know that it was happening.  We were just like, “Hey! We recorded twelve songs: here they are.” And they liked them, so they put them out.  I guess that’s sort of when the table turned, you know, and it was just like “OK now we understand that we can do things ourselves, and these people will help us to make them accessible.

IanK : Yeah, and we’re much more proud of it when we do it ourselves, too.

So you’re from Welland, ON. When you started, you had a lot of people attending your shows, because they knew and were friends with you.  It’s seemingly effortless developing a core fanbase, no?

IanK : You know, to a certain extent, I would agree with that. But I do think that over the course of the existence of our band we sort of made it more difficult for people who had like our earlier efforts to continue liking our music.  Not really on purpose, and more for people who are maybe a bit younger, maybe a little bit more closed-minded and opinionated, or those people who are sort of more concerned with liking one [type of music] rather than just like things that are good, because they’re good. 

So it might be fair to say that your earliest fans (and fans of your earliest projects) were more fans of that style of music, and so when you developed as a band, your fan-base changed a lot?

Dan: Exactly.  I think we only really became a band, like a real band, after Marriage was sort of on the back burner. 

IanK : Yeah, I agree.  I think we’re still “becoming”, you know?

Dan: I think that the direction was always clear, not so much musically but more related to how we were going to approach things.

IanK : That is true.  I do also feel that we’re on our way to making music as Men together.  That sounds stupid [laughs], but you know… doing things in more of a mature way.

Dan: I’ve been having conversations with people, lately, that I sort of look up to and respect, about approaching music and approaching touring and have come to the realization that the only real important thing that you can do is be happy with what you are doing, and do it with people that you care about. 

So to talk a little bit about Curve of the Earth, which is the album that you mentioned you had recorded yourself.  You recorded it in a couple of days? How did that go down?

Dan: It was very weird.  I bought this tape player that has two microphone inputs (a stereo left and right) which obviously gives you the option of recording in stereo, and that’s it, with two microphones at one time.  And we went to Spencer’s sunroom, and I think we may have had a couple of songs…

IanK : I think that Dan and I and Ian [Romano] had recorded some songs before we actually began recording [this album].  We liked the sound of the tape recorder, so we decided to set it up and record more things all together, for a couple days.  We didn’t really know what would happen.

Dan: So we had a super condensed drum kit; and I think there was an electric guitar on a very small amp; we had an acoustic guitar, and some percussion stuff.  We just limited ourselves to six-to-eight tracks per song and tried to make textured songs, but with limited textures.  We just sort of wrote them as we were recording.  Most of the songs on that album came out of those couple of days.

So what prompted you to release it as an album?

Dan: I think it’s really the organic quality. It just came out of nowhere, and happened so fast that we didn’t get sick of it at all. I listened to it two days afterward and didn’t even remember some of the songs.  I liked the idea of listening to our music as if we hadn’t even done it, because it was so fresh.  I think that’s why we liked it so much.  I mean, I still like it, but that’s probably why we decided to do something with it.  It was so unlike anything we’d ever done before.

IanK : I think it was just a matter of being proud of it right away.

You recorded a cover of [Neil Young’s] A Man Needs A Maid in 2007, which was released on [the album] Borrowed Tunes: A Tribute to Neil Young. How did that happen?

Dan: We actually recorded that in the first Marriage session, and we just had it laying around.  I think maybe or record label had sent it in because they’d heard someone was putting this compilation together.  So I guess they just liked it, so they used it on the album.

You were nominated for an independent music award.  That’s a more internationally recognized award.  What was it like to receive that kind of recognition?

Dan: I don’t know how I feel about awards, you know?

IanK : Yeah, but not to say that we were unappreciative or anything.

Dan: It’s flattering; but it’s also meaningless, at the end of the day.

IanK : It’s one of those things where we hear about them from someone and I don’t really even pay that much attention to it. I mean I didn’t bother to find out if we’d won or anything like that.

You did play the Indie Awards, though.  How was that?

Dan: It was totally retarded.

IanK : Wasn’t that much fun to play, honestly, no. 

Dan: We actually prefer smaller venues.

You’re songs are so intimate romantically-driven.  Does that affect the type of venue you prefer to play?

Dan: It really is harder to get across.. not only because of the size of the venue, but even with our tour-mates.  We’ve toured with a lot of very loud and aggressive, quick attention span kind of music, you know, and I don’t know if the audience is willing, a lot of the time, to give us the time and attention that our music might require, if that makes sense.

Have you come to a finalized choice of sound, or are you still working on it?

IanK: Definitely still working on it.

Dan: I think if you get to a point where you know what you’re doing, it’s probably bad.

IanK: I think we, as a band, kind of work best in situations where there’s a certain amount of discomfort and uncertainty.  So if we were to ever arrive somewhere where we knew where we wanted to be, then it would probably most likely be the end of our band, rather than the continuation of it.  I think we all feel that way.

Dan: There’s a lot of bands that get to that point and then just stay there.  We don’t ever want to do that.

What can we get excited for in the future of Attack in Black?

IanK: Well we made a record.  We have a record coming out in March, I believe, of next year, that we made in Dan’s basement almost exclusively.  Aside from three songs that we recorded in Sackville, New Brunswick with Shotgun Jimmie.  We’ve also started a record label called You’ve Changed Records, and we’re putting out a split album with Attack in Black and Baby Eagle [a sort of folk band].  It’s a split record where we cover each other’s songs, and we’re putting it out ourselves.  We also may be doing [on You’ve Changed] the vinyl edition of the new Shotgun Jimmie record, once it’s recorded.

[At this point (as dinner is served), a sibling squabble erupts; which I’m told is a regular occurrence with the Romano brothers.]

Ian Romano: Mushrooms are really good for you.

Dan: No they’re not!

IanR: Yes they are! For your skin anyways… not necessarily for your digestive system.

IanK : They’re good for your skin?? In what way?

IanR: There’s vitamins in them that are good for your skin!  Like how carrots are good for your eyes.

Dan: But they’re really hard on your digestive system.

IanR: Yeah, but so are lots of things! People drink coffee all the time! Coffee’s SO bad for your digestive system!

Dan: I’m not arguing with you about what people do, I’m just telling you a fact about mushrooms.

IanR: Yeah well the fact is that tones of things are bad for your digestive system and people will still eat them and consider them to be healthy for you.

Dan: People don’t consider drinking coffee healthy though.

IanR: Coffee IS healthy.

Dan: Oh yeah? How?

IanR: ‘Cause it has anti-oxidants in it.

Dan: Uh-huh…

IanR: It’s true!

Dan: Ok, but it’s more bad for you than it is good.

IanR: Well, who knows?

Dan: Somebody.

IanR: Well what are you going to do? Scale it on a number system for how bad vs. how good it is for you?

Dan: Well there’s got to be an answer somewhere about that.

IanR: Whatever, Dan.

IanK [aside]: Yeah… this happens at least once a day

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