Music

The Stills tell AUX Weekly new album will be darker, more personal

by Michael Joffe

A

day after a full hour opening slot for Kings of Leon (sans Pigeon shit), it seemed The Stills may have left some of that energy behind when they played to a sold out crowd at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern. Launching right into things with “Lola Stars And Stripes”, a crowd pleaser off their celebrated debut Logic Will Break Your Heart, the energy on stage remained underwhelming throughout most of the set, despite the hits. That is until the encore where the band seemed to loosen up a bit and enjoy themselves for an audience that was asking for more.

AUX Weekly chatted with drummer Dave Hamelin earlier in the night about their forthcoming album, which saw the original lineup back together for the first time since their debut.

“Oceans Will Rise is really sorta outward looking and then during the last two years of touring, we realized we’re a lot more fucked up than we thought we were,” Hamelin tells AUX. “I think this album will be a reflection of that – a little more personal. We’re big on departures… It will be personal.”

In 2005, guitarist Greg Paquet left the band to finish school, bringing Hamelin from the drums to the front, a position which he struggled to fill on Without Feathers, notwithstanding his role as the band’s primary songwriter. Paquet has returned to The Stills for their fourth album. Hamelin describes the reunion as a natural one, based more on their friendship than anything else.

“He kind of just resurfaced. We hadn’t seen him for like four years or five years and he literally just resurfaced. We were just like, ‘You should, you know, come back and he’s like alright and so that was it – it was that simple. We started seeing him at bars out and having drinks. The good ol’ Greg – just really simply, we we’re like, ‘What are you doing? Let’s jam.’ ”

“Now that he’s back, I’m playing drums again… It’s a little looser. We got a looser, “slivlier” kinda, it’s less rock n’ roll, it’s more like sludgy & dark, – sex and dark.”

Cheers from the audience brought the Stills back to the stage following closer “Snakecharming The Masses”. Tim Fletcher crooned the first ooos of “Still in Love Song”, breathing energy into their debut hit, at last putting on the show that Stills fans waited patiently for.

It remains to be seen if our patience for their forthcoming effort will be rewarded, but the success of Oceans Will Rise and the renewed excitement of the band with the re-addition of Paquet certainly suggest so.