Music

Watch the trailer for Ages and Stages, a Meligrove Band documentary

by Jessica Lewis

A new film is ready to hit this year’s festival circuit and it’s all about a Canadian indie band. Enter: The Meligrove Band, a pop rock foursome from Toronto who have been together since 1997.

Ages and Stages wasn’t actually timed to focus on the band’s September album release of Shimmering Lights. Instead, director Brendan McCarney decided to use the occasion as an anchor, and focus on telling the biography of the band through stories shared by plenty of their peers, including Joel Plaskett, Tokyo Police Club, Damian Abraham of Fucked Up, Sebastien Grainger, Born Ruffians, The Most Serene Republic, Zeus, Bahamas and more. In total, there are almost 40 interviews, including ones with the band itself.

The documentary also includes concert footage from the record store Sonic Boom for Record Store Day and their album release concert at The Great Hall in November.

“I wanted to tell their story because they have been around for such a long time and have the same three members,” says McCarney. “They are more like brothers than anything else. They have seen tons of fads, trends and scenes but they ignored it and evolved at their own pace. They are one of the most deserving bands in Toronto and Canada to be famous and make a good living writing and playing music, but so many obstacles got in the way and yet they keep plugging away because they love it.”

These obstacles are fully dug into in Ages and Stages, from being in the wrong place at the wrong time to contemplating ending the band.

McCarney and his team hope to have Ages and Stages in this year’s North by Northeast, Halifax Film Fest and Vancouver International Film Festival. A DVD will likely be released in the summer.

Watch the trailer below: