Music

Toronto's First Base detail their perfect power pop formula

by Mark Teo

Photo: Yosh Photography

While Ontario has no shortage of ear-pleasing power pop on offer, there are few bands as immediately infectious as Toronto’s First Base. With only a handful of singles to their name, they’ve earned a rep far beyond provincial borders: First they were noticed stateside thanks to their shockingly catchy songs on Myspace. Next, Jersey garage institutions Personal and the Pizzas covered one of their tracks, despite having never met the band. And for their first LP, they landed on modern punk-psych-garage powerhouse HoZac Records.

“I guess after the first cassette single came out, word kind of spread about us in the States,” says guitarist-songwriter Fraser Wynne. “I think people there were interested in us because there was some kind of mystery about who we were. We kind of came out of nowhere.”

Wynne originally conceived of the project six years ago as a personal recording project because “I had never written a song before and really wanted to start a band.” The songs ended up being preternaturally good bubblegum brimming with lo-fi Beach Boys vocal harmonies, beach-ready power chord riffage, and glee-inducing organs.

“I was already a fan of the band and asked if I could play bass,” adds bassist Mike Simpson, who, along with drummer Shinnosuke Yamaguchi, rounds out the band. “People actually used to think that we were a secret Eric and the Happy Thoughts side project too, which was funny.”

No surprise, really: Both bands are signed to HoZac, and both have a knack for infectiously breezy guitar pop. But unlike their Midwestern counterparts, First Base relied on strictly Ontarian means for their upcoming LP, recording at Yogi’s Meatlocker, the Ottawa studio responsible for releases by Steve Adamyk, White Wires, and Pregnancy Scares.

“Yogi did a really good job getting the kind of sound we wanted. It was our first time recording in a more professional setting,” adds Wynne.

“It’s just the basement of his house, which is right up our alley,” says Simpson. “We chose to record it in Ottawa with Yogi mostly because he had recorded some classic Ottawa bands and we knew exactly what we’d be getting if we recorded with him.”

And as for the LP itself, Wynne and Simpson say there will be no surprises. It mirrors their current head-nodding setlist, and some songs date back to the band’s very inception. So do they plan on making any changes to their flawless power pop?

“You can expect nothing but flawless power pop from the rest of the LP,” laughs Wynne, who adds that the album might be speedier than their early material. “For fun, we recently played a show with country versions of our normal set, and it was terrible. So don’t expect us to experiment much with other styles. I’m content with running this into the ground.”