First Rate People is a supergroup that's about community

by AUX staff

January 9, 2014

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Originally conceived in Ontario’s Grey and Bruce counties around 2007, First Rate People has been a project of collaboration from the start. “I just knew for sure I had no desire to do a proper solo record, but had all these ideas,” recounts singer/songwriter Jon Lawless about the band’s origins. “This is not meant to sound like slagging off other solo artists; I’m just more interested in what happens when you mix people together. That’s more meaningful to me. I like being surprised.”

What resulted was a recording project pulling in a stream of local and like-minded artists from various musical genres. After years of releasing singles and EPs, as well as securing a core lineup for touring (rounded out by Liam Sanagan, Anna Horvath, Hayden Stewart, Patrick Morrissey, and Levi Dow, though other collaborators perform when they can), this month sees the debut of Everest, the band’s first full-length.

Everest is a collection songs that seamlessly showcases the range of each member’s numerous other projects. No more is this distillation evident than on album opener “Dark Age,” a bouncy electro-pop song that gives way to an acoustic finish. “If we’d set out to do exactly that, I feel like it would be a horrible failure but it’s so awesome that it happened organically.”

Does having such an open door to collaboration ever cause a problem?

“I’m not going to front and say it’s all roses all the time because like any working dynamic you definitely get your fair share of misunderstandings / setbacks/ communication breakdowns but if you can work through those things I believe you usually emerge stronger.

“It’s actually pretty humbling working with First Rate People,” Lawless continues. “We all tried so many vocal parts that got cut because it’s always like, ‘What works best for this song?’ You almost can’t get attached to people’s personalities or else you become too controlling, saying this song needs more whoever. It doesn’t necessarily need that. What might work best is the last idea you have or the first or anywhere in between.”

Lawless’ ideas of partnership and compromise even extends to the artwork: a homemade recreation of Mount Everest.

“That was mostly Liam’s baby; His idea was to build something that looked intentionally fake and a little cavernous and sad to go along with the pretty ridiculous title, so he spent literally months building a papier-mâché mountain in Hayden’s back yard. Can-Rock fact: Hayden moved into the house formerly owned by Ohbijou and they tweeted us their blessings (laughs).”

And while it may seem like having so many satellite projects happening at once makes focusing on First Rate People tricky, it is something Lawless finds encouraging and welcomes it as a way to recharge creatively.

“This band is all about community and sometimes people have to go do their own things to reinvigorate FRP if there’s going to be another album.”

This article originally appeared in the December 2013 Issue of AUX Magazine.

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Tags: Music, Interviews, AUX Magazine December 2013, First Rate People

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