BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [May 2018]

ROCKPILE
THE ALLOVERS
a tale of two cities and three guys’s
This whacky power-trio is literally and artistically
all over the map. Guitarist/vocalist and
wordplay specialist, Matt Pahl, resides in Calgary,
while the rhythm section, Garret Kruger (drums)
and Paul Arnusch (bass/vocals) live in Edmonton.
With 300 kilometers in between, they write songs
separately, not too seriously, seldom practice but
still play and produce bona-fide, primo garagey
pop-punk. Recently signed to Chicago’s Anxious
and Angry Records that invests heavily into its
DIY community, Matt Pahl discusses The Allovers’
own crafty, collective spirit and their debut
release, Yer Guises.
The Allovers have a fun mix of style and genres
— surf, old school garage, post-punkish Britpop
vocals and jazzy, prog-like guitar solos.
A real eclectic bag of tricks. Is that how it just
came out, or is the songwriting like adding a
little dash of this, a little dash of that?
Yes, we’re “allover” the place. Sometimes on the
more conventional bubblegum side, sometimes
on the weird, abrasively noisy, or experimental
side. That’s where we try to strike a balance that’s
hopefully appealing. We live in different cities so
we never jam or practice. I give the other guys
demos to work on and they make up their own
out parts on their own. By the time we play something
live we usually have a good idea of what we
want to do and we’ll play the thing a couple of
times together before a show. We tend to agree
on most musical things, so luckily we don’t have
to screw around for hours arguing or figuring
things out together. Paul brings in song demos
the same way too. We dig melody and harmony,
as much as we do riffy parts or whacky, blasts of
psychotic racket.
Your songs are hilarious with snippets of
adventures, weird and sometimes nonsensical,
let’s talk a little bit about them. “Blue Kangaroo”
invloves drinking champagne in a birch
canoe, running aground, might as well drink
shampoo. What’s going on there?
That was the first ever Allovers’ song and it sort of
established the general motif of the band. Lyrically
it’s just sharing half-baked thoughts and observations
about coping with other people on this
whacky planet. It’s also a sort of playful resignation
from a world preferring Enter Sandman over Mr.
Sandman.
“Dog Team Cooperation” sounds like a proposal
trying to get any organization to work
together. From small rag-tag operations, to
large-scale corporate and bureaucratic frustrations,
to trying to bridge the polarized gap of
everything USA. What’s it really about?
You nailed it. Collaboration, compromise, cooperation
for the greater good. On some levels, we
BY B. SIMM
humanoids are just smelly ol’ dogs sniffing and
strutting around, marking our territory, barking
nonsensically at each other from afar. The song
is just an encouragement piece for the human
race to get together and work as a team, however
idiotic and naive that might sound.
Is “Tub Time” a variation of “splish-splash I
was taking a bath,” a fun throw-your-kid-inthe-bath
track?
Bobby Darin. Nice! Tub Time figuratively refers
to those times when I’m muttering to myself,
sort of like Taxi Driver’s misanthropic voice-over
narration as DeNiro drives through Times Square
at night. That’s the gist of that song. I guess the
message is: In spite of everything, try to look after
yourself.
“Sugar Shed” reminds me of building a shed in
your back yard, with an observation deck to
drink on. Something along those lines?
Sounds like my kind of DIY, 21st century design
innovation. This song is just about goofing around
with strangers in an abandoned industrial area. I
felt a song about drinking moonshine and dancing
around an old outhouse by moonlight might
be somehow romantic. Add coyotes, owls and
other night critters hanging around. Who knows?
“When Freddie’s Back In Town” is that simply a
bro-nite out?
Yeah, basically a Thin Lizzy “The Boys are Back in
Town” sort of thing. I always got a kick out of that
song. Like you (the listener) were being let in with
this friendly gang who were “back” and they’re
gonna be “down at Dino’s” so you’d better go and
hang with them. However, the good times in our
version hinge solely on this one charismatic dude
named Fred. He barbeques, buys all the rounds,
they twist, shout and paint the town.
With “Kitty Kat Girl” I can’t decide if this is
about a rockabilly infatuation or a seven year
old hugging her kitty in a stranglehold.
Yeah. The former and the latter works too. This
song was written on the spot in an improv sort of
moment as I was putting my little baby girl to bed
trying to think of something sweet to whisper in
her ear to ease her nerves and calm her down. It’s
also another ten word illustration of how hard a
task I find lyric memorization to be.
“I Remember Beaver Lumber” is obviously a
lament for all the fun things that have now
disappeared, and quite good!
Thanks. This song only mentions products and
brands, but the sentiment is about old friends I
don’t really know anymore. I was kind of going
for a Ray Davies “Do You Remember Walter” sort
of vibe with this number. Times change, all sorts
of things vanish and so do people. I really don’t
photo: Arif Ansari
know where a lot people I used to hang with
ended up, another side of me doesn’t really care
to know. Like, I’d rather remember my elementary
and Jr. high pals as they were, along with Prostars
Wayne Gretzky cereal and Jelly Tots.
Less is more. Especially when you can spew out
a storyline in less than 1:22. Reminds me of
the one-page novelists. But that is the essence
of good pop – Iggy Pop’s Soupy Sales’ formula
of getting the message across in “25 words or
less” that the Ramones reinstated.
I wish my stuff was as good, but yes, I also
subscribe to the KISS principle. Keep it stupid,
simpleton! It’s practical too. There’s usually some
fast guitar chord changes where I’m having to
simultaneously sing. It’s a pat head, rub tummy
situation. So when writing lyrics, I’ll ask myself, if
Joni Mitchell was a bit of a moron, what would
she write in this section? Keep it stupid. Same
thing on the guitar. If Jimmy Page had recently
suffered an aneurysm, would my choppy solo
suffice? Keep it to a few repetitive chops. I also try
to limit the songs to four to seven chords, tops.
Maybe the odd ascending key change if I get to
it before Paul thinks of it. Tommy James and the
Shondells 101.
The guitars, the solos and sonic layering is
quite clever all the while having fun with it.
Not being too serious even though some of
what’s going on is sophisticated rock ‘n’ roll.
What are some of the bands, players, records
that influenced your own playing and how did
you incorporate that into particular tracks?
I have fairly common tastes. I am obsessed with
hundreds of AM radio golden oldies from the
1950s to the ‘70s, including just about all the old
CanCon stuff. I must say, W1440 AM out Wetaskiwin
is the greatest radio station on Earth. They
play Paul Anka tunes and stuff like “Julia Get Up”
by the Stampeders. That sort of melodic charm
just floors me every time. When writing and
playing I more consciously look to the Ramones,
Misfits, Black Flag, and the Buzzcocks. From there
I usually try to throw on some Burt Bacharach,
Andy Williams, or doo-wop sort of croony
melodies. After that, The Mary Chain, Dino Jr.
and Sonic Youth are inspiration for the noisy bits.
I dunno, anything goes! These days I totally love
Ariel Pink. He’s my fav newer artist by a mile.
The album title, Yer Guises, what that in
reference to?
We went back and forth on this quite a bit. I
recently wrote a tune called Yer Guises and we
thought it’d be cool to have our album named
after this song, even though it’ll be on the next
album, not this one! Like how the tune “Houses
of the Holy” ended up on Physical Graffiti, not
Houses of the Holy. Haha! Anyway, Yer Guises has
some wordplay, stupidity and enough ambiguity
to satisfy, stump and maybe even annoy all sorts
of people. For me, I always crack up a bit whenever
I hear someone say something is “your guys’s.”
There’s something awkward and clumsy about
that. This sort of thing fits right in Alloverland.
Anxious and Angry Records. How did that
relationship come about? What do you think
that might result in for the The Allovers?
A & A is a label out of Chicago that offered to
put the album out after our drummer Garrett
dropped them a demo. They actually friggen liked
it! Lucky for us, we are very grateful. Who knows
what might result. We are not counting chickens,
but in Garrett’s words we are “turbo stoked”.
Anxious and Angry Records will releaseYer Guises
on May 28. The Allovers play on Sat., June 2 at the
Starlight Room in Edmonton and then scheduled for
Sled Island in Calgary.
ROCKPILE BEATROUTE • MAY 2018 | 21