slept on the floor

Kevin from Stalwart Sons/Bart Records/Revolution Winter

1- where are you from?

I was born and raised in Red Deer, but now I’m living in Calgary for the most part - I like to say “I’m from Alberta.” Matt and Leejay, from Stalwart Sons, are born Calgarians.

2- what do you do in the band/label?

I play guitar and do vocals in Stalwart Sons. Matt is on the bass, Leejay on the drums.

As for the record labels, Bart and Revolution Winter, I do everything - Usually that just means I answer/send emails and dub tapes - if I thought about it, I’d realize I do something everyday for it: stuff envelopes, organize shows, pester people online, fold covers, dub more tapes. Record label as perpetual crafting & web-surf project.

3- what are your upcoming projects?

Stalwart Sons are currently working on our second LP - we just finished a mini-tour with Town Ship, and we’ve been playing the odd show, but the other guys are pretty busy with school and other obligations at the moment, so I’m mostly focused on writing for now. Hopefully these new songs will get recorded within the new year, and released soon after. There will hopefully also be another split 7” in the works as well.

Right now I’m just finalizing the Town Ship 7” out on Revolution Winter. We had a few ready for their tour, but now the full screened cover is just about ready, and it’s gonna be slick. There’s also a pretty fun little compilation of Bart bands doing 70’s/early 80’s rock covers entitled Dad Jamz which is hot on the dubber as we speak. Should be out within the week!

Upcoming, there will be a tape for the killer band Mahria from Edmonton in the near future, and I’ve been talking to Segwei from Japan about releasing their new LP here in North America. Pretty stoked on those ones. 

I’m involved in lots of other stuff as well: I’ve also got a second book of poetry in the works. My chiptune project GreyScreen has a new cd/lathe that should be out super soon, possible tour for that in the works as well. Putting lots of shows with my friend Vanessa Fever through our all ages space, Undermountain. A few of us are finalizing the second issue of the Kindling zine that we initially put out for the Ghost Throats festival this summer; interviews with Roger from Tempest, Amy from Gyre Spire & Spindle, assorted essays, etc. Good stuff is on the horizon.

4- tell us something that we don’t know but should know about your label?.

The whole reason I started BART in the first place, was I found a high-speed cassette dubber at the Bibles for Missions (note: the best thrift store in Red Deer), which I promptly snatched up and brought home. But then I had this awkward machine - so I needed to put it to use. There were all these great bands around me, friends and allies, that, inexplicably, were not putting out releases. Bart became the banner for all this great stuff, mostly unheard elsewhere, in Western Canada. The difference with Revolution Winter is pretty incidental, Bart is the tapes, Revolution Winter is the records - It seems like this is more confusing than it should be, but I felt there was a difference between the two, hence the different names. The idea behind it all is constant, though. 

5- what bands do you like these days? what have you listened to today?

I follow the End of a Year (Self Defense Family) stuff pretty closely, and the new 7” on Deathwish, specifically, rules. The new Raein LP is the best record of the year. Pretty stoked on that Baton Rouge LP that came out quite recently. Sinaloa, as always, remains a constant favourite. Every Tubers record still speaks to me as much as they ever did. 

I listened to Oxbow’s “Let Me Be a Woman” today - the song “Sunday” especially, over and over - that guy is one of the scariest vocalists I’ve ever heard, and the sheer mastery of discordance on that track kills me.  Also, the new Enablers has really grown on me. 

6- do you have friends in bands or who run labels/zines that we should know about?

Pretty much every friend I have is in a band or involved in music in some way, and that’s what a lot of these releases come from, bourne out of friendships. So many great bands out here (and to possibly risk being somewhat nepotistic): Crow Eater, Scrapbooker, Todos Caeran, Slates, Town Ship, Bandera - all bands/pals we’ve played with in the last few months who blew me away. There’s a ton of others, but those are the ones that have done it for me personally. Book of Caverns have been killin’ it, and are getting awesomer every show, definitely still one of the most under-rated bands around.  As for labels, Clue#2 are doing great things, it’s run by one of the guys from Damages (another awesome band, by the way) and they’re definitely one of the few great labels in the West.  

7- why are you in a band and what do you want to accomplish in said label?

Stalwart Sons exists (if I can put this as simply as I can) because I was not hearing the music I wanted to hear. The music in my head rings louder than the stuff in my record collection.  I had been living in Korea for a year and, while I had a good time at the hardcore shows there (best kids, and sincere), much of it came off as dated and the ideas were all stuck in a certain era long past - stuff that ultimately didn’t move me. I played in a band there, but it wasn’t the creative outlet that I was looking for - It wasn’t who I was, or hitting me where I was at. But I was still compelled to write. A few of the songs on “Burn Daylights Like Torches” were written while I was in living in Korea, in fact. So with all these ideas brewing - upon returning, I was driven to get it all out there. Matt and Leejay came on board (and I’m super thankful for them) and we’ve been pretty active since.

Finger pointing “fuck you’s” and knee-jerk anger and ignorant political posturing - all this stuff that mires so much hardcore, it’s so boring and tired, so gauche, it’s simply insulting to me as and educated, poetry-loving young man. It’s got to read as well as it’s yelled. The ideas behind Stalwart Sons sought to actively avoid all that; so the ideas all stem from the desire to actively respond and reflect on who and what we are - be it my community, my family, wrestling with my christianity, wrestling with punk rock itself, my country. So sure, even themes like farming or Alberta will be present - it’s where I’m from and what I’m surrounded by. The meshing of post-hardcore with rootsy/country/CanRock leanings came pretty organically - I never intended to be riding this alienating middle ground between genres. It’s the music that comes out, and I have to say, it’s a pretty sincere and accurate representation of what we’re about.

Bart and Revolution Winter seeks to document the stuff that’s going on here in Western Canada. So much great stuff has sprung up here in Alberta, especially in Edmonton. I love how labels like Dischord or K sought to document a specific scene and city - and, while there are of course exceptions to that, that is what I try to emulate, but centered on the West. 

8- how did you decide upon your band/label’s name?

Most peole don’t even know it exists, but “Stalwart Sons” comes from the second verse of “O Canada.” The line goes “O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies/May stalwart sons, and gentle maidens rise.” I wanted a band name that was defiantly and staunchly Canadian, much in the same way North of America was. Stalwart Sons is the perfect embodiment of that.

Bart Records is a reference for the Focus on the Family radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. In one episode there’s a band, fronted by the town bully Rodney Rathbone, called The Bones of Wrath - and they put out a tape with songs like “who needs parents?” and “I wish you would hurry up and die” - stuff like that. Rodney’s dad, the sort-of town swindler is named Bart, and so releases the tape on his imprint: Bart Records. So the parents get wind of this and protest it and everything. The moral of the whole thing was about being discerning about the music you listen to, but instead I loved the idea of a cassette label that could be dangerous, making parents go crazy - I made a fictional tape label into reality!

Revolution Winter refers to Revolution Summer - which was this time in D.C., (1985 I think?) when after all the first wave of hardcore bands had sort of ended or fizzled out, soRevolution Summer became a sort of rallying cry to get people involved once again, start bands again, revitalize. A lot of it gets detailed in that book “Dance of Days” about D.C. punk rock. But so many of my favourite records came out (or were at least recorded) in that period. Reversal of Man named an album after it. I wanted to capture that feeling, frenzied re-invigouration - but being here in Alberta, we barely have the luxury of summers at all, 6-month winters, so Revolution Winter it is, but with the same sentiment present.

9- when was the last time you slept on a floor?

For the Stalwart Sons tour, we were pretty blessed to have had pals who had some pretty inviting bed/futon/couch combinations - I hope we don’t get accused of being bourgeois.  

10- do you have anything more to say?

If people around you are doing good things, let them know it. Tell that band they wrote your jam, tell your mom you love her, tell that friend they’re an inspiration. Write fan letters, get stoked on things. Encourage the good. You never can tell how far it goes. Half the time, that’s all it takes to keep things moving. 
Stay cold.

http://stalwartsons.bandcamp.com/
http://revolutionwinter.tumblr.com/