R4NT vs Ours To Destroy

by Gordon McDowell

Interview and live performance captured 2007-12-03. Ours To Destroy consists of Steve Dodd, Eric Ewin, Roland Griffith and David Morely. Camerawork was performed by D4V, Gord and multiple beer.

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(Running Time 19:06)



Steve Dodd	David Morely	Roland Griffith	Eric Ewin
If you had to categorize Ours to Destroy, what would you file it under?
We’re anarchist-folk-rock. This is stated clearly on our website. If you like punk, if you like weird sounds…
I’m sorry, there is no “anarchist-folk-rock” in this filing cabinet. Did I ask you for a set of tags?
File it under… music.
What are your biggest influences?
Archbishop of Canterbury.
And?
The pope!
And anyone besides Roland?
I’d like to look like Sting. He was voted worst lyricist by Blender Magazine. Beating Neil Peart.
I’m kind of… I’m ok with Sting.
Sting on his own… not with The Police.
Oh! Ok. I’ll agree to that. Neil Peart… worst lyricist! I feel somewhat vindicated because I’ve always hated Rush for their lyrics.
And… not for their fans.
[Silence]
But sort of… for their fans.
Sting does Tantric yoga. [Roland wanders off]
Damo… are you as angry as you look?
More morose than angry. Cynicism is an artform.
We’re all Canadian boys who haven’t grown up under a tremendous amount of duress, so I don’t know how much we have to be angry about.
How about the soul crushing poverty that comes with being a musician?
Fortunately, with the exception of Mr Dodd, music is not the day job that pays the bills otherwise I’d be eating Kraft Dinner and living in a box under Center street bridge.
So how does a typical OTD track get made?
The writing process has evolved over time. The newer stuff we’re working on for the next album is a ‘work on it as a band’ type thing. Go over and over it until we all figure out something cool to play or until Eric tires of it four hours later.
Remembering the FTP passwords is the hardest part.
Damo creates vocals and strumming, what he calls “rough stuff”. I’m the part adder and part taker awayer.
The guy who fucks it all up. [Roland wanders back]
Yeah I’m that guy. Hurt and help equal parts. I’m not a lyricist, Damo is.
You add tracks and layers?
Yes. Sometimes I’d fire off an idea to Damo to start, but I never initiated anything by putting a mic in front of my face and start recording lyrics.
I was watching wrestling.
So “Fifty Steps Closer to Evil”?
It started with 30 steps and we realized we needed 20 more.
I submitted an idea called “12 Steps”… it was more of a program.
We were gonna write that song as soon as Eric got to step 2.
[Steve] Dodd is weird on the inside. He’ll take one on Damo’s beautiful melodic folk songs and put context around it that you’d never imagine.
Like Prairies? With the hey-I’m-high-now audio?
This band makes better use of technology any any group I’ve played with. There were a number of nights Damo kind of remembers… An entire song would spring from a conversation… we had Apologies to Fat Elvis done in about 15 minutes.
But that was a punk rip off.
But if you spend too long on punk, you’re Pink Floyd or something.
It took longer to perform it than it did to write it.
Technology makes is possible, everyone is writing albums in their home now. For better and for worse. If you’re sitting around talking about it, in 30 seconds you could be doing it.
Ask Eric how long he’s been playing bass for.
Since September. I play guitar. [Steve] Dodd and I introduced me to guitar when we worked at McDonalds together 20 years ago. He took me to a music store and banged out a couple chords on a baby blue Yamaha guitar. That was it, I was sold.
[Eric] Are you a musician full time?
No! No… no. God no… We should probably set up.
No. Roland has to say something.
I need to load my gear.