Rose Perry: "Rock N' Roll is not dead, its just asleep in the corner"
This Ontario based band consists of lead singer Rose Perry, Jesse Tomes on lead guitar, Nicole VanHaverbek on bass and backing vocals and drummer Matty Cole. Together, they turn this debut CD into an instant classic.
From Rose's masterfully delivered vocals, alternating between a forceful proclamation and a snarl she is making her own, to the catchy choruses, to the fierce bassline Nicole lays down through out the album, to the hooks and riffs Jesse offers our music-starved ears, all the way to Matty's solid and at times almost cadence-like drums, this CD never quits delivering turbo-charged, high-powered rock-n-roll.
And Rose Perry along with her new band Anti-Hero are determined to help sound the wake up call to Rock N' Roll lovers everywhere with their debut release, " Unpretty."
Rose Perry Interview
TCZ: Your first performance at age 4 was just 11 years before you formed your first band HER the all girl pop/punk group that found notable success in Canada. Yet you composed your first song at just the tender age of seven. Can you tell us about that song and what it means to you today?
Rose: Hah, oh dear! The first song I ever wrote along with the help of my music teacher at the time (I wrote the vocals, lyrics, and chord progressions, but didn't play an instrument at the time, so she came up with the piano accompaniment), was entitled, Heaven on Earth.
Very cheesy, yes I know, however, looking back, I must say it was fairly insightful for a seven year old as the song's subject matter was reflecting on the vast oil spills and pollution problems that the world was experiencing at that time. It was very experiemental, literally every verse had a key and tempo change. Obviously not my greatest work, but it was the first time that I ever tried to express myself musically. I had always been an avid writer, but adding music to one's words opens up a whole new element and dimension for expression in itself.
TCZ: Like Rock Veteran Pat Benatar and many others your roots are in opera and classical music. Did you receive any formal training and how does that help you today?
Rose: I most certaintly did! I studied vocal music ranging anywhere from classical to opera to jazz to celtic for about 14 years along with theory rudiments achieving my grade seven in vocal music and grade two in theory before calling it quits.
Initially, when I first began singing rock, I found my training to be more hindering than helpful. Classical music is very strict and doesn't allow for one's own interpretation or expression, rock on the otherhand is all about attitude so as you can imagine, this was a very difficult concept to try and wrap my head around.
However, when I finally got into my rock musical groove (which I really don't think happened until I recorded this Unpretty with ANTI-HERO), I realized that my training has also had its benefits because I have a great ability to project my voice, and though I'm small in statue, my vocals are very powerful and full because of my background.
TCZ: With influences ranging from The Beatles to Veruca Salt what artists or band made the greatest impact on you the first time you saw them perform live? And how has that changed your own approach to music?
Rose: Until recently, I really hadn't had much of an opportunity to see my all time favourite bands or any big names in the industry. I have been lucky enough to see some absolutely huge ground breaking acts that have revolutionized the music industry such as Madonna and Black Sabbath, but honestly, the concerts that stand out most in my mind are ones of independent bands.
I remembered seeing Candyass (now Pretty Boys) perform at Call the Office back in my HER days, we shared the stage with them, and I was totally impressed by their stage performance. They had choreographed movements, co-ordinated outfits, and just had everything down to a tee.
As well, my first Scratching Post (now Minx) concert was just as influential to me when developing my ideas of how to act on stage. I really looked up to Nicole Hughes (lead vox, guitar) a great deal because she just eluded sheer sex appeal and commanded the stage regardless of the fact that she was the only woman in an otherwise all guy band.
I definitely would still love to see Gwen Stefani perform with No Doubt because her stage presence (from live footage that I've witnessed on tv) is unmatchable and I would've liked to have been able to see Veruca Salt (back in the Nina and Louise days). Most excitingly, however, I've been granted the best Xmas present ever this year -- I'm going to see Aerosmith -- no one rocks quite like Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
TCZ: In numerous interviews you have pointed to Veruca Salt as being one of your greatest influences. What is it about this band that still appeals to you today?
Rose: Nina and Louise had the perfect amount of contrast between their singing/instrumentation styles and influences -- I think that they are by far one of the greatest female song writing teams I've ever seen. Each one of their songs is so intricately constructed with their intense harmonies, and amazing guitar licks. I think I really appreciate them so much because the industry didn't get a chance to overtake their creativity and make them into what the record labels see as "marketable".
TCZ: In a recent interview you said you felt misunderstood by many people can you expand on that?
Rose: I guess I just find that people who don't know me very well tend to misjudge me. I get termed a lot of derogatory comments because I'm not afraid to speak my mind. The lesson here is, "Don't judge a book by its cover."
If after getting to know me, you still feel the same way and want to label me such, then so be it, but don't just assume I'm a certain way because of what you see or hear in one circumstance.
TCZ: As a female fronting an indie band what are the greatest challenges you face today in the music industry?
Rose: Getting equal recognition regardless of our gender and dealing with ignorant people who believe that women can't rock out as hard as guys. There is also more pressure on women in music to have sex appeal and to possess a certain ideal of beauty - to that both Nic and I say, fuck that, we are being ourselves. If I wear a short skirt, it's cause I want to, not because someone is telling me that I have to present myself in that manner.
TCZ: Recently you commented "Rock N' Roll is not dead, its just asleep in the corner." Would you say that belief is what led you and your fellow band members into forming Anti-Hero?
Rose: I definitely feel that "Rock 'N' Roll is not dead, its just asleep in the corner", is a belief that we, wholeheartedly, as a band agree upon. We'd like to see the industry go back to the days where in order to get a record deal, you needed more than just a pretty face. In saying so, we hope to be part of that change.
TCZ: Although you have already experienced a lifetime in the different projects you have tackled singer/songwriter, actor, model/spokesperson, and entrepreneur all by the age of 21. Your new band, "Anti-Hero" appears to be that one thing you were searching for. Is that a fair statement and why do you feel that way?
Rose: I definitely feel that is true. I have been able to accomplish a fair amount in my life as a force of one, but I cannot tell you enough how great it is to have three like minded amazing individuals by my side who really get me and who all want the same thing in life; to do music for a living ripping it up on stage. I can honestly say, I've never been happier.
TCZ: Tell us about Anti-Hero and your band mates.
Rose: Where do I begin? Though we agree on the music we make together, we are all such different people with such diverse tastes in music, it's unbelievable! I don't think that collectively as a band we could all agree on one cd, but if it were any other way, I don't think we would have the sound that we do.
I love what each and every one of the members brings to the band -- Matty with his lovable jovial personality, double kick, and hard hitting toms, Nic, my partner in crime - the only other strong female I would want by my side, she's the dark to my light, and her raw edginess brings a whole new dimension to the vocals, and Jesse - one of the only men that really understands me and doesn't have a problem with a woman being in charge, his innovations to the guitar structures and patterns definitely do not go unnoticed. What can I say? They are my family and without them, I wouldn't be the same.
TCZ: Anti-Hero the punk/rock band you front today is more than just a name, but an anthem for everything the band feels is wrong with the music industry today. Taking that into consideration, when you go on stage do you feel a sense of pride you might have lacked in your first band simply because of what Anti-Hero stands for?
Rose: I definitely felt that I was trying to speak out for issues as well in my old band HER, but it was coming from a different place. When I formed HER, I was still in my early teens so althought I was attempting to speak out for things that I believed in, there were coming from a rather juvenile place and ended up being more flaky sounding than what I would have liked.
Because it's been a few years since then, I've obviously matured as a person and an artist through my experiences, and I think that as a consequence, I'm able to express myself in a more powerful universal way.
Not all of the ideas that I write about are brand new to me -- I've had a lot of the same feelings for a while --, but until now, I wasn't able to vocalize them quite as effectively nor make an impact on other people's lives.
TCZ: We were lucky enough to get a chance to review Anti-Hero's debut album "Unpretty" a hard hitting release that strives to represent all the band stands for. And one of the first things we noticed was the underlying challenge laced through the lyrics for more bands to just strip away all the cosmetic promotion the music industry seems to feed on today and just get out there and perform. Tell us about producing this cd and the level of satisfaction you felt when you finally released it.
Rose: As mentioned briefly already, as a band we agree that there are too many "musicians" out there in the industry who don't actually have musical ability, but are rather just nicely packaged marketable models, while the real talent (producers/songwriters trying to make them sound like they can actually sing or play) is behind the scenes.
With the album, we wanted it to be as close to live as possible meaning no effects on the vocals, or instrumentation. It's really sad when you fall in love with a band, and then go and see them live and they can't even come close to what they sound like recorded.
We didn't want our cd to come out that way. It's real, raw, untainted - the way music intended to be. We aren't a made up pop band that lipsynchs live and can't play our instruments.
We are real musicians, and Unpretty is a real album.
TCZ: What led to the decision to use the title track " Unpretty" in your first video and what stands out in your memory most about the filming of the video.
Rose: We wanted to introduce our band through the title track Unpretty because it's a song that stands for something, it has a message and it's meant to provoke thought, to get others to think about the concepts of beauty in a different way instead of just accepting them. We really wanted to make a statement with our first song to show the industry that there are still bands out there that have something more to say than just writing about cliche love songs.
The best part about shooting the music video was playing the fake concert at our beloved hometown venue Call the Office and invited all of our awesome fans to come out and participate. It was such a great and fun experience for everyone.
TCZ: The ten tracks you released on your debut album all have cutting edge lyrics and a strong musical foundation. But which song did the band find the most difficult to perform live for the first time and why?
Rose: Probably Lost On the Outside, because when we first formed the band, Nic had little to no actual singing experience, and this song required a strong harmony to be sung overtop of the lead line in the chorus. I had to sit down with her for a few weeks and work on her confidence and tonality when singing. She definitely has a strong preference for screaming her heart out, but when she gets down to just singing, she can sound really awesome.
TCZ: Sum up the track, "Not Good Enough" for us in your own words.
Rose: At the time I wrote Not Good Enough, I was working at a 44 hour a week job in which every day was consistently stressful and frustrating because my boss was always putting me down, and making me feel very unappreciated so the song's subject matter is derived from that experience.
I wanted to write a song about the battle of dealing with an authority figure who doesn't treat you with respect and one who abuses their position of power. The conclusion of the song is basically that if the roles were switched and I gained the power, despite all of the abuse I was subject to, I wouldn't waste my breath treating that person in the same regard because as the title says, they aren't good enough.
We all experience situations in life where we have the temptation to seek out revenge on a person who has done us wrong, but what I'm trying to say is that if you stoop to their level, you are behaving no better than they are. Rather, be empowered, don't let what they are saying/doing defeat you, stand above it and you will be better off in doing so.
On a side note, unlike with a lot of artists who compliment their subject matter, if you are an inspiration for one of my songs, you are probably not on my good side.
TCZ: Anti-Hero performed in Warped Tour this year up in Canada. Tell us about that experience and what the band loved most about it.
Rose: It was just incredible to play to a crowd of that magnitude when we have only been a band for a very short period of time. As well, I attended Warped Tour back in 2002, to say that my band was on the bill for 2005 was absolutely amazing. We are very grateful for the opportunity and it was wicked to see so many females rocking and rolling on the Shiragirl Stage supporting each other.
TCZ: Were you surprised at the huge turn out the band had recently at their Video release show? And do you think that show led to some of the endorsements you have since received from Hot Picks USA and Minx Clothing just to name a few.
Rose: We weren't necessarily surprised because we have an awesome following in our hometown and we have had support from our local fans right from the get-go. It was definitely encouraging to see that many people show up however and it for sure, made us very happy to have such a successful turnout for something that was really important to us.
TCZ: Anti-Hero has been compared to everyone from The Queens of Stone Age to the grunge pioneers, Nirvana and tagged by the media as Rock N' Roll revolutionaries. Do you view Anti Hero as pioneers and what goals do you hope to achieve with your debut album?
Rose: To say that we are the first band to play rock music or to write about the subjects we do would be inaccurate and I would never want to take away the impact all the great bands of the past have made on the industry. Afterall, we wouldn't be here without them.
Our main objective is we would like to see the art brought back to music, for talent to overtake marketability, and we'd like the chance to bring meaning back to lyrics as well. There are others bands with a similar goal in mind, but like us, have difficulty trying to enter the mainstream market because the industry has become about who you know, rather than what it should be focused on; the music.
I don't think we are revolutionaries, but I do think we are innovators. In a time where the youth once again have become very disenchanted with the world, we speak out for what we believe in and try to inspire others. Also, with a leading female presence, this is something that is rarely seen in the past. There were definitely greats like Joan Jett, Pat Benator, Alanis - but because the music industry is primarly dominated by men, I don't think they got the credit they deserved which in my opinion is bullshit. Musicians are musicians, it doesn't matter if you are male, female, black, white, rock, or soul - if you've got something to say and your facet is music - that is commentable and it deserves recognition.
I definitely don't think our music fits into what is currently the flavor of the week trend, and we definitely don't want it to. We don't make music with the intention in mind to sound like everyone else. The music that comes out of us is genuine, real, and is our attempt to speak out for what we believe in.
My hopes with this album were simply to just inspire one person, and as fans of ours have already told me, this mission has been accomplished.
We make music cause we love making music, it would be amazing to have the ability to reach people on a worldwide scale, but we aren't in it for the money or the fame. We're in it because there's something inside of us that fuels us to creatively express ourselves in this way.
TCZ: Not long ago the band had to deal with some negative attention from fans of the popular band The Anti-Heros, who believe you stole the name Anti-Hero. Tell us about that and how both bands view the negativity and plan to combat it.
Rose: When forming ANTI-HERO, we had no idea that The Anti-Heroes existed nor did they know about us until recently, but we still took the initiative to get the rights to the name ANTI-HERO in Canada so there would be no problems in the future. As you can see, it was to no avail. For anyone forming a band trying to think up a half decent name, I'm sure many of you have experienced difficulties in finding something that hasn't already been thought of.
So the story goes as follows, I was promoting some of our upcoming events on a popular music message board when I encountered some diehard Anti-Heroes fans who were quite upset with us, but clearly weren't interested in our end of the story before making such harsh accusations. Might I also mention, there were fellow musicians in another Ontario indie band. Being a band that fully supports and encourages fellow musicians, we thought this was rather petty and juvenile and were sorry that we offended anyone, but chose not to go back onto that message board as we didn't feel we were in the wrong so that was the end of that until....
A few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, I received a message from the lead singer, Geoff, of The Anti-Heroes who found out about us online. In the email, he did nothing but praise us as a band and concluded with that he hoped that because of the name similarly they were not infringing on our territory as a band.
I wrote him back telling him I was happy to make his acquaintance and I also explained the difficulties we had had with some of their fans. He apologized profusely and posted a message on his band's website telling fans that they did not look highly upon that sort of behaviour and that both our band and his are fine with the name thing, so they should be as well.
I further posted a message on our myspace account reassuring the same thing simply concluding with you can like us, you can like The Anti-Heroes, or both, but don't try cut either band down about the name fiasco as we are both fine with it. So there you have it, The Anti-Heroes and ANTI-HERO are friends and as fellow bands should, they fully support each other in future endeavours.
TCZ: Like your former band HER, Anti-Hero is quickly finding notable success in Canada, which seems to be a growing hub for hard rocking indie bands, but very little recognition in the states and no air play at all. What do you think still needs to be done to achieve that break through here in the states?
Rose: Well, I think the number one problem is that Canadian acts can't simply cross the border to tour without either work permits or a letter from a venue stating they are travelling to showcase their music to record labels and aren't being compensated for their performance which most Canadian acts would agree is very unfair. The States don't want Canadians entering their country and earning American cash for a performance when they can hire an American band to do so. However, it does go both ways. From what I hear, it is just as difficult for an American band to come to Canada and be able to tour.
Due to the fact we can't tour in the States, we haven't really bothered submitting our record for radio play because when are you an independent band, a lot of stations aren't likely to give you coverage unless you are touring in that area sometime soon.
I think the border laws should be changed. Canada and The States are one in the same in a lot of ways, and it's really not fair that it next to impossible for an independent band to gain cross over success unless they have tons of money to burn, or have dual citizenship.
TCZ: Looking at the world wide music industry today, what country do you think indie bands have the best chance to succeed in and why?
Rose: Europe & Asia because they both seem to be more open to getting their hands on something new. They are countries in which technology, and innovation are always steps ahead of everyone else, and thus they welcome newcomers and innovators with open arms.
TCZ: What can we expect from Anti-Hero in 2006? Any US tours?
Rose: What can't you expect? If we can do it, we'll do it.
TCZ: Is there anything we haven't touched on that you would like to share?
Rose: This has been a great mind-stimulating interview, and I'm happy not to be answering the question of how the band formed yet again.
Interview by GWGS © The Cover Zone October 2005