Last night, Gimmeindie.se headed out to Urban Spree to catch No Joy headlining Shameless Limitless’ Canadian extravaganza night. The shoegazing trio No Joy is currently touring Europe and performed alongside fellow Montreal-acts Doomsquad and Secret Secret Girls.
Jasamine White-Gluz (vocals, guitar) and Laura Lloyd (guitar) started working on material together while Laura was still living in LA back in 2009. Via emails, the two exchanged ideas and decided to form No Joy. Back in Montral, Garland Hastings (drums) was added to the constellation and they eventually got signed by LA-label Mexican Summer. Just in time for their European tour, No Joy released EP “Pastel and Pass Out” which follows this year’s earlier full-length album “Wait to Pleasure”.
Live shows are always rather tricky when it comes to making a record justice. Some find live shows which are almost identical to the album recording boring, whereas other might be disappointed to see a totally different sound on stage. No Joy manages to keep the balance and do something in between. While the sound on record is quite airy and California dreamy, the live show was raw and sweaty. Although, less present live, Jasamine’s vocals still added that airy element to the sound which is characteristic for all of No Joy’s albums to date. They do not shy away from a noisier sound while on stage and you can tell that the band really enjoys getting lost in riffs and drum solos. None of the members held back, resulting in great energy on stage including some head banging action. When the last track was over, No Joy looked exhausted and the audience seemed more than pleased – a safe sign of a successful show.
Prior to their Berlin-show, we had the pleasure to get some answers out of the Canadian showgazers.
– How did you guys come up with the band name?
The name was just something we came up with. There is unfortunately no story behind the name.
– There are a lot of good bands hailing from Canada at the moment. How is the climate for musicians and could you imagine to relocate?
Montreal is a very inexpensive city so it makes it easy to spend time on your music or band. We aren’t particularly attached to the city though, its just where we call home.
– Talking about cities, you are touring at the moment. Which are your favorite cities to play in? Is there any place in particular you are looking forward to?
On this tour we are going to a lot of cities we’ve never been to in Europe so we are looking forward to all of these dates. Los Angeles is always a favorite place for us to play and Brooklyn feels like a second home to us now too.
– Touring is quite intense. Do you hang out with each other most of the time or how do you keep the balance between work and private life?
On tour you don’t really have a choice, you’re stuck together in a van for hours. At home I think for the most part we are all hermits and don’t really see anybody anyway or go out.
– Is music a full time job for all of you or do you also have side careers?
We have side careers as well. I(Jasmine) am the senior booking agent at Dulcedo Model Management and I keep working from the road, which gets pretty difficult with the time differences and stuff.
– What is your song writing approach and where does the inspiration come from?
We all write songs, at first individually, then bring it in to a practice and we kind of expand on the ideas from there. Inspiration comes from anywhere really. Sometimes it’s just a riff or a concept, other times it’s a fully structured song.
– So last but not least, what can we expect from No Joy after this tour?
We are going to take a really long nap.