A Conversation With: Sweet Thing

Sweet Thing is a band on the brink. Recently signed by EMI Records, the Toronto-based band is currently celebrating the release of their first full-length album (which you can take part in tonight! At the Mod Club! For more details, click here) and soon embarking westwards on a cross-Canada tour.

I spoke with Sweet Thing guitarist/vocalist Nick Rose recently, and he gave me the goods on the band. So, once you’ve cleared your schedule tonight and gotten your tickets to their Album Release Show (click here immediately to do so; they’re almost sold out), read on!

Tell me something about Sweet Thing that I probably don’t already know.

Nick: Well, I don’t know what you know already.

Well, what do you think I know? What do you think is out there about the band right now?

Nick: Um… I don’t know what’s out there. Well, you know that we are releasing the album on August 17th, and the CD Release is on the 18th. What don’t you know? There are five of us.

Well, that I knew.

Nick: [laughs] We’re all guys. We’re all about the same weight.

I don’t think that’s true, because Sweet Thing’s bio explicitly states that one of you is heavier than the rest.

Nick: That’s me. That’s a cheap shot from… From whoever wrote the bio. And I know who wrote the bio.

Who wrote the bio?

Nick: That’s classified.

There you go. That’s something I don’t know.

Nick: Morgan contributed to the bio, and I think he’s the one who wrote the dig about me being allegedly fat. Do you think I’m fat?

Not at all. You might actually be thinner than me, even.

Nick: Well! There you go.

I’ve read that you guys are terrible at interviews. That’s what www.torontomusicscene.ca said in 2008. Have you read that piece?

Nick: Is that the one that said Sweet Thing will be good once they get their act together?

That’s the one.

Nick: [laughs]

Apparently, you guys had all the essential ingredients except for direction.

Nick: Well, how does that mean that we’re terrible at interviews?

No, they talked about your interview skills as well. The exact quote was –

Nick: Oh for fuck’s sakes!

They said that you had “zero focus when it comes to interviews.”

Nick: Hmm. I don’t know. How focused do I seem right now?

You’re pretty good. Fairly focused.

Nick: Well, I don’t know. Maybe we’ve come a long way. Or maybe that person was full of shit.

Did you meet that person?

Nick: Yeah. I think they interviewed us at Edgefest. I think that’s what that was from. And we probably were just a bunch of rambling idiots, so she probably was somewhat right. But at the time we didn’t really have anything to talk about, so maybe it was stupid to be doing interviews.

Well, at the time you were an independent band. Now you have a record label.

Nick: Yes, I guess so. We probably were directionless then. She was probably onto something. But whatever. I don’t know what we were. We were just playing in a band and had a show and some songs, but we didn’t, at that point, know when we were recording our record or when that was happening. So we didn’t have anything to talk about, maybe. Maybe that’s why we seemed like a bunch of boobs.

Sweet Thing came together in high school, right?

Nick: Well, two of the members met in high school. Owen the singer, and Alex, who is the other guitar player. They were high school friends in Ottawa. They both moved to Toronto. I met Owen at theatre school; we’re both aspiring actors. And then the three of us started the band.

Are you still aspiring actors?

Nick: Yeah. A few of us. Owen left theatre school after a year and hasn’t really pursued acting much since then. But myself, Tyler the drummer, and Morgan the bass player have sort of dabbled in acting.

What have you done? Is it mostly theatre, or film, or television?

Nick: Well, Tyler and I were both on a show called Instant Star for a little while. And Morgan did a show called Cock’d Guns, which aired on Showcase and IFC. He wrote and starred and did all the music, and edited it. He’s the real deal. I just did a movie in Montreal with Kirsten Dunst and Jim Sturgess. All my scenes were with Jim Sturgess. Do you know who that is?

Yeah. He’s hot.

Nick: Yeah. He’s a babe. And I’ve done commercials and stuff. That’s how I’ve made my living for the past four years. That’s not really impressive but it’s a better job than like… I don’t know.

Well, now that you have a record label, are you guys financially stable as musicians? Are you full-time musicians, apart from the acting on the side?

Nick: We’re full-time in the sense that this takes up all our time and energy, but it’s not full-time in the sense that we’re making money doing it yet. But hopefully that’ll come. All your viewers need to buy our record. Buy our stuff, so we can continue doing it, because we’re dirt poor.

Either way, you’ve come a long way since being “directionless.” Your producer for the upcoming record has worked with Beck and Elliot Smith. How did that connection come about?

Nick: Well, I guess we just sort of sent him… I don’t remember how it all went down, but we were searching for a producer. Someone recommended him; someone through EMI recommended that we get in touch with him, and we did. So we sent him some demos we were working on, and he responded positively to them. And that was that. We just worked out a deal with the people who do these things; that I have no knowledge of. They worked out a deal, and we went down and made the record. So that was cool.

You went down to LA, and I believe you filmed the video there. Is that right?

Nick: Yeah. Well, we went to LA last summer for two months and made the album. And we just went back a few weeks ago to shoot a video for our second single, which is called “Change of Seasons.”

The first single, “Dance Mother,” is getting really good reviews. Have you read any of them?

Nick: Reviews? I don’t know. I’ve read bits and bobs of things that are scattered across the internet. I don’t know. Why?

I’m just curious about whether you generally read what people write about you, or not.

Nick: I guess. I don’t know. Occasionally. But I don’t seek them out on a daily basis. I don’t google my name everyday when I wake.

But occasionally you do.

Nick: I guess occasionally I do. I’m not going to lie.

Have the reviews always been good? Like, since Sweet Thing’s early days?

Nick: Well, evidently not.

Well, that wasn’t a review of your music. More of your personality, I think.

Nick: Which was a fail.

And apparently directionless.

Nick: Her opinion! But yeah, the music stuff seems to be all good stuff so far. We haven’t had that much in the way of, you know, critical response. The album hasn’t come out yet, so it hasn’t really impacted on any level yet. We’ll see when it comes out, what people think of it. I’m excited about that. And slightly nervous.

What do you think of it?

Nick: I think it’s great. We wouldn’t be releasing it if we didn’t think it was great.

This is your first full-length, and you’ve had an EP before that.

Nick: We had one EP that we recorded a few years ago. So we’ve just been preparing for this album. It’s literally years in the making. [laughs] I think it’s great.

You’re touring with Justin Nozuka –

Nick: No, we’re going on tour with him. In September.

How did that happen? Are you guys fans of his? As musicians the two acts have totally different sounds.

Nick: Yeah, they do. I think he’s great. I don’t really know him personally. That was something that was set up by the powers; the people behind the curtains with their puppet strings.

So you guys don’t have control over that kind of stuff?

Nick: We do, to some extent. But this was an opportunity that came up, and it was like, ”Do you want to do this tour?” And we were like “Yes!” It’ll be great. It’ll be our first time on a tour bus. Should be exciting.

So then you have a driver and everything.

Nick: Yeah. We don’t have to have one of us falling asleep and careening off a mountain.

One of the other interviews I found was one that you did with Gay Calgary.

Nick: [laughs]

Basically, they raved about you.

Nick: So we’re one for two. For reviews you could find online.

Do you have a huge gay fanbase? You’ve played with Dragonette, who do.

Nick: I don’t really know. I don’t know that our fanbase is big enough that we could break down the demographics. But yeah. I think we could have a gay following. And we would obviously be fine with that.

How do you perceive your fan following so far?

Nick: It is predominantly girls. But that’s a good thing, I think. It makes sense for what the band is trying to be. That’s about all we figured out so far as to who our fans are. Mostly girls.

Do you have any crazy fan stories? Not necessarily bad ones, but just wild ones.

Nick: We have a superfan, who is now our friend. He’s from Brooklyn, New York. And he’s a 50-year old man. He’s really awesome. He’s literally been up to see us play like 30 times. From Brooklyn.

In Toronto?

Nick: He’s come to Toronto. He’s seen us on the West Coast. He’s seen us in Ottawa. He’s seen us all over the place. And he’s a friend now, because we got to know him and he’s a great guy. He’s the craziest fan we’ve got. Sorry Matt!

Do you generally become close to your fans? Like, when you meet them at shows?

Nick: Yeah, I think we’re pretty friendly. We’re friendly enough guys that people will come up to us and we’re not going to shoo them away with a stick. We’re pretty welcoming nice guys.

Where are you from, exactly? You said earlier that Owen and Alex are from Ottawa.

Nick: Tyler and I are both from Lindsay, Ontario. Morgan is from Victoria, British Columbia.

And all five of you live in Toronto now, right?

Nick: Yeah.

Are you planning to stay in Toronto even once you hit it big?

Nick: Probably. At this point it doesn’t make sense to be anywhere but Toronto. I love Toronto. I’ve been here for the last ten years and I think it’s great. I’m happy to stay here. Bu who knows what the future has in store? Maybe we’ll all move to Madagascar and just play songs to ring-tailed lemurs.

I think that’s about it for my questions. Is there anything else interesting about the band you can reveal?

Nick: Morgan and I were born a day apart. We’re both Virgos. I don’t know if that has anything to do with anything, but it’s a fun fact.

By the way, can you describe the band dynamic at all?

Nick: That’s private. [laughs] What do you mean?

Just how all the personalities mesh.

Nick: I think well. We’re all friends. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. We don’t have anyone in the band that’s really tech, or mechanical savvy. When our van breaks down we all just kind of stand outside it and stare at it dumbly and just poke things inside and hope that it restarts.

Has that ever happened?

Nick: Yes. Our van overheated when we were driving in the mountains on our last tour and we pulled it over to the side of the road. You’re supposed to leave it on so the fan stays on, so it keeps it cool. But we just panicked and turned it off and stood outside and opened the thing, and it was just barfing gross stuff. And we were all staring dumbly at it and we just didn’t know what to do. We don’t have anyone that’s really gear savvy or anything either. But we have other strengths. Like, I don’t know.

You have strengths, but you just don’t know what they are.

Nick: [laughs] Yeah. I haven’t figured those out yet. But people keep telling us that we have strengths. Morgan’s sort of our band control freak, and he’s the one that gets things done. He’s the task-master. The rest of us sit there like a bunch of bums. And Alex is our financier.

What do you do?

Nick: I just smile and shake everyone’s hands. It’s a band! Everyone had different things that they do. I’m just not going to divulge what I do. It’s a secret.

Also, Sweet Thing has an iPhone application, which probably means you’ve made it. How’s that been doing so far?

Nick: I don’t know. I just got it myself a couple of days ago and started tinkering with it. It seems exciting.

So, in two years, you’ve gone from being directionless to having your own iPhone application.

Nick: I guess someone needs to write a stern letter to somebody. We’ve pulled up our socks. We’ve got our knickers on straight now.

Okay so last question. If you could have a conversation with any three people, dead or alive –

Nick: Oh my God.

It’s easy. You can choose anyone. Any three people. But you’d have to sit a table with these three people and they’d be talking to each other, and you’d be talking to them.

Nick: Oh God. Um… Who would I choose? I don’t know. Who would you choose?

Last time I was asked, I said Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed. That would be pretty intense.

Nick: That would be intense. How about just like, Larry, Curly, and Moe. Or, Jesus, Curly, and Moe. Or actually, Jesus, Curly, and my mom.

– INTERVIEW AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAKINA SHAKIL