INTERVIEW: Dear Pressure — Music Musings & Such

INTERVIEW:

Dear Pressure

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THEY are new on the block…

but there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to Dear Pressure. The Canadian duo discuss the single, NEVER, and how they got started in music; Quin and Matt tell me how they came about the name ‘Dear Pressure’; whether there is more material coming up; what they have lined up for Christmas – whether they experiment a lot to create such a catchy song.

I ask about their influences and upbringing; whether there are any gigs coming up before the end of this year; whether Toronto is a great place to create music; advice for any new songwriters emerging – and how this week has fared for the guys.

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Hi, guys. How are you? How has your week been?

It’s been great, thanks! Really excited about finally having some music out. We’ve also been honing in on some more tunes this week (which has been fun).

For those new to your work; can you introduce yourself, please?

We’re Quin and Matt. We pretty spend all of our time making tunes at this point - not much else to the story.

Can I ask just ask about the name, ‘Dear Pressure’? Where does that name stem from?!

We had been messing with a ton of different band-names - and they were all really bad. None of my friends liked any of the names we had. At a certain point, we were like: “Hey; we should stop giving into peer pressure”.

We just word-played from there because we're weird…and then, bam, ‘Dear Pressure’ stuck.

Your new single, NEVER, is out. Can you reveal the story behind the song?

Matt: NEVER was a tune we made in the summer. We have diverse musical influences; so it’s been (always) a challenge to fuse them in a way that makes sense to ourselves. NEVER was one of those songs that came super-quickly and naturally - within one jam session we had most of the song laid-out. Quin wasn’t completely sold on the song so; I was like: “Dude; listen in the car and you’ll know what I’m talking about”.

So; we went on a drive and then we both knew it we had something cool on our hands.

Quin: That’s the one good thing about cars.

The song certainly does get into the head! Did it take a look of experimentation and work to perfect its sound? How quickly did it all come together?

Making the actual song itself was easy.

It happened very quickly but we had been trying all sorts of different things for about a year. We had so many ideas and fragments - and I guess NEVER was the song that put it all together.

Do you feel you’ll release more material in 2018? What do you have planned?

Yea; we’re releasing an E.P. in 2018.

How did Dear Pressure come together? How long have you guys known one another?

Matt: We met in class but we didn’t talk about music - until one day, where we did talk about music because I was carrying my guitar home. The rest was history…

Quin: I ran into Matt on my way to a friend’s place and he was carrying a guitar. I asked him how he was doing and he said he had been busy with music. We just started talking from there and we showed each other some things we were working on.

Is it a pretty good place to record music, Toronto? Why is it proving so attractive and fertile for new music?

Matt: Right now; Quin and I could be on the beach if this wasn’t Canada – but, instead, it’s minus-seventeen; so we were stuck inside recording tunes. Not really complaining about either: it’s a pretty great thing to be stuck doing.

What sort of music did you both grow up on? Do you both come from eclectic households, musically?

Yea; we both listen to a lot of different genres.

Quin: I grew up in Hong Kong. They play a lot of Cantopop there. But, I spent most of my time alone in front of my computer. So, when I was thirteen or so, I discovered Radiohead and The National (through the game, Portal 2) and got really into them - and then I found U.K. Garage and Dubstep tunes deep into YouTube. It’s funny; because I was just some kid who had never even been to Europe, let alone a rave or a club. But it got me into producing music – Electronic music, music with laptops.

So; I thank the Internet for that.

Matt: I’m really all over the map: I grew up listening to a lot of Blues music. I’m a huge SRV, Jimi Hendrix and BB King fan. I always go back to those records, especially Axis: Bold as Love by Hendrix and Live at the Regal by B.B. King. I also love Psychedelic-Rock.

I dig some of the modern incarnations of it - especially Tame Impala.