Description

Max and Dan from the band tell WatchMojo how they try to shamelessly market themselves to Springsteen and Steve Carell.

Transcript

Rebecca Brayton: Working class lyrics and rough sensibility make this band a flashback to great rock acts of days gone by. Hi! I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and today, we’re speaking with the Arkells. How would you guys describe your music to someone’s grandmother? Dan Griffin: Two hour, don’t come. Max Kerman: Yeah and we start way too late. We’re going to be on it like 11:30 midnight. Dan Griffin: So, you’re going to miss Larry King. Max Kerman: What I usually try to do depending on the person’s age, you kind of have to reference something that they may be familiar with. So for instance, if I was talking to someone who is like 60 years to be like “It’s kind of like the Beatles” and then if I was talking to a young person like a 12-year old? I’d say, “It’s kind of like Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers but just a little heavier.” So, you can just kind of say any name of any artist and then you say “It’s kind of like it, it’s just a little heavier.” Rebecca Brayton: So, who did you guys grew up listening to individually and maybe as a group? Max Kerman: I grew up listening in the Beatles a lot. My dad use to be a college DJ, so he used to send them all the records back in like the late 60s, early 70s. A lot of Motown, you know like the band that I both really love, lots of great Canadian music. We’re spoiled here I think in terms of shows, we get to go see other bands we could play with. Rebecca Brayton: Now, you’re much in the use of RNB and stuff like that. Do you ever see that kind of infiltrating the music at all? Dan Griffin: We’ve been writing new songs, I mean we turn each other like to Tim the drummer like “Tim, do that beat, you know the one like the Motown beat?” He was like “This one?” And we’re like “Yeah! We’ll do that!” Max Kerman: “Yeah, yeah, yeah! That’s the one.” I know the way they sing too in terms of and I think most the same with the emotion we have in the music is always the best. It’s so much fun watching solo singers sing and we’re not very good singers but we try hard. That’s the one thing we have in common. Rebecca Brayton: Now, I’m sure you're tired of talking about Bruce Springsteen? Dan Griffin: No, never. We love Bruce Springsteen. Rebecca Brayton: No? Okay. Your song is called “The Boss is Coming” which I think it not actually directly talking about him? Max Kerman: We are hoping that maybe he could use it as intro music where he goes on stage. We’re trying to pitch it to his people. We’re also trying to pitch that to the office with Michael Scott. There are a lot of opportunities for that song, placement wise but the song is not about Bruce Springsteen. It is actually about a real boss in one of the jobs that we worked at. But if you’re watching Bruce, keep it up buddy. Dan Griffin: Intro music. Think about it. Max Kerman: Yeah. Rebecca Brayton: I don’t know if it’s still the case but until recently at least, you guys were still working day jobs, is that still the case? Dan Griffin: I recently quit. I can’t do it anymore. Max Kerman: I’ve been hanging on by a thread but my employer now is really nice, so she has become come in and out whenever I’m in town. Dan Griffin: We played her a birthday party to try to convince her to keep max on the drive for a few more months; we then take a birthday party. Max Kerman: Yeah, it was a huge success. It was on her basement. Dan Griffin: One of our best shows. On request, she asked us to play one song, a Bon Jovi. Max Kerman: Bon Jovi, Livin’ On a Prayer. Dan Griffin: Livin’ On a Prayer and that was her birthday present. Rebecca Brayton: That would have made my birthday. Dan Griffin: We’ll do it for you. [Voice overlap] Max Kerman: Yeah [Voice overlap] Rebecca Brayton: It’s in June. Dan Griffin: Okay. Max Kerman: June. Rebecca Brayton: All right, well great. Thanks very much guys Dan Griffin: No problem. Thank you. Rebecca Brayton: See you in June. Dan Griffin: See you there. Max Kerman: See you in June.