Arts

“FOR CITYFOLK, WE’RE GONNA BE LIKE KIDS IN A CANDY SHOP. IT’S GONNA BE CRAZY. SO MUCH STAGE ROOM TO RUN AROUND.”

Ottawa’s The New Hires rocked the CityFolk mainstage last Friday, delivering a solid set of their most popular songs including “Me, Myself & Lies” and “Annabelle”, a cover of Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag” that had everyone in their feels even as they yelled along (sorry to everyone around me), and their brand new track “Hold The Applause”.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the group yet, a brief introduction: members include Max Trepanier (lead singer), Jack Gunn (bassist), Christian Lascelles (drummer), Aidan Morris (guitarist), Phil Hulan (guitarist), and Phil’s yellow socks (socks).

The New Hires have grown to be regulars and crowd favourites of local music halls such as The Rainbow since the band’s formation six years ago, going on to play bigger events including the uoShow and Bluesfest in recent years. 

Despite being witness to the thorough stomping of the Westside Stage on Wednesday evening, I was still taken aback by the physicality and playful chemistry of the band as they hit every move I grew up trying to imitate during intense Guitar Hero II matches. Honourable mentions for stage presence go to Aidan Morris for his windmill guitar-ing, diva strut, and gangster knee slide as well as Phil Hulan for flashing those socks at every opportunity and for jumping off the kick drum mid-stroke. 

Transitions were tight all throughout the set, the band was in sync as they dove straight into the next song while the last note from the previous song still hung in the air. Despite the relentless pace of the set and the cold weather, the vocals were clear, the drumming was crisp, and everyone’s playing stayed clean and stylish. 

The set was over before I knew it.

Earlier in the week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Max Trepanier and Christian Lascelles, and they shed some light on their musician origin stories, the band’s creative process, and the local music scene.

“For me, it was mainly karaoke,” Max shared, “I used to go to Father & Sons and do karaoke on Wednesdays from time to time with my university friends[.] I saw one of them a lot from uOttawa and I was [pause] disinterested in one of my classes, to say the least, and so I decided I’m gonna start a band. And that’s when I started looking on Kijiji for people.” 

That very Kijiji search is what led to the birth of The New Hires, though, true to the everyone-knows-everyone flavour of the Ottawa arts scene, Max and Christian knew each other from a previous group, Almost Kennedy.  

For his part, Christian’s musicianship began with childhood piano lessons. He later transitioned to guitar and drums, eventually heading to Carleton to study music (in this case, I’ll allow it). Though he bears the superlative of Most Multi-Instrumentally Gifted within the group, every band member plays guitar “to some varying level”, says Max.  

This Wonderwall commonality gives them a shared base to work from when they’re creating new songs, though each member’s unique background and music taste also bears influence. 

Christian asserts that having this common base “helps a lot with the communication aspect of explaining either what you’re trying to say, or trying to bridge the gap between people” when bringing raw ideas for new songs to band practice. 

He describes how this has also contributed to the band’s signature sound, though each member listens to music of other genres and brings those nuances to the group’s own material: “We kind of aim towards a certain sound but we branch off because we like to have variety in our music.”

Boldly asserting that The New Hires are currently in their “Tom Era” — referring to their partnership with producer Thomas D’Arcy and the band’s upcoming EP release — Max looks back fondly upon the early days: “The Ottawa music scene post-pandemic was super friendly, super fun. The community was great. It still is, but there was something coming out of the pandemic where everybody just showed up to everybody’s shows. All the bands hung out. It was really really cool. And so watching a lot of talented musicians makes you want to write cool music or do cool things.”

Christian remarks that Ottawa artists are uniquely supportive of one another compared with interactions with other performers at shows in Toronto and Montreal. Competition for big gigs in Ottawa is fierce, but it has never felt that way. 

It was a treat getting to pick their brains before their CityFolk performance, and after watching them perform, I have an even greater appreciation for their dedication to spontaneity and having fun onstage. 

“You play a couple shows to empty rooms sometimes and those are the ones where you learn things aren’t always going to go to plan, so you might as well just have fun,” Max shared. “For CityFolk, we’re gonna be like kids in a candy shop. It’s gonna be crazy. So much stage room to run around.”

“I’m stuck behind a drum so I wanna see movement out there,” Christian added jokingly. “I wanna see some running across.”

And oh — there was running. 

Also kicking, stomping, tuque-throwing, and soap bubbles the kid standing in front of me tried to pop between their teeth like a piranha. 

What a show.