This past weekend, I traveled three hours to Brantford, Ontario, to attend the tenth anniversary of the annual Blackout Fest, a punk rock/hardcore festival held each year at Club NV. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Pauline Taylor, Casius Wray-Muto, and Nicola Sudano of female-fronted Toronto post-hardcore band The Ocean Cure to chat and ask them about their creative process, plans for tour, and more
RMP: You guys have been playing together for over a year. In that time, aside from lineup changes, what's the biggest difference between when you first started, and now?
Pauline: I think we've done a lot of growing in the past year. Anyone who has seen us perform now versus when we first formed as a full band can probably attest to that. We've really solidified our message and what we're all about. We've moved past that point of figuring out who we are as a band, to a place of confidence and conviction. It's no longer just about making music, but building a family.
RMP: Your 6-song EP, Daydreamer, was released in January. How does it feel to have something tangible that you can go out and perform for people?
P: It's so incredible. It's hard to even put into words. Before the release of our EP, we were still figuring out how to get our message across, but now we have something real to show to people- something that is a perfect representation of who we are and what we stand for. The release of Daydreamer truly feels like our dreams becoming a reality, transforming from something that only we could feel into something that we can share with the people who support us.
RMP: You haven't toured very heavily in support of Daydreamer. What are your plans for a full tour?
Casius: Once we released our EP, we decided to try to start building in our home base. Opening for bigger shows became our main focus. We do have plans to tour in 2017. How far will we be going? At least 10 different cities in Ontario, and hopefully to Quebec as well!
RMP: Pauline, as the vocalist and lyricist of The Ocean Cure, what's your songwriting process like? Where do you draw your inspiration from?
P: The process changes a lot. Sometimes, it'll start with a poem that I wrote which I then show to the guys and we turn it into a song, or other times they'll start with the instrumentals and then I'll put a vocal melody over top of it. There are many different ways to go and we like to switch it up. As for inspiration, I usually pull inspiration from my own life and my experiences as well as the experiences of friends or stories that I've heard. It's important to us to write music that people can relate to so we like to have a lot of variety to our lyrical content. That way everyone can find a song that speaks to them.
RMP: As 2017 gets closer and closer, what are your plans for The Ocean Cure in the new year?
Nicola: Well apart from touring and introducing a few new songs into the set that are in the works, we're going back to the drawing board, assessing our live set, working on new material and a popular cover song. We're gonna work harder than ever to make the new year ours. So expect big things. We're not slowing down any time soon.
Daydreamer is available on all online retailers. Follow The Ocean Cure on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Watch their debut music video for their debut single, "Waiting for You", below.