When Toronto hardcore punk band Cancer Bats released their sixth full-length album, The Spark that Moves, last year, it felt like a salute to their diverse repertoire: 2008’s Hail Destroyer, 2010’s Bars, Mayors, Scraps & Bones, and 2012’s Dead Set on Living, to name just a few of their full-lengths. Vocalist Liam Cormier says that the homage was completely intentional with their new album; it turns out to be an homage not just to their catalogue, but also to catharsis.
“It’s really rad to be able to yell about stuff that pisses you off, night after night,” says Cormier. “That, in turn, makes me pretty mellow about the rest of my life.”
The band released The Spark that Moves suddenly, with no release date announced beforehand, a technique, says Cormier, that runs the risk of being cliche. But it worked, and he would definitely do it again. Cormier says that it comes down to a great fan base, which allows the band to put new material out directly to the fans.
“I feel really lucky to be in that position—to just be able to put something on the internet and then the fact that people are excited, and will share it within our own community, I think is really great,” he says. “Our thing has always been communicating with our fans and seeing what they actually want.”
Being able to see the fans and interact with them at shows is key, says Cormier.
“I know that certain people still want to buy CDs, and I know some people want to just download things, and lots of people want to buy vinyl still, but we know that from being at merch [tables at concerts] and selling our merch and talking with all those people all the time,” he says. “I feel like that’s kind of the way that we’ve been able to navigate it.”
But the band tours so much, says Cormier, that there wasn’t much of a shift to adjust to because concerts have always been their main revenue stream. The main difference this time is that the band released the record themselves, on their own Bat Skull Records, in partnership with New Damage Records.
“We’re like, ‘Well, we’ve never made money from [album sales].’ I would say it’s changed in that we’re actually making money from album sales from the first time putting out our own record.”
While the band was fortunate enough to get recording budgets along the way, that meant that they were selling records to recoup those budgets so that they could go on tour. Cormier says the studio is fun, but it’s not why he’s in a band.
“The whole purpose was to always just go on tour,” says Cormier, adding that he isn’t a big fan of the studio. “I just find that that energy is missing [in the studio]; if we were talented enough to be able to record live records, that would be my favourite.”
Cancer Bats
7 pm Saturday, September 21
$20, Lucky Bar (sold out)
luckybar.ca