How are you today, and what is an average day for you like?
BG: Hey, I'm good! I got my flu and covid shot yesterday and I'm feeling it, I've been laying in bed all day waiting for this to start. An average day for me is working on music all day, every day. My full-time job is primarily composing music for TV spots, and every now and then, producing with artists. I've produced with my bands, but most of the artists I work with fall out of the punk stuff I play. I've worked with Vlad Holiday who is a psychedelic-indie guy from New York, as well as Kareen Lomax who has worked with Diplo. Most of what I work on with these people is stuff for trailer productions and commercials. It's pretty cool and different because you can work on something that works well as an artists' song as well as for an Apple commercial.
Did you pursue post-secondary education for audio engineering or music production?
BG: No, I didn't. However, my bandmates Corey in Locket and Greg in Like Pacific both went to the Algonquin Recording School. I would consider myself a creative individual. So if I'm not working on music, I'm always trying to do cool stuff with my friends. I've made music videos for bands like Bearings, I went to journalism school and wrote articles for Vice, I'm always just going with the flow and seeing where it takes me!
How did Locket start and what were your music influences?
BG: 10 years ago, I got a call from Travis [Locket's bassist], who said that he and a group of friends were forming a band and needed a singer. That turned into some jamming in our basement and playing small shows to touring under our former name, Safe to Say. Around 2012 or 2013, all the Run for Cover bands, whether you want to call them pop punk, or hardcore crossover, Citizen, Superheaven when they were Daylight, Turnover, these were people we were crossing paths or playing shows with quite a bit. And even outside of our main influence, Seaway was from the same area as us and we were super inspired by their work ethic, it was nice to see a band working that hard. [Seaway and Safe to Say released a split together in 2012.]
How did you start playing music?
BG: I grew up in a very musical household, my mom's dad was a guitarist in a country band from what I've been told. There was always instruments around my house, we had guitars and a piano, so it's always been kind of just something that stuck with me. When I turned 12, Seven Nation Army was the song that everyone was using to learn the guitar, and the obvious Blink-182's and Sum 41's, it was every kid's dream to start a band.
What was it like leaving behind your former band name and your former songs when starting the new era - how we know you today as Locket?
BG: It was weird, we first started playing shows under Locket about 5-10 shows into our shows with Bearings after our return. At the time, we hadn't out put out the album [2019's All Out], so we were still playing Safe to Say songs. It felt weird playing Safe to Say songs under a new name, that I wrote 5 to almost 10 years ago, it almost feels inauthentic to an extent. It was bittersweet leaving some songs behind, and some songs we still love and wish we could perform them for our newer audience, but hey, they're still on Spotify, go listen to them there!
Any memorable shows from both eras?
BG: Yeah, coming up where we did, there was a large DIY community. We've played big shows on big stages with massive audiences, but sometimes the ones we look back most fondly on are the basement shows with under 100 people, or stuff similar to that. One venue that comes to mind was a guy who ran shows out of his shed which held maybe, 30 people sardine can style. It was such a treat when you got asked to play a venue like that because you got to go crazy with your friends. One of the most memorable shows from our Safe to Say days, the first time Citizen ever came to Canada, we played with them. It was crazy because we had their audience watching our set. This was when Citizen had just released Youth. Another memorable one off the top of my head was getting to play one of the last Warped Tours [2016]. For this era, we did one tour before the pandemic that I did not have a good time on. It's always fun to play California, and we always do really well in Pittsburgh for some reason. Our shows there are usually really fun. It's hard to pin down one show for sure because of the fact that we don't play super often. I'd have to say any holiday show we play with our friends in Seaway and Like Pacific are always a party.
In 2019, you released your first taste of music under the name Locket, which to me shows a continuation of that more mature dreamy pop punk sound we see from Run for Cover bands. Would you agree and is there anything you'd like to add on to that?
BG: Yeah, I would agree. The last album we put out as Safe to Say is probably something that at least me and Corey look back on as a weird time in our lives where we were essentially pressured to make an album because we had tour offers, so labels wanted us to have new music, and it felt like we were writing music for the sake of writing music. I think the first album we released as Locket is what I would've liked to release as the last Safe to Say album. The style of music, the place that I was writing from musically, all of that is from that era where we shifting and going through life stuff. They're basically a perfect segue into one another.
Superluminal dropped on Fearless last month, with a handful of singles preceding it. In terms of writing, production or anything of the sort, was there anything that you did differently compared to albums in the past.
BG: We're a very tight unit, we self-engineer, produce, mix. Aside from mastering, we do everything on our own. Sonic Bloom is one of the few songs we have where we reached out to someone else to co-produce with us, and just help give our music something a little left of center or outside of the box. I have a friend name Chris LaRocca, he's from Toronto and used to play in emo bands back in the day, but now he's primarily an R&B and hip hop singer and producer, he's done behind the scenes stuff with huge K-pop artists, number one in the world type songs; his bread and butter is the pop and hip hop world. But he understands the emo and rock stuff because that's what he grew up doing. It was really cool to reach out to him to show him the original version of Sonic Bloom and say "hey, do you want to hop on zoom and work on this together and add these flourishes here and there, and do your thing". The whole Superluminal intro to album that leads into Sonic Bloom, that's 80% Chris. Looking back, we couldn't have done that without him.
Was there a goal in terms of direction that you wanted to take this album, and do you think you accomplished it?
BG: I had a very specific goal, I talked to Corey and said "let's write the songs we wish we were capable of writing when we were 20." Basically trying to bring the same energy that we had back then when we were just picking up guitars. For example, Sonic Bloom is basically just 2 chords back and forth, but we're adding all these little elements and flourishes now that we're capable of making a real good sounding record. I listen to it now and there's nothing I would've done differently, which in the past has not always been the case.
Who is the main lyricist on your material, and are you able to talk about some of the lyrical themes on the record?
BG: It's funny, my band always makes fun of me (lovingly), because on our liner notes, I'm the only one who writes our lyrics, so I'm the main lyricist, instrumentalist, songwriter, and then I'm lucky enough to have my bandmates come in and bring their ideas to the table and help me edit. I have done something this past record that many lyricists would be very scared to do. I was writing lyrics in the booth on a Google doc and in the next room, all the guys could see my lyrics being written in real time. It's something extremely vulnerable to do for sure. As for lyrical themes, I wouldn't say this was a pandemic record, but I was noticing so much had happened between records, three years went by so quick and all of a sudden our lives were so different than they were when were started writing the record. At the start, we were in our 20's, we had girlfriends, living at home. The record is out now, and we're 30, the guys are married and we own houses. As this was kind of snowballing, I said, "how do I capture this? How do I write about a part of you that feels so youthful but coming to terms with having to live my adult life?" It's almost like conceptualizing what happens after the band, what happens if I'm not around these friends anymore, what happens if being on the road and touring is no longer the priority, because now I'm a family guy. I had worries for a while that some of our younger fans weren't going to relate or resonate with our words, until we started getting DM's about them, high schoolers now in college having to leave former relationships behind for example, and it was nice reassurance having released this record and knowing that the things I'm going through in my late 20s are universal, and even relatable to a kid that's 18.
How has reception been, from old and new fans alike?
BG: So, we don't have a huge audience, but we have a very specific audience. The label is aware of this too, and if you know, you know. We're that band that's sometimes too pop for the punk label, too grungy for the pop punk label, sometimes we play ballads and other times we'll play heavy, slam parts. That being said, we notice some fans just by instagram usernames, he's been buying the merch for 10 years. It's nice to have new fans, but that's as good as it gets. No matter where you are in life and no matter which way you go sonically, you know you'll have them on board. Of course with Fearless pushing the record, we get new people commenting, things like "woah, this is great!", or even something like "this is Safe to Say? I was wondering where these guys went!" Some people haven't been aware of the name change and that's just the way social media goes.
What is your favorite song on the record and why?
BG: My favorite is you&i, because it's about my wife, it's got a lot of emotional weight. For some reason, the ones that are about her seem to do the best for us. But to me, it just seems like the most authentic and genuine song, and the coolest bridge section to me. For the rock songs, I would have to say Kilayear and Sonic Bloom.
What are your plans for the rest of 2023 and 2024?
BG: We have two shows left for 2023, and both are supporting my other band Like Pacific; One in Kingston on December 15th at The Mansion and the next day we'll be playing Sneaky Dee's in Toronto. The other support acts for the Kingston show will be F!th, Monach and Listen Up Kid, and for Toronto, they're Summer Heights, Seventh Dose and So Perfect. Sneaky Dee's is going to be the album release show basically, and our label didn't want us to press CDs and vinyl because they know we're not a band who tours or plays regularly. They did let us make physical stuff to sell only at this show, so that will be exciting. After that, we'll be filming some stuff that's dropping in the new year and that's all I can say for 2023. As for 2024, we'll be eager to play many more shows!
Thanks to Brad Garcia of Locket/Like Pacific/Safe to Say for doing this interview! Buy or stream Superluminal by Locket now, out on Fearless Records!
Links below.
Locket Website | Fearless Records
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