Sounds like plates
Look, they even have their cats in their pictures!
Punk band Slates comes to Regina
Article: Destiny Kaus – A&C Writer
[dropcaps round=”no”]T[/dropcaps]he Edmonton-rooted punk band Slates found their band name, which does in fact rhyme with “plates,” after extensive research and consideration.
James Stewart, Slates’ guitarist and main vocalist, says, “We’d been passing around names for like a couple weeks and we’re like ‘Okay let’s try this one’ and everyone’s like ‘Good enough.’ So that’s pretty much how that went.”
Sick story. But, honestly, the name Slates sounds quite punkish and awesome considering it popped out of thin air.
In addition to their band name, Stewart, Lee Klippenstein (the bass player), Stefan Duret (the other guitarist), and Dallas Thompson (the drummer) share something else in common: their love for cats.
In fact, Slates showcases their love for cats on their webpage by displaying a large picture of a cat.
“We all have cats and we love our cats,” says Stewart. “We’re all pretty normal people and we like our cats so why not have a picture of a cat?”
I concur. Why not? In my opinion, one can never have too many pictures of cats.
As for their genre, Slates never really picked Punk; it just kind of always existed.
Stewart says, “For me it wasn’t really a choice. It was kind of the only music that I could really play and feel like I was being sincere.”
Boom! Here’s to playing authentic music with an authentic heart…that may have been a little soft…
On Feb. 25, Slates released their new album Taiga (no, I don’t know how to pronounce that), which differs from their previous albums for a few reasons.
“I think the biggest difference is that on the first two, our friend, Eric, was playing guitar and he left the band because he wanted to concentrate on Kung Fu,” says Stewart. “[Also], it’s less melodic and we wanted to explore a little darker themes and more intense music.”
Sounds legit to me. Nothing is wrong with a little switcheroo, especially when you leave the music world to go practice something as cool as Kung Fu (see what I did there? Rhyming hard).
At the end of March, Slates plans to start their 10-day cross-country tour. As part of their tour, the group will play in Regina on April 3 at the German Club. Why, you may ask, is their tour only 10 days?
Well, Stewart says, “Dallas, he’s a teacher so when he has spring break, we basically have 10 days so we try to do 10 shows in 10 days…it’s quite a haul but it’s a lot of fun.”
Having toured in Eastern and Central Europe and Cuba, Slates hopes to tour parts of Asia in the near future. Dang, I hope I can travel this much when I’m a teacher.
But, ultimately, Slates just wants to keep doing what they’re doing.
“As long as we enjoy being around each other and playing music, we’ll keep doing this and touring,” says Stewart. “I can’t see us stopping anytime soon.”
I can’t see their music career stopping anytime soon either. Unless, of course, more of their band members decide to pursue Kung Fu instead of music. You never know what the future may hold.
[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Jen Cymek[/button]
