CASTLEFIELD

MUSIC REVIEW: CASTLEFIELD’S THE MASCOT E.P.


Castlefield is an up and coming Ottawa based Indie-emo band. Their debut E.P. is called The Mascot E.P. I had the chance to listen to the E.P. and write a review; here are my thoughts.

The E.P. is only 3 songs long yet it packs a big punch. The first song on the E.P is called Broken High School Mascot.  While listening to this song I could feel the emotion that was put into the lyrics. From what I could hear the song tells the story of a young love that fell apart. The lyrics were well written and the instrumentation really meshed with them.  The vocal style really reminded me of the older Blink-182 music.

The second song on the album is called Lifted. It tells the story of accepting that your relationship is over and how hard the process can be. With very meaningful lyrics and driving instrumentation this song will help anyone get through a rough break up. Once again the vocals and instruments mesh beautifully.

The 3rd and final song is called Good Job Rover. From what I gathered during my listening it continues from the themes of the earlier songs and talks about love and loss and describes a summer love that falls apart during the winter and accepting that it is over. As with the other songs in the E.P. the song has beautifully written lyrics with driving instruments.

Overall this is a very well crafted E.P. which will help anyone who is going through a tough break up start to heal. I would definitely recommend this to anybody who likes Blink-182’s older work and is looking to find a new artist or anyone who wants to help support the local music scene here in Ottawa.

RATINGS:
·         Broken High School Mascot
o   8.5/10
·         Lifted
o   8/10
·         Good Job Rover
o   8/10
·         Overall
o   24.5/30
o   Would recommend



CASTLEFIELD INTERVIEW:

To celebrate the release of their E.P. The Ottawa Sound caught up with the band before their set at The House of Targ in Ottawa. This group of young musicians are down to earth and funny. You can tell that they function well as a team and have great chemistry not only through watching them play but also through just chatting with them.

QUESTION TIME:

1.       How did you come up with your band name?
a.       Our old drummer, named Ryan, lives on a street called Castlefield and we decided to use that as a name. About two weeks after we came up with the name, Ryan and the band had a falling out and Matt, our new drummer funnily enough actually lives on the corner of that street so we kept the name.
2.       How did you form as a band?
a.       Ryan, “As you know with the music scene in Ottawa it’s pretty small and runs in circles, so Dex and I had some mutual friends and met up that way, and when I was like 8 I sent Matt a friend request on Facebook because he was the only other musician I knew of but he was like ‘who are you?’ and my dreams of playing music with him were crushed (laughs) but then we started talking again when we were like 15 and here we are”
3.       Who are some of your musical influences?
a.       Various influences between us,
b.       Matt “Blink 182”
c.       Ryan, “American Football, Modern Baseball, and I went through a phase with ACDC”s Back In Black”
d.       Connor, “Mine aren’t really relevant to the band but like Black Sabbath and The Sex Pistols.”
e.       Dexter, “I guess mine are like, Tiny Moving Parts and Freethrow and stuff like that.”
4.       How did you come up with the name for your E.P?
a.       Ryan, “We have a song called Broken High School Mascot and that’s where we got the name. We just shortened it to The Mascot E.P.”
5.       What process do you use for writing your music?
a.       A variety really but the best one is, especially if you’re in a band to just jam together and see where it goes and build on it.
6.       Why did you decide to make it a 3 song release?
a.       Money. Honestly, it’s so expensive to record music and since Matt and I are still in High School we just decided 3 would be enough. But in reality we probably spent just as much money Ubering to Orleans from Stittsville as we did on recording (all laugh) Ryan ”But also I find that when I’m just getting into a band I mostly just want a little teaser, unless I completely fall in love with their music in which case I’ll get their entire discography, but mostly when I find a new band 2 or 3 songs is enough to start so I applied that logic to the E.P.” “Mike also gave us a great deal and was really fun and easy to work with, I won’t go into the details of pricing but he was great to us”
7.       How did you find the experience of recording?
a.       All, “Fun! So much fun. Oh man it was great” “Mike Poisson is a super cool guy and worked well with us as a team and was just all around great. Made the process even better for us”
8.       Who was your producer?
a.       Mike Poisson. He’s super good and very intelligent. Really cool guy and will work with any genre too.
9.       Will you do a mini-tour or just local shows?
a.       Dexter, “Mostly local shows and we’ve got a little tour coming, not really a tour though we just did a show Quebec City.” “We’ve got a couple little shows coming 1 in May, 1 in early July and 1 in late July as well”
10.   From the venues you’ve played so far, which is your favourite?
a.       This one! House of Targ. They have perogies and always have a decent turn out. The second favourite is the Nepean #askapunk house, but they don’t have perogies, so Targ wins.
11.   Craziest thing to ever happen at one of your shows?
a.       Ryan,” Aparently at one of our earlier shows this one guy after one of our first songs was just standing off to the right of the stage and crying”
12.   How do you find social media affecting the music industry?
a.       Social media is great for us. We blew up out of nowhere after Shutter Music recorded one of our live songs and we got like 15 000 views in under 48 hours. From there we had people from Montreal telling us they were going to come to this show actually, I don’t know if they made it but the thought counts. Also we get recognized around the city every now and then which really throws us of (all laugh). It’s also how we contact other bands and promoters in order to book shows so as a whole social media has helped us grow as a band and branch out.
13.  Any advice for new Ottawa area artists?
a.       Just be professional. Whenever you’re talking to a promoter or another band, make sure that you are polite and professional. As a promoter (Ryan) I find that sometimes a new band will message me and they’ll just come off as entitled and thinking that they’re the next big thing and that is just not a good way to treat bands and promoters.

SUPPORT CASTLEFIELD ON BANDCAMP!

 https://castlefield.bandcamp.com/album/the-mascot-ep

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 https://www.patreon.com/ottawasound
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