Prototype A

When CONFRONT’s web designer extraordinaire turned correspondent Andy came back from his time at the NXNE festival this year, he was quick to let us know about this great band from Montreal he had met while attending different concerts during the festival.
Prototype-A is a rock band from Montreal founded in 1997 under the name of Screwl Stew.  The band includes singer Danick Ferland, guitarists Pierre-André (P-A) Bédard and Benoît (Ben) De Champlain, bassist Daniel (Dan) Quintal and drummer Alain Scherer.

According to their MySpace, 2007 is proving to be a major year for Prototype-A.  After the big finale of a big rock contest they participated in, a media storm was created and the band was featured on “This Morning Live” on Global TV.   Recently, Prototype-A just came out of the studio with a new three song demo. To quote the band: “After 10 years of hard labor we are now ready to take it to another level by getting signed to a major record company.”
We caught up with the band at their Beloeil, QC studio not too long after a showcase they had performed for a big management company interested in signing the band.

CONFRONT: We first heard of you at the North by North East Festival.  Our correspondent Andy was there and was very impressed with your performance, how did you end up being a part of the festival?

PROTOTYPE A:  A last minute spot opened and few days before going we didn’t know that we were gonna go.  At first we were supposed to go and then they called us back saying that there was no room so we couldn’t play and then finally they called us back again saying ‘you guys can play the show’.

CONFRONT: Had you done festivals before?

PROTOTYPE A: Yes!  We had done another music conference before and it was great fun.

CONFRONT: Have you played in the US yet?

PROTOTYPE A: Yes.

CONFRONT: How was your reception there?

PROTOTYPE A: Good.  Like in festivals you don’t know which crowd you’re playing to and the crowd we were playing to was a little older than the crowds we are normally used to, but it was nice and we signed autographs so it was cool.

CONFRONT: Have you guys been back to the US since?  Do you keep track of how your fan base is developing there?

PROTOTYPE A: We’ll [have fan base developing] a little on the internet but we haven’t been back since to maintain the fan base.

CONFRONT: What’s your fan base like here?  Being from Montreal you must have a fairly strong base at home.

PROTOTYPE A: Well the thing is that in Montreal we don’t have much of a local scene.  The local scene is less our style; so of course all the people around us like friends or friends of friends listen to it and pretty much enjoy it; but I think in Montreal I’d say it’s pretty strong.  We’ve opened for big shows like Evanescence and Papa Roach.

CONFRONT: How was that experience with Papa Roach?

PROTOTYPE A: Oh it was good.  Especially that Papa Roach somewhat sounds like us so the fans automatically liked us from the first song so it was fun.

CONFRONT:  Who have you played with that you were already fans of or have become fans of after playing with them?

PROTOTYPE A: Well I think all the guys listened to Hoobastank for a while, Papa Roach, we don’t really listen to Evanescence but that was a big show there were like 40 000 people.

CONFRONT: Your manager tells me that you recently put on a showcase for a management company.  How do you prepare for that?

PROTOTYPE A: The set list is something that’s very important.  You wanna show all the aspects of the band.  Like we have a couple of soul songs, ballads.  It’s very important to show all the sides of our band so the guys know where the band’s from and where they are going musically.  A showcase needs to be short and sweet – like 30 minutes.  So what we do is take our bomb songs and arrange them so that the guys can appreciate them in the end and we can get signed… maybe!

CONFRONT: How do you think it went?

PROTOTYPE A: It went pretty well.

CONFRONT: Do you think it accomplished what you set out to do?

PROTOTYPE A: Yeah absolutely.  We played a great show.

CONFRONT:  How do you guys go about booking shows as you are an indie band that isn’t signed and yet you’ve played for some pretty big bands?

PROTOTYPE A: Well for big bands it’s [event promoters] that booked us for smaller shows it’s mostly word of mouth and contests like ‘L’Omnium du Rock’ that we did recently.  We were against 56 bands.  It’s voted on by the people on the internet and we won first place in Montreal.  Then we fought for Quebec and it was live at Musique Plus [Montreal’s music television station].

CONFRONT: Do you find that your fan base grew because of that experience?

PROTOTYPE A: Yeah!  The numbers of downloads on MySpace went through the roof so it’s been good for us.  What’s good about MySpace is that anybody can see it.

CONFRONT: Most kids refer to the internet now to get their media.  You rarely see a kid with a hard copy in their hands.  You were saying that your MySpace downloads had gone through the roof.  Ten years ago there was no MySpace.

PROTOTYPE A:  What we were on 10 years ago was Mp3.com.  A lot of indie bands use [the internet] for promotion it’s a great tool.  We try to utilize it as much as we can.

CONFRONT: Do you guys have an album coming out soon?

PROTOTYPE A: We recorded an old EP and the rest are just demos that we used to send out to record companies to get heard.

CONFRONT: So if your fans wanna get your music where can they get it?  On MySpace?

PROTOTYPE A: They can listen to it on MySpace but they can’t download it unless they have recording software.  (Laughing) They can use a tape deck.  That’s our most asked question though.  “Where can I get your music?”

CONFRONT: Do you have plans of recording an album within the year?

PROTOTYPE A: Well not within the year but pretty soon.  Of course it costs a lot of money and we don’t have it so we have to wait for a company or someone to invest in us.

CONFRONT: How did you guys get together?

PROTOTYPE A: Well it’s a high school thing and it’s too long to explain.  But let’s just say that we played in different bands and the bands got together and we became our band.

CONFRONT: What are/were your plans for the summer?

PROTOTYPE A: We are just concentrating on playing for [record companies].  We’re always writing new songs and trying to perfect our set list to make sure we play the best we can.

CONFRONT: Are you playing any shows this summer?

PROTOTYPE A: Well of course we are going to try and play shows but we can’t always do the bigger shows but we will try to get in for sure.

CONFRONT: One of the things we are trying to do with CONFRONT is show people that mainstream isn’t a music genre but rather simple music that can reach a lot of people.  Yet for many, being mainstream seems to be a negative thing.  What is your definition of mainstream today?

PROTOTYPE A: There are two definitions of mainstream.  There’s one that a big machine that pushes a product. There is also another thing that can happen; that is that just so many people are into one thing that it becomes mainstream and that’s great.  And when that happens that’s not planned out.  So there are two ways of looking at it.

CONFRONT: What genre would you consider yourselves?

PROTOTYPE A: We like to think of ourselves as being a good rock band.  Not pop hard electro preppy hook pop or whatever. It was better when rock had guitars, jazz had the groove piano and saxophones and stuff like that you know.  All these categories get you mixed up.  We have keyboards, we have drums, guitar and sometimes the guitar is more electronic than guitar so we mix up all this stuff and we sing rock music on top and sometimes we add a little bit of a ballad in there.  So it’s good rock alternative music.

CONFRONT: You guys have been together for over ten years now.  How have you grown in those ten years?

PROTOTYPE A: Well we’ve grown a lot; age wise first of all.

CONFRONT: How old are you guys?

PROTOTYPE A: We’re 25.  But musically we’ve grown tremendously because we used to be a punk pop rock.

CONFRONT: Punk rock like???

PROTOTYPE A: Like NoFX and stuff.  They were big rock influences.  It was too fast and we were stuck.  But it was easy cause punk rock is really big in Quebec so we could play any show and we were playing all the time.  We had a pretty big fan base but we decided to retire the punk rock label and change our name and try something else.

CONFRONT: Being unsigned I assume you have to have day jobs right?  How do you juggle your day job and the band at the same time?

PROTOTYPE A: We just do it.  We’ve always practiced two days a week, three hours a day; it’s discipline.  Normally bands that are unsigned have no discipline at all but we practice every week.  We’ve always pushed each other to be better.

CONFRONT: Where do you see yourselves in ten years?

PROTOTYPE A: At the top.  Living off of the music you know.

Make sure to keep an eye out for the band as they are sure to make it big in the near future.  If you would like to show some support, you can do so by visiting their MySpace at the following address.

http://www.myspace.com/prototypea

To view the entire Prototype A picture gallery, please visit our picture gallery in the Library of Content.