The Darcys

Melissa has an conversation with lead vocalist, Kirby Best

Kirby Best, lead vocals for the up and coming Canadian band ‘The Darcys’, took some time out of his busy touring schedule to answer some questions for CONFRONT. The band is currently touring across Canada and has been leaving some great impressions behind. Here’s what Kirby had to say about their tour, as well as a background on where The Darcys began…

CONFRONT: How did the band come together / meet?

KIRBY: We met at a Halloween party in Halifax. Wes was wearing a tiger costume and kept fist pumping during the conversation. Basically some acoustic demos that I had made in my bedroom in first year had floated around campus a little bit. Jason and Wes heard them. They had been playing together forever, and thought it might be worth a shot. So I woke the next morning with a hangover and a note on my arm reminding me that I had band practice.

CONFRONT: How long have you been together?

KIRBY: It’s tough to say. Basically, things started to heat up once everyone finished their degrees and moved to the same city. But we’ve been playing together for almost four years.

CONFRONT: How is your most recent tour going? Has anything interesting or out of the ordinary happened?

KIRBY:  We were talking last night in the Van about how this has been the most eventful week of tour we’ve ever had, but to give you a sample, we have basically been unable to turn our van off since we left Halifax. So we’ve been doing some crazy all night drives and had to play our show in Ottawa with our van running in the parking lot outside. That’s been the craziest part of things so far.

CONFRONT: What bands have you toured with to date?  Do you have any particular favorites?

KIRBY: We just finished up a tour with L’Embuscade who is a great band out of Montreal. They play tightly orchestrated post-rock kind of stuff. They had a National Film Board crew with them when we played Montreal. I was jealous.

CONFRONT: Has it been difficult to get your name out there? And how have you gone?

KIRBY: We have been using the road as our method of getting the word out. The bands we love all seem to be road dogs and it seems to be the only way to make a living these days. Also Wes will talk to absolutely anyone that’ll listen about the band. That’s been pretty effective too. That guy can talk.

CONFRONT: How have crowds at shows been taking your music- how have people’s reaction been towards you so far?

KIRBY: We played a pretty quiet show in Moncton, to a bunch of locals who didn’t really look like they’d be into some noisy rock and roll. I was having a bit of a panic attack in the lead up to the show. We were eating a bunch of fried food and when the cops came in and pulled out three guys who had just come into the bar. I didn’t feel like people we’re going to be into it.  Anyway, we finished the first couple of songs to a pretty quiet reaction, but then all of a sudden we played a tune and the mood shifted and everyone started clapping and yelling. All of a sudden, some guy at the bar just yelled “I just became a father” and then we toasted. From then on things were smooth sailing. Those are the kind of shows that really remind me what amazing force music can be. That has been the big difference on tour, we’ve been converting folks even at small shows in towns we’ve never been to. We’re not cracking under pressure.

CONFRONT: How would you describe your music genre?

KIRBY: Post-Classic Rock for beard aficionados.

CONFRONT: I noticed you keep a blog for the band. Is this a way for you to keep in touch with fans/for them to keep in touch with you? Do you talk online with your fans?

KIRBY: We haven’t really figured out how to make the two way communication thing work for us yet, but the blog has been a good way for us to let people be a part of the action, which is something I always crave with the bands I love. People seem to get mad when we don’t update it, so I get the feeling people are into it.

CONFRONT: What does an average day in the life of The Darcys look like when you’re not on tour?

KIRBY: Coffee. Looking at things on the Internet. Nap. Beer. We’re pretty regular folks. Everyone works day jobs and between that and the band, there isn’t much time or money for anything after that.

CONFRONT:  Do you have a favorite venue to play at or somewhere you’ve had a really great show experience (and if so, where/what was it?)

KIRBY: We all love playing in Halifax, because it’s our adopted home town. It’s always nice to show up there and play big shows that are filled with all of our old friends. We played the Paragon theatre, on this tour which is the venue where we’d seen so many big shows when we all lived in Halifax, so that was a pretty amazing feeling.

CONFRONT: I also read that you had a new member join the band after you initially got together. If at all, how has that changed your music?

KIRBY: Mike has turned things up a notch. He’s filled things out sonically in this really amazing way. I love playing in a three guitar band, it’s so unnecessary. Every time we all play the same chord it is like getting hit with a brick. So the layering that you can do with three guitars has been a big part of all the new music we’ve been writing. He’s also been playing a lot of keyboards. So that’s been a big plus. Also he sings so our harmonies have been much more complex. Basically he just makes things bigger.

CONFRONT: What have been your musical influences along the way?

KIRBY: I’m unhealthily obsessed with broken social scene, as anyone who has spent any time with me knows. We all listen to a lot of contemporary indie rock type stuff. In terms of what influences our music the most I would say our dad’s record collections have had a pretty significant effect. My dad loves the beach boys and I’ve always been a promoter of vocal harmonies and the more poppy melodic side of things. Wes and Jason love Steely Dan so they’ve pushed the more complex stuff. Also Jason’s dad loves Neil. So we used to have a lot of fuzzy guitar solos.

CONFRONT: Do you have a favorite song to play live, and if so why that particular song?

KIRBY: We’re still in the process of figuring out a lot of the new stuff, so a favorite hasn’t really developed yet. But I always love playing our cover of ‘the CN tower belongs to the dead’ by Final Fantasy. We just recorded a digital single of it. When Jason and Mike start shredding together it never fails to get me.

CONFRONT: What makes you guys different as a band compared to other up and coming artists out there at the moment?

KIRBY: That’s a tough one I wrestle with that all the time. There are so many great bands out there. I used to work a job where I worked on copy right and the amount of music that exists in the world is staggering. I found it really upsetting for a while, but now I’m just content to make sure we are pushing ourselves all the time and working. I try and keep my goals and expectations internal to the band. Looking outside for validation makes me crazy. But that being said I think we do a really good job of writing lyric and content driven songs that don’t give up an inch musically. I find that bands often end up going one way or the other.

CONFRONT: What’s your favorite part about being in a band?

KIRBY: I like playing music with other people. That’s by far the best part. The 45 minutes when you’re on stage. Being in the practice space trying out new songs. Most of the ephermera is stuff I could do without.

And the last 5 are questions that we ask each band we interview…

CONFRONT: What were your First and Last albums purchased?

KIRBY: The first album I bought for myself was Nirvana – Never mind. The last thing I bought was Neko Case – Middle Cyclone.

CONFRONT:  What were your First and Last concerts attended?

KIRBY: First was the tragically hip on New Year’s Eve 1999 with Hayden and the Rheostatics. It was amazing.  I saw oh no forest fires at the horseshoe a little while ago. I haven’t been going out much recently because we’ve been rehearsing for this tour and the next album.

CONFRONT: Finish the sentence: I have never…

KIRBY: Seen star wars.

CONFRONT: Finish the sentence:  I would never…

KIRBY: Steal someone’s beer at a party.

CONFRONT: What would you want your legacy to be (either as a band or as an individual)?

KIRBY: More and more I’m really into community these days. I think one of the reasons I love BSS so much is that I feel like I am a part of something bigger. So more than anything I’d like this band to connect people in some vital and real way. I’d like us to be an escape from the world. I’m into Escaping together.

The Darcys are definitely headed in the right direction. With a new album released in April of 2009, this won’t be the last we hear of them!

If you’d like to learn more about this band, visit them at:

www.myspace.com/itsthedarcys
or
www.thedarcys.ca