Starring Janet Leigh – Matt Zadkovich (guitar)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Recently, SMN News had the chance to catch up with our friend Matt Zadkovich of Ironclad Recordings latest signees, STARRING JANET LEIGH. Come join the fun as Matt gives us insight on some future tour plans, the band’s recently finished music video for “Ex You”, and get lost with us as he takes us through Canada to some of its hot spot venues, music stores, and great bites to eat. STARRING JANET LEIGH’s Ironclad Recordings debut, Spectrum, is out now, so make sure you pick up a copy. And make sure you catch the band on the road when they come near you.

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Having recently signing to Ironclad Recordings, how does it feel as a band to jump up to that next level?

It’s really refreshing to work with guys who care as much about our music as we do. The guys at Ironclad have been great in helping us get this record out to the masses, and are good at throwing opportunities our way. No attitudes, just hard working dudes.

Coming up, the band has a mini tour with Unearth, For The Fallen Dreams, and Woe Of Tyrants. What are your excitement levels to that?

We super stoked about the Unearth tour in July. This is very clearly a huge opportunity for us to reach an entirely new audience and we are not taking that for granted. We plan on bringing it 110% every night on this.

Starring Janet Leigh For The Fallen Dreams tour

When playing live, how does it feel traveling around to show these crowds who STARRING JANET LEIGH is?

It’s exactly what we’ve been working towards for the last 5 years. We’ve overcome our obstacles and are now in a position to bring it in a big way. Playing live music is one of the greatest feelings in the world. That connection between band members, the music, and the audience is profound to say the least, perfect in many cases. I just hope the audience enjoys it as much as we do!

Being a part of this killer Canadian metal scene, where would you say are some of your favorite venues to play in Canada? Also, have any recommendations on places to eat, shop for music, etc?

Favourite venues……oh there’s a list haha. Each city has their own little hot spots. Toronto is our home, and here I’d say the venues we enjoy the most are: Sneaky Dees, The Reverb, and of course The Opera House. Windsor, ON has a place called The Chubby Pickle, great venue. Hamilton has The Casbah. Halifax, Nova Scotia has a place called the Pavillion which is a GREAT place to play.

For Music shopping in Toronto, you can always hit the big HMV’s (they do carry a lot of metal/indy imports) but there are some specialty stores that are good to hit like Rotate This and Sonic Boom that carry a lot of LPs and CDs that you rarely find anywhere else.

Food: Sneaky Dees serves amazing Mexican, vegan friendly as well. Depending on how much you want to spend, the city has a lot to offer, but I’d recommend any of the following places (I’m vegan so I’m clearly biased on this, but good food is good food): Sushi Island, Fressen, Burrito Boyz, Big Burger (in Etobicoke, best fries in the city), Lick’s (best burger joint overall in Ontario), Utopia, and there are so many others.

Bands to check out from here that are on the verge of being HUGE: Titan, Dismata, Bloodshoteye, Terrorhorse. All good dudes who make great music.

Love the music! You guys have this level of extreme, and have found ways to differentiate and stick out. Also, STARRING JANET LEIGH spices up the music with some intriguing jazz lines. Creating the music that you do, what are some of your key influences?

Our influences are all over the map, most notably ones that push a lot of boundaries. Our key influences are: Origin, Cryptopsy, Pantera, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, The End, Candiria, Sleep Terror, The Faceless, Metallica, Pig Destroyer, Nile, Nasum, Return to Forever, Ion Dissonance, Beneath the Massacre, Decapitated, Necrophagist, Mr. Bungle, really the list is endless.

Spectrum opens up with the giant riffs of “Noire” and really gives a great introduction for STARRING JANET LEIGH. Looking at Spectrum as a whole, you guys must be proud of this beast, huh?

This record is really a moment in time for us as a band. Through the member changes over the years we’ve really evolved and the songs reflect this incarnation of the band very well. It was the best we could be at the time we recorded it, and stood as the accomplishment of us pulling through the struggles we endured. I’m really happy with how it turned out, and that it’s finally in stores!

Any plans/ideas for a music video or some more live footage from any material off of Spectrum?

We have just finished the editing for a music vid for “Ex You.” It should be out very soon. We have some live vids up on our youtube page performing “Noire” and “Spectrum” you can check out: www.youtube.com/starringjanetleigh

You guys have really started to make a name for yourself on the road. Any future tour plans for later in the year, or any certain places that you’d love to play?

We’re working on hard on getting some more Canadian and US tours under our belt throughout 2009. Our goal was to make sure we made it to California before the year end, and that’s what we’re sticking to. After the Unearth tour, we’re working on 2 more US tours for 2009, and a western Canada tour. We’d love to hit Europe too if we can fit it in. If not in 2009, for sure in 2010.

Here’s a fun and tricky question. If you were to organize a dream tour, who would be on it? Feel free to name a full scale festival if you wish.

Wow haha. That’s quite the option. Dream tour festival: Meshuggah, Candiria, The Faceless, Lye By Mistake, Pantera (if such a thing were possible…), Origin, Cryptopsy, Martyr, Ion Dissonance, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Myotonia (RIP), Dillinger Escape Plan, Nile, Necrophagist, Severed Saviour, Beneath the Massacre, and all the bands from Ontario/Quebec we’re friends with that I truly believe will be that big one day: Titan, Dismata, Bloodshoteye, Plasma Rifle, The Last Felony, and Terrorhorse. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of bands (guaranteed) but this is what immediately comes to mind.

Looking at the music’s technicality, does it sometimes get difficult to hit every single detail, or has practice really kicked in to where you guys can just go out there and do it?

We work hard at being able to convey the album live as well as it sounds on the album. We’re very diligent about keeping the songs up to par. We jam 3-5 days a week usually. The further you push it technically, the more likely there is to be some kind of error. We just work hard to keep ourselves at the top of our game, both as instrumentalists and as a band.

What music has been playing in your cd player lately for your listening pleasure?

Currently spinning: Mastodon – Leviathan, Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, The Faceless – Planetary Duality, Pig Destroyer – Terrifyer, and I’m sure many others. When someone breaks out an ipod, who knows what might come up. Some of our guys have a ridiculously huge music collection, so it could go from Cave In to Corpse, or West Side Connection to Bruce Springsteen. We’re pretty open when it comes to music, so it’s a good mix.

Lastly, with Spectrum about to hit the streets and more to come, how does the future look for STARRING JANET LEIGH? Any last words and shout outs?

We have a lot of hope and faith behind this album. It’s been a long time coming and it’s finally out! Now we just have to work hard to bring it to the world as best we can: tour tour tour.

Shoutouts: to all of our fans, family and friends who have supported us over the last 5 years in getting to where we are now. We thank all you so much. Your support is what has kept us going for so long when many people said we were beating a dead horse replacing members and rebuilding. I guess we have come to stand the test of time thus far, and we wanna take this as far as it can go. Cheers!

STARRING JANET LEIGH - Spectrum