CONTINUING THE LOWEST OF THE LOW EVOLUTION OVER YEARS AND OVERNIGHT
A CONVERSATION WITH RON HAWKINS
The seventh LP studio album, Over Years And Overnight by Lowest Of The Low marks a milestone by the veteran Canadian indie rock band. The quintet consisting of Ron Hawkins, David Alexander, Lawrence Nichols, Michael McKenzie and Greg Smith, have included three songs on their new band produced and arranged album, which are co-written by all five members. It’s a first in the evolution of the legendary Toronto-based band. Additionally, the current iteration is the longest-serving lineup of members since the beginning of Lowest Of The Low in the very early 1990s.
‘I’ve been pretty prolific all these years and then, for some reason, we started co-writing as a band, which we’ve never done in the history of our band. We started doing it on this record and there’s three co-writes, like complete band co-writes on the record, which is kind of a statement of where everybody is, you know, feels invested and comfortable and all jets are firing in the same direction. It was really organic, it was a situation in which we had already had [2023 release Welcome To The] Plunderdome in the can and had a regular Monday night rehearsal. Everybody still has access to this kind of 16-year-old energy where they’re like, yeah, let’s fuck around. It just happened like that, very organically and just kind of fun. From that point on, it just seemed like, oh, we can do this. We just jam in here and create and every time we left on a Monday it would be like, oh, that seems like three new ideas and then I’ll take them home and write lyrics and write a bridge or something. The hang is very good with the band and there’re no egos involved, and the best idea wins sort of. I have to say, this version [of the band] feels very much like the very first version when we were just breaking. There’s the same kind of tingle in the air. There were periods of time where we were sort of grinding our gears a little bit and wondering what we were doing, that’s why the break-ups here and there. I think Stephen [original member Stephen Stanley] really did want to go do what he was doing now. He writes tons of songs and he’s got a great solo band. It’s not because I put the hammer down when were all a band together. Steve would write a song or two for each record, but he’s now off doing his thing and it’s been great for him. So, I feel like this version is very much like 1.0, you know?’
Over Years And Overnight takes a detour toward love and relationships from the band’s previous two releases which slanted toward political themes. The new album along with Welcome To The Plunderdome from late 2023 are both band produced after the polished 2019 David Bottrill produced AGITPOP.
OVER YEARS AND OVERNIGHT ALBUM REVIEW
‘There’s not usually a theme, the process is usually just write all year and then when we’re compiling the record we start to see what we were preoccupied with all year. The funny thing about this is, and maybe this speaks to what sort of classic contrarians we always are, is that AGITPOP and Welcome To The Plunderdome, the last two records, were very political, and there was a lot to say. But of course, there’s so much more to say now, it’s so much crazier, and this is kind of a love song record, part about humanism and maybe we tried to create some comfort food or something, a safe human place for people to come to gather. I think sonically as it was coming together, I started to think it seems to be kind of a poppy, indie rock record, almost like at times it reminds me of The Lemonheads. Obviously, things that are in our DNA from growing up in that era. Jangly and more choruses than there have been in the last couple of records. I always come back to this idea that I think our job and what we feel we want to do in the world, the fingerprint we want to put on it is that when you come to our shows, or when you listen to our music that it just helps you feel more human, you know, that they’re like vitamins or like the air we breathe. So that we feel more the humanity and the connection to each other more strongly. That’s what makes people want to change things in the world, I think. The biggest thing that can do that is people understanding that we need to love each other and we have the most access to that through our personal relationships with people. Oftentimes I’m trying to kind of tuck the politics into the human stories, the daily stories, because I think that’s the best way. I really find that the last two are the ones that sound the most like we sound. The litmus test for me is London Calling, to me that record is perfect because they captured the piss and vinegar of the band and sprinkled just enough beautiful horn section stuff and latin percussion to pretty it up a bit, it’s all there. We’re always shooting for that and to some degree, with modern technology, it’s pretty easy and seductive to get forensic and fix things and round off the edges a little bit and I find that has happened to us in the past with certain records. The last two I find that they sound like us, they sound a little bit raw.’
Canada is a large country which poses many challenges for touring musicians. The Lowest Of The Low are based in Toronto and are in the midst of an Ontario-centric tour, which is much more manageable in terms of logistics than making the trek from coast to coast.
“Prices have increased significantly in the past five years in Canada. It’s become just economically a real riddle. For instance, we were renting a Sprinter van for a weekend for $200 bucks or something at some point…. suddenly the next time we went back it was $450 or $500 for the weekend, then gas and all these things just really put limits on how far afield we can go. It works if we team up with our buddies, like 54-40. We went out east with The Trews and if we double up out there it makes sense. We did some stuff with Bedouin Soundclash in Buffalo where they were able to come down because we have a big audience in Buffalo. We can do trade-offs like that and sometimes get out there. I don’t want us to wind up giving the impression that we’re in a sort of ‘90s revival, because we really don’t feel like that at all. Of course, we’re a band that made our name in the ‘90s, but I feel like we’ve been just putting our nose to the grindstone the whole time and putting out new music. It’s really just the math at this point. Everybody with families and stuff like that, the idea of jumping in a van and doing 20 gigs in a month doesn’t really appeal like it used to when we would go and play for beer.’
Over years the method of which music is delivered to the listener has continued to change. Whether it’s the decreased role of traditional radio, the resurgence of vinyl, the ever-evolving streaming methods, or the increasing reliance on social media, it’s a constant change. Lowest Of The Low have rolled with the punches and continue to adapt to the times to get their music into the hands of listeners old and new.
‘Everyone I speak to, whether it’s a 22-year-old musician who’s working their socials like crazy or somebody like Steve Kane, the former president of Warner Music, nobody knows what the hell’s going on, nobody really knows. I don’t think the dust has settled into a new model of how we promote music. We’re kind of caught in that tornado as well, which is what we yelled for all these years which is funny and just be careful what you wish for. Back in the ‘90s I remember hammering away about how terrible it was when there were, like, six gatekeepers and how undemocratic that was. Now we have this kind of full democracy of the internet and it’s totally the wild west. It’s like everybody’s fighting for some kind of slice of the attention economy. We’re just trying to figure out how to reinforce the community that we already have. Luckily for us we came up in a time where you could do it on a grassroots level and maintain that. We’re lucky that we have this thing that we can try and reinforce, but of course we also want to build it and that’s the key that’s really hard to figure out, how do you build it and find new people? Brian at Sonic Envy, I think his new attempt is instead of hammering one single to take maybe five of them and try to find playlists. On the last record, there were a couple of ska things on there and we went up on ska playlists that we wouldn’t have been on other records.’
Released on May 2nd, Over Years And Overnight marks a continued renaissance of Lowest Of The Low. The band has successfully maintained their fierce independence in the music industry while adapting to the changing music industry over their nearly 35-year history.
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