It s not very often in these the days of pop and vacuous celebrity-ism that you come across a band that is just interested in making real rock roll. Throwback Suburbia is such a band. Blending their pop sensibilities with a rock roll attitude, they manage to capture the essence of retro-pop and make it modern rock.
Brought to life in early 2005 by Mike Collins and Jimi Evans from the ashes of their former band, Mike (drums) and Jimi (guitar vocals) set out to create the kind of sounds that they felt modern music was missing. After spending the best part of a year writing and producing demos, Mike and Jimi decided it was time to recruit the rest of a band; bassist Eric French and guitarist Paul Bond were all that was needed to complete the line-up.
Throwback Suburbia are the archetypal power-pop group and in their sound you can hear many influences, , , , maybe a bit of and .
And this Neo-power pop sound has attracted a lot of attention. Since their first live gig in February 2006 and their debut EP Eight Tracks, Throwback Suburbia have accumulated accolades and attention from webzines mdash; most notably -- 
internet radio stations, and producers. Throwback Suburbia have New York/Toronto based producers will be producing the band rsquo;s first full length album this winter.
The Macchiato Kids have produced for the likes of The Cure, Sheryl Crow, Quincy Jones, Prince, Janet Jackson and David Bowie.
With so much going on for this rapidly rising future mega-band I was happy when founding member and drummer Mike Collins agreed to an interview with me. Mike is a funny and intelligent former massage therapist who strongly recommended I get a massage.
So tell me about Eight Tracks. It s an EP?
It s an EP, yeah.
It s a little longer than most EPs which tend to be five or six songs. We didn t want to really call it a full-length cause nowadays full-lengths are at least 12 or 13 songs.
And how many songs are on Eight Tracks?
There s Eight. There s actually a hidden track after the last song. It s an okay song.
We wanted to just put it on there just to put it out and that s why it s a hidden track. I don t think it s our proudest moment but it s still a decent song.
Your music has a lot of energy, a lot of personality.
Do you think personality is important in music?
As far as personality coming out, to me that s the goal otherwise it s too trite. You know, you re just trying to try to write a radio song.
Our songs come out working for the radio great but it was never on purpose. We re not trying to write radio hits. I hate people that write that kind of contrived following rules on how to write songs.
There are bands out there like that but they don t last.
So what type of music do you try to write?
It s stuff that I can relate to.
Whether it s myself or witnessing it in other people or witnessing it in Society. Even a song like Watching You Fade [track four on Eight Tracks] and Circles [unreleased but available to listen to on their ] are both very poppy and very ultra-melodic but there is an underlying message to it about taking responsibility for your action. And also getting out of bad situations and making better choices.
There s been that underlying message in a few of our songs.
Sometimes I m talking about me sometimes I m not. I may be sayin , Oh I m watching you fade from my eyes but actually, in reality it s me that s not living to the best of my abilities.
I think the lyrics are always hellip; you know hellip; I won t say always deep but there s always something serious to be said and even though the melody may be bubble-gummy. You know.
Do you think your melodies are bubble-gummy?
Umm hellip; No, maybe that s not the best term. I just say that I mean as opposed to some of the stuff that s out there nowadays is a little more dark; or the Emo stuff or the post-grunge crap that came out a few years ago. I would just say it s melodic.
I am a big fan, and have been since I was a kid, of melody.
So who writes the songs for Throwback Suburbia?
It s definitely Jimi [vocals and rhythm guitar] and I.
He and I were in a band called The Red Sector around Portland [Oregon], they were together for about three years, we did some pretty cool stuff, we did a couple videos and had a sizeable following in town. But there started to be that hellip; you know, you hear it all the time, there started to be that difference of opinions between the other band members about the direction of the band.
Jimi and I were starting to get together and write together when we were in The Red Sector and it just felt so good and we were starting to feel like the other members were not wanting to do what we were wanting to do.
So the band split up amicably and we re still friends with everybody, but him and I just started getting together. It was late November of 2004 that we started getting together a couple of times a week and just throwing ideas out there. Once we got a song finished we d record it.
We did that for about a year, then we got the other two guys in the band, Eric and Paul.
I would say the song writing is 50/50 between Jimi and I.
How did you get Eric and Paul?
Once Jimi and I had about eight or nine songs we thought, Gosh we re getting sick and tired of hanging out in my bedroom and just being in front of the computer tweakin songs and we wanted to go out and play. So we started putting out some feelers for bass players we went out to some local shows and looked at some people and nobody was really standing out to us. And then Jimi said he got a call one day from Eric who we knew from bands we were in before and he had heard that Jimi and I were working on a project together and he was interested.
I hadn t even thought of Eric and I was like Wow! I do remember that guy being a really good bass player. So we invited him over one night, he listened to what we were up to and fell in love with it and said I want to be a part of this .
We never really had a formal audition but we knew he was a very good bass player. We just said learn four songs come back in a week and let s play. He came back and he did his homework and we sounded great, we all kinda of had the same twisty sense of humour and the same goals.
We needed a lead guitar player hellip; then so we started putting out the feelers for a guitar player. So we started thinking of some people and thought of a friend of mine named Brian. But Brian was goin to school and he was already in a couple of other bands and he said really need to check out my buddy Paul.
He gave us Paul s number and I called Paul and we had a really nice conversation with him. Told him what we were all about. He said he had heard good things.
So we dropped off a CD with him had a little chat with him for a while. He did his homework and jammed with us and the synergy was there. That was January of this year since we had our first rehearsal with Paul.
So Throwback Suburbia has been together less than a year?
Yeah! We played our first gig on February third and Paul was only with us for three week
before that.
So it was really this year that we completed the line-up and played our first show in February. And we have been playing about one or two shows a month. Writing more songs and recording more songs.
And now we are about to embark on this production deal with Mark and Tom [The Macchiato Kids mentioned above]. I think we ve done a lot in a few short months.
If you would like to listen to Throwback Suburbia s eponymous EP Eight Tracks you can hear it at their space or their own .
To purchase Eight Tracks you can find it at .
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