How did the Organ Thieves come together? Some of the other members crossed over from your other project Brown Brigade, correct?

Dave: Yeah, actually Chuck and I are the only remaining members that crossed over from Brown Brigade now. Organ Thieves is a strange story actually. It ended up happening that Chuck was getting kind of antsy in Brown Brigade in that he wanted to write- he”s a natural songwriter. So one day we were set to play a benefit show in Kitchener/Waterloo but Chuck had already booked an Organ Thieves show, and this is at the time when he was using another drummer other than Johnny. Basically I hadn”t even seen the band and they asked me to play a Labour Day show with them. After about two weeks of practice me and the drummer at the time, Matt Worobec, had gotten together and played this show. The lineup would have been Ben Davies, Mike Smith, Matt Worobec, Chuck Coles and myself. We pretty much played naked to a bunch of people at a cottage; it was fun.

It must be an exciting thing when you get members from all around and it just sort of clicks.

Dave: Yeah, it was unlike anything I had ever done before. It was a band that really allowed me to think outside of the box guitar wise, as opposed to tying me down to scales and chords and leads and hooks (which I still write here and there). It”s more like thinking with a paint brush when approaching guitar.

There are a lot of different styles and structures on the EP. Do you guys all just have varying tastes? How did the sound of the band come to be?

Dave: I think that a lot of people mistake the fact that I love intense music. I mean honestly, intense music whether it be reggae, funk, metal, rock and roll- the music that speaks to me is really intense music. I think that is something that comes across in the Organ Thieves. I think we”re all from different types of musical backgrounds, but I”d say I get confused a lot as a strictly metal guy most of the time.

So you guys have a full length coming out, tell us a little bit about that.

Dave: Well as far as we know there is no release date, but we are locked in pre-production right now. We are looking at a release somewhere in 2010, but the full album is written. It”s basically ironing out all the transitions, get everything tight and have everything ready to record in the studio so we are not sitting there wasting any time trying to figure out what we did on the demos.

Yeah – I know some bands say they wish they had more time in the studio to work with. Do you guys have any idea on how long you want to be in the studio?

Dave: I”m not sure – I think that all depends on what size FACTOR grant that we can get. Basically we do want to make a record that”s a little bit more on the expensive side, and we want to take advantage of the government funding that we can get.

How important do you think an organization like FACTOR is to a band like the Organ Thieves?

Dave: FACTOR I”d say is especially important right now for any band that isn”t necessarily trusting of labels, which is definitely something I can say about the Organ Thieves. I think something like FACTOR is very important for bands like ours because we”re still not sure. Not sure of who we would want to take this to. Right now as it stands our plan is to basically keep going as a band and if somebody comes along that we do want to partner up with in respect to labels, we”ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Do you guys have anyone in mind to produce the record?

Dave: Yeah actually we do- we have Greig Nori in mind. Actually he was thinking of producing it for us, and we had him in mind as well.

And you”ve worked with Greig in the past, correct?

Dave: Yes, Greig worked with me for….oh man, countless recordings, at least five or six together. Not all major releases, but yeah there is a lot of history with Greig and I especially. Actually Matt and Chuck, the drummer and the singer played in a band called Cauterize who actually had a lot of help from Greig on their latest record.

And it”s good to have someone around that you are familiar with. I would imagine recording a full length with a person like that would be a little bit more comfortable.

Dave: Yeah absolutely and we”ve both had some time to grow since I last worked with him. It was really nice to see Greig and to be reminded of how much you look up to somebody. Pretty much he can tell me to do whatever he wants (laughs).

To touch on your point earlier on Cauterize, you and other members are coming from a variety of acts. How will you take your experience forward into the Organ Thieves?

Dave: Well personally for me, I think in Sum 41 I never spoke up enough. I think I let a lot of things slip to the side, mainly because I was getting the reputation as the complainer. I think with this time around, if something ridiculous comes up like, I don”t know, the pilot we had shot for MTV with Sum 41. The whole time I was just dreading filming that thing because I was just wondering what business a rock and roll band had on TV. I mean, it just didn”t make any sense to me. In this band it”s very easy to get the point across about what is borderline cheesy and beyond the point of music. I think everybody has taken their experience from their previous band (which I think all had similar problems) and are now a lot more focused on our music, and focused on what we do best.

Yeah, and it must stifle creativity having that sort of a label, you don”t want to be the one holding back all the time.

Dave: Yeah, I think that was the huge problem with Sum 41. There were too many outside forces like pilots, people wishing they could be actors, side projects- mine included. I”ve found that when the focus gets off your band, I think you are not only hurting yourself but you are pretty much slapping the faces of all the people that have put their time and money into you and that includes the people that listen to your music and go to your shows. My integrity is all I really own- everything else is just a table with receipts (laughs).

So other than recording the full length, what is ahead for the Organ Thieves?

Dave: I think 2010 is going to be a little bit more intense as far as what we”re doing and where we are going to be. I keep on getting a lot of requests to go to Montreal, a lot of Vancouver requests, even Russia, England and stuff like that. But that kind of stuff takes time to build up to and get ready for. I think one thing about this band is that we are very patient and we are very calculated in the sense that we don”t want to jump the gun on anything. Playing in front of a crowd when you are not ready can be worse than playing in front of nobody.

Do you guys want to make sure you have the record completed before you go into any touring?

Dave: Yeah, that was another thing we learned in our previous bands is that- never really play a show unless you have some discs to hand out. Not even necessarily when its released, but just when it”s done. Just go over and plug away. The main motivation in this band is to work because I tried the real world job and I despised it, hated it, felt like a fuckin” slave the entire time. It”s just that some people cannot mentally handle it (laughs). Who knows man, guitar may have ruined my life (laughs).

http://www.myspace.com/organthieves
By Nick Barfoot