Gavin: It's been hard to move forward, we've really had to back step a bunch with new members coming in and teaching them our songs over. It's really affected our progress in writing with how fast we can write songs and sort of leaving behind older songs with knowing we have to reteach them to new members when they come in. What's helped us a lot is the essential core of the band has always stayed together which has allowed us to become really tight and own our music. There have been some ups and downs really. Luckily Brooker and Rachel have been able to pick it up fast, so we've been able to move fast as a band. It hasn't always been that way, so it really depends on the members. We've had some members in the past that took a while to learn our songs and that slowed us down as a whole band. They're musically awesome, so I think we've progressed more with our new members than we have with old members in the past.

Has it forced you to be more focused on Toronto and being a band local to the city, with having Julia and Pete in Montreal?

Stefan: That's always been part of the challenge, there are eight of us. So it's a lot easier for us to just play a show in our hometown, rather than eight of us to give up two days to go to Ottawa or Montreal. It's not as easy for us as it is for most bands because there are so many of us. As a result we've built up this huge following in Toronto, but it's been more of a challenge to build a fan base anywhere else. All of the trouble we've had in the past is coordinating eight people's schedules so that we can all go on tour or even just play a couple shows here and there outside of the city.

Gavin: It's been a challenge, but it's also been a benefit. We know that if we go to Quebec we have other people that can come with us: Julia and Pete. It's like we have band members in different areas, we can pick them up as we go.

Aaron: It's like an expanded network.

How have your goals changed from when you started the band to the present, now that you've done some touring and released an EP?

Stefan: I think the goals have changed a lot. I know for me personally when we started the band I wanted to play a show for 30 people. As those things come together you want to keep moving forward and seeing how far you can push yourself, how far you can make something like this go. I think we went from a really, really bad punk band to realizing there was some potential there. People liked us and we started taking ourselves more seriously as musicians, songwriters and as a band. We went from really bad punk to this kind of mish-mash of musical genres that kind of brings out what we all like about music. We all have different tastes musically and that pushed us to be more than a shitty punk band. It all came together well in the end.

Having started out as a young band with ska-punk influences and growing into an established indie band, did you get any help along the way?

Stefan: Yes, there have been bands that have taken us under their wing. One Night Band has been really great to us, Alex works for Stomp and has always been a big supporter of our music. The Creepshow is another band that has been really supportive and have helped to try and get us bigger gigs. And then we have friends in other scenes that have really helped us, like Sadie May Crash.

Dan: We played a show with them a few years ago and just played another a few weeks ago, they're excellent musicians.

Stefan: They're kind of the indie rock band that we've always been friends with, but before recently we didn't have a reason to play with them because they were playing such different music. They've definitely helped us to transition into the 19+ scene.

What have the challenges been with gaining traction in the 19+ crowd?

Stefan: I think the biggest hurdle was the name, we were called Stop Drop N Skank. People over 19 don't want to see a band called Stop Drop N Skank, so we dropped skank off our name. We still play ska, but we're not just a ska band anymore. I think the name change was the first step for us.

Aaron: I think listening and going from the first album to the second album and looking at the lyrics there's a complete transition away from this kind of basic swearing to a more sophisticated way of expressing yourself, which is something that's obviously more of a mature sound and relates to an older audience. They can relate more to the music instead of just saying fuck all the time.

Stefan: We still have to suffer from that dilemma. We want to play our new stuff, our mature stuff. People want to hear our old stuff that the 19+ crowd is not going to want to hear. So do we snub all our old fans who have supported us for so long? It's about finding a compromise I think.

Gavin: I think that's been a huge hurdle for us. Trying to take away the less mature of our songs and playing our new stuff, which we enjoy more. We have people ragging us about the news songs and saying "I want to hear your old stuff".

With the change in sound, was it a conscious decisions where you sat down and figured it out or was it more of a natural progression?

Dan: We had a few sit-downs. As much as we strove to try and change the sound, but overall as we wrote songs over the past couple years they've just gradually changed into something we enjoy more.

Stefan: I think a big part of it is we grew up. We started when we were 15 or 16 and we liked ska and punk - I still do and the ska elements are still there, but we grew up. We don't sing about having ADD anymore because we have more important things on our minds. Somebody suggested to me that we call this album "puberty" because we went through puberty over the last year as a band.

How does having new members fit into that? Has it helped you take things in a new direction?

Dan: A definite plus is that the horn players we have: Rachel, Julia and Brooker, have a passion for music. Rachel and Brooker are studying music, so it's obviously more than just a hobby to them.

Stefan: A big part of our sound is the horns. I think that's what differentiates us from a lot of bands. And I think having horns is more important to us at this stage than even as a pure ska band because every ska band has horns, but our horn players are doing something interesting and not just ska riffs and accents. There are more sophisticated lines that are actually enhancing the music and providing people who don't listen to ska with an interesting element to the music.

Rachel: I think a lot of it has to do with Brooker and I writing the new horn lines. We actually don't know how to write a ska line, so the sound is a lot different.

Can you tell us the story of Winter Beard Records?

Rachel: Well, I think our producer Mitch was talking to someone about how he grows a beard in the winter. He was trying to explain that "Winter Beard" sounds like an indie band, and I later asked if I could call Mitch Winter Beard, which soon turned into the name of the label and the name Mitch records under.

Stefan: And of course Winter Beard is the name of the new record label that we got signed to.

Did that come out of working with Mitch?

Stefan: Well, Mitch worked on our first album with us a little bit and has always been a big supporter of our stuff. One day Mitch was just asking about it and wanted to start a record label. He's produced upwards of 20 or 30 bands and it was time for him to do something bigger and a record label seemed like an obvious choice. So he'd been talking about it with me because it's something I'm very interested in. He just decided to go ahead with it and the name came out of him and Rachel joking about his winter beard. One day it just happened and now it's a legitimate record label and we're happy to be the first signees.

How was your time at Slaughterhouse studio?

Gavin: It was fun, it was relaxed, which is a good change. The last time we recorded we did it at two or three studios, it was rushed and a big mess. We had a lot of guidance from Mitch and it was more relaxed in general.

Aaron: Coming together with this album in terms of recording was definitely a more organic experience with this one along with what Gavin was saying. There was a lot of splicing between studios and we never got settled or comfortable. And also the last album expanded over a couple years in terms of recording. This one was a lot more together and moved with the same flow. It was a lot easier to express yourself.

Stefan: I think one of the best qualities of Mitch as a producer is that he's able to have you in the studio and recording can be a pretty stressful experience because you're paying a lot of money to be in there, but he makes you feel really safe and comfortable and at home. It was fun to record with him. You would screw up and he wouldn't make you feel like shit.

Could you describe the studio? It has a pretty unique history compared to a typical studio location.

Aaron: The floors are slanted, to catch the blood.

Stefan: Well, it used to be a real slaughterhouse. There are drains in the floor for the blood, Aaron wasn't lying about that.

Aaron: There are strange pools of liquid all over the place.

Dan: Supposedly late at night you can hear the faint squeal of a pig.

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