Interview with Staylefish

From stalefish to Staylefish – by Mel in Toronto

"Staylefish is a party band with a great vibe," lead guitarist Dan introduces the band. "It's important to us that people enjoy themselves when they listen to our music; use it as an escape from the stress of everyday life." The band has many diverse musical influences. While sharing a common love for reggae, they are also influenced by bands like Silverchair, Radiohead, or No Doubt. As vocalist Dreddy puts it: "I think that this is clearly evident in our music as we try to break down the barriers between hip-hop, reggae, rock, and ska and create music that is unique and original." While putting reggae in a new context they make it very accessible and fun.

This Canadian band is based out of London, Ontario, and comprises of Dereyk Goodwin (drums), Jonny Duwyn (bass), Dan Tran (lead guitar), Richard – Dreddy – Howard (vocals), Jay Duwyn (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keys), and Chad Kivisto (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keys). Even though Staylefish has been around since 2002, they have been together in this formation for just under two years.

And it has been a good two years. "We really only consider Staylefish to be what it is because of the members we currently have in the band," Dereyk says, "we realized that there was something special there when we first came together." This something special can be listened to on their 2006 release ‘Audible Addiction.' An album packed with 14 solid tracks just as diverse as the band itself. The tracks range in styles from reggae, to ska and rock.

Dan says that "as a band I think a lot of our inspiration comes from the So-Cal reggae bands and lifestyle in general." Their songs deal with different themes. Chad says that REBEL RIDER "is about a black man moving to Canada to pursue a career as a reggae artist." He continues that BACK IN THE DAY "is nothing more than a look back at our youth when all we had to do was chill and play Nintendo with our friends. Those were the good old days." Jay adds the song GREEN, BLACK & GOLD "was written on a recent trip I took to Jamaica. I fell in love with the island, the vibe and everything about it there, so I figured I would write a song about it. Green, Black, & Gold are of course the Jamaican colours, so I thought that was a fitting title."

A fitting title is also the band's name. Dereyk explains that "the name Staylefish actually comes from the popular board sport trick known as a 'stalefish'. Since our band is heavily into the extreme sport scene, surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding etc., we thought that this would be a perfect name to capture the bands vibe. We added the 'Y' into the name so that it would be more personal to the band and help us stand out a little more from the crowd."

Staylfish not only stands out from the crowd because of their band name, but also, as Dreddy puts it: "at first glance it is obvious that we have a very eclectic group of individuals onstage. I was born in Trinidad, but moved to London to go to college, which is where I met long time high school friends Dan Tran, who is of Asian heritage, and Chad Kivisto, who is of Indian heritage. Besides the visual differentiation, there is not that great of a creative contrast between all six of the members. It's amazing that we are so on the same page musically. It's not everyday that six people can share such a strong passion. We are very fortunate."

Staylefish will perform this Friday together with four other indieSolo rock bands at the Indie Campus Tours on the STOWAWAY boat party in the Toronto Harbour. For more information, check out http://www.indiecampustours.com.

"In your own words" – ONE on ONE with Mel and Staylefish

Mel: What does it mean to you to be an indie artist?

Chad: It seems that the music industry is leaning more heavily in favour of the indie route these days. The days of the major labels are short numbered, we can see this by the fact that there are so few remaining. Not saying a major label wouldn't be a good fit for the band, but being an indie artist at this point in time has become easier and easier with the introduction of sites like MySpace, Facebook, and indieSolo. To us, being an indie artist means touring, and putting out records without any financial or promotional backing from a major record label. There are a number of great indie record labels out there; Stomp Records, Law Records, Stoopid Records, Long Beach Records to name a few, however these labels just don't have the means to invest in a band what a major label like Sony or Universal could. There are so many amazing bands out there right now that are ripping up the scene independently, and at this point in our careers we feel that we are making the right steps toward success. We have outstanding management and a great booking agency (Live Tour Artists), when we feel we are ready for label support we will look into it. But for now, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Mel: Which opportunities do you see with indieSolo?

Jonny: indieSolo is a unique site for independent bands as it takes all of the best features of other music websites and incorporates it all into one easy to use site. Featuring a new indie band every day is a great idea as well. What a great way for people to discover new music. I hope that Staylefish and indieSolo will continue to develop our relationship, as I see a lot of great opportunities opening up in the future with indieSolo. I see indieSolo as providing another platform for Staylefish to continue to grow their fan base, both locally and internationally, as well as a great tool for industry executives to check out the band.

Mel: Who writes the music?

Chad: Myself and Jay are the main songwriters of the band. Although, the songs that we originally hear and envision in our heads, don't usually end up sounding exactly the way they were originally written after the rest of the band first hears them. The Staylefish song writing process could almost be seen as a production line, with the original riff or melody of the song being created, then the whole band sitting down and trying to create the best possible product. Sometimes trying to get six people to agree on something can be frustrating, but in the end it seems to be the best way to achieve what we ultimately want to achieve when we are writing music.

Mel: Who writes the lyrics?

Jay: Chad, Dreddy, and I do all of the lyric writing. The best part about writing lyrics is that it doesn't end up that I write the lyrics for my songs and Chad for his, but rather we sit down and create together. I think that as a band we just enjoy input and suggestions from one another, after all Staylefish is six members, and we want to create our music to the best of our abilities.

Mel: What do you like best, when you perform live?

Jonny: As a band, we really feed off of what the crowd is giving back to us. We try our best to create a party atmosphere for our fans at a show, and love to interact with them. As cliché as this might sound, when we hear the crowd singing the words to our songs louder than we are singing them onstage, that's a surreal experience. We just love rocking out up there, and having fun playing off of each other."

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Staylefish Tickets may be available at TicketScene