Friday Morning's Regret

Last night, Friday Morning's Regret played the Velvet Elvis on the first date of their tour with Jonas Bonnetta and One Heart Many Hands. It wasn't my first time seeing them, so I knew they were great live, but hearing them again made me remember exactly why. Not only are their songs well-written, but they pull everything off perfectly. Even if you don't know the songs, you'll know them by the end of their set, that's for sure.

They've recently released a new album, and they'll be making a television appearance later this week on MTV Live. I spoke to singer Gavin Gardiner and bassist Andrew Wyatt, who goes by his last name:

Could you tell me about the recording process for your new album When Lost At Sea?

Gavin: Well we recorded like ten songs in a weekend at a studio in Toronto called Orange Studios and from that we got the bass and the drums, and then we fiddled around with it for a fuckin' year, sorta tweaking knobs ourselves, and we also snuck into the SONY BMG studios, through our manager, and we recorded all the guitars there, and it turned out pretty awesome that way, the guitar sound pretty cool I thought.
Wyatt: It was fun working on it, to answer your question, it was fun, it took longer than expected but it was a good time.
Gavin: We put it off and had a lot of drinks and what-have-you when we should have been recording.

Did you have a producer?

Gavin: I kinda produced it I guess, I sorta kept it together anyway.
Wyatt: There were engineers and stuff like that, people who manned the boards...
Gavin: Yeah, John Nazario was one of the engineers, and Ryan Haslett, and Leon Taheny mixed it for us.

Did anyone else play on the album?

Gavin: Yup, we had Anissa Hart play the cello, Heather Kirby played some banjo, Wyatt also played banjo, and a couple of our friends sang on it, Nina and Conrad, Simon sang on it a bit.
Wyatt: Ben...
Gavin: Man he was excited when he saw his name in the CD, we heard him scream. [laughs] I think that was it.
Wyatt: We did most of the stuff ourselves I guess.

How did you become involved in the 'Friends in Bellwoods' compilation?

Gavin: Well I used to play drums, way back when in Ohbijou, and I went to school with Casey and Heather, so I knew them from that. We've played with those guys lots and we've been to the house lots, and we recorded a song there. I also mastered the album, so I helped Jamie on that, and they're just friends of ours so it worked out well that way.

Where are you all from originally?

Gavin: I'm from Morden Manitoba, just a little town outside of Winnipeg, about and hour and a half.
Wyatt: I'm from Cobourg, Simon the keybord player is from Cobourg and Chris the drummer is from Guelph.
Gavin: Annisa is from Lethbridge.
Wyatt: No she's more North than that.
Gavin: Oh no, Fort McMurray! That's right, I was thinking "Dethbridge in Lethbridge" but that's not right. [laughs]

Did you play in any bands before Friday Morning's Regret?

Gavin: Mhmm, yeah. [laughs]
Wyatt: You can leave it at that... [laughs] that's good enough.
Gavin: You wouldn't know them, they're just, like, high school bands...
Wyatt: Garage bands...
Gavin: Garage bands...
Wyatt: Mad Runner.
Gavin: Basement bands... what was it called?
Wyatt: Mad Runner.
Gavin: See, I didn't even know that.

So when did you start playing together?

Gavin: Well the three of us started playing together, it was awhile ago...
Wyatt: Almost four years now...
Gavin: Yeah almost four year. We sorta, like, were growing up in the city together, but yeah, it's been four years. I met Wyatt and then we started playing together like, right away, that's kinda how we met. So four years, fuck, that's a long time.

I have to ask about your band's name. Is there a story behind it?

Wyatt: We were talking about this earlier today actually...
Gavin: It's actually a tree planting term, have you ever gone tree planting?

No I have not...

Gavin: Well neither have I but, I just heard it and picked it up, I don't know what it means actually...
Wyatt: It has something to do with like, a weekend frost, and something to do with the soil, I'm not sure either, but it has something to with the frost from the weekend...
Gavin: We've sorta gone back and forth with it 'cause it sounds really emo, but the story's not so we've stuck with it. Plus you know, we started with that, we don't want to quit, we're not quitters. We pick something and we go with it.

Tunes: myspace.com/fridaymorningsregret