Toronto Canada’s Last Bullet are rockers on the rise. With several EPs under their belt the last few years, they have been honing their style in clubs and bars from coat to coat. They just released a new music video for their new single, the track ‘Sin’. We caught up with frontman Bryan Fontez via email to learn more about this young, but improving act.
Congratulations on the new video for ‘Sin’! It looks like a lot of planning and production value went into it. Let’s hear more about it!
Thanks! I really wanted the video to convey the grit and heaviness of the song, so I began looking for some really decrepit, abandoned, broken down places to shoot. I stumbled upon a particular spot online that looked old, beat up, and full of character. We soon found out that it was actually the attic of the 87 year old historical landmark in Toronto known as the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The song has a lot of darker socio-political themes so I wanted that intensity reflected visually.
Society has become more ignorant, naive and lacking in common sense than ever before. The lyrics depict a world that is choosing to ignore the consequences of their actions and would rather continue shooting themselves in the foot then be a part of the solution.
Shoot day was EXTREMELY exhausting. It was one of the most tiring things we’ve ever done as a band and had we not had the help of even one of our friends we could not have done it. The attic was on the 24th floor, the elevators only went to 19, so we had to do 8-9 elevator trips to the 19th floor and then about 50+ trips up and down 12 flights of stairs hand-bombing individual pieces of equipment. We started at 7/8am and didn’t begin filming until 1pm, we finished at 6pm and then tore down and repeated then entire process again but in reverse.
As far as the ending when I light myself on fire lol… The song is about the perspective of a person who has cynically given up on the word, because of all the bullshit that is taking place in society and how people are choosing to just keep destroying the planet, be horrible to each other and ultimately choose to simply exist rather than truly live their lives. The fire/suicide ending is a visual metaphor of this “person” giving up on the world.
The track itself represents a meaner, more mature sound for Last Bullet. Is this a signal of change to come in your new music?
Definitely. We are constantly changing as human beings and our music is a reflection of our accomplishments, failures and experiences as people. As we grow our music will do the same. I wouldn’t say that you can expect all of our music to sound like Sin going forward, because we’re much more dynamic than just that one song, but it’s definitely a vibe that we’ll be tapping into more often going forward.
While we love writing and playing songs about having a good time, we’re sick of not seeing any bands or artists with anything relevant and meaningful to say. There’s a lot of really incomprehensible and messed up shit going on in the world and no one is using art to speak out and make a difference anymore. Music is so powerful that it’s changed the course of human history with words, emotions and melodies. We have aspirations to light your blood on fire as much as Rage Against The Machine does, and you’ll definitely be hearing more music from us with that being the goal. But at the same time we’ll never stop playing raunchy, filthy tunes that will make you want to down your glass and shake your ass.
Is there a full-length Last Bullet release in the works, and will we hear it in 2016?
Unfortunately there are no immediate plans to release a full length album in the immediate future. When we went into the studio late last year we recorded and finished 3 new tracks. We were going to release them as a short EP, but we believed that each song was strong enough to be a single, so we decided to focus on each one individually and give them the attention and effort that they each deserve. The next single will be released next month and the 3rd sometime after the summer.
We’ve got about 4-5 new songs written that we currently play live. a few of them are already crowd favourites and you can bet your ass that we’re extremely excited to get back in the studio at some point this year to record them and get them out to our fans and lovers of rock n’ roll all over the world.
The tentative title for the EP was going to be “Long Story Short” because each of the 3 songs are so drastically different from each other and are a great representation of how dynamic this band truly is. We really cover the entire spectrum of rock with these songs. It’s interesting to see how we’ve managed to make it work. As far as a full length, we would absolutely love to but we don’t have the time or the money to get something like that done, nor is there a demand for it yet. But the moment we’re able to quit our jobs and focus on music full time, that’ll be the first thing on our list, followed closely by a massive US tour.
The raw, rock sound of the band is complimented very well by the vocals. How much work goes into the writing of melodies and vocal parts?
Sometimes a lot and sometimes not very much at all. It depends how naturally and instinctually the melody, lyrics and phrasing come to me. When I hear a guitar riff, a chord progression or a drum beat I’ll usually put it on repeat and let the phrasing come to me. When I say phrasing I mean the particular moments where my ear wants to hear vocals and then I really try to pay attention to what my brain is telling me to do, or what it wants to hear as far as tone of voice, syllables used, grunt, rasp, vibrato, and then I usually start turning this melody of sounds into words that fit the gaps and phrasing I’ve kind of mapped out.
Mind you that’s just one way I like to write vocal melodies or lyrics but ultimately every vocal part I write is like a big square block of stone that I’ll slowly chip away at until I’ve left with a sculpture that I’m happy with. And then you have moments where you write vocal parts in 2 mins without even thinking and you’re done lol. That’s happened to.
KEITH CHACHKES