Everything You Need To Know From: The Latency

Before The Latency performed at the Warehouse as Shiloh’s opening act on Friday, September 18^th they spent a moment answering questions for Youth Are Awesome. Brandon Lehti (vocals/guitar), Ryan Stead (guitar/vocals), Mathew Gendron (bass/vocals) and Jonny Wiebe (drums/vocals) allowed us to get to know The Latency up close and musical.

Youth Are Awesome: Everyone needs to know, what is your favourite kind of ice cream?

Mathew: Chocolate chip mint.

Jonny: Peanut butter chocolate.

Ryan: I like rocky road.

Brandon: Cookies and cream.

Youth Are Awesome: Where did you first start playing when you first became The Latency?

Brandon: In a town called Maple Ride, BC, just outside of Vancouver. We started playing together in 2006. We formed from a whole bunch of other bands, and our separate bands played a show together, Ryan, Mathew and I became The Latency. I used to play drums and eventually I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore because it was a lot of work, so we brought Jonny on board and now there’s four of us.

Youth Are Awesome: Why did you decide on the name The Latency?

Brandon: When we first thought of it we thought it meant potential energy, but it turns out it has about 500 different meanings, and everyone we meet is “oh the Latency so that’s like blah blah blah,” and then we look it up on the internet and it’s like “wow it means that to…”

Ryan: “Wow that’s way cooler than what we thought.”

Brandon: The word “latency” means everything, but when we thought of it we thought it was potential energy.

Youth Are Awesome: What was it like when you first heard your song on the radio?

Ryan: It was pretty exciting. I was at Tim Hortons.

Brandon: Ryan and I were at Tim Hortons and it was 1:30 am with our friends and we heard a rumor that we were going to be on the radio so we were like we have to tune in. So we opened up the doors to our friend’s car and turned his radio on and they kept pumping it up, “we’re going to play this new band” and we got all excited.

Ryan: And then the best part was we had a mosh pit in the parking lot.

Brandon: We were all dancing and we tried to call the other guys.

Mathew: And I was sleeping when they called because I had to go to school, so I listened and went back to bed.

Youth Are Awesome: What was it like when you got the call that your video was going to be on MOD?

Brandon: That was amazing.  When we shot the video we were like, “I wonder if MuchMusic will actually play it,” and we got the call and they asked us to turn on MOD and we were number 8 or 5 on the daily ten. It was the craziest thing because you grew up watching all your favourite bands on MuchMusic and then you’re on Much Music and it’s just really weird but cool.

Youth Are Awesome: Where did you guys get your inspiration for the Kids music video? Do you like golfing?

Brandon: We wanted a summer sort of feeling to the video, if you watch the first frame of the video it’s me teeing off and that was the first time I ever swung a golf club so we aren’t huge golfers.

Ryan: He almost hit me and he definitely hit Jon.

Jonny: It was where it counts to. It hurt. And we were not standing in the line of fire.
Youth Are Awesome: So no more golfing adventures for The Latency?

Ryan: Me and Jon can go together, not with Brandon though.

Brandon: That idea actually came from Tom MacDonald, our manager, and myself. We thought it up over the phone, we thought it would be a cool idea and we pitched it to the director and then he took our rough idea and made it good. We just thought it would a cool video because I don’t think there are enough genuinely fun videos out there and it was just the prefect song for that.

Youth Are Awesome: What did you learn from Tom in the recording studio?

Jonny: We just learned tips about different techniques and ways to write our songs.

Brandon: I think we’ve all learned so much from Tom that we can’t say one thing. He’s helped us grow as musicians and learn about the industry and helped us skip over a lot of pot-holes we might have fallen into without his guidance. He’s helped me out a lot as a songwriter and helped me hone my ability and introduced me to that whole world of pop song writing. He’s done so much.

Youth Are Awesome: Do you work on song writing all together?

Brandon: I think every band you’ll meet they all write songs a different way. The way we do it is, I’ll write the main part of the song, the lyrics and the melody and arrangement and then I’ll bring it in to the other songwriter, if I am working with one, and once we have a good idea, we’ll bring it in to our rehearsal space to jam it out. Then Ryan will come in and make all the guitar parts and Jon will come in and do a wonderful drum part and Mat will slap the bass a little bit. Because that to me feels organic, to have everyone put their own mark on their parts and then personalities can show through.

Youth Are Awesome: When you are on tour, who is the fight for shot gun or to sleep in the back of the van?

Brandon: You know I don’t think there’s a fight for either.

Jonny: Everyone just goes wherever they want.

Brandon: Mat always takes shot gun everyday and no one argues with him.

Mathew: I don’t like shot gun.

Ryan: I just fall asleep standing up.

Jonny: No one ever wants the back so I just go in the back and then they all rub my face in it, and I’m like well the back was free.

Mathew: It’s a fight to see who doesn’t have to sleep in the passenger seat because we have to have somebody sleep in the passenger seat.

Brandon: We’ve only done it two or three times this tour. It sucks when you have to sleep in the passenger seat. So that’s definitely a spot you want to fight to not get. I almost want to sleep on the roof.

Youth Are Awesome: When you are on tour how do you keep yourselves entertained and from not going at each other?

Ryan: I listen to music. A fan gave me a sketch book and crayons so I’ve been drawing a lot.

Mathew: Anything that diverts your attention away from the fact that you’re sitting in a stinky van with four dudes that you’ve been with for two months.

Brandon: IPod in, and I have a PSP. I watch movies on that and stuff. It’s important to know that you need your alone time once and a while and everyone needs to respect that.

Youth Are Awesome: Who do you look up to musically?

Everyone: Everybody.

Brandon: We can’t even say, “Oh we like this style” – we just like every style. There’s no particular artist, I think we are more of a song band. We like really good songs, no matter who sings them.

Youth Are Awesome: What is a really good song?

Brandon: Piano Man by Billy Joel is one of the best songs of all time. Elton John’s Tiny Dancer is an amazing song.

Ryan: The new Taylor Swift songs are amazing. The Fray’s new album is stacked with great songs but that doesn’t really reflect what I listen to. Anything with shredding guitar, I listen to.

Jonny: New Lamb of God. Great songs on there.

Youth Are Awesome: If you guys were to do a cover, what would it be?

Brandon: We’ve done a lot of covers.

Ryan: We did one yesterday that we were really stoked on. A Matchbox Twenty song, Real World. We covered it on Virgin Radio in Vancouver yesterday. We all listened to Matchbox Twenty a lot just growing up. It’s one of those bands that are on the radio everyday when you’re growing up. Like Savage Garden and BSB and the Spice Girls.

Brandon: Did you watch Spice World? When the aliens come out?!

Jonny: I think I’ve seen parts of it, is there a weird ending?

Brandon: Ya! Aliens.

Youth Are Awesome: What advice do you guys have for teens that are working on their music?

Ryan: My favourite is, play every show you can, get in front of as many people as you can, even if it’s like…

Ryan: And even if no one is there and it’s not your big break you’re still practicing.

Brandon: And don’t give up because I hate giver-uppers.

Youth Are Awesome: My last question is what is your favourite kind of cheese?

Jonny: Jalapeno and swiss.

Brandon: Gouda.

Ryan: The white triangle cheese at subway.

Brandon: It’s Monterey jack.

Ryan: No it’s not man, no it’s not real. It’s subway cheese.

Mathew: Anything but goat cheese, I had it for the first time a week ago, it ruined my whole wrap that I had; I had to scrape it off.

Ryan: Blue cheese at Red Robin. Just touching that stuff makes me sick.  I can’t imagine eating it.

Mathew: Why is it blue? Cheese shouldn’t be blue.

If you are looking for more information on The Latency feel free to Facebook them or listen to their songs up on Myspace.