Welcome to the world of Art Of Dying, a band out of Canada, that has been killing it on the recent Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival Tour and gaining new fans by the thousands. With their Vices & Virtues CD a strong success and a new single, “Get Thru This”, just hitting the charts, the band is on a meteoric rise.
“[Uproar] has been fantastic,” Gontier told me, the excitement apparent in his voice. “It’s better than expected. We expected it to be a big awesome tour but I think it’s exceeded all our expectations, to be honest. It’s busy as hell. We’re on at four in the afternoon and then there’s tons of press and tons of this and that going on, but the crowds have just been fantastic … Everyone is just rocking out and having a good time.”
And the fans coming out to see Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, Sevendust and Bullet For My Valentine have taken a major liking to AOD. “It’s funny to watch the whole thing kind of build,” Gontier explained about the band’s popularity growing right before his eyes. “We were on the Avalanche tour a little while back and now we’re on our second single from Vices & Virtues, so you can kind of see from the stage looking out, seeing it start to build a little bit. We got some more people singing along to the songs and I think people are definitely a little more familiar with it. And then to the new people we’re playing to everyday, I hope they’re digging it. It seems like it, you know. The crowds have been rocking out with us and having lots of fun and we’re getting lots of good reviews.”
Although I missed out on interviewing Gontier in person at their Uproar stop in Biloxi, Mississippi, due to Tropical Depression Lee, he stayed in touch and we were able to have a great talk about his early love of music a few days later.
Where did you grow up, Cale, and what kind of kid were you?
Well, well, well (laughs) I was a bit of a fucking bad ass kid, I think (laughs). When I was younger I was always getting into trouble here and there, nothing too crazy. But I was just young and liked to have fun, not a hell of a lot different from right now, I don’t think (laughs). But being from a small town in Ontario called Peterborough, which is a huge hockey town, with the Peterborough Petes and all that kind of stuff, I think if there was one thing before music or other than music that I ever considered taking seriously it would have been playing hockey probably. I played it my whole life growing up. I was pretty serious about it at one time, until I think I hit that point when I was thirteen and I decided I wanted to party and play guitar more than hockey practice (laughs).
What band did you first get into and why them?
Well, I think the first band that I really, really got into was definitely kind of in the grunge scene, you know: Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots. If I had to go with one I think Nirvana was the first one that I really, really got into. It was just such a big movement when that happened and that was around the same time that I was really getting into music. Just attitude and grunginess and all that. You know now, even to this day, I think Alice In Chains is probably my favorite band, if I had to pick one; maybe my favorite band ever probably. Just dirty heavy guitars and the reason Alice In Chains stands out for me is the harmonies.
In Art Of Dying we sing our asses off. We sing three part harmonies on most of the songs and we love to do all our shit acoustic and that’s always been one of my favorite parts of music, just vocal harmonies. I think it IS my favorite part of music. Just hearing two or three voices meshing together singing harmonies like that is what really does it for me, which I think the other guys in the band would agree with that, and that’s why we do lots of it in Art Of Dying.
We kind of grew up like that too. I come from a super musical family. My cousin Adam sings in Three Days Grace and our moms are sisters and they are both singers and guitar players and Adam’s mom has like a kind of lounge/piano singer-songwriter kind of vibe. Music has always been a part of our family. At family gatherings or whatever, we’re always playing guitars and singing at functions and stuff like that. So I think that’s probably where we learned it, to sing some harmonies and maybe why I like it so much today.
Was the guitar the first instrument that you started playing?
Yeah, that’s right. My brother Josh is a few years older than me and he taught both me and Adam how to play the guitar. I think I got a bit of a later start. I think I was about fourteen when I really started getting serious about it and started wanting to learn and stuff.
Do you remember the first song you learned how to play?
I think it was “Come As You Are” by Nirvana.
What was the first album that you bought?
You know, I remember being really young and getting into some stuff even before I started playing music. I was getting into some old stuff that my dad was into, like we used to listen to Born In The USA, the Bruce Springsteen album, we used to love that. And listened to lots of Beatles and stuff. I think maybe the first one that me and my older brother went and bought together was that RUN DMC/Aerosmith combo, remember that? I’d have to double check with my brother, but I’m pretty sure that was it.
Do you remember the first concert that you went to?
(laughs) That’s a tough one. I know I went to a bunch of them way back. My dad took my brother and I to an Alvin Lee & Ten Years After concert. That’s the first one I remember. I was super small. And I remember cause we’ve talked about it a bunch. But we loaded up the truck and headed out to this concert and that’s one of my dad’s favorite dudes, Alvin Lee. So I think that’s the first one that I can remember. I’m sure I was in the stroller and had a couple before that (laughs)
So what did you think of him cause he’s a wonderful way to get started listening to guitar players?
I think he’s great. I still think he’s great. It’s not something I throw on at home too often but my dad still listens to him and his stuff, and still raves about him. I think he’s a monster. I think I grew up on a lot of good old solid music and all over the map like Alvin Lee. I listened to tons of different shit, you know, like Robert Cray and tons of Beatles. Everybody on my mom’s side was a huge Beatles fan. I was and still am a huge Robert Cray fan. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, but he’s such a huge awesome old school bluesy guitar player, a great singer. That’s my favorite singer and plays his ass off. And you know Martin Sexton? He’s a monster. I got to hang out with him the other night in Boston. He’ll just grab a guitar and start singing and everybody just stops what they’re doing and I was like, Oh my God, this guy is unbelievable.
Is this when you love being a musician, when things like that happen?
Absolutely. That’s the toughest thing to do, I think, for a musician or singer-songwriter is to just hear your voice and guitar with no band or a bunch of distortion or all that kind of stuff on stage, but to just sit down and do your thing. That’s what impresses me the most.
Do you remember the first band that you were in?
Oh yeah, not my first serious band, but the first time jamming was with my older brother Josh and my cousin Adam, from the time we were young. Our mom’s got pictures of us running around with fucking brooms singing along to whatever songs and stuff (laughs). And like I was saying, my older brother Josh taught me to play when I was fourteenish or something like that. I would say that was my first kind of band experience where we were playing together and working on songs and just having fun.
Do you remember the first time you played in front of an audience?
That would definitely be an open stage in Toronto that Adam used to run and I kind of helped him with it for a while. It’s at this place in Toronto called the The Labyrinth Lounge and it was probably the first time I got up in front of people and that was just an acoustic pa with a vocal mic or whatever. But it was just this tiny little hole in the wall in Toronto we’d go to every Sunday night, maybe twenty or thirty people there, sang some songs. It was pretty intense, actually, the first time you get up in front of people. You got to muster up the courage to do it. It’s pretty nerve-wracking. I can remember that, it was a long time ago. I think I was probably around seventeenish, something like that. I’m pretty sure I’m over that now (laughs) It’s a little bit different than Uproar Festival (laughs)
What has been your most memorable moment on stage so far?
You know, one of the most memorable moments I would say just happened on the Uproar Festival and I think it was in Virginia Beach, Virginia. We were rocking out and we do a little kind of acoustic breakdown in the middle of the set on this song called “Best I Can”. And for a couple of songs before that there was a big mosh pit going and all this kind of shit and kids were having fun and flying around and we did “Best I Can” and everybody was standing in a big circle. And this guy in a wheelchair made his way up to the back of this kind of opening in the circle or whatever and I could see him from the stage. I saw him kind of wheeling up and the sea kind of parted and he came in and about half way through “Best I Can” we kind of start to bring it up and the whole band gets back in and when we kick back in we’re all singing three parts. And this guy came up cause he wanted to crowd surf, so all the dudes from the mosh pit picked him up in his wheelchair and he got passed the sixty feet or whatever from the pit up to the front to the security guards who grabbed him and pulled him over the barrier. That was pretty amazing and that was the first time I had ever seen that happen. The guy can’t even walk and was flying up to the front like that. Yeah, it was wild. All of us on stage were like, Oh my God. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that tune but the lyrics are pretty powerful in that song, doing the best you can with what you got, really. So I think I would have to say that that was the most memorable.
What about your most embarrassing moment?
Most embarrassing, even though it’s probably happened a few times, is just falling down (laughs). Like when we put on a live show we’re just fucking rocking pretty hard and running back and forth across the stage and stuff and a couple different times trip on a fucking microphone or on Greg’s pedal board or something like that (laughs). Looking all cool, rocking out, and then all of a sudden you trip over something and do a fucking cartwheel (laughs).
Who was the first real rock star you met?
That’s a good question. I have to think about that. I’ve met tons of different people over the years for sure. But one of the most memorable would probably have to be Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots. That was on the tour when Three Days Grace was opening for Velvet Revolver, so that would have been six or seven years ago or something. He was an interesting cat (laughs). He was cool, you know. It was just brief and we had a quick little chat about nothing really, but you know I’ve met lots of different people over the years and I don’t really get starstruck by anyone, or I hadn’t really, but I think that was probably the closest that I have come cause I’ve always been such a big fan and he was a pretty cool dude and stuff. I think that’s probably number one for me right now.
Who would you say has been your biggest influence as a musician and why?
If I had to choose somebody I would definitely choose my older brother Josh. Just cause he’s always been three and a half years older than me and he’s just a monster guitar player. He’s an amazing musician and monster singer and he’s always shown me the ropes. He taught me to play guitar and he’s always been kind of a mentor. He would definitely be it for me.
So what’s up next for Art Of Dying?
I’m pretty sure we’re going to be on the road full time once Uproar finishes. I don’t think we’re going to be going home to Canada anytime soon (laughs)
EPILOGUE: Art Of Dying will be doing a co-headlining tour with Adalitas Way following their run with Uproar.
Next week we’ll be talking with Jonathan Tyler about his strict upbringing and how rock & roll changed his life. And watch for Todd Kerns, Rikki Rockett, Myles Kennedy, Frank Bello, Zakk Wylde and many more great musicians coming up in future installments of MY ROOTS.
