Adam White, vocalist for The Reason, says he certainly didn’t expect such a “simple” song to help make his band so recognizable.
Yet that’s exactly what the single We’re So Beyond This — written and performed with Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara — has done. With regular rotation on radio airwaves, and on televisions and computers, thanks to a snazzy and memorable black and white-themed video, the duet has exploded.
“It’s not a complicated song and the ideas are universal, but we didn’t expect it would be so successful,” White says over his cellphone, as the band journeys to Sudbury for one of several Ontario dates this month.
“Radio stations keep picking it up and it really has given our record a new life.”
That record, titled Things Couldn’t Be Better, was primarily written in the summer of 2005 when White and guitarists James Nelan and Jeremy Widerman, drummer Cam Bordignon and bass player Jonathan Armstrong, relaxed and recharged their creative energies in a cottage near their hometown, Hamilton.
And while the catchy tune might be their most successful to date, it isn’t a signature sound. This is just how White and his bandmates like it.
“Our mission wasn’t to make 12 songs that sound exactly the same. I think there is a lot of diversity in the songs on our record and I think, at least I hope, that ability to branch out is what helps bands keep longevity.”
Adam lists some of his favourite, legendary musicians – The Police and Bruce Springsteen among them — as examples of what happens when bands show a depth in their songwriting and their sound.
“I think whether or not you intend it,” he says, “the music you grow up with makes an impression on you.”
The Reason play Zaphod’s, 27 York Street, on Saturday night, with St. Alvia Cartel and Brights. Tickets are $10 from www.ticketweb.ca.
Kim Mannix Vermette
kim.mannixvermette@metronews.ca
After covering hard news for a few years, Kim discovered her real passion – writing about the wonderful world of music, theatre, visual arts and literature.
