Music
www.20somethingsudbury.ca
The Almighty
Rhombus
band of the month
The Almighty Rhombus’ description of themselves:
The Almighty Rhombus is a rock ‘n rollin’, beer drinkin’, bottle
smashin’, heart throbbin’, J smokin’, coffee drinkin’, doughnut eatin’
pop band from Sudbury.
Being from Sudbury this is pretty easy to picture.
After releasing their self-titled EP in 2012, The Almighty Rhombus
just released their first full-length LP, Lucid Living on October
29th through Cosmic Dave’s Recording Factory. The LP full of poprock jams does not disappoint. From being featured on NME and
LostInTheSound, to being hailed as ‘pop-rock renegades’ by Rokline,
these boys can only keep progressing to new heights.
We caught up with A.R. to pick their brains on a few topics.
20SS: First things first. How did The Almighty Rhombus
come about?
Carter: Mike and I met whilst wading through the magical forests of high school.
A common lack of interest in wood working drew us to the critically acclaimed
Lasalle teacher, Mr. Lucano’s office, where he’d quiz us on music trivia.
He’d ask us questions like, “what dynamic duo had the smash hit ‘bad boys’
in 1983?” The answer is Wham! I feel this training was integral to our band’s
formation. Lucano to the Almighty Rhombus is like Chuck Berry to the Beatles.
It shaped us. That and liking similar bands, like the Strokes, Queens of the Stone
Age and Attack in Black.
We started our first band together with our friend Ryan in grade 10, it was called
Beam Cannon.
At some point Mike started writing pop tunes that were a little outside the
realm of what we wanted to do with Beam Cannon, so we started a new band
with the same members, initially called just Rhombus. When my older brother
Clayton caught wind of it, he muscled his way in, and soon after that Neil and
Cameron were on bass and guitar duties. Since then things have been much
more serious; we added the Almighty to our name, made t shirts, got matching
tattoos, share clothes, walk the dog together, bake cakes together, y’know...
We’re pretty TIGHT.
20SS: What’s it like having a bunch of family members in the band?
Any home cooking from mom? Any Fights?
Mike: Is it tedious having a famjam unit in the band? It can be. We’re all good
friends though and it always ends up being a positive/constructive working
environment. The only thing cooking is our skulls after ripping cones and
doobies. No fights to report as of yet, we’re the five boyfriends.
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20SS: Your new LP Lucid Living just dropped. It definitely has a
different feel than your EP. Could you guys explain the process,
and why you decided to switch it up?
Clayton: The idea behind Lucid Living is that people will be drawn in initially by
the melodies and hooks, but we made sure to include a lot of subtleties in the
mixing and arrangements that astute listeners will pick up on and that, I think,
casual listeners will just feel. For instance, we recorded onto the same tapes that
our pals Coast Redwood used when they recorded their EP. There were some
artifacts left over from their recording session that you can hear clearly in two
incidences on our album if you pay close attention.
Of all the albums I’ve ever released, this is the first time I’ve felt like there were
no more changes I wanted to make when the mixing process was complete. Our
co-producer and engineer Chris Forth was a huge part of helping to achieve
this vision, and this album wouldn’t be the same without his astute ear, creative
ideas and insane work ethic.
The main differences between the EP and the full length? Time, maturity,
experience and ambition. The artwork, song arcs, title, everything fits together
really tightly. I’m very proud of this release.
20SS: Tell us a bit about The Big Basement Show!
Clayton: First off, people need to understand that to miss the Big Basement
Show is to miss the most important cultural event in Sudbury in most of your
readers’ adult lives. You need to come to this show.
I can’t express how excited I am for the Big Basement Show. It’s going to be
f*cking dope. Straight up. All of the bands are astoundingly good, and I can
hardly believe we were able to pull together such an insane lineup. We are doing
our best to make this thing look and feel like a large basement party, complete
with your drunken dad telling you to keep it down and two fully-featured living
rooms. I could write more about it, but ultimately you all need to trust that
The Almighty Rhombus is going to deliver you a concert going experience the
likes of which you’ve never felt before. People need to buy their tickets NOW
cause it will sell out. Physical tickets are currently on sale at Cosmic Dave’s
Record Factory on Kathleen Street. Get yours before Jan. 1st and enjoy the early
bird price of $25 for 20 bands! Just search “Big Basement Show” on Facebook
to find out more. We’ll be announcing two bands every week until the end of
December so keep your eyes peeled!
The Almighty Rhombus is:
Mike Kenny- Guitar/Lead Vocals
Clayton Drake- Keys/ Vocals
Neil Bednis- Bass
Carter Drake- Drums/Vocals
Cameron Drake-Guitar/Vocals
http://thealmightyrhombus.bandcamp.com
Read the full interview at www.20somethingsudbury.ca