#onionface

ONIONFACE

For our second instalment in December, we spoke with Onionface mastermind, Stefan Jurewicz (SJ). Expanding to include bassist Calvin McCormick and drummer Jon Schultz, the band is roaring to the finish of 2015, having recently released their single Golden Lips and completed a Southern Ontario tour.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnionfaceBand/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Onionfaceband

Web: https://onionface.bandcamp.com/

Latest release: Golden Lips (Single, November 2015)

Upcoming shows: Thursday, December 31 - New Years Eve show, Avant Garde Bar, Ottawa, ON.

SA: How did Onionface first start as a band? SJ: I’d been playing as a solo act with just guitar and kick drum when Jon (drums) moved back to Ottawa from Montreal. We started jamming and he played on a couple tunes the following show, which Calvin (bass) happened to be doing sound for. He came up to me afterwards and told me he liked my stuff and that he played bass, and that was pretty much it.

SA: Who would you cite as primary influences on your sound? SJ: The Kills were likely the biggest influence in the beginning. They have a real dirty, garage band feel while still retaining a certain polish that really appeals to me. But more recently I’ve been hearing a lot of Cream in our stuff, which I have no problem with.  

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? SJ: Not falling off my kick drum is pretty up there.

SA: What has been the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? SJ: We’re a loud band, and a few places we’ve played have had a pretty negative reaction to that. But we’re learning to become more selective with who we play with and where we play, because we’re not the kind of band who aims to be background noise.

SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process? SJ: We’re still finding our groove concerning songwriting. A lot of the last year has been a big game of catch-up; having the guys learn the tunes I was already playing and working out full band adaptations. But recently we’ve started writing together, which has been cool. It usually starts with a jam where something clicks, then I’ll take it home and see if it sparks anything from a lyrical standpoint before we solidify the arrangement. Nothing fancy.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? SJ: That’s always a hard one to answer. I work as a producer and audio engineer, so I’m lucky enough to get a front seat to a lot of phenomenal music, but then I’ll go see these bands live and they’ll be playing to six people one show and a hundred the next. And sometimes for little to no reason. I’ve tried time and time again to form some solid opinion about the scene and it’s inner workings, but whenever I try to explain myself it just becomes discursive nonsense. Short answer: I dunno.

SA: If you could have a meal with any three musicians, dead or alive, who would they be, and why? SJ: Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Thom Yorke. Just imagine the conversation.

SA: If you could work with any producer in the world, who would you choose and why? SJ: I’ve been really into Steve Albini recently. His outlook on producing by staying as transparent as possible, coupled with his naturalistic engineering approaches really appeals to my own personal values when creating recorded music.

SA: In early November you did a run of dates to Toronto, Hamilton and Cornwall to support your latest single, Golden Lips. Any highlights from that mini-tour and what was your favourite show from the lot? SJ: Being on the road has very quickly become my favourite thing about this band. The idea of getting up in the morning and driving somewhere you’ve never been to play for people you’ve never met in the hopes of gaining a few extra fans is such an invigorating concept. It’s constantly refreshing. So I don’t think I have any specific memories that stand out, but rather an all-encompassing feeling of “holy shit this is cool.” As for a favourite show, I really liked playing the Port Theatre in Cornwall. It was a huge stage in this old movie theatre, with a whole lighting rig and massive sound system, and there was so much room to play with. This was also the third day in a row we were playing, so we were all warmed up and playing really well. Crowd response was by far the best too.