Who are Gloin?
Words by Sarah Morrison
Photos by Sara May
Gloin, a four-piece noise experimental act featuring members from other local acts such as Brenda and Witchrot, released their debut EP ‘Soft Monster’ in April 2019. Over the last year, we managed to catch a glimpse at a few Gloin live performances and the band managed to blow us away each time. We caught up with John, Vic, Richard, and Simon for a brief chat on being apart of the Toronto music community, their past projects, and working with Dylan Frankland.
Being based out of Toronto and being actively involved in the music community, what are some flaws you’ve noticed in the way that it runs? Where is there room for improvement to help local talent?
Simon: You always have to know someone which is kind of tuff I guess if you don’t know anyone? If you don’t have that in then it’s kind of tuff. For ways to fix that? I don’t know.
Vic: So it’s harder for newer local talent than local talent.
Richard: That’s kind of the same for anywhere, isn’t it? Right, if you don’t know anybody then where do you start?
Simon: I feel like when you get into it, into a scene, the older people from that pocket aren’t coming anymore; not coming out as often. When you’re brand new to a scene you’re always going out. Once you’ve established yourself, I wouldn’t say you stop going but you slowdown on going to all these shows because you’ve already done the work, right? You slow down and the new people in the scene aren’t getting as much support from the older crew.
John: Total. Or they’ve even created their own small subculture and that’s where a new scene begins.
Simon: Right, and I don’t think that’s a negative thing. It creates a new subscene of different people playing music.
What subculture pocket does Gloin fall into within the areas offered in Toronto?
Vic: Fuckin’ loser pocket.
Richard: Boozer pocket? Boozer pocket, that’s my kind of pocket baby!
Vic: I feel like we just play psych rock shows…
Simon: I mean being from other psych rock bands, I think it was easy for us to get psych rock shows.
John: But then everyone makes you into a psych band, so psych bands always ask you to play. I feel like we’ve been trying to get away from that. Not that we don’t want to play with our friends, because all of our friends are in psych rock bands or heavier bands.
Vic: You know what, maybe that’s also a flaw about Toronto, is that it’s kind of cliquey. That’s what you were kind of saying.
Simon: Kind of ya, but not in a bad way. It kind of just happens.
John: If you try to go against it, like if you’re playing in a rock band you’re not going to get invited into that scene. Or promoters are going to have less people to book you with? To become popular you need to be the flavour of the month. Maybe.
Where did Gloin sprout from while working on projects like Brenda, Crazy Bones, Witchrot? How did the four of you join together to collectively start working on Gloin?
John: Well I, John, started playing/making a side project for all these weird recordings; record them on my phone. Then I made Gloin on bandcamp and just put them all on there. My friends really liked them…
Simon: They went koukou bananas for them.
All: (laughs)
Simon: I just remember my other band Crazy Bones was just supposed to… the lead singer was going to leave, and I was like ‘Well I’m not really going to wait around anymore, I don’t really want to wait around for you, I’m going to do something else,’ and I just went ‘John, let’s fuckin do it.’ Then we got the rest of the crew together.
Richard: I came in last.
Vic: Well I had just moved to Toronto and I only know John because of his girlfriend. I think she was probably like ‘Oh get Vic in your band!’
John: Vic joined Gloin and she was vastly more talented than everyone else.
All: (laughs)
Vic: Then we needed a synth player and we got Richard.
Richard: John asked ‘Hey man, want to play synth in the band?’ and I said sure.
John: Richard and I went to highschool together.
Richard: We did!
John: He has a history of really good bands.
Gloin is significantly softer than either of the other bands members have been a part of, what made you want to approach music in that light?
John: It might be softer in relation to those kinds of bands.
Simon: I don’t think we did that on purpose.
Vic: I did it on purpose! I wanted us to be a pop band.
All: (laughs)
Richard: Gloin’s actually the heaviest band I’ve been in.
John: We’re getting heavier.
Richard: Strange Thing, which was surfy kind of stuff, and before that I was just in indie-rock bands.
Vic: It’s probably mine and Richard’s influence with…
John: Softer sensibilities.
Vic: With your heavier influences mushed together.
John: There was only ever really... there used to be two but now I think there’s one song that survived from those old…
Vic: Ya, ‘Steady Drone.’
Are the other projects you’ve fully given up on participating with or are they still in the books?
John: There’s just on the back burner for now.
Simon: I think Crazy Bones is still doing stuff, Witchrot is still doing stuff; I’m not in that band anymore but they’re still doing their thing.
You had released a couple of small EP’s but your first ‘major’ release came with ‘Soft Monster,’ recorded with Dylan Frankland of Tallies at Candle Studios in Toronto. Had you worked with Frankland before with separate projects? Was it different having another person in the room separate from the band?
Simon: I mean I went to school with Dylan for music and he’s been my producer for, I don’t know, five or six years.
John: We were introduced to Dylan through Simon and Crazy Bones. Brenda originally got their first release recorded with Malan, Richard’s roommate from high school.
Richard: Engineer to the stars.
John: Then we met Dylan and now everything is produced by Dylan whether we like it or not!
All: (laughs)
Simon: It doesn’t feel like there’s someone else in the room with us.
Richard: I feel like he’s into every single idea.
Vic: It’s not like he’s doing nothing, I think he does influence us when we’re recording. He’s always doing things and always has ideas.
John: He’s fun to work with. It’s exciting watching him grow into a better producer and engineer as well. He gets better and better every time.
Assuming you’ve recorded in a studio before, what was the experience like being in the studio with this unit opposed to other times?
Simon: Well I had never recorded with Vic or Richard before.
Richard: No, I had never recorded with any of you before.
John: I’ve never been in a band with a synth before. Synth makes everything better! But I guess it was not that different.
Simon: I guess the studio was different.
John: We’re recording in bigger studio’s now; more expensive studios now.
What could be said about last EP releases in comparison to this one?
Vic: The full band I guess.
John: I was pissed and just uploaded it to bandcamp. In comparison to releasing EPs in the past, I think just more fun because Simon and I are more established. We know friends, friends come see our shows, and we know all the promoters now. but Crazy Bones and Brenda both first started in Toronto around the same time so a lot easier than then.
With a smaller following, you’ve managed to lock in some important dates such as SXSW. What’s something you’re really hoping to take away playing not only there but at other festival dates in America?
Vic: American labels, that’s something I want to take away.
John: It’s great getting into the US scene; just meeting people, going on vacation, going swimming in every hotel.
All: (laughs)
Vic: I would like to play a show somewhere else where people I don’t know come to see us. Even if it’s just one person.
Richard: Getting new fans, that’s a good one!
John: Having people buy your album and actually like you.
Simon: Sell more merch.
Making your way over to America this past year, how did the audience respond in difference to the ones in Canada?
Simon: We’ve only really played in Toronto.
Vic: No we played in Calgary, we played in Montreal…
Richard: We played at Sled Island…
John: We played Montreal a couple of times.
Vic: Basically in the states…
Simon: No one knows us in the states. No one’s ever heard of us.
Vic: New York’s ok because we have some ties there. But basically what’s different here is that people know us. I think the reactions are similar though, well in Toronto people usually say ‘Oh I can’t believe I’ve never heard of you,’ and people in the states are excited to hear us but not in the same way as ‘Oh I can’t believe I’ve never heard of you,’ because we’re not from there. They usually say ‘Oh, what are you called again?’
You seem to constantly be putting out new music. Have you already started on planning your next release?
Simon: We’re in the studio right now working on it.
John: We’re about half way done. We also have a couple other planned releases that we’re not announcing yet.