INTERVIEW with THE FEELING UNITED
by
Casey Rue | Age: 28 | Boston, MA
With the surplus of bands emerging from garages all over the world these days, it’s hard to keep track of them all. It’s also unfortunate that many of them are tone deaf, cookie cutter versions of the successful bands they wish to be. Has originality gone the way of the U.S. Constitution (yes, Patriot Act, that was a slap in your chubby face)? How do you know which bands are worth listening to? Well, Dissolver fans, that’s what I’m here for. As a good civil servant of the Dissolver, I’ve gone out and looked high and low for a band that deserves some recognition and airplay. Come and meet The Feeling United, a Toronto-based band that has morphed over the years into its present being, lead by the tenacious Nick Porter and Brendan Michie.
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Dissolver: How did you guys meet?
Michie: We met in 1997 coming back from a Blur concert. We bonded over how much we hated the show. We were pissed off and ranted, and Nick mentioned he played music and I mentioned that I did as well, so we thought “Why not get a band together?” At that point we were The Skeptics for about a week until I couldn’t handle that name anymore and I refused to have it. Then we were High Water Mark.
Dissolver: Then you formed A New Decade in 1998?
Porter: Well, we were High Water Mark at that point until we found out Apples in Stereo had a side project called The High Water Marks, so we fooled around with A New Decade for a while.
Michie: We got in with this label called Fur Trade Records but then our drummer and bass player weren’t interested anymore for some reason. Nick and I were left again sort of twiddling our thumbs wondering what the hell were we going to do this time. Then we met Gary (present bassist) and Johnny (present drummer) and it’s never been better. Now we are The Feeling United.
Dissolver: Nick, you mention in your blog that this is the most cohesive band you’ve ever played with. Why?
Porter: We really seem to understand each other musically. Everybody knows what their strengths are and we play off that. In terms of the sound, we listen to different types of music, we come from different musical backgrounds, so we have different styles to contribute. I feel like we’re extremely productive when we come together, the way we work out our material. This band is able to take in any sound and make it a part of itself, which is what the name The Feeling United means. It’s not just about the people; it’s also about the ideas.
Dissolver: Are your songs confessional?
Michie: They are to a point but they’re not confessional about anyone in particular. I’ve had exs come up to me in the street and go, “If you write another song about me I’m going to kill you.” They’re confessional but only about me and not about the specifics of me.
Porter: A lot of the current material stems from relationships. The songs tend to be observational and quite personal. A lot of the songs are about love lost and love found.
Dissolver: What other bands do you like? What bands do you emulate?
Michie: I think emulate is a harsh word because no musician will ever want to say, “I’m trying to sound like somebody else.” I’m a huge My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division fan, but my stuff doesn’t sound like theirs. But I do take elements from music I like, use those elements in a sort of interwoven texture way and apply them. So I’m not trying to emulate anyone, I’m just trying to learn something. People say we sound like Pink Floyd but I’ve never listened to them. I’ve been told I sound like the singer from Catherine Wheel, but I don’t listen to them either. One day I want someone to say, “You sound like The Feeling United.”
Dissolver: How are you received in Toronto?
Porter: We’re well received and we’re not. We are in the sense that other musicians seem to appreciate our music; we aren’t because we just haven’t been able to get past a certain roadblock. In Toronto we tend to eat our own, and it seems like you have to prove yourself elsewhere before coming back and making it here.
Michie: We have a pretty good following but we’ve never gotten off this little jumping ramp. It’s weird because we get noticed as a band around town. I hear our music coming out of bars, I’ve heard people drive by in cars listening to it but we’re not enjoying any kind of success over it because we weren’t doing things right. But now I think we’re doing things the right way.
Dissolver: What’s the indie scene like in Toronto?
Michie: A couple of years ago there was nothing really. We were dominated by I Mother Earth and stuff like that. The scene now is unbelievable. I mean, you have bands like Broken Social Scene, Death From Above 1979, and it goes on for a while. Toronto bands are finally getting noticed.
Porter: It seems like everyone in Toronto is in a band and the bar is set really high. There are only so many venues to play, most of which are in downtown Toronto. There’s a lot of competition, a lot of great musicians, and unfortunately not a lot of press.
Dissolver: You’re CD is out. What are your plans to tour?
Michie: We’ll start by doing little jaunts. We’ll go as far as we can until we run out of money. We’ll see if we can get across the border. Maybe someone will get interested and sign us because literally we’ve done the hard work: we’ve done the album, we’ve got a fan base, so send us out. We’re willing to play, we’re willing to go.
Porter: There was a company in Japan that was interested in us. They basically bring bands over and put them up and give them gear. They wanted us to come, but we just couldn’t afford to get over there. There’s a lot of interest around, we just need to formulate our attack plan. We’d love to come down to Boston and play, but it gets a little tricky going out of the country. We want to press our album and support it and we want everyone to hear it. That’s what we’d like to do with this tour.
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For more information, check out the band at their website, thefeelingunited.com. Their new self-titled CD can be purchased online at CDBaby.com. Look for a review of the CD in the next issue of Dissolver Magazine.