Eye of Newt are performing during Sled Island on Friday, 8pm at Palace Theatre.

Interview Audio:

Interview Transcript:

Ben Goodman
Nate Waters. Hello, such a pleasure.

Nate Waters
Ben Goodman. Hello.

Ben Goodman
I associate Eye of Newt as being a classic Sled Island band, especially because, and correct me if I’m wrong, I think the first proper Eye of Newt gig

Nate Waters
was at Sled!

Ben Goodman
Which I had the pleasure of being at, upstairs at the Legion. A wonderful time.

Nate Waters
It was a great time.

Ben Goodman
Describe Eye of Newt’s Sled Island journey.

Nate Waters
We opened our first show, upstairs at the Legion, and came to find out later, and I’ll include you in this list of luminaries, but there were some really interesting Canadian musicians who just happened to be there. Laura from Laughing was there, Mike Feuerstack of Snail House and many other projects, and, knowing, in hindsight, that it was like, “oh there’s all these people here” and, that it was our first kick at the can, it was better that I didn’t know that then.

Ben Goodman
It was such good vibes,

Nate Waters
After that we opened for Water From Your Eyes at the Palomino. I think that was the year after? Two years after? My memory’s hazy on that, but that was really, I feel like when we started feeling like we were actually a band instead of just a bunch of pals who play shows every few months. And then from there, Eye of Newt records have been coming out, and I feel like Friday seems almost like a culmination

Ben Goodman
That’s a big time show, but outside of Eye of Newt, I know you have been doing Sled stuff for a while yourself.

Ben Goodman
Let’s pull back. When was the first time you played Sled? Let’s get into your Sled history.

Nate Waters
The first time playing Sled was 2008 I believe. It was the second iteration, and it was with a band called Hunter-Gatherer, and that would have been one of our first real gigs that wasn’t at some terrible pub. I think we played alongside a great Lethbridge act of yore called Endangered Ape, who we played with a lot. Sled was obviously a lot different then. I remember being, this is a sign of the times, I was sad that we played at the same time as Grizzly Bear. I wanted to go see that. I’ve played every Sled but three, and I’ve been to every Sled but one.

Nate Waters
It’s such a great festival, and it is such a lightning rod for the scene in Calgary, because there are many festivals, and they’re all great, but this one in particular brings a certain weird aesthetic that is unapologetic. Whereas other festivals they have that, but they also have stuff for the normies, but Sled is the one that makes it feel like we’re the kind of people they’ve made this festival for.

Ben Goodman
It’s as weird as you want to be, in the best way. And you and Chris Dadge performed with Stucco at the Sled Island Kick-Off

Nate Waters
that’s true.

Ben Goodman
As the Stucco Big Band, as you are dubbing it, which is similar to what you did with the making the great record that Stucco made. How did that go?

Nate Waters
For their record, I feel like I was maybe the last piece of the puzzle. I think it was pretty much done, but they are one of those bands that do everything together, and they’re kind of like where their fraternization is a whole vibe. And so usually when I come in to do session work or playing somebody’s record, it’s like I come in and there will be the front person from the band or the person who wrote the song I’m playing on, it’s usually not everybody, but they had everybody, butts in seats in Childstone Studios, and they’re all with headphones on, they’re all yelling back into the talk mic. That chaos energy was easy to feed off, and I think you can actually hear it in the record, that there’s some pretty wild ideas getting thrown around, but it all comes from their singularity of what they sound like and how they kind of do things,

Ben Goodman
Such a great record. You mentioned Sled, but now as a music fan, let’s put the music fan hat on.

Nate Waters
Ready.

Ben Goodman
What have been some of your favourite Sled memories?, Just as an attendee or just going and checking out stuff.

Nate Waters
Wow, we might be here a while! The first show that I ever went to at Sled, I vividly recall, because it was a bit of a wow moment for me. I saw Chad VanGaalen, who I was a big fan of.

Nate Waters
When I was like literally a child, and so I went to see him, he’s why I bought the ticket, and I was like “who’s this Destroyer fellow?” and I got absolutely gut wrenched by it. It would have been around the time that Destroyers Rubies came ou. It was an intensely great performance as well. So, the two of them just kind of like, whoa!

Ben Goodman
What a bill!

Nate Waters
Going forward from that, I feel likethe year Deerhoof curated was immensely awesome. The World Cup is going on right now, and I remember Deerhoof did a thing, it was them and a couple members of Guerilla Toss were upstairs at the Palomino. They put down a big screen and were showing whatever match was on that afternoon, and they just soundtracked it live with goofy noises. The joy on their faces of “I can’t believe people are letting us do this in a bar!” It was just so contagious. I feelseeing ESG at the No. 1 Legion a few years back was.. I’m not a big dancer, for those of you who know me well. Now, those that don’t know me well know that I’m not much of a dancer, but if it’s the right mood, I will, and ESG was just the biggest dance party. I cut a rug!

Nate Waters
The final one, and maybe the craziest Sled experience of my whole Sled going was my old band Hunter-Gatherer played a show on my birthday, and it was the last night of the fest. This was in 2010 and the bill we were on at the Legion had No Age, Fucked Up, GZA, it was a crazy bill, and the green room upstairs in the boardroom of the Legion, behind the pool tables, Dinosaur Jr was in there, like all these like insane luminaries, and then all of us! I remember our band and great outfit from Lethbridge of yore Fist City were back there, just losing our minds, way too uncool for school, but just getting to be in the room and absorb all that.

Ben Goodman
Happy Birthday to you!

Nate Waters
Yeah it was pretty crazy. I remember the guy came in from the White Hat committee, to give GZA a white hat, and he went over, GZA was just alone in a corner, talking to a woman, and they had a two liter of Tropicana orange juice and a two-six of vodka, and they were in their own universe, and the White Hat guy comes in, with “GZA, on behalf of the city of Calgary, I’d like to honor you this White Hat” and GZA was kind of like “hold on one second,” went over, just took the hat, put it on his head with the Saran Wrap still on, the guy had his hand out to shake his hand and GZA just turned around and walked away. What a beautiful moment

Ben Goodman
Only at Sled Island!, Now to get into the present, we alluded to it before, but I think it might be the biggest show of the festival. It’s the first show that sold out and anecdotally, it’s been the show I think that’s been buzzed about th emost, the Black Country, New Road show at The Palace, which Eye of Newt is on the bill. How excited are you?

Nate Waters
You are saying a bunch of things that are making my imposter syndrome go nuts. I think it’ll be really cool. The Palace is such a big room, especially in terms of verticality, like there’s so much ceiling. There’s no more giant Flames logo in the ceiling but I still feel its weight crushing me, but yeah no, i’m very excited. Like you said, it sold out instantly, it sold out before we knew we were on the bill, and then when I saw what bill we drew. I was gasps in excitement. It’s such a cool feeling.

Ben Goodman
Everyone’s really passionate about it.

Nate Waters
I think the commonality, the common thread between the three bands on the bill that I’m kind of feeling is there is this sort of like

Ben Goodman
Chrome Harvest?

Nate Waters
That’s right, from Lethbridge. I feel the common thread is maybe the authenticity or the upfrontness, like whether it’s lyricism, whether it’s about delivery, about the sorts of music you make and the sorts of sound sources you use. I think all three bands kind of have this, it’s sort of out there in the public sphere that we’ll do anything to get that connection, reaction from an audience. I’m really looking forward to it.

Ben Goodman
You have a real murderers row as a band. Let me tell you, the finest of the fine Calgary players: Brock Geiger, Samantha Savage Smith, Chris Dadge. What do you think each of them bring to the band and what do you love playing with them?

Nate Waters
Wow, that’s a great question. First off, the elephant in the room is that it’s the Samantha Savage Smith band, and we have to just acknowledge it and laugh and love that for what it is. I think, what’s the most fun is that they’re all my best friends in the world too, and when you go into battle, so to speak, or you bring a bunch of tunes to your friends to be like, “hey, can we do this?” Having that willingness, and it goes both ways. If we play some of Sam’s tunes and she’s passionate about her next record, and then we get to come in and do those same things it just has this full circleness. So, I think that’s what I appreciate most. Also it’s so cool to have everybody in that band be uncomfortable at times when they play this music. I know Sam many times in the time has said “i’m not a professional musician! I just like playing guitar and singing my songs, this is crazy!”, but I think that kind of nervous energy permeates the whole band. You know, most projects I plan, I don’t have to sing. Most projects Dadge plays in, he doesn’t have to count to seven and then five. Brock has drawn maybe the craziest hand with anything that isn’t a guitar, bass, or drums, which on those records are a lot of things, he’s just catching it all, so there is an uncomfortable factor that I think lends itself well to this murderer’s row.

Ben Goodman
Wherever the song takes you, you all will come and take the lead. It’s been so rewarding following you guys, from like the demo EP to Work Perks that came out last year. I’ve seen some kind of a cool evolution of the band over these years. What have been some things you’ve loved about how Eye of Newt has evolved during that time?

Nate Waters
I think one of the things is that once we had a clear idea… I used to write songs sort of in absentia from what I expected them to be in a live setting, and then once we had the live band, what’s been really cool is to see if we were able to capture that sound and make it feasible, then we can do this, and we can do this and it’s been kind of fun to not only writing for this band, but almost thinking about the context of some of these arrangements, and make it so that it’s as close as possible, even though the records are kind of wild, and how they’re recorded to oh wait, but there’s only still four parts, plus vocals. Sometimes I don’t know how you feel about this, but sometimes you go hear a band and they’ve got all the bells and whistles on the record, and then none of them show up in the live performance, and you’re fully missing parts. There’s a horn line or something. There’s just even your ears telling you “oh, that thing that I’m used to hearing in the second verse isn’t there” and I just feel I can’t help but be let down by that a little bit.

Nate Waters
But in writing for this band, as it goes deeper and deeper, you start to be able to be, oh yeah, no, I know how we’re gonna do that.

Ben Goodman
Yeah, the durability being a live band, it’s bad being a Steely Dan studio wizard where you are like “we’re not going to play this live!”

Nate Waters
But you’re the Steely Dan head! Don’t they have like 20 people waiting in the wings to come out, and we don’t have that,

Ben Goodman
I love your work, but then you also do your jazz work too, as well, which we’ll get into, in addition to the rock and punk stuff. I think what makes Eye of Newt so fulfilling, beyond kind of coming from your point of view of the hilarious lyrics and offbeat tone, is it feels like you combine these two passions. Is there anything the jazz world might bring into Eye of Newt, influenced from your jazz playing?

Nate Waters
Yeah, it’s unavoidable to me, and it goes both ways, because when I write for the jazz combo I lead, there are elements where it’s stealing from the rock side of my life. In fact, my current jazz trio does a mean StereoLab cover. I think with these things, we shouldn’t shy away, we shouldn’t put enough walls between our musical lives, we should embrace them. So I feel when you listen to Eye of Newt records, you can’t help but hear these little sound things, even if the song is pretty normal from a harmonic perspective, maybe it’s only three or four chords, but there’ll be this… I’m thinking of the first tune on the first tape. It starts very plodding bass line, and then the first other sound is me playing an alto sax through a bunch of pedals and goofiness, and then trying to make a synth sound that would kind of woof it out and blend with it, and then hard pan them, and hearing that. I improvised the line on saxophone first, and then had to then go back and learn it, and write it down, so I could re-record it on synth, and those are the kinds of things that just screams like jazz musician got desperate to make a weird thing happen, right? And so I think that’s how it maybe comes clearest.

Ben Goodman
into the fun jazz world, another project you’re involved in, Secreted Language. I was at maybe your first gig, at the Mary Ocher show.

Nate Waters
Yeah, that was that was our first gig with all four of us there.,

Ben Goodman
and so it’s you, Dadge, Brock, and,,

Nate Waters
Keith Rodger.

Ben Goodman
I was talking to Dadge recently, he was telling me how you guys have been recording some stuff for a future release. He was telling me about the process about whittling down like all this improv you guys are doing, and I know you all have Tortosie and Jeff Parker influences, and stuff like that.

Nate Waters
Speaking of people who can’t keep rock and jazz separate! We did two days at National Music Centre, Studio Bell’s Studios, with Graham Lessard and Eric Cinnamon behind the boards. We went in with, it’s a free improv band, even though we have very strict rules about how we improvise, you still don’t know what you’re gonna do. So just a lot of hitting record and the next 15 minutes would happen, and then we’d take a little breather, and if something got way off base, we could address it in the room. The funny part was the second day we got to the lunch break, and Graham came down from the producer spot, and said “hey guys, it’s all sounding great. I just wanted to warn you, we’ve got over five hours of material at this point. Should we even keep going?” Kind of like, if this is gonna be a record, somebody’s have to listen to all five hours, and then somebody’s gonna have to produce all five hours! Valid points, all, but that’s the spirit with which that project operates.

Ben Goodman
How do you even begin to put that together?

Nate Waters
We’ve done a couple listening parties amongst the four of us just to get together and kind of talk about how we might go through these. I think there’s multiple records there. We’re going to be chipping away at that for a while.

Ben Goodman
With jazz, like you often do some great work some great collaborators, like Devin Friesen and Andrew Hume, connecting with some of the great talented players of the city, from the Bug Incision world and making these albums with these new performers. What do you love about making these albums with these different collaborators, and do you learn new things each time playing with these different people?

Nate Waters
Yeah, it’s all about expanding your ability to contextualize your sounds that you are used to making with somebody who makes a sound that you might be uncomfortable with, or might not be used to, or, quite frankly, if you’re too familiar with them, sometimes it can be just as hard. I mean, you mentioned Devin Friesen who has many albums under the name Bitter Fictions. He and I had a duo for, and still do when called upon, Friesen Waters duo. In fact, we had a Sled run of five years in a row, we were always the weird jazz opener, and it was so great, but the thing is when you’ve done improv with the same person in almost the same style or at the same concept that many times it’s how am I still making this fresh? How am I able to realize some things about myself and them in real time? So I think and if you mention more people, or you expand that circle to include all of anyone who’s ever played a Bug Incision, or anybody who’s shown up at a random jam in the city, and you then are lending your talents and blending your talents with those people, it’s all the same principle of what do I bring to this? How do I align with these things? Or how do I sometimes buck that trend?

Ben Goodman
Well, let’s get into the teasing portion, in terms of any future collaborations and any stuff in Eye of Newt world, or anything you want to tease for the future.

Nate Waters
My jazz trio has recorded an album, and we’re doing this thing that’s a little bit crazy, but we’ve been going through slowly. The bass player, Jeff Gammon, and I have been taking all the takes that we’re not going to use from the record and sampling and resampling them into so we can basically be taking the context of a cordless jazz trio and making it this sort of modern take where we’re like almost improvising with these nuggets of our past playing. Just like these little artifacts that we can improvise with, so having samplers on stage and being able to kind of reference something, almost like a memory, but it’s always to guide the next improvisation further. And our drummer, Afo Fapojuwo, is also one of the greatest drummers I’ve had the pleasure of playing with. He’s so intuitive, so it’s having all these elements and being able to hear a crazy sound and then having to react to that in real time, even though you know you made that sound, maybe, or one of us made that sound in the room, it still hits as like somebody improvised it in the room, so can look for that record coming out in the next six months or so. And then what else? Oh, we’ve talked about Samantha Savage Smith already, but her upcoming record.

Ben Goodman
“Eyes Wide Shut” the single is out now, which is outstanding. ,

Nate Waters
We’re gonna be doing a run of shows, I think beginning of October? Something like that. So if you’re starting to think about Thanksgiving weekend…

Ben Goodman
I am free! I’ll be there. I’m very excited

Nate Waters
She’s written a really cool batch of tunes, and it’s so great to be able to contribute to those. I feel when we recorded her last record, Fake Nice I had just joined the band, and we were really just starting our, with Sam and Dadge and later Brock. I was getting a realization of this new little corner of the musical world in Calgary, where we were close collaborators, and so to be further ensconced in that idea, and then be coming at these tunes from their origin to completion, and getting to put any idea down or getting called into helping realize this is very gratifying, and very cool.

Ben Goodman
The amount of shows you’ve played in both iterations live in the years since, you’re road tested, ready to go.

Nate Waters
Yeah! A lot of those tunes did get kind of, they got a version or multiple versions in a live context, and then you’d go to record them, and you’re like, “Wait, we changed it again!” It’s cool.,

Ben Goodman
That’s so awesome. I’m stoked for it all. Nate..

Nate Waters
Did we do it? Did we radio?

Ben Goodman
We radioed.

Nate Waters
Amazing. Thanks, Ben. Appreciate you.

Ben Goodman
My pleasure, as always.