Ribbon Skirt performed during Sled Island on Friday, 6:30pm at Ship & Anchor and Saturday, 11:30pm at #1 Legion (Main Floor).
TRANSCRIPT:
Emily (CJSW)
My name is Emily, and I’m here on behalf of CJSW radio at this year’s Sled Island Music and Arts Festival. Today, we’re sitting down with Billy from Ribbon Skirt. How are you today?
Billy Riley
I’m doing good, yeah, feeling pretty tired. We played pretty late last night, so, but actually a good night’s sleep, so I’m feeling good, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Right on.
Billy Riley
Ready for another day at the festival.
Emily (CJSW)
When did you get into town this week?
Billy Riley
We got in on what day is it? Thursday night, late. And then we played two shows yesterday, played at the Ship, and then Dickens at 1am last night.
Emily (CJSW)
Packed weekend.
Billy Riley
Yes, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Nowhere near as close to your SXSW gauntlet, though.
Billy Riley
No, that was pretty intense. Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
I think I recall you played nine shows in what? Three days?
Billy Riley
Yeah, it was like nine or 10 in like, like four days I think it was, yeah. There was a couple of three show days, which was, like, by the end of it,
Emily (CJSW)
Right on.
Billy Riley
Definitely feeling it. And definitely our drummer, Lan was definitely his legs.. Legs were—
Emily (CJSW)
Yeah.
Billy Riley
Pretty, pretty tight.
Emily (CJSW)
Fair enough. Well, thanks so much for making Calgary a stop along your tour.
Billy Riley
Oh yeah, love it.
Emily (CJSW)
Can you introduce yourself and your role in the band?
Billy Riley
Sure, my name is Billy Riley, and I play guitar and write songs as well.
Emily (CJSW)
Right on. How did you come to meet and kind of form this band?
Billy Riley
So I knew Tash. We went, we did a journalism program at Concordia in Montreal, together, 2018? 2019? We just kind of hit it off, just kinda bonded. Bonded over music, like, like a lot of time music, and that I knew she had played in bands in Victoria. I was kind of like looking for a new project. So I kind of just like, put it out there and said, do you want to start band? And yeah, we just kind of the two of us started writing, writing songs together, very different style to what it is now. It’s kind of more like a singer songwriter, kind of vibe. And then just kind of evolved over the years, became love language, added a drummer and bassist, released a few EPs as that band. And then last year, we kind of made the change into Ribbon Skirt. And yeah, here we are now.
Emily (CJSW)
Right on.
Billy Riley
Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Sounds like it kind of came together naturally and has progressed from there.
Billy Riley
Yeah, yeah, for sure, it has felt felt quite natural. It’s taken a while to get to this point. We started playing some music together in 2019 so, which is almost seven years ago. So yeah, but it still feels fresh. So yeah, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Totally. I’m curious, do you ever find yourself kind of drawing on your experience in Concordia and kind of bringing that into the music?
Billy Riley
Good question. Yeah, I feel like more than anything, I feel like the people I met there, I’m still friends with a lot of them, and they kind of informed a lot of my music taste, and CJLO as well is a huge thing in Montreal and campus radio. And I feel like just the music community there is great. So, yeah, I would say it’s like, informed quite a lot, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Right on. I feel like the one thing that I’ve heard consistently about Montreal is just the collaborative community, and how everyone’s just willing to help each other.
Billy Riley
Yeah, and everyone’s playing in everyone’s bands and helping each other out, putting on shows and yeah, it’s just great. It’s super collaborative, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
I guess, branching off of that, you just put out a new album back in April, Bite Down and you worked with some fellow Montreal musicians.
Billy Riley
Yes.
Emily (CJSW)
Scotty or not, yeah? Scotty?
Billy Riley
Monty.
Emily (CJSW)
Monty! [laughs]
Billy Riley
Scott Monty Monroe. He goes back few names.
Emily (CJSW)
I’m getting them mixed up. But you worked with him from Preoccupations?
Billy Riley
Yep.
Emily (CJSW)
Marlena Moore and Greg Saulnier from Deerhoof. What was it like working with them on the record?
Billy Riley
Amazing, yeah, honestly, like such a dream. We met Monty. He’s from Calgary, actually, and we met him, I think, the very first time we played Sled, we played with Marlaena, and he was playing in her band, and we played at the block party. Just kind of hit it off. And then we hung out back in Montreal. And then he, he has a studio there and was looking for to produce some stuff. And we were kind of like looking for someone. So we just kind of just felt like a great fit. And Marlena as well. We love her. And she actually played bass in Ribbon Skirt for a few shows last year. And yeah, just felt like a, just a really natural kind of way to work, and yeah, respect both those musicians immensely and their work and songwriting and, like just they’re fantastic musicians. So it just felt like it felt, yeah, it was an amazing experience. And then Greg was looking for someone to mix the record. And we were just going through a bunch of records that we liked last year, and there was two that popped up, Motherhood. Do you know that band from the East Coast?
Emily (CJSW)
Yep.
Billy Riley
And Kamikaze Nurse from Vancouver?
Emily (CJSW)
Okay.
Billy Riley
And both those records we really like the sound of. And we were looking up who mixed them, and turned out he mixed both of them. So we were just, like, another case of just, it just seemed like the right move. And he’s kind of a hard person to track down. We, like, I found him on Facebook, sent him a message, and was like, Hey, would you like to mix our record? He like, didn’t reply for like, months, and then out the blue was like, just messaging back, being like, ‘Yeah, well, I’d love to.’
Emily (CJSW)
That’s awesome!
Billy Riley
And yeah, just amazing. Like, Deerhoof, I’m a huge Deerhoof fan, and he’s such an incredible person, and the way he sees music. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Deerhoof play live, but he’s this wild drummer, just like, yeah, so. And then yeah. And then he did agree to to mix the record, which was a huge honour, and so happy with the results.
Emily (CJSW)
Yeah, sounds like a dream.
Billy Riley
Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
I went down a little bit of a Reddit rabbit hole yesterday as well. And I know Preoccupations recently did a AMA on Reddit for their recent album. And I think Monty went on to say that your record was the favourite thing he’s ever produced in studio.
Billy Riley
Oh no way! Oh cool. That’s amazing. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
It’s a fantastic record.
Billy Riley
Thank you.
Emily (CJSW)
Listen to it, anyone who’s listening to this right now.
Billy Riley
Yeah, thank you.
Emily (CJSW)
Let’s see, were there any moments during the making of the record, or even following its release that surprised you?
Billy Riley
Good question. In the making of the record, I guess, just the people we work with was kind of like, I don’t know, getting Greg to mix the record was a huge surprise. I didn’t think we would be, would be able to and that was, that was a huge, huge win for us. And just felt really good after the record. I feel like I don’t know the amount of like press we’ve got, and kind of the Polaris Long List has been, has been pretty wild. And like, definitely not something we expected.
Emily (CJSW)
Congratulations.
Billy Riley
Thank you. And yeah, I feel like just people’s reaction to it is just been so amazing and surprising. And, yeah, people seem to really like connect with it, which is amazing, as a musician, that’s kind of what you want.
Emily (CJSW)
Yeah, right on. I’m curious. Can you walk us through the recipe process of creating a Ribbon Skirt song and kind of what that looks like?
Billy Riley
Yeah, for sure. So usually starts with, I’ll kind of come to Tash with, like, an idea that I have, usually on guitars, just like, kind of like guitar part or chord progression. I’ll usually either kind of like, record it, rough demo, send it to her, or just kind of get in the room together and just kind of play it over and over and over again and just kind of bounce ideas, and she’ll, like, come up with melody lines, and it’s just just the two of us in a room together, just going over it a million times, and kind of until something sticks. And I think we’ve got a lot better at moving on when something doesn’t work, and kind of like not getting too stuck. And then, yeah, and then this record was a little bit different from the love language stuff. Because of love language, we would kind of then take it to the to our band and flesh it out there. But in this record, we kind of really took it to the studio. It’s like a bare bones, usually just, like a guitar and like vocal, like demo and then just, like, really, like, build it out in the studio. And it kind of took on a new life in the studio. So yeah, kind of starts pretty small, like, starts with, like a guitar part, and then, yeah, it’s just, it’s just a matter of, like, being in the room together.
Emily (CJSW)
A lot of the songs on this new record also deal with these deeply personal histories. I’m curious if there’s any strategies you employ as a band to kind of protect your peace while navigating that, because I can’t imagine that’s easy to bring that out on stage all the time.
Billy Riley
Yeah, yeah. And I think that’s, I think it’s something that me and Tash talk about a lot, and I definitely, we, we definitely want to protect her, her kind of, like emotion like emotional labor. And I think just like knowing that we don’t have to do we don’t have to do it, and anytime you can, kind of, like, walk away from that kind of side of the band, and you don’t have to always show it is, helps, and you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to, and you can kind of protect yourself that way. But I know for Tash it’s super important for her to tell her story, and it’s super helpful for people to hear it. So I think that’s kind of the main driving force.
Emily (CJSW)
I think I read in an interview that sometimes you almost have to enter this, like, third person kind of space when you’re on stage.
Billy Riley
Yeah, definitely, yeah. Definitely, when you play live, it’s, it’s definitely kind of. Yeah, yeah, you’re definitely kind of there, but like, not there, and, yeah, you kind of have to go to, like, a different place, for sure. Yeah, yeah. It’s kind of hard to describe, but yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Interesting. Let’s see, are there any Indigenous artists or creators you’d like to shout out?
Billy Riley
Yeah, there’s a singer, singer-songwriter from Winnipeg called Tinge who is really great? Yeah, they’re awesome. OMBIIGIZI is great. A band called Indian Giver. It’s like a hardcore band from Ontario somewhere. We played with them in St. John’s for Lawnya Vawnya last year, and they were amazing. We saw them in South by as well. Yeah, I’m trying to think, what else? Yeah, I’m sure more, more will come to me, but those are the ones that come off the top of my head. Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
That’s great. Do you have a favorite song to play off the record live?
Billy Riley
Oh, good question. I always really like playing “Wrong Planet.” And “Look What You Did” at the end because I feel like it takes on like a different energy live, which is really cool. We usually, we’ve been closing that set with, “Look What You Did” recently, and it’s a really like upbeat, energietic song, um. “Earth Eater” is one that kind of grew on me a lot. It wasn’t my favorite when we were recording it, but I’ve just kind of, it’s really grown on me, and it’s one of my favorites now, and I think we got to a point where we’re playing it live really well, and it’s kind of taken on its new life. So I feel like a lot of songs just kind of feel very different when we play live, which is great. Yeah, I’d say the most upbeat ones, I like playing those like “Wrong Planet,” and “Look What You Did” are my favorites.
Emily (CJSW)
Yeah, I think it’s interesting that you touch on that. Like, I think it’s so true that songs can take completely different shapes and forms live. Like, sometimes if I don’t resonate with the studio recording, I’ll probably like it better live.
Billy Riley
Yeah, for sure, yeah. It’s yeah, and it’s just like, you feed off the energy in the room and you got the loud drums and guitar amps, and then you just kind of like, yeah, it just takes on a new life. And I think that’s kind of cool, yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
And so what’s it been like playing the shows this week at Sled like, what’s the energy been like in the room?
Billy Riley
It’s been amazing, yeah? Like, the two shows we played yesterday, the Ship was like, yeah, it was such good energy in the room that was a Mint Records showcase. So we got to play with a bunch of Mint Records bands, hang out with the Mint Records people, which we don’t get to see very often because they’re based in Vancouver. Yeah, it’s just amazing energy. And like, room was packed and yeah, it was, yeah, it was such good energy.
Emily (CJSW)
That’s so fun! Right on.
Billy Riley
Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
I have a few more questions for you.
Billy Riley
Yeah, go for it.
Emily (CJSW)
What can people expect from your show tonight?
Billy Riley
I think yeah, like a lot of, like, high energy, for sure, but we’ve kind of, like, now we’re kind of balancing this kind of like, I guess, like more kind of shoegazey, kind of, like lots of reverb and stuff like that. So, yeah, kind of like a, kind of, like a mix of high energy and then kind of like the lower, kind of more interesting songs, yeah, definitely, like, we like to put, like, a lot of, a lot of energy into a live show. So I guess you can expect that
Emily (CJSW)
Right on. And finally, what’s next for Ribbon Skirt after Sled. More touring perhaps?
Billy Riley
Yeah, we uh, yeah, we’ve got some, we’re going right after this we’re going to Edmonton next week and then Vancouver, Victoria to play some shows. So a little bit of a week where we’re away for about a week west coast, which I’m super excited about. I’ve never been to the West Coast. Very excited to see them, Vancouver, Victoria, I heard are beautiful. And then later this Summer, we’re playing a show in Montreal with Cola, and then we’re playing a couple of one off shows going to New York, and then we got some touring plans in the Fall, which should be announced hopefully soon. So, yeah, we’ll be doing like, a longer tour in the Fall.
Emily (CJSW)
Awesome. Very exciting.
Billy Riley
Yeah, lots of yeah, lots, lots in the pipeline. Yeah.
Emily (CJSW)
Awesome. Ribbon Skirt performs tonight, June 21 at the #1 Royal Canadian Legion on the main floor, starting at 11:30 pm. Thanks so much for sitting down with me and enjoy the rest of your time in Calgary.
Billy Riley
Thank you. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.