By Kenzie Love
Their debut album, Not Saying/Just Saying has been hailed for its innovative approach to the dance music genre; their live shows pulse with a contagious energy; and they reveal a refreshingly casual attitude towards fans. For fans in Calgarians, though, there’s a small snag: Shout Out Out Out Out reside in Edmonton, the city of their sworn enemies.
“As far as we’re concerned there aren’t really any greener pastures for us,” says the group’s Jason Troock of his home town. “There’s a lot of great bands in both Edmonton and Calgary and a really tight-knit musical community, even if they don’t necessarily have the profile that a lot of acts out east do.”
Greener pastures might seem like an odd metaphor for a city more renowned for its long, cold winters, but there’s some still some truth in what Troock says. Canadian website i(heart)music.com recently suggested that Edmonton may have one of the most exciting music scenes in Canada today. Whether or not that’s due to Shout Out Out Out Out or not, they still manage to bring that excitement with them wherever they go.
“People generally tend to enjoy our shows when they’re there,” says Kozub. “We take our music very seriously and we certainly like playing music together and performing for other people. We don’t, however, take ourselves so seriously that we can’t have some fun.”
That much is evident. The guys’ antics are a big part of their shows, often revealing their strange sense of fun: Lyle Bell once ate an entire box of mandarins over the course of a show for no particular reason except, of course, that mandarins are delicious. Despite their zany sense of humour, the members of Shout Out Out Out Out have weightier issues on their mind too and they are revealed in their songs.
“We’re all broke,” says Troock. “We all can’t imagine ever not being broke, and we try to head out once in a while and try to forget about our problems, these are issues that everyone goes through, so the lyrics, I suppose, a lot of people can relate to. I guess I find it interesting how they are fairly bummed-out lyrics, but they’re very upbeat songs.”
Troock is right. While looking at the song titles on Not Saying/Just Saying can be depressing–among them are “Forever Indebted” and “Self Loathing Rulz”-listening to the music is anything but. It’s a reflection of the general confidence that the members of Shout Out Out Out Out possess at this stage in their careers.
“We believe in our music and believe in our band and we’ve been very blessed with all the media coverage we’ve received over this past year,” says Troock. “But certainly it didn’t come without a lot of hard work on our part. We’re ultimately trying to please ourselves first, and hopefully in pleasing ourselves we please our fans.”
Living in Edmonton might seem like an odd form of pleasure to Calgarians, but most of them are probably willing to overlook it-like the mandarin orange gobbling-as a harmless quirk. The music is what matters. And that’s something even Calgarians can be pleased about.
Shout out out out out plays on Sat., Sept. 30 in the Den.