CREDIT: AARON WALLIS
Jill Clair playing drums for Child Leash at Vibrafusion Labs Collateral Jamage Fest on July 12.

With large music events like the Block Party coming to London, it is sometimes hard to remember the local scene, slugging along in basements and back alley venues. Though over the last year London’s music scene has once again reared it’s sonically driven head with Jillian Clair, drummer and songwriter of the band Child Lease, as one of the frontrunners to the new wave.

Working by day at Heroes Comics, Clair spends her nights with her band, mirroring its sound to a thrash version of Minor Threat.

Though Child Lease is her first involvement in a band, Clair has been part of London’s scene for five years now, but it was not always that way.

“When I first came to London, I came to [Western University] specifically and I think that’s important because Western is sort of a beast of its very own within London, a problem I’ve heard expressed by many students is it’s really tough to feel involved whether that be the arts community or in my case the music community,” Clair said.

Her solution was to volunteer at Western’s radio station.

It was there that Clair found her local, musical idols – musical and promotions director Alex Jaworiwsky and another volunteer Ashley Desjardine.

“They were like mentors to me because they were cool,” Clair said. “They totally blew my 18-year-old mind and I was like, ‘I want to be just like these girls, so I need to go to the shows they are going to.’”

After her introduction to her idols, Clair became more active in the community, continuing to host a radio show on CHRW, where she would use the Golden Rule of going to any show she could.

“Since I’ve started doing shows there’s been some other like-minded folks around London specifically from the DIY scene who have expressed a lot of interest in starting a band,” Clair said.

The decision to start drumming was not a difficult one for Clair. After owning a drum set since she was 14, the choice was simple once she saw the Japanese noise core band called Setest Our Set.

“They were just a two piece noise core band and it was a revolutionizing experience for me because this man is a world class drummer, [he would play] drums so well and so fast that he would almost pass out when he was finally done,” Clair said.

“She was such a lovely, nice, cool lady and then when she started playing she would just scream like a demon and really play the [explicative] out of the bass,” Clair said of the female in the band.

According to Clair, it is difficult to get involved with London’s DIY music scene, but it is worth it.

“If you are a person who’s really interested in getting more involved in your local scene you’re going to have to go out of your comfort zone … go to shows, bring a friend and hang in there for a couple of shows.”

Clair recommends Foam, Moon Hag and The Syndrome for people wanting to expand their horizons within the local musical community in London.

Child Leash will be playing in late September and are planning a split its show with a local band called Manager.