The Decade of Sleep latest MIA success
Since Fanshawe College's Music Industry Arts program opened its doors over 30 years ago, hundreds of graduates have found success as engineers, managers, publishers and record label owners in Canada.
And though perhaps a smaller percentage, other graduates have found success as performing artists themselves. The most notable would likely be singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, but dozens of others have made careers out of the performing arts - several touring members of Polaris Prize nominees Caribou are MIA graduates, for instance.
Added to this list are The Decade of Sleep, a four-piece rock group made up of Phil Laffin, Lance Schibler, Mat Pataki and Eric Walker who, along with their current manager (and former VP of Entertainment) Sean Russell, have ties to the program.
Most of the band are recent graduates, except for Newfoundland native Phil Laffin, the band's lead vocalist who is currently a student in first year.
“Lance and I met when I moved down here to start going to MIA” recalls Laffin. “We knew each other through a mutual friend and he called me and said ‘you should actually come down and try this out'. We've been playing music ever since then, in three or four different bands, and this is now the band where all four of us came together.”
One of those bands was a bluegrass-rock inspired outfit The Skywriters, and when they disbanded last year, Laffin and Schibler were presented with the opportunity to work together on a project more finely tuned to their musical sensibilities.
“I draw influences from Celtic music and I grew up where everyone played Irish folk music and stuff like that, [but] I was always more interested in rock,” Laffin said.
His Newfoundland roots aside, Laffin has had quite a rich musical education. A former student of music at Acadia University, he not only learned the academic side of music, but much of his experience comes from working in small arts communities throughout Canada, like the one in Iqaluit, Nunavut, when Laffin stayed shortly. There, he was inspired by all the town of 6,000 had to offer.
“Music and the arts community up there is amazing,” Laffin explained. “It's always in small centres like that where these really cool things are explored. There's a lot of Irish folk music going on up there and there's a great tradition of cultural music - there's a lot of throat singing. The Inuit people up there, they love their get-togethers and their parties. They play music and drum and throat sing.”
These rich musical landscapes are not so obviously detected in Laffin's writing, but they, along with more traditional influences in rock music add to his well-honed sense of melody.
In fact, the band have just finished recording a debut EP called Morning Sun. It's a short collection of Laffin and Schibler's musical co-operation. They're poignantly written, with well defined messages. Some deal with relationships; others are dark and foreboding tales.
The title track, for instance, is an apocalyptic story about a character who “wakes up and sees that the whole sky is falling, the morning sun is coming down and falling towards the Earth, and it's [the] end of days, but he's noticing all the beauty in it, in the terror of it.”
It's matched perfectly with the band's sound, which lies somewhere between the alternative rock of Incubus and the straight-ahead attitude of The Trews. From the blues-rock licks of “Perfume and Cigarettes” to the somewhat-jazzy “Pressure”, the group are evidently well versed in many musical styles. But the common link that tie the songs together is Laffin's voice, which ranges from soft and laid back, to gruff and edgy on some of the harder tracks.
The time spent in writing each song is clear, too.
“We always revise each others songs, [but] we have similar mindsets when it comes to writing music, and we want to achieve the same thing... a great song that people can relate to and like,” he said.
That's exactly what Morning Sun does, and although The Decade of Sleep won't be performing around London any time in the near future, their EP, due to be released this May, will tide listeners over until the next round of touring begins.
And though perhaps a smaller percentage, other graduates have found success as performing artists themselves. The most notable would likely be singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, but dozens of others have made careers out of the performing arts - several touring members of Polaris Prize nominees Caribou are MIA graduates, for instance.
Added to this list are The Decade of Sleep, a four-piece rock group made up of Phil Laffin, Lance Schibler, Mat Pataki and Eric Walker who, along with their current manager (and former VP of Entertainment) Sean Russell, have ties to the program.
Most of the band are recent graduates, except for Newfoundland native Phil Laffin, the band's lead vocalist who is currently a student in first year.
“Lance and I met when I moved down here to start going to MIA” recalls Laffin. “We knew each other through a mutual friend and he called me and said ‘you should actually come down and try this out'. We've been playing music ever since then, in three or four different bands, and this is now the band where all four of us came together.”
One of those bands was a bluegrass-rock inspired outfit The Skywriters, and when they disbanded last year, Laffin and Schibler were presented with the opportunity to work together on a project more finely tuned to their musical sensibilities.
“I draw influences from Celtic music and I grew up where everyone played Irish folk music and stuff like that, [but] I was always more interested in rock,” Laffin said.
His Newfoundland roots aside, Laffin has had quite a rich musical education. A former student of music at Acadia University, he not only learned the academic side of music, but much of his experience comes from working in small arts communities throughout Canada, like the one in Iqaluit, Nunavut, when Laffin stayed shortly. There, he was inspired by all the town of 6,000 had to offer.
“Music and the arts community up there is amazing,” Laffin explained. “It's always in small centres like that where these really cool things are explored. There's a lot of Irish folk music going on up there and there's a great tradition of cultural music - there's a lot of throat singing. The Inuit people up there, they love their get-togethers and their parties. They play music and drum and throat sing.”
These rich musical landscapes are not so obviously detected in Laffin's writing, but they, along with more traditional influences in rock music add to his well-honed sense of melody.
In fact, the band have just finished recording a debut EP called Morning Sun. It's a short collection of Laffin and Schibler's musical co-operation. They're poignantly written, with well defined messages. Some deal with relationships; others are dark and foreboding tales.
The title track, for instance, is an apocalyptic story about a character who “wakes up and sees that the whole sky is falling, the morning sun is coming down and falling towards the Earth, and it's [the] end of days, but he's noticing all the beauty in it, in the terror of it.”
It's matched perfectly with the band's sound, which lies somewhere between the alternative rock of Incubus and the straight-ahead attitude of The Trews. From the blues-rock licks of “Perfume and Cigarettes” to the somewhat-jazzy “Pressure”, the group are evidently well versed in many musical styles. But the common link that tie the songs together is Laffin's voice, which ranges from soft and laid back, to gruff and edgy on some of the harder tracks.
The time spent in writing each song is clear, too.
“We always revise each others songs, [but] we have similar mindsets when it comes to writing music, and we want to achieve the same thing... a great song that people can relate to and like,” he said.
That's exactly what Morning Sun does, and although The Decade of Sleep won't be performing around London any time in the near future, their EP, due to be released this May, will tide listeners over until the next round of touring begins.
