Artist of the Day | GAIJIN SMASH
ARTIST OF THE DAY
28.08.2020
GAIJIN SMASH
LOCATION
Toronto, ON
GENRE
ANSWER
CURRENT MEMBERS
Mai Miyazaki
Conor Freeborn
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
We had just wrapped up our 2019 Japanada Tour and were in the midst of confirming Canadian dates for 2020. Luckily, we had the chance to ring in the new year with our homies Own Wlsn in the basement of Houndstooth before getting the news and pressing pause on our 2020 dates.
How has that affected your plans for the coming months? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
Had high hopes to nail down more Canadian dates, with the goal of creating opportunities to connect with and see more parts of the country, as opposed to only hitting Toronto, Vancouver, and Montréal (which we also love). We're grateful to have had the chance to play Indie Emergente's online festival which connected us with an incredible audience primarily in South America. We look forward to playing more online festivals that will help us connect with people in other parts of Canada so that we can eventually come play there for real, when it's safe to do so. Our debut EP is set to be released in November, which hasn't changed.
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home?
During quarantine in May, we filmed a music video in our living room with the help and direction from a remote team of recent film school graduates via a day- long video conference call. It was pretty wild. The video for Creeper will be unleashed on Halloween.
What was the first thing you did/place you went to now the country is starting to slowly re-open?
Skateparks! We may have gone out for ice cream…
Favourite Starlite Room Moment?
In the hopefully not too distant future, if and when we have the privilege of playing there for real.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
"Black Lives Matter" is a clear and simple statement which is not to be argued. Safety first. Be nice too! And ummm stay hydrated!
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