Tuesday, 6 November 2007 is not a standout day for many.
In a corner of Camden, Canadian hardcore punk rockers Cancer Bats were gearing up to play another show on the Never Say Die tour, with headliners Comeback Kid leading a stellar line-up. For them, it wasn’t just another day; it was the best day of their lives.
They didn’t find a winning Lotto ticket in their old Royal Mail tour van and get a personal invite to the Playboy mansion in one go - It was something simpler than that. Instead, the positive attitude instilled by the band to have the best day of their life, every day of their life – something highlighted heavily on sophomore album Hail Destroyer – was all they needed.
It’s been paying off, too. In May this year, the band became Kerrang! magazine cover stars, with frontman Liam Cormier named as the successor to Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl as the “Nicest man in rock™”. To his bandmates, he’s simply nicknamed ‘Scrappy’ – after his ability to consume all manner of table scraps left over by strangers in restaurants…
Rewind back to Camden Electric Ballroom. Did you ever think that you’d grab a Kerrang! cover story half a year later?
Liam: “We had no idea that we would be on the cover of Kerrang! or that so many of the people at the magazine would be into the new album Hail Destroyer. It’s really rad that so many people are getting stoked on what we're doing.”
How do you feel about being touted as the ‘next Dave Grohl’ as the nicest guy in rock? You’re also handy behind a drum kit – (Liam has played drums on tour for his friends in Black Lungs) - are you secretly planning to take over Foo Fighters?
“[Laughs] that rules! I hadn't heard anything about that but I don’t mind being known as a good dude. I'm nowhere near as good as Dave Grohl at drums. I might be on par with him as far as being super nice but he crushes me in the drum department.”
You’ve talked how you were at a ‘rock bottom’ before the band started both personally and financially. How much of the bands’ lyrics are centred on those experiences?
“All of the lyrics for Hail Destroyer deal with our lives on tour and in being a part of the band since it began and really looking at how that's made us into the people we are now and how the whole experience, even as hard as it may have been at times, has brought us all together and made us stronger as people. That's where the whole ‘hail’ the things in life that ‘destroy’ you, comes from. How we've all become better people having gone through it.”
Hail Destroyer has a greater allowance for personal songs, such as Sorceress and Regret. Do you think this will leave the band open to personal questions?
“With this record I found that the more personal I made the lyrics, the more I've had kids come up to me and say that they really identify with the song and how they've gone through similar experiences to both Regret and Sorceress. I think it’s awesome that it then becomes very personal for them as well.
“Everyone so far has been really curious about who Sorceress is about. But I'm not gonna talk shit, I just wanted to blow off some steam.”
You’ve talked about how you’ve used graffiti and tagging ideas to get the bands’ name across rather than talking about the Internet. Are you trying to stay away from the obvious route of promotions, or is this just a coincidence as art is a passion of yours?
“Yeah, it was more that I'm just really into graffiti. I was really getting into wheat pasting when we started the band and I had these images of bats that I had made for merchandise but since we weren't playing shows yet I just made copies of the bats and put them up everywhere. It was cool when we found out that people were taking the images down just to keep even before they knew about the band.
“I always liked the idea that graffiti culture and punk rock were connected in the idea that it was something that you were drawn towards because of passion and not because you would become famous or make money. Graffiti artists paint because they love it; same goes for playing in a band, you do it because that's what makes sense to you.
Passion strikes deep at the heart of Cancer Bats. Besides his love for art (Liam is “stoked” that street artist Banksy is doing so well), BMX and skateboarding are other pursuits of Cormier – as proven in their BMX-themed video for single French Immersion.
Another constant feature with the ‘Bats’ videos are the re-appearances of their good friends in Alexisonfire. In fact, the video for Hail Destroyer has been the only single so far to focus solely on the Ontario quartet.
It’s not to say that the talents of Cormier, Scott Middleton (guitar), Mike Peters (drums) and Jaye R. Schwarzer (bass) aren’t strong enough on their own - this mutual support owes more to long-standing friendships with their countrymen in Alexisonfire, Rise Against and Billy Talent that have long since been in place.
And while money may not be rolling in by any stretch of the imagination, the four-piece insist they are just happy to be out on the road, having a laugh with their friends. Often when bands quote something similar, there’s an underlying odour of bullshit punctuating every word. However, positivity takes up a major portion of the band’s lyrical content – even the worlds biggest cynic would be hard pressed to find flaws in that statement.
Initial appearances also allude to nothing of the sort. There’s crushing southern rock riffs, live punk rock aggression, rasping vocals - and that name. The other contender for band honours was Pneumonia Hawk, which later appeared as a track title on 2006’s debut album, Birthing The Giant:
“The ‘Cancer’ part just came from me putting together diseases and animals,” explains Liam. “I liked the sound of it because it made me think of a monster from an 80’s comic book. Like, ‘EVIL BATS WITH CANCER!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!’ That in turn made me think it was a good name for a rock band.”
Have you ever encountered any problems with people finding your name insensitive?
“We've never really had too many troubles with the name. Most people realise that we're not trying to make light of cancer or anything like that once they meet us. We're all good dudes. One time we weren't able to play a festival in Canada because it was sponsored by a huge tobacco company. We weren't bummed at all; we just thought it was funny.”
What are the best – and worst - table scraps you can find?
“The best table scraps would be combinations you can make off of multiple peoples plates to form a whole meal - that’s the best score. There's no such thing as bad scraps, although I would avoid dumpster diving because that's a quick way to get sick.”
As stated previously, nothing bums out the Cancer Bats – If you ran over a puppy or kitten in the road, how would you go about turning that into a positive?
“If we ran over a puppy or a kitten I would be bummed as hell. I hit a deer once when we were driving through the prairies in Canada and I wanted to cry, it was the worst thing ever. The only thing that made it alright was my friends being there with me and helping me out.
“That's the positive side, is that no matter what happens to us we can always depend on each other to get by. It may sound cheesy but the reason why I'm so positive is because I know some of the greatest people in the world and it’s hard to stay down when you've got people like that around.”
Single ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ and album ‘Hail Destroyer’ are available now, through Hassle Records.
