Each new year rings reflection, a fresh perspective, a fresh new scent, new goals, and new challenges, but most importantly, a new batch of bands for The Zone @ 91-3’s Band of the Month program.
Victoria-based indie rock outfit, The Projectors, kick off the year as January 2023’s Band of the Month.
The Projectors are consist of vocalist Dylan Rysstad, drummer Justin Dauphinee, bassist Ryan Newman, and guitarists Dustin Tiljo and Robbie Shirriff. While the band takes influence from the likes of The Strokes, The Hives, The Walkmen, and many other early 2000s fuzz indie rock mainstays, they create a sound uniquely their own.
Tyson Elder had a chance for a very candid chat with The Projectors while sharing pretzels (thanks Robbie) in their jam space in the Leka Design.
Tyson Elder: A big congratulations to you guys for being the first Zone Band of the Month for 2023.
Dylan Rysstad: Thanks!
Justin Dauphinee: I don’t think any of us thought we were even going to make it to 2023.
Dylan: I did. It’s two of our birthdays in January as well.
TE: That’s a big month.
Dylan: It is a big month. It’s the start of a new year. We’ve got a show at Lucky Bar on my birthday.
Justin: We should just play shows on our birthdays.
TE: That sounds like it could get messy.
Dylan: We’re off to a good start. [laughs]
TE: You’re a fairly new band to the scene. How’d you guys come together? I know you played a few shows this summer at Whistlemania — a beer festival in Langford — and an intimate show in this space recently.
Justin: Yeah, we also played FernFest this summer. That was our first gig.
Dylan: It seems like we go anywhere the beer is. [band laughs].
Justin: We also played a small gig at The Carlton in October, but we’re still fairly new. Dylan, you can take the reins on how we all came together.
Dylan: It started a long, long time ago. [laughs] In a far away place. I just started writing music for a project that I didn’t know what it was going tom be yet. This is kind of the first time I’ve done a project in this way where I had a sound and vision preplanned. I didn’t try to fight it and I was okay with sounding like whomever…
[a computer on the other side of the studio starts playing music out of nowhere. Ghosts, most likely].
Justin: Like this band?
Robbie Shirriff: [as he walks across the room to turn off the music] I wish we sounded like Julia Jacklin. [laughs]
Justin: What the hell happened there?
Dylan: I wonder if I said something that triggered Siri or Alexa?
Ryan Newman: “I had a sound and vision.” Siri “Did it sound like this?” [band laughs]
Dylan: Basically I put together a band after I wrote a few songs. I’d played in a few bands with Justin over the years so I knew he’d be playing drums. Robbie sold Ryan a bass amp or something so we got him [laughs]... then we got pretzels.
Justin: Mr. Pretzels, eh? [laughs]
[Long discussion about pretzels removed]
TE: Let’s talk about your self-titled album you put out in 2022. It’s your debut album.
Dylan: Yeah, it’s our first one. The songs had been around for a while though. COVID was happening right around then and we couldn’t actually practice as a band at the time. We had to learn the songs in the studio.
TE: How difficult of a process was that?
Dylan: Ask these guys. I knew the songs already. [laughs]
Justin: It was fun. I wouldn’t use the word challenge but to learn a new thing during a time like the pandemic when you are at home not going a lot and afraid to go out into the world is different. For me it was kind of a saving grace. It kept me sane and I love music. Just to be able to be a part of it and to have this creative outlet with friends was pretty awesome.
TE: I had a chance to listen to the record a few times before heading out for the photo shoot. I especially focused on your Band of the Month single, The Golden Age, it’s going to be played on The Zone. It’s definitely got some of those lo-fi early aughts indie rock vibes to it. It’s a lot like the things I listen to at home and right up my alley. I’m stoked to hear it on the radio and hear the reactions from other people when they get a chance to hear it for the first time. Could you tell me a little bit about The Golden Age?
Dylan: Usually when I write a song it starts with a good line or what I think might be a good line. I heard the line “she’s always had a talent for survival” in a show somewhere and I thought it would be a great line… [Dylan trails off in contemplation] Yeah, what else does that song say? [band laughs]
Justin: “It’s okay that you don’t write me back. It’s only been forever.”
Dylan: It seems like a relevant song. Whether that was an intentional thing or not. It’s more of a sign of the times about expectations and communication. Like someone texts you and you don’t text them back.
Robbie: “The golden age of indifference.” That’s a great line.
Dylan: I don’t think I stole that one. [band laughs]
Robbie: The interesting thing I find is that Dylan had worked these songs out and sent us demos of them. Our own agreements to joining this project, learning these songs, and recording the record, was that we found our own interests in it. The ability to relate to the songs and then actively partake in creating them was super cool. Having been a person who heard the song and liked it then learned it, and now, in the band, all of us are that person. I’ve also experienced hearing that song for the first time, relating to it, and really enjoying it. It’s cool that other people get to have the same experience as us.
TE: On a different note, but in the same direction, how have you found it being creatives in a city full of creatives?
Dylan: I thought you were going to say in a dictatorship. [band bursts out laughing]
Justin: I mean, I love being creative and being creative with friends. Like Dylan said, we’ve played in at least three bands together over the years so anytime he’s like, “I got something,” I’m in. It’s a great city and the scene is still strong in its own right. It sucks we’ve lost Logan’s and places like the Copper Owl over the years. The city feels like it took some big hits.
TE: Yeah, we are losing venues but that’s a common thread across all of North America. We’re losing a lot of our small venues and even bigger clubs. Where people can play is disappearing. You recently did DIY show here in this space. How did you find that versus some of the bigger shows that you’ve been on the bill for.
Dylan: It’s an interesting way to start as a band. Especially with FernFest and WhistleMania being our first shows usually you work up to those kind of big shows.
Justin: Like Dylan said, you usually work your way up to those kind of events. To actually get thrown into it was fun.
Ryan: The thing is we were chipping away at all through the pandemic and when the time arrived for bands to come out of the shadows again to do their thing, we were pretty put together. Our recordings spoke for themselves too.
Robbie: To respond in regard to the DIY aspect of hosting our own show, like a secret show as it were, and touching back on the earlier questing of being in a city full of creatives…all of us play in other bands. Some of us play in other bands together and we share different spaces with other creatives as well, including this one. Putting on our own show here was super cool, and working in tandem with Leka who is a textiler and BEBA Botanica soap maker enable us in order to have our own space for creativity. Spaces like this where they are literally making their living being creative with their own DIY endeavours. Dylan had planed the little show in here certainly gave us an appreciation for how much work goes into making something happen. When there is no expectation there is no sense of failure. We just opened the doors and let the people come in.
Dylan: I also really like that you can do exactly what you want. You can play the music you want between bands and have art up among other things.
Robbie: It definitely gave it a unique feel to anything else that you’re going to get in town because it was the way we felt like doing it.
Justin: It was fun. It was an intimate crowd and everyone who was there wanted to be there. There were part of the community or a friend of a friend. It was a good turnout.
TE: What’s next for you guys? Obviously Band of the Month is a big deal with the song on the radio. Got any shows people can catch coming up?
Justin: Lucky Bar on January 27th. That might be the official album release because we never really had one did we?
Dylan: For the first record?
Justin: Yeah, the first record or cassette tape, I guess. We’ve also recorded some new music. So look for that in the future.
Dylan: We want to play some shows outside of Victoria too. We don’t want to overplay the city. Definitely some island shows, looking into Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and more.
TE: That’s all pretty exciting stuff. Thanks for taking the time to chat with Rocktographers.
Dylan: Thank you. You’ve been entirely too patient with us. [band laughs]
The Golden Age by The Projectors will be featured on The Zone @ 91-3 all month. Find out more about the band and listen to more of their music on their Band of the Month microsite.
Catch The Projectors live on Friday, January 27th, 2023 at Lucky Bar with Dead Soft and Groceries.
Rocktographers is a proud supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.