Moving to Toronto a year ago from their home town of Thunder Bay was the right move for the Poor Young Things, who make their Lethbridge debut with two gigs this week — opening for Ken Tizzard, Feb. 29 at the Slice and the Trews, March 6 at Average Joes.
“It seemed to be the right move for us rather than moving to Vancouver,” observed guitarist/ vocalist Matt Fratpietro.
They were planning the move to Vancouver until they met Trews keyboardist Jeff Heisholt who convinced them to come to Toronto instead and promised to help them record some demos.
“ We got signed to Bumstead Records, the Trews’ record label. We met Jeff Heisholt who is playing keyboards with the Trews now. He’s also from Thunder Bay. We were going to move to Vancouver, but he convinced us to move to Toronto. He said he’d help us record some demos in Hamilton, he played them for them and they signed us on the spot,” summarized Poor Young Things guitarist/ vocalist Matt Fratpietro, moving equipment into the Horseshoe in Toronto, where the band is going to premiere their new EP “Let It Sleep” which was released, Jan. 29.
“ Some of the songs are from the original batch of demos but we ended up re-recording the whole thing in Toronto. We’re pretty proud of how it turned out,” he said adding it was a pleasure to work with the same producer who worked with groups like The Arkells and Tokyo Police Club.
“We just try to move whatever audience we are playing for,” he said of opening for both Tizzard as well as the Trews— who play two completely different styles of music.
“We just go out there and do what we do. It will be a good rock and roll show. There will be lots of harmonies and big guitars, so hopefully you will enjoy it,” he said.
Playing with the Trews has been a learning experience for the Poor Young Things.
“They’re really good guys. A lot of bands can pull it off on the record, but not live. But these guys can do everything. They can sing, they can play really well, they put on a great show. So it’s fun to watch and fun to learn from,” he continued. They have toured to the east coast with them, but never gone west.
But before they head west with the Trews for the first time, they go out on their own first, where they will be playing a show with former Watchmen and Thornley bassist Ken Tizzard.
“I love the Watchmen. I’ve wanted to play a show with him for some time. Hopefully people will come out for it,” he said, noting a lot of bands who started out playing rock are moving towards country and alt country.
“We’re pretty excited about it. It’s fun to watch. Country and alt country has a long tradition of good songwriting,” he observed.
