Interview with Complainers
Rezine: Who plays in Complainers?
Alex: Complainers is Karine on drums, Mathieu on guitar, and me, Alex, on bass and unnecessarily long-winded answers to interview questions.
Rezine: What made you want to start the band?
Alex: Oh boy. Strap in, buddy. Complainers has a real long, complicated history. Karine, Mathieu and I all played in Prevenge together, along with our eternal homeboy Chris Snelgrove. There was a period a while back where Chris was possibly going take a very cool job that would unfortunately take him out of town for a solid couple of months. Karine, Mathieu, and I couldn't deal with not doing anything while Chris was gone, so we started jamming together as Complainers. Then Chris didn't end up taking the job, so Complainers was shelved.
The Complainers name was dusted off again very briefly a year or so ago. Our good friend Frank Angoisse (Panic Attack/Mental Fix/Scolding) had recently moved to Montreal from Quebec City, and was itching to get a band going. Karine and I jammed with him for a little bit, and it was going to be called Complainers. But scheduling didn't work out, and that version of Complainers kind of fell by the wayside again.
FLASH FORWARD to February, 2016. Prevenge had broken up after nine beautiful years. We'd played our last shows. Once again, we all felt weird just not doing anything. Chris was off in Europe doing a solo tour. Karine and I had started idly jamming together. Songs starting taking shape, and one day we asked Mathieu to come in on them. Next thing you know, we're a band.
TL;DR: None of us know how not to be in a band.
Rezine: Do you find that the band is in continuity to your previous project?
Alex: I think so. I mean, that can't really be helped. The three of us only just stopped thinking in Prevenge terms, like, a few months ago. We're trying to write songs a little faster, and keeping them a little rough around the edges, but Complainers is always going to have a little Prevenge in its DNA. I still have the same preoccupations. It'll probably take a solid year of writing songs before it stops feeling like Prevenge 2.
Rezine: What inspires the lyrics of the band?
Alex: My own mental health issues. I've spent the last year or so trying to confront them head on, instead of trying to dodge them. Writing about them as bluntly as possible helps a little. Giving it a name makes it something concrete and manageable.
Rezine: What are the songs of your last demo about?
Alex: The three songs on the tape are about the minutiae of depression and anxiety. Altogether, I think they're about being trapped in your own head.
Rezine: Do you have more songs coming out soon?
Alex: We do! We're writing a lot, trying to keep songs tight and punchy/ in a few months, we're probably going to do another tape. It'll include the three songs on this one, plus three more and a cover. It will probably be called "Complete Discography, Vol. 1: 2016-2016", because we think we are very funny.
Rezine: What's to come for Complainers?
Alex: Who knows! I haven't been in a "new" band in a while, so it's all exciting. We've got our first shows coming up in August with our friends Crusades. Our first tape, "This Could Be Better," will be out in time for the first show. After that, more shows, more songs.