Pantomime goes for gold at Silver Dollar
An interview with Pantomime, a three-piece prog band, at their EP release show in Toronto.
Prog-rock band Pantomime released their debut EP, Desire Paths, and celebrated the release with a show at Toronto’s Silver Dollar Room.
Desire Paths is a six-song album, the first major release from the band. Before the EP, Pantomime put out two demo songs, back in December 2014. The demos also appear on Desire Paths.
“When we went to record [the EP], everything was a lot more fleshed out,” said lead vocalist Brody Post. “We added a couple of small things, but the song arrangements and everything are basically the same. We were definitely a little tighter, we could play a little better.”
Desire Paths was produced by Collin Carnegie at The Meat Locker in Toronto.
“We did it last summer over six days, it was super chill,” said Post.
“It was the hottest days of the year,” said bassist Chris Cadieux.
The band’s favourite song to record on the album was Desire Paths, where the album takes it’s name.
“We got to do a bunch of cool shit,” Post said.
The song features gang vocals, organs, sounds of shovels smashing together, and many other different parts throughout the six minutes. The band enjoyed recording all the extra unique bits for the EP, but they also like playing as a three-piece live.
“When everything’s loud and rock & roll, it’s a different atmosphere,” said Post. “We never notice on stage an absence of guitar or keyboards or whatever else we could have.”
The band’s drummer, Levi Post, lives in Pembroke where he attends high school, causing a challenge for a band. He is also the younger brother of vocalist Brody Post.
“I’m in grade 11, and I go back and forth,” the drummer said.
However, the band makes it work. The younger Post drives up on certain weekends to rehearse and play shows, the majority of which are in Toronto.
“We’ve pretty much just been playing in Toronto, and that’s fun,” said the older Post brother. “There’s a lot of cool places we still haven’t played and bands we wanna play with.”
Pantomime recently played at The Smiling Buddha in January. Their show at The Silver Dollar Room came just a week after the venue announced its upcoming closure in May 2017. This is just the latest of many small Toronto venues closing.
“It sucks that stuff like that is closing now,” said Levi Post. “We need all the small venues for up and coming bands. You can’t just have The Opera House and Danforth and hope for the best. It sucks for sure.”
Pantomime is originally from the Ottawa Valley, but now resides in Toronto. They expect to continue playing shows around Ontario.
All three members of the band used the same one word to describe Desire Paths:
“Bitchin’.”
Desire Paths is available for download on Bandcamp.