Becky Ninkovic, Carissa Ropponen & Krista Loewen: You Say Party We Say Die/You Say Party

[the_future_modernes]

The video that brought the Canadian band now known as You Say Party to my attention was a gorgeous scifi story set in India named "Lonely's Lunch", via plazmah

YOU SAY PARTY 'Lonely's Lunch' [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Excited as all hell, I prompted went looking for them, under the erroneous assumption that There were chromatic members of the band. There aren't any, but their music is pretty good, and for most of the bands life, there were at least two women therein! So settle down and let me tell link you to the music of a band that started out being called You Say Party, We Say Die

You Say Party! We Say Die! Artist's Biography

Blending punky guitars and new wave synths in much the same way as fellow early MTV revivalists the Epoxies or Controller.Controller, the Canadian five-piece You Say Party! We Say Die! lean more toward the dance-rock side of the equation; indeed, with their two female singers and prominent thumping beats, they occasionally come across as a Martha & the Muffins for the new millennium. You Say Party! We Say Die! were formed in late 2003 in the small border city of Abbotsford, British Columbia, by singer Becky Ninkovic, keyboardist Krista Loewen, and bassist Stephen O'Shea, friends looking for something to do indoors during the region's inhospitable winters. Adding drummer Bruce Dyck, guitarist Jason Nicholas, and second keyboardist Carissa Ropponen, You Say Party! We Say Die! began touring the western provinces and released their debut EP, Danskwad (pronounced "dance squad"), in 2004. A lineup shuffle saw Ropponen exit the band, leaving Loewen the sole keyboard player, while Nicholas and Dyck were replaced by Derek Adam and Devon Clifford, respectively. MORE

Q TV: 'Laura Palmer's Prom' by YSP!WSD! on Q TV

Interview with Krista Loewen 24hrs interview

You Say Party - Poison

You Say Party! We Say Die! 'Monster' from the album 'Lose All Time'

You Say Party! We Say Die! music video for The Gap

YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE! 'OPPORTUNITY'

Interview: Krista Loewen of You Say Party! We Say Die!

GSL: What is the main inspiration behind the songs on XXXX?

Loewen: The five of us coming to a new place in our friendship, and our love for our music after running ourself ragged. Mostly the renewed love of those two things.



GSL: Do you find it hard to bring to the stage what you created in the studio?

Loewen: In some elements, yes. There’s certain types of gear you can’t take on stage. I can’t bring my Hammond organ on tour. It’s too big. There’s certain elements in the studio that we find it hard to do live. We don’t make the live show like the recording, we make it a different experience. We’re a different kind of animal than we are on the albuim . We embrace it and go with it.

GSL: What is your favorite song to play live and why?

Loewen: It’s consistently changing especially when you’re on tour every night. ”There Is Love (Within My Heart)” is my favorite right now. We’ve been starting our set with that song and it puts me in the perfect headspace to play. It’s a g ood starting song. It’s also the first song on the new record.MORE

'Glory' by YSP!WSD! on Q TV

Feature Interview You Say Party! We Say Die! Becky Ninkovic from website cavacool.com

Sabrina: I’ll spare you from hashing out the details again, but I know there were rough times in Germany during your 2008 tour. You continued to do the tour and it still was amazing and energy-filled, despite the fact that everyone was breaking down. How did everyone cope with the emotions running high?

Becky: It was hard. I think when people go through trauma, it relates back to what I was saying about everyone having many layers to themselves. You find a place within your layers to go and cope and survive. It’s almost primitive in a way; you just do what it takes to get through. I had so much darkness inside, even though the energy was always still there, it was coming from a darker place rather than a good place. There’s always energy, we have these amazing currents that run through our bodies. So the energy is always coming from us, but not from the right places. And I mean, those shows? Some of those sets were best shows in a way. They were so raw, and we were at our tightest from touring so much, on a purely technical level. But the source wasn’t solid, it was bound to break down.

Sabrina: I’m glad that it wasn’t a permanent breakdown. Throughout all the healing, you mention that you found your voice. Did you consult a vocal coach?

Becky: This woman, Sharla Soder, who has become a very dear friend of mine, she took me under her wing and helped me reconnect with my voice. A deeper, more strong place to sing from. There was so much I was going through that a lot of times I felt like I was fighting to survive and fighting to stay strong, which created a lot of tension in my body. A lot of the vocal work was relaxing, learning to let go and be free and release and trust and all those kinds of things. Then the tension began to lessen and I was able to anchor my voice back into my body, instead of up in Never-Never Land.

Sabrina: I know it’s hard to make predictions at this point, but where do you see the band in the next few years?
MORE

Unfortunately, in April 2010 their drummer Devon Clifford collapsed on stage and died of complications from a brain hemmorage

This was the latest blow in an already severely strained band, and in the aftermath, Krista Loewen left to build a house and go back to school. The rest of the band members changed their name to You Say Party, out of respect for Clifford and released a new digital remix album called REMIXXXX in 2010. According to their Myspace, there will be a North American tour Feb/March 2011.