Hot on the release of their new album “Morning Light”, AMBY sat down with Luke, Chris and Thomas of Ivory Hours to talk about the new release, their new stop-motion music video and their choices of super powers!
AMBY: We’re sitting down with London Ontario’s Ivory Hours, thanks for joining us guys! June has already been a big month for you! First let’s talk about your first full-length debut ‘Morning Light’. What can you tell us about this new album?
Ivory Hours: Well, it came out on June 9th and it’s a big pop record for us. We’ve been having a lot of fun playing it live so far.
AMBY: Where did you record the album?
Ivory Hours: At EMAC Studios in London, Ontario.
AMBY: …and how does this record differ from your EP?
Ivory Hours: I’d say we just had a different approach to writing, I think, very based on the live show. We wanted songs that were very exciting and upbeat, and obviously based on a three-piece instead of four. It’s just a little bit more funky I think.
AMBY: You mentioned the writing, how does the song-writing come together, is it an individual effort or collaborative?
Ivory Hours: Pretty much, I (singer, Luke Roes) write the tunes and then before we record we get together and play them and get something that feels really good and feels like our signature sound as a three-piece. (Drummer, Chris Levesque) Yea, we get together to just polish things up a little bit.
AMBY: You also released an awesome new video alongside the album, for the track “Warpaint”. Must have been a hell on an experience! How’d the video concept come together?
Ivory Hours: Actually, a couple of years ago I did another stop-motion video for another song called Two Keys and it was really cool – it’s extremely daunting, so I hadn’t touched it in a long time. But, our videographer Alex Stephenson was really game to do another one, so he convinced me to get at it. It was nice, it was a lot of fun and the production quality was really high this time, so it was nice to see that this time and see the scenes much more crisp.
AMBY: Absolutely! How long did it take for it all to come together?
Ivory Hours: 35 hours! It was two full days of work. We had to do it all in one weekend. That’s the other thing, last time we did it in three weekends, but Alex is from Toronto and my cousin Tosha, she did all the painting in it, she’s also from Toronto, so we had to kind of condense it all down to one weekend.
AMBY: So you didn’t sleep at all?
Ivory Hours: Not a ton, not on the Saturday night there, no.
AMBY: …and was it awkward to be painted on that whole time? It has to be time consuming.
Ivory Hours: It’s not awkward, it actually feels nice! The problem is standing there for so long, you definitely get a little tired. That opening scene with both my arms down is like two and a half hours and then I wore that for a good three or four hours while we shot some scenes, and then one of the additional scenes is whipping it off. It actually took more time painting, it was crazy.
AMBY: Wow, that’s wild. Well, it all came together really nicely- the video looks awesome.
Ivory Hours: Thank you very much.
AMBY: It seems the band has struck a bit of a lucky chord along the way. Have there been any ‘holy shit’ moments?
Ivory Hours: Boys? Holy shit, haha. We hung out with Sam Roberts there last summer before a show! That was pretty fun. (Drummer, Chris Levesque) I don’t know, I don’t think there’s a set moment, but just seeing it grow through the last year and a half that we’ve been playing together is good enough for me. It’s just been nice to watch it build from something small.
AMBY: In the same vein, have there been any truly embarrassing moments on stage?
Ivory Hours: No, actually.
AMBY: Really? I feel like every band has had someone fall off the stage or…
Ivory Hours: No one has fallen off. I mean, once in a while you do something stupid, but as long as you graze through it and hope it goes okay. [laughs} I’ve kicked my chords out before, you lose your signal and shit like that, but if you just stopped playing you’d look like an idiot.
AMBY: Right, [laughs] fair enough.
AMBY: Let’s end with a fun one! If you guys could have any super power, what would it be?
Ivory Hours: Oh see that’s a tough one, (singer, Luke Roes), because it’s like, underwater man, or air man, and I think flying is better. I’m going to go flying. Hmm, (Thomas Perquin) I’d say teleporting- you can go anywhere. I think (Drummer, Chris Levesque) I’d hope for the best immune system, so that you’d never get sick ever, and just feel amazing.
AMBY: That’s awesome, great answers. Well, thanks for chatting with us boys!
Ivory Hours: Thanks for having us.
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Thank you Ivory Hours, for giving us your answers!
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Interview by Shannon Bryan | @xoradioxo