Another trip to Canada as we start the week with a band that mixes a ton of influences into one big noisy pot…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hey, thanks for having us. For anyone reading, this is Johnny (Papan). I “sing” and play guitar in the band.
We rehearse in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. For easiness’s sake we usually just tell most people we’re from Vancouver.
How did you meet?
We all got booked to play the same punk show inside a small cafe called Sipp Chai – now called Chai Rock Cafe. This was in Summer 2019, all three of us were in separate bands at the time.
Sean (Tanner, bass) was in a garage-punk band called Generation Why. Jono (Delivuk, drums) also plays guitar/sings in a noise-punk band called Stuttr. I personally was in an early Mediaslaves lineup and only played guitar at the time.
Sean and I got along at the show because he was wearing a Deftones shirt and I was wearing a Mindless Self Indulgence shirt. And we loved Jono because he was super pleasant and chill as a regular human being but on stage with Stuttr he became a fucking crazy person. It was awesome.
How long have you been playing as a band?
This trio has been locked in since around November or December 2019. Feels like we’ve been together a lot longer though.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
It just kind of came to mind one day. I was thinking about how everyone is so engulfed in their phones and, at the time, there was big talk about fake news and social media sucking the life out of people and then “Mediaslaves” just kinda popped in my head.
It’s funny because sometimes people who aren’t familiar with us think we are some political band because of the name. We have some songs that are observational and commentative for sure, but we are not a band to be taken seriously. If you look at our Instagram page, we post a lot of really stupid memes and stuff like that.
What are your influences?
We all listen to a bunch of different music. Combined we probably cover most heavy rock/punk/metal genres plus some hip-hop, pop, dance music as well.
Overall I think the most prevalent genres in our sound are maybe skate punk, thrash and there’s definitely some groove/stoner metal vibes in some of our newer material. Some view us as a hardcore band. We usually just tell people we’re “heavy punk.”
A person messaged us on Twitter saying we sound like “Nirvana’s Bleach meets Cancer Bats” – I’m into it, though I do think we have a bit more of a melodic touch to us.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
There’s nothing unique about us. We suck.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Mostly social observations and personal turmoils. Sometimes I’ll write lyrical short stories about nothing in particular.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We just go up and play. We fuck up sometimes, but we can roll with it. It’s punk rock, who cares? Our songs are fast and loud and that’s all you really need.
I remember this one time we went to play a show and it felt like everyone looked at us like we were total outsiders. We heard someone whisper “these guys look like they’re at the wrong show” to one of their friends. We felt out of place for sure. I guess maybe we didn’t look “punk” enough? I dunno, doesn’t matter. When we played, the place was bouncing. People came up to us after and got all friendly and said they really liked our set, which was pretty cool.
Jono, Sean and I have only played 2 gigs together so far. We wanted to average 12 shows for 2020, at least one a month. We had 4 booked in April and then COVID messed everything up.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We haven’t done anything too crazy. But have you ever seen Dillinger Escape Plan perform? I’ve seen them 3 times and they go fucking mental.
Also when Jono performs with his other band, Stuttr, that’s a sight to see as well.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
For live shows my go-to is usually my Squier Affinity Jazzmaster, which I got for super cheap. As for amps I play a Line 6 Spider II at home. People hate on that amp so damn much, it’s probably one of the most universally hated pieces of gear on the planet, but I like it. I’ve had it for almost 15 years and it hasn’t let me down. I do most of my writing on a cheap Yamaha acoustic but I record with my 2008 Gibson Les Paul Studio.
Sean plays an Epiphone Thunderbird bass with a Traynor Smallblock 500 head and 800 watt Ampeg cab.
Jono has a Sonor kit at home but we rehearse at my place and he whacks at my shitty Sonic kit. It sounds horrible but nobody in the band is picky. If it makes noise we can make it work for us.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We just dropped a new music video for our song “Manipulate Me”. We filmed the whole thing ourselves, taking turns using the camera and whatnot. We didn’t really have a plan, we just said “let’s get a bunch of weird costumes and see what happens” – it was pretty fun.
We also made our first video for “Fleeks and Geeks” using mostly Instagram filters. It’s pretty weird. Actually, both videos are pretty weird.
Aside from that, it’s most ideal to follow us on Instagram and Spotify. We try to release a new song every 2-3 months and those are our two main platforms if you wanna keep up with us.
But if you’d prefer other services, click here for all our other streaming and socials.
What are your plans for 2020?
Right now we’re just writing and rehearsing. May or may not have another new song dropping before the year is over.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
I don’t know how to answer this question so here’s a playlist we made of us and our friends. We’re still working on it.
Mediaslaves: facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | youtube
