The Fires Of – s/t

Band: The Fires Of
Album: The Fires Of
Shot of choice: An amusing quote from Graeme Donnelly – “Like all democratically run operations, we were unable to come to a consensus. The band seems to be evenly split between tequila and Jagermeister (with one vote for absinthe).”

The Fires Of, an indie pop band based out of Toronto, just released their self-titled debut album. The band is comprised of Graeme Donnelly (vocals, bass, guitar), Chris Hayward (vocals, bass, guitar), Lisa Di Diodato (vocals, guitar), Larry Yuan (vocals, keyboard), Peyton Leung (violin, percussion, didgeridoo), Steve Canning (lead guitar), and Greg Heard (drums). Michael Kulas, known for his stint with the UK band James, produced the album. It took about a year and half of recording, mixing and mastering to finally get their work out there, but, from what I hear, their release show at the El Mocambo was quite the celebration.

The band may be young in their life as a unit, but the members of The Fires Of are comparatively older (note: that does NOT read old) than some of their indie scene counterparts. This is an advantage, as there is maturity in their sound that strongly hints at influences from the 60s. Their breed of indie pop has quite a classic type of feel and the album seems to pay homage to a style and sound, to which The Fires Of adds their own layers of their wonderful instrumentation and vocals.

Their most exciting songs are at the beginning, with catchier numbers such as “Pulse” and “Way Too Far Gone,” but the album seems to develop more and more as it continues, with adding some rich balladry work. “It’s Time,” which sounds so classically familiar, and rootsy “Good to Be Me” end off the album and are likely my favourite tunes of the bunch. On “Dim Star” and “Advice (From Rosemary to Nicole),” Di Diodato takes over on lead vocals, but I find the change from male to female vocals disrupts the flow of the album a little and is a bit of a hindrance. That being said, the album in its entirety is strong in its songwriting and texturing of instrumentation. It’s a good debut and certainly something to be proud of.