Australian dream pop band Cub Sport recently played their first gig ever in Montreal at the Petit Campus. I caught up with Tim, Zoe and Sam (Dan is the fourth member) to talk about their sophomore album Bats, parties, touring, falling in love and much more!
You’ve been on tour this past month, has anything crazy happened so far?
Zoe: the first night something crazy happened
Sam: Tim’s phone was stolen in Atlanta and then we were running after it and he rolled his ankle. Then woke up the next day and had the flu. So that was off to a kickin’ start! When we checked into our hotel just outside of Philadelphia, the guy who checked us in had narcolepsy and he kept falling asleep while he was serving us and we didn’t realize until half way through. Also, the guy reissued the same room key to another couple so they walked in on Dan’s room ahah, so that was interesting!
That’s a great start! You’ve also been meeting fans and you all have an impact on them, has anyone approached you with something that ended up having an impact on you?
Sam: last night (Toronto show) and at our Philadelphia show people brought pride flags which is so cool
Zoe: there was these girls who said they were fans since they were 10 years old and they drove from Canada to our Buffalo show which is cool as well!
Sam: there’s been a bunch of people who say that we’ve helped them to come out or accept or love who they are. Receiving messages like that is probably the most rewarding
Tim: I think just meeting them and seeing them sing along to our songs has a huge impact on us because its super encouraging and motivating
Sam: just being on the other side of the world and having people come to the shows and sing along is great. Last night people brought presents for our dogs so it's really cool!
Tim, while you were writing the album you were falling in love and realizing your feelings for Sam, when you (Sam) heard the songs for the first time, did you know they were mostly about you? What was your reaction?
Sam: definitely parts of it. It was a weird cause at that point we hadn’t talked about it, it was all sort of bubbling under the surface. It definitely gave me an insight into where things might go and I think that laid the foundation for the conversation we eventually did have when we were in Canada last time actually! I don’t know, we had gone for so many years living in a limbo state that it was cool to get a glimpse of where things could maybe go. It was good.
You recently released a video for Crush, tell me a bit that concept and the song itself
Tim: the song is about the night we finally had the conversation and I guess its just a pretty raw recount of the flood of emotions that happened when it all finally came out
Sam: Tim made a mood board and we sent it to a person we came across through Instagram who ended up not being able to do the clip but she put us in touch with her 'prodigy'. We just met her on the phone and she seemed to really get it. Then we were in LA a couple months ago doing press stuff and we went up to Joshua Tree with her and two other filmmakers and filmed it all pretty much in 6 hours. The way she edited it together ended up being really representative of the whole story, the two steps forward, one step back. She nailed it. It was really cool, it was our first time working with an all female crew as well and it was awesome!
Hawaiian Party is my favourite track, could you tell me a bit about it? Why a ‘Hawaiian’ party?
Sam: Hawaiian Party is about being tired with the mundane everyday parts of life. There's a particular instance where someone was going on about the details of this incredibly dull Hawaiian party that they went to, which is just representative of using that to represent being tired or everyday life
Is there a party you went to and you remember it as one of the best?
Sam: Oh yeah, the house we used to live in where Tim wrote the album had some pretty fun parties. It was the closest house at the time in our friendship circle to the valley, which is our party precinct so everything would end up there for afters. There's a lot of house parties cause there aren't many places to go out and it gets kind of rough and gross so house parties is where its at!
The whole album is very vulnerable but Solo III stands out, tell me a bit about that one
Sam:Solo III is when we first got together, Frank Ocean’s Blonde had just come out and it ended up soundtracking that period of time; the flood of emotions, the want, the bliss of it. Solo on that album sort of ended up being the song we fell in love with and the meaning of Frank’s Solo isn’t really representative of our story. Tim wanted to repurpose it, like make a song that’s sort of an ode to it but relevant to our story.
What lyric are you most proud of?
Tim: I feel like one that remains relevant and sort of becomes more relevant the more I perform it is Come On Mess Me Up in general but “I fell in love with avoiding problems”. Back when I wrote that song I would just avoid anything in life that would be a challenge or make me uncomfortable. One of those things was coming out and admitting I was in love with Bolan (Sam), kind of just embracing who I really wanted to be, I could feel myself holding back and I knew that was the problem and that’s why things weren’t happening. I look back at that time when I wrote the song and I’m not afraid of dealing with problems or things that are getting in my way now. I like that one a lot. I guess, a lot of Bats as well, like upon reflection years later it just becomes clearer to me, the songs keep revealing layers the more I perform them
Is there any artist that made you want to start making music?
Tim: Aqua, like the very first one
Sam: Britney hahah
Zoe: Britney for me as well!
FIRE ROUND
Favourite song on your album
Tim: I really like Look After Me and Jelly Bean’s Graduation Song
Sam: Bats or Solo III
Zoe: Bats or Good Guys So
Favourite song at the moment
Tim: Bleach by Brockhampton
Must have snack in the van
Zoe: popcorn at the moment, we’ve been eating scoops as well since we don’t have those in Australia
Sam: almonds are a pretty staple snack for us
Tim: red peppers
Best concert you’ve been to?
Sam: Lana Del Rey
Zoe: yeah its a tie with Lana, Lorde and The XX
Tim: The Flaming Lips at Falls festival
Check out Cub Sport's music HERE