A few weeks after rocked Delta's Barnside Harvest Festival in September, I called singer/guitarist Todd Kerns at his Las Vegas home to talk about the evolution of his ultimate Canadian "cover" band, a new original song called a concert date at Coquitlam's , the roots of his former band The Age of Electric, the new Slash record he's recording, and some other fun topics. Here's a Q&A with Kerns, who plays in Toque with longtime pals Brent Fitz, Cory Churko and Shane Gaalaas.
I love the evolution of Toque, which isn't about just playing Canadian classic rock anymore. The originals sound great, too. How have you managed the evolution of the band (formed in 2012 after playing at a charity event in Winnipeg)?
Kerns: "It's funny because oddly enough, The Age of Electric was kind of similar, where we started out just playing cover songs at gigs. All I knew was that the local bars were all top-40 bars, you know? We would learn songs and play them, but with The Age of Electric we were also writing songs from the get-go, so it's been this weird parallel because Toque started off as one thing and then, you know, led to, 'Oh, that's a cool riff,' and an original song is born. There's been a lot of that with Toque, where we wanted to write and record our own songs, too. It's just been fun, whatever we do, but I still haven't convinced them to do, I don't know, 'Eyes of a Stranger,' one of my favourites."
It's obvious that you guys like playing together. Is it ever going to become more of your primary thing?
"It's certainly a possibility and something we all would love to see happen. I think the fascinating thing is navigating what this new landscape of the 'record industry' is. Back in the day, the intention was to put a band together, you play as much as you can, you write some songs, you record those songs, you build an audience and then hopefully one day Joe Record Company comes to your show and he says, 'We wanna sign you guys,' and that doesn't really exist anymore 鈥� at least not that directly."
It's certainly a different world than when The Age of Electric was coming up in the 1990s.
"Yeah, for sure. Like, we have a new single coming out, and the cool thing about it is that there's really no middle men to have to deal with, people saying they want more of this or less of that. That kind of goes back to the days where we'd make cassettes of our songs and sell them. Now it's just, put it out, which is liberating but there's a lot of information coming at all times. You put out a song on a Friday and by, like, the following Friday, who knows what you're competing with, maybe Taylor Swift or whatever. That makes it a fascinating time to be doing this, and none of us are kids, right. We've all seen every possible version of what success and failure can be in the music industry, so everybody's very realistic about it. The cup's half full when you can go out and do some shows, people are there enjoying it, we're writing music and people seem to be enjoying that too. So at the end of the day, if you can go home and, you know, keep the lights on, then you're doing something right. Just still doing this, to me, is success, whatever version of that it is."
Is it tough to navigate all those changes? I mean, you've been doing this a long time, with lots of changes of different kinds.
"A bit, yeah. We know that selling records used to be where most of a band's income came from, but now it's all on the road, concert tickets and merch (merchandise), you know. Now it seems like bands like Bad Religion and Social Distortion were ahead of the game because that's what their whole game was, just being out there working, playing all the time."
You're doing a Frozen Not Broken tour with one B.C. date and some others to come, post-Christmas. Why now?
"Well, we have the single 'Broken,' so we're going to play some concerts up there. And of course, when is the best time to tour the Prairies? Winter, of course. For a bunch of guys who all live in temperate weather now, it seems like we're suckers for punishment. I've always been entertained by the idea that in Canada, bands are competing with the weather. The Nickelback guys always said they toured in winter because people trapped at home were always happy to get out of the house and hear live music, go do something, you know."
How did "Broken" get written and recorded, and have you played the song live yet?
"No, we haven't played it live, and we actually co-wrote it with Derry Grehan from Honeymoon Suite. We've been lucky to get to know guys like that while doing versions of their songs, getting their blessing, you know, and all of them have been chuffed, as the English say, that we're doing a version of their song. Those guys and Prism and Loverboy, bands we all grew up listening to, we're all friends now because we've shown nothing but love for them, out of a love for that music by a bunch of guys now living in the States. We had to stick together down here because when you're talking about how cool the Queen City Kids are, nobody else knows what the hell you're talking about."
You're currently recording a new Slash album (with Kerns on bass). How's that going so far?
"Great, and we've been doing pre-production for the last month or so. I have the weekend off so came home here to Vegas. It's been 14 years, almost 15 now, that we've been doing this with Slash, and it's always been, 'Oh, that's kind of a Zeppelin thing, or that's an Aerosmith kind of riff,' you know, but for the first time it kind of feels like it (the music) now sounds like this band, this collection of musicians playing together, which is pretty cool.鈥� I started playing with Slash in 2010 and to be honest, at the time I thought there'd be a chance of doing this for three months and that's it, we'd never see each other again, just the nature of the business. But then it turned into making a record, making another record, then Guns 'n' Roses gets back together, which was eight years ago, and this will be the third record we've made where Slash is a member of Guns 'n' Roses again. The cool thing about all of this is that nobody really knows what's coming next. That's part of the fun and keeps it interesting, I suppose."
Tickets start at $44.50 to see Toque at Great Canadian Casino in Coquitlam this Friday night, Nov. 22, on . It's an all-ages show.
