Q&A with Absolute Losers

PEI-based rock band Absolute Losers kicked off the second annual Sommo Festival with a stellar performance in their home province. Following their set, we sat down with the band to discuss their music, their upcoming album, and their experience playing the festival.

You just opened the 2024 Sommo Festival with an awesome set in your home province. How did that feel?

Josh: It was nice. It was a really fun show. There were a lot of people in the crowd cheering us on and stuff, and I had a fantastic time.

Can you tell us about how the community in PEI has supported you as a band?

Sam: The community in PEI is really great because everybody likes to come out to shows and see live music. So I was I was… not really surprised, but it was it was really nice to see a lot of people here today wearing our shirts and cheers, like cheering us on, like Josh said. And yeah, just singing the words and really showing up for us.

You released your debut album a little over a year ago. What has it been like having it out?

Josh: Yeah, it's nice to have it out, you know, to have recorded music out is always good… but we're on to the next one.

What can you tell us about the next one? What’s it like in comparison to the last album?

Sam: So we recorded our last album during the pandemic over the span of maybe a year and a half, and we just recorded it in our home studio. So it was a very DIY, experience for us and that shows through the album and that kind of way. so we recorded on our own and send it to a guy named Graham Walsh who mixed it, and we really liked working with him. So we decided on this next one that we would go out to Toronto, where he lives and record it with in the studio that he works out of. So I would say it's a step up with the production value and the songs as well, I think they're it's a little more fun and catchy and, I think it's a more lighthearted album for sure, and make you like, misunderstood, but like this, this new album isn't going to be, like, boring. 

Everyone is going to be kind of taking turns singing vocals on the new record, right?

Daniel: Yeah, it's really cool. When we first started writing for this new album, we all just like really wanted to sing more and more and do more background vocals, and Josh ended up contributing a lot more songs than the last one and then I have a tune myself and I sing for the first time. So yeah, I'd say the goal is to just sing together as much as we possibly could.

The first time I saw the band perform you immediately reminded me of Sloan. You guys are big fans, right?

Josh: Oh, yeah. Yeah, the three of us have listened to Sloan for our entire lives, and I still love it. A lot of good. Like, a lot of those other Halifax bands, like Flashing Lights and, Eric's Trip and Super Friendz.  And just a bunch of good stuff that I was really into Sloan for years, and then I discovered some other stuff from that time and place and, yeah, recently we've, just been really into that stuff and that kind of that kind of vibe, I guess.

You have opened for TUNS, the Skydiggers, Daniel Romano and Can you tell us what it was like to share a stage with musicians that you admire?

Sam: Can we swear? We opened for Holy Fuck too and that was one of my favorite shows I've seen, is their set, and Graham is actually in Holy Fuck as well. The guy who made and mixed our album and recorded it. So yeah, we've become good buddies with them, too. We toured with TUNS. Which is Chris Murphy, Mike O'Neill and Matt Murphy as well. Those three people are in bands that we all really love and respect and I remember seeing Sloan play and Chris is in TUNS as well. So just seeing, seeing myself play with people that I admired my whole life was insane because I remember seeing Sloan when I was like 12 years old and just thinking, that's what I want to do. So it's kind of a bit of a validation and feeling like it's nice that we're kind of doing it now.

It's kind of a cool story about how you got to open for TUNS, right?

Sam: So my friend, I was attending UPEI at the time, and my friend Spencer Swain, who plays bass in a band called Gizmo, Which Daniel is in as well. We were just hanging out after classes one day, and I was telling him that Sloan was playing in Summerside, and I like, really wanted to go, but, like, we're university students and we're broke and I just can't afford it. And he was like, well, my mom got me two tickets for my birthday, do want to come with me? So yeah. Hell yeah. This is amazing. So I got to go see Sloan in Summerside for free. And then, Chris (Murphy) is really good to hang out at the merch table after and talk to people, so, I don't know, I just kind of like fanboying and, like, waiting around for my turn to, like, talk to the the Sloan mascot. And then I ended up just like getting on my knees and begging him to, like, come to P.E.I. and if they ever did come, to give us a call and have us open for them.

You can catch Absolute Losers at The Buffalo Club in Dartmouth on October 11 as part of Nowadays Festival.