Words: Miljan Milekić
Cancer Bats crashed onto the scene, roaring and screaming, on the waves of their 2006 debut record ‘Birthing the Giant,’ a name so confident and yet so prophetic at the same time. The Giant was born, and 20 years later, both the Canadian and the world hardcore scenes are almost unimaginable without the Toronto band. This April, Cancer Bats are hitting the road, celebrating two decades since the release of their cult record, and bringing it in its entirety to stages across Canada. We were lucky enough to catch up with singer Liam Cormier just before he got on the plane to St John’s, Newfoundland, to kick the tour off.
Hey Guys! Thanks for doing this interview with us. Are you ready to hit the road?
Liam: I’m actually at the airport, waiting to get to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to kick off this whole run!
This year, you are celebrating 20 years of your debut, ‘Birthing the Giant,’ which is the reason behind this tour. I would imagine there are at least a few songs off the record that you normally don’t play too often. Were there any songs you had to do some serious brushing up or straight-up re-learning?
Liam: It’s been really interesting to work on this whole album and see which songs have still stuck with us since touring back in 2006-2007. Jaye joined on bass in 2007, so he also remembers lots of these songs. There are a couple that we have updated in how we play them and what will make the song hit better with the crowd. The other fun side of this 20th anniversary is that Jackson, our guitar shredder, bought the record when he was 9 years old, and it’s a lot of the tracks he first learned to play on guitar. Which is just a wild full circle moment for all of us!
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I believe this is something most people never get to experience in their lives, so I have to ask: how does it feel to have a piece of work that people still care about after 20 years? How does it feel to know that people are not only still listening to the record, but are coming to see you guys play it?
Liam: It’s really wild to think of something we made still being relevant and having people reach out to tell us they have tattoos of lyrics from that album and how much it will mean for them to see it again live. We all feel really lucky to be still able to do this 20 years later, and that people are so excited about it all. I wouldn’t have thought when we made this album, we would still be doing it all these years later. It’s a pretty amazing feeling.
Cancer Bats is one of those bands that’s constantly changing and evolving with every record, while still keeping its own unique signature. How do you feel about ‘Birthing the Giant’ and the songs on the record when you look at them from this perspective, two decades after recording and releasing them?
Liam: I think it’s really cool to look back at that album and see how much we actually fluked into making cool songs when we really had no idea what we were doing. (laughs) We also had a lot of help with that record from Gavin Brown, Eric Ratz, and Kenny Luong. They had all worked on Billy Talent and Three Days Grace and bands like that, so they showed us songwriting and really chopped up the songs to make sense of some of the chaos. Those guys really set us on the path forward.
It’s been a couple of years now since the release of ‘Psychic Jailbreak.’ Can we expect some new music from you guys anytime soon? If so, did any of the writing coincide with tour preps, and were there any ‘Birthing the Giant’ influences creeping into it?
Liam: We have been working on new music, and that will all be announced very soon. I would say this past year we’ve really been reflecting on being a band for 20 years and looking back at a lot of the older albums. Having Jackson playing guitar and writing with us has been really fun for that, too. He remembers being a kid and buying those albums and what those songs meant to him. It’s a really cool dynamic to add to making new music.
I was always fascinated by your work ethic, and on this run, you will play 20 shows in 23 days, across 19 different cities, from St John’s, NL to Victoria, BC. How do you guys keep your sanity on runs like this, if there ever was some to begin with?
Liam: I think in the last 20 years, we’ve actually figured out more of a healthy balance with touring. We used to try and play 300 shows a year and just live on tour. Over time, that made less and less sense. Now we all have lots of things we do between tours to balance that sanity a bit more. (laughs)
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Your band was always heavily involved in skateboarding culture. Do you feel like skateboarding influenced who you are as a band, and did you guys ever feel the love from the skate community back?
Liam: We all grew up skateboarding, and so much of that culture shaped us into the humans we are now. Finding out about bands in Thrasher or skate vids, being exposed to art and graffiti, even just the DIY element to everything we do, I think all stems from growing up skateboarding. I feel like we get lots of love back from skateboarding. For me directly just showing up to skate in different cities and being recognized from the band and getting to meet people and skate all over. That feels like getting back all of the love.
So, if one were to happen to find themselves at the Saskatoon Skateboard Museum on April 25th, what are the odds of them stumbling upon some Cancer Bats hanging around before their show?
Liam: I didn’t even know there was a Skate Museum in Stoon! That’s the best! I’m sure there’s a very good chance you could catch us there if they’re open after sound check. Hopefully, there’s good coffee next door, and we can tick off all of our favourite things at once!
Follow Cancer Bats:
Website: cancerbats.com
Instagram: instagram.com/cancerbats
Facebook: facebook.com/cancerbats
*Interview edited for length and clarity