ON is a Toronto-based power trio who recently released their track “Make Me” on the 13th of June, 2023. These artists use their talents to bring you powerful punk rock tunes with powerful riffs, steady drums and eclectic vocals and weave intricate tapestries of sound. We were lucky enough to chat with the band and understand the method behind the madness!
Please introduce us to ON and who all is involved in your project? What is your philosophy or approach to the music you create and play live?
Steve: Hi there. Nice to chat with you. ON is currently a triad of Lucy Di Santo on bass/vocals, Dan Cornelius on Drums, Steve Fall on Guitar. We also closely work with Darius Szczepaniak of Phase One in Toronto (producer/engineer/songwriter), Martin Bisi ( producer/engineer/songwriter) BC Studio, Brooklyn, Mark Gardener (producer/engineer/remixer/songwriter) Ox4Sound/Ride, Oxford, UK.
Our philosophy is pretty simple. We write as a form of self-experience, self-exploration and self-expression. We draw from this and facilitate with songcraft. It is a genuine collaboration between the 3 band members riffs, melody lines, arrangements. We structure all of these and demo ourselves usually at Dan's home setup in New Jersey.
Then we will take these songs, learn them in a cohesive way to facilitate recording them and will interact with one of the fine folks we mentioned and schedule a plan. For live performance, we get together to rehearse usually for a tour. We prefer to tour in sections of a calendar year and will pick an area to build upon.
How have the artists you've interacted with or the music you love influenced the way you release or consume music today?
Steve: Great question. Lately, we have been checking out and gaining inspiration from a lot of the artists we have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with. For example, last winter we got to explore the West Coast of the US and got a glimpse into the sounds coming out of San Diego, Colorado, Oregon,
Washington, Texas and more. Band such as No Interest out of San Diego, Souls Worn Thin out of Seattle, Pale Fade out of Texas, Snailmate out of Arizona and much more.
There is so much great independent music out there. And that was just a snapshot of the West Coast in the US. PMad from Ireland. The Veldt out of NC are dear friends. All of it we just champion.
Would you say that the reason you began making music is still the reason that you are still making music today? Please explain.
Lucy: Somewhat yes. When we were younger and first starting out as Acid Test, the music business was thriving for a young band to build a career with real support at retail, and touring. Record companies with budgets and marketing all helped shape and guide your trajectory to navigate a career to display your music. We still have this today of course. But now it is easier than ever to record and release music digitally which has impacted the sheer volume of music available to the public. I will avoid using the word consumer as music is mostly being given away for free. Spotify and most digital platforms pay us an offensive royalty rate for streaming. That has to change.
We have a shot with platforms like Bandcamp or our own digital stores we self-create or if we team up with a label and their store. There we can get somewhat of a return if the music fan buys into what we do as a purchased transaction. So to put all these hard facts into perspective, you better LOVE what you do and the music you create.
For myself personally, I use music now as a form of expression. I do it because I love to do it. The monetary gain from it has become harder than ever, which is frankly a shame because we deserve to be fairly compensated for what we all do creatively.
Can you tell us about the transition from your previous band Acid Test to your current band ON? Any plans to revive Acid Test as well?
Lucy: We had Acid Test out previously on Sire/Warner and we had an amazing experience being part of the family of Sire Recording acts. We got a taste of touring full-time and our music was distributed worldwide. But like any career, you tend to change and grow. For us, we started to identify with more of a stripped down approach to songwriting and performance after we took a break from extensive touring for almost 4 years. Acid Test for us is an experiment in sound, we identified with keys, DJ samples and our live instruments.
For ON, I really just wanted to focus on the guitar and exploring our writing with it as a primary focus. Steve can shift into a myriad of styles. For him, the guitar is his life and I find that fascinating to collaborate with. Same with Dan. Dan is a drummers drummer. Both Steve and Dan teach music and their instruments are their lifeblood. We all just love to rock. I grew up on Funk, New Wave and Punk. Dan and Steve loved Rock, Metal and Punk. So when I decided to take a break in Acid Test, shifting to ON, it was an easy transition. And in ON we just love to record and tour so we get to still express that.
For Acid Test, we do however, have plans to slowly re introduce ourselves. We have a few remixes coming that are a bridge between ON and Acid Test - OnAcid ? ( smiles). I don't want to give it away just yet but material is coming...
We understand that you've been working with legendary NYC producer Martin Bisi on recording your next album. How does it feel to be working with the experimental visionary who put bands like Sonic Youth, Fab 5 Freddy, Cop Shoot Cop and Afrika Bambaataa on the musical map?
Lucy: Working with Martin has been fantastic. Super fun, easy, natural. Martin has seen and been a part of THE sounds out of New York and Brooklyn in particular. His recording process is very natural, organized and fast. He is fantastic at capturing YOUR sound at his facility BC Studio. He also identifies with you as an artist because Martin still writes, records and tours with his own group. In fact, we are taking a break from tracking as both groups go out on tour, us in the US and Ontario (Canada) and Martin is heading to Europe. We plan to mix our recording sometime in November after we are all finished from touring. That just makes all of this relatable and fun. It greatly benefits us to step back and mix and track in stages.
What would you say are your dreams or goals as an artist?
Lucy: I think I can speak for all of us as we discuss this almost daily. Our goals are to continue to push the brand ON and Acid Test both as a musical identity both on recorded works and live engagement. A lot of this is curated from the three of us. We are self-managed and self-financed ( and not by choice ) and are grateful we can still support our art and put our best forward.
How do you find balance between your day jobs and your music career?
Lucy: These days as an indie artist, you have to balance both. We are very fortunate in that all three of us work online, even while we record and tour. That takes a tremendous work ethic and I am proud to say we naturally bring that every day. Dan has his own drumming clinic called Drummers Playbook. And Steve teaches guitar locally and online and he also facilitates Live music Therapy programs with Autism clients online. I am presently in University online gaining my Masters ( MSW) and I am a counsellor for mental health. I juggle both career paths online while maintaining our musical interests.
Things can be difficult for indie artists. How important is it for an artist nowadays to have a good manager, publisher, booking agent or publicist? Are you working with a team in these areas today?
Steve: It is absolutely vital to build a team around what you do. We enlist the services of production, publicity and booking agent(s) and promoters all a la carte as we need it. We are currently looking for a manager and a label and publisher to partner with. Right now, we facilitate our releases through our imprint Indiestructable Records (www.indiestructablerecords.com) and our own Webstore (www.theonstore.com). With our theonstore.com, for example, you can order our products online and in North America it will even ship directly to you. For the rest of the world you can order our music digitally at both web addresses and if you wanted physical merchandise, we can curate the order and mail it out.
Our products at our webstore are also available in limited runs at our live engagements. We treat this as a business and we are always open 24/7 for our music fans and available for partnerships. Hit us up!
Which artists, who are actively making music today, do you find inspiring or just recommended listening?
Lucy: Go check out: The Veldt, Pale Fade, Pmad, No Interest, Snailmate or any awesome band we have toured with in the last 12 months. ( you can cruise our socials and find many of them in conversation.) All are worthy and need your support. As for the bigger acts out there, we still love PJ Harvey, QOTSA, Tool,
Deftones, Refused, Quicksand, Helmet and more. We had the honor of backing up Helmet back in the day and we know some of the guys in Quicksand. Would be fun to reconnect again.
What are you planning for ON in the next year?
Lucy: We have the recording we are completing with Martin Bisi, we have a Remix EP coming that we are collaborating with Mark Gardener Darius Szczepaniak, and hopefully more...plus more touring the US, Canada and next year we have loose plans to tour the UK and parts of mainland Europe.
Discovered via https://app.musosoup.com #sustainablecurator