In Conversation: Concrete Vehicles

For anyone who’s been to Sled Island, visiting Calgary’s Palomino is a must. The Palomino (or “The Pal” to those who prefer slang) is a barbecue joint and music venue in the center of downtown Calgary. Inside, it is dimly lit, with walls covered in mud-brown paint and exposed brick. It smells like propane and barbecue sauce and feels like you’re inside a piece of brisket—you could call it rustic. This is the location I chose for my interview with Concrete Vehicles, a five-piece punk band from Vancouver, British Columbia. Ben (vocals, guitar), Jackson (saxophone), Jacob (bass), Keenan (synth), Ricky (pots and pans), and I met on the patio of the Pal, ordered some drinks, and began to chat.

Concrete Vehicles have been playing together for around three years, and for most of that time, they were known as Computer. “We changed it because there’s another band named Computer,” says Jacob, “and we just didn’t wanna step on their toes.”

“We also got a cease and desist,” adds Ricky.

Did they have any other names on the list, and why did Concrete Vehicles become the band’s name?

“We had like a bracket of 300 names,” says Jackson.

What were their top five?

“I wouldn’t want to reveal the top names, but the name we went with wasn’t even on the bracket,” says Ben. “We ran it a bunch of times and had like a solid three names, but then we figured we should just name it after one of the songs. It just felt right.”

Though they’ve been playing together for three years, Ben says the band came about in a bit of a scattered way. “Me and Hudson, our producer—me and him have been playing together since we were teenagers. Me and Keenan went to the same high school, too. We did our own separate things musically in our early twenties, and then started writing together a couple of years ago. I worked with Jacob at the time and invited him to play bass, and Jackson I just found on Instagram playing saxophone. All of us were just like instant friends. Ricky and me played in other bands together briefly, and I remember thinking, ‘This is the best drummer ever, I want to keep playing with him.’ It all worked out very naturally.”

Having played in bands their whole lives, do they think that any of their past projects have influenced Concrete Vehicles?

“I’d say it’s probably pretty different from our past projects for the most part,” says Jacob.

Ricky chimes in: “Concrete was always like my—I was doing lots of stuff, but it was always the one where I felt I could express myself the most. As this became more popular, it became easier to be myself. When I play other music, I don’t feel I get to stretch in the same way.”

“I love playing with other people, and I love learning other people’s songs,” says Ben. “But this project is like, just a 360 situation, where every aspect is really rewarding. It’s a lot more work than other projects I’ve played in, but that makes for a better project, because I think we’re all committed and have a lot of fun doing the stuff that isn’t a lot of fun, like sleeping on the airport floor, shit like that. We’re able to share these goofy situations together, and then when we play a big show, those moments play in my head, and all those moments that suck seem really worth it.”

What makes Concrete Vehicles work as a band?

“I think all of us just have a lot of intensity with the way we play music and the way we think about it,” says Ben.

“There’s a certain amount of bonding to it,” adds Jacob. “I’m sure in every band, if you play long enough, you start to feel some sort of community. We’ve had a lot of pretty crazy experiences in a short amount of time. We’ve all just been big on making sure everyone’s on the same page. It’s kinda how you have to do it.”

Ben continues, “On our Europe tour, there were a bunch of moments where I had some nervous breakdown kinda stuff. We had a van, and then we couldn’t cross the border with it, and we’d already spent so much money and had to spend so much more. And then we had to get to our festivals in Europe in these separate ways, like some of us driving and some of us flying. But once we got to Rotterdam and played that show, it was just an amazing experience.”

Concrete Vehicles are heading back out to Europe at the end of this summer and are scheduled to play a slew of 20 dates all around the continent. With more time in Europe coming up, I was curious what cultural differences they had noticed in the crowds between Europe and North America.

“They respect artists a lot,” says Ben. “It was really eye-opening and really beautiful to see people really serious and passionate about music. And to see the way that some of the venues that I idolize run things was just so cool.”

“They stay for the whole show,” adds Keenan. “And after one band finishes, the whole room clears out to smoke, and they all come back as soon as the next band starts.”

“It’s also like they respect the grind and craft of it. They’re super hospitable, always very kind. Not to say that it hasn’t been fucking awesome in Canada, but it’s just like an awesome bubble of appreciation and hospitality,” says Jacob.

“I think it comes down to funding, too,” adds Ricky. “They just have a lot of funding. We played in this epic room in France—they fed us food and a bajillion beers, and it’s this beautiful space that was all government-funded. We don’t get a lot of that in the city, so it’s cool to see those privileges and get to experience those ourselves.”

Though Concrete Vehicles have toured around Canada and Europe by themselves, their first tour in Canada was with another band from Vancouver, Worrywart.

“I feel like they were just playing all the time in Vancouver, and they were just kind of friends with everyone,” says Ben. “They make you feel like you’re a part of this thing with them. And they took us on our first tour, everything fully booked. And y’know, we weren’t really bringing anyone to those shows. We were just figuring it out, and we wanna play as many shows as we can with them, so I’m manifesting another big tour with them.”

Jackson chimes in, “We learned a lot being on the road with them, too. They were really professional even with simple things, just like being there on time. The way they handled people, like the sound guy and promoter—just the way they conducted themselves was how a real band did it.”

Ben continues, “The way they stick around the whole show and talk to the bands; they try to be friends with everyone. They come into towns and they make a little environment; you can feel that when you see them play, too. There’s no rock ego bullshit at all, you see none of it.”

“Their set was seamless, too,” Keenan adds.

When listening to Concrete Vehicles’ debut album, Station on the Hill, I was enthralled by the variety of songs and especially by their form. The song “Concrete Vehicles” has a somewhat ordinary form, by which I mean easily identifiable verse, chorus, and bridge sections. The song after, however, “I’ll Follow,” uses the same riff for the entire runtime, relying on a steady build of volume and intensity for its progression. With such variety in their songwriting, I was curious how the band put songs together.

“Most consistently, me and Hudson write stuff together,” says Ben. “I’ll have kind of an idea, and then we write it while we’re recording. Then the band gets together in a room to learn it, and we almost completely change it, and then record over top of that demo that me and Hudson made. Sometimes we just go into the room and write it, too, without a demo.”

Which way do they prefer, or do they care?

Ben continues, “I mean, I just like there to be songs, so I’m okay with whatever way. I probably prefer when we come up with it in 30 minutes and listen to that voice memo for the next two weeks, like juiced. Because when I record stuff with Hudson, we can just go too far sometimes, and we’ll lose the initial idea. When music is immediate and urgent is when it feels the best.”