Thinking about Dying and Learning How to Live: An Interview With Still Depths On Best plan for your life
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Photo courtesy of still depths
I am back at a DIY venue and still getting used to it. It’s the first one I’ve been to since I was seventeen, and since then, new bands have emerged to play shows with ones I already know. Events shared via Instagram posters instead of Facebook pages have brought in a new crowd eager for live music. New venues like this one (Green Auto Body) have popped up, and old ones have been renamed. I am now much older than when I first experienced them, but in a way it’s nice to feel like I’m revisiting an old version of myself through the power of cheap PBR and second-hand smoke. Although I am not very good at introducing myself to crowds of strangers, I am very excited to meet new people in spaces I have previously loved. Everyone has a very cool outfit on and compliments each other liberally; their kindness eases me, especially being at the end of my degree and feeling nervous about meeting new people outside of university. There’s a renewed sense of community being built by musicians in the city, and it makes me very happy to see these spaces thriving at the hands of those who care about them.
This kind of setting is very fitting for my introduction to Still Depths, a noise rock band that has in recent years become a staple of both Vancouver and Calgary DIY scenes, and whom I feel very lucky to now call my friends. Comprising Justin Perdomo, Brendan Chiu and Megan Rollinson, Still Depths has become a recognizable name, and their sophomore album Best plan for your life suggests they are here to stay.
Best plan is dry and sardonic as often as it is complicated and heartfelt. Songs like “Top 5 Reasons I’m The Shit” and "I'm Moving To Montreal" caricature conversations familiar to Vancouver’s art scene. The album has songs you can cry to, scream to, dance to, and songs which encapsulate a little of all the above. It implores its audience to move both sonically and in its lyrical content; weaving together retrospections on desire, emotional rapture, and youthful ennui through lyrics that plead for ecstasy, and then a nap. Best plan for your life is aptly named for its subject matter. It feels like walking around a new city a little confused and a little too high; or a conversation with a conservative rich kid talking about how Vancouver is creatively void; or running somewhere because you’re young, and your body works for now, but never without the looming fear of aging on your mind. Perhaps without coincidence, this is a lot like how being in your twenties feels too.
Photo courtesy of still depths
When I first get on call with the three band members, I am met with the familiar sight of Brendan and Justin’s kitchen. The two shuffle around a bit, bobbing in and out of frame to make coffee, and gleefully show off their new orange tabby cat Milo–a rescue from the veterinary clinic their roommate works at and their temporary resident. We catch up and talk about a show Brendan and Justin had recently seen in the city. It’s a good distraction from my own nerves, especially Milo’s little face— this interview is a first for both of us. Justin and Brendan poke fun at me for the candle I have placed intentionally in frame. None of us really know what we are doing here, which makes everything a little more okay.
Spending much of their teen years writing and promoting their first album Pioneers Eat Dirt to a more hardcore audience in Alberta, Justin mentions that it was exciting to work on something that felt like it had more of a pop direction and a different workflow than their last. Converting the basement of their Burnaby rental home into a makeshift studio allowed the band to chip away at the project on their own terms and make Best Plan in less than half the time it took them to produce their first. “We basically just woke up, headed downstairs, and played around not really thinking about making an album to begin with.” explains Justin. He and Megan also mention how important it was to the album's sound that Brendan mixed it entirely himself, citing him as “kind of a genius” unanimously. Still, Justin jokes that he wishes he could have released it before his 20th birthday, “I thought it would be really funny to have two albums out in my teens. It would be a big accomplishment,” he laughs nonchalantly at this sentiment.
Though the three often allude to random good fortune as a driving factor to their success, I think it’s safe to say that it has more to do with their work ethic, genuine talent, and personability. Still Depths has already found a dedicated following in Vancouver, Calgary, and beyond. Their wry wit and playful exploration of sound has provided them opportunities to play festivals like Sled Island, which also toted well known acts like Grouper, Sudan Archives, and Chad VanGaalen. The three are slated to play the festival again later this June.
Photo by Kaiden Jackman
“It’s been nice feeling like we don’t have to market ourselves as much anymore. We’ve been lucky to get asked to play shows with other bands quite regularly,” Megan explains. “We used to sit in Justin’s basement and call up every venue we could think of to get gigs, essentially giggling and hanging up the phone. You have to market yourself a lot more when you’re starting out and we kind of lucked out in a lot of ways.”
The three speak about their work with a sense of nostalgia and retrospect fitting to the more than three years they’ve dedicated to their songs and shows. “It’s kind of been like raising a toddler together,” Megan jokes. “A lot of my free time has gone into making posters and art for the band, and if I want to make something that day, it’s an easy prompt.”
Though Still Depth’s body of work has ebbed and flowed in its sound over the years, and the band has taken some time off since their last album, they have maintained a sense of cohesion that speaks to their spirit as collaborators and friends. The last Still Depths show featured Brendan and Justin playing a cover of Nature Lake’s “Flattened & Silent” as tribute to their friendship and creative collaboration. Recently, Megan offered to drive their friends Crywank through portions of their recent Canadian tour. Perhaps this says more about their ethos as artists than any description of their work; being a part of Still Depths means that their work is deeply intertwined with their interpersonal relationships, and there is always music and something to laugh about.
Though I may be biased, I do think that Still Depths is one of the most promising bands to come out of the current Canadian music scene.They are some of the funniest, kindest, most ambitious, and down-to-earth people that I know, and I feel very lucky to call them friends. After our interview, Justin sends me a photo taken of myself, Brendan, and him wearing matching sunglasses, taken the morning after their album release party, and a message thanking me for being so attentive and excited about their work. If the future of the emerging music scene in Vancouver is as kind and electric as this band, perhaps we won’t have to pack up for Montreal after all.
Follow Still Depths on Instagram (@stilldepths), and stream Best plan for your life on Spotify here.
Kenna Clifford (She/Her) is a writer and filmmaker based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her work can be found in The Dry River, the anthology collection #You Too?: 25 Voices Share Their #MeToo Stories, and through her blog Speculative Fiction. She was called “verbose” a lot as a child and it definitely went to her head. Follow her on Instagram (@kenacliford) and her substack.
