Falling In Love With Pro Wrestling The Band was originally released exclusively on vinyl. What went into your decision to release it on streaming services?

Danny: When we released it on vinyl it was one of those things where it felt special and we were in talks of maybe never releasing it on streaming, like have it be a cool little collection that you can only get on vinyl. Then we had people asking where they could listen to it and it just felt wrong not having it there so we wanted it to join streaming. But originally it was just to pump up sales and push physical. It was all marketing. [laughs]

We’re excited to have it streaming so that everyone can listen to it. Kyle Ashbourne redid all the mastering on it and did the vinyl mastering. We loved how it sounded so we put the vinyl master on the streaming services. You’ll get to hear what the record sounds like, as close as we can get. [laughs] You can listen to the vinyl version on your phone.

What do you feel is the biggest difference between a vinyl master and a digital master?

Nathan: Dan works at a record shop and I have vinyl. We all listen to it. I buy vinyl for the physicalness of it. Sonically, I know there’s things they have to do to master it differently but I’m always stoked like, “I made music and I can hold it!” That’s what I’m always stoked about because I can put something I made in with my records.

Danny: I know that it sounds cool! [laughs] My work - Grooves Records - actually released the album. We did a play test at work through our big stereos and as soon as we put it on we were like, “That sounds fantastic!” I don’t know what goes into the technology behind it and what the different proper terms are, but I know that it sounds better. [laughs] All I know is that I put it on and I was way more impressed. Kyle was definitely able to bump the sounds up a whole lot more. I love what he did to it. It felt like an important step to release those versions of it online.

Nathan: I concur.

Kyle’s done everything you’ve released. How did your creative collaboration with him start?

Danny: Kyle is someone I’ve known for a very long time. He’s someone who I met through my friends in another band I play with called Wasted Potential. They were all buddies with him. He used to run the sound at a house venue here in London called the Dude Ranch. That’s kinda how I met him. He recorded a set of one of my old bands and that’s how we got talking.

The Sugar Shack is where I’ve always gone to record because I’ve known Simon Larochette for so long and we were good friends. He would always let me come in and record songs and help out with that. Then Kyle joined that team and it just grew from there. He became a really good friend. I played in another band with him for a while and he did drums on some stuff I recorded so it’s just become a really interconnected thing. Instead of, “Where will we do it? What are we gonna do?” it’s like, “Hey Kyle, what are you doing? When are you free?” [laughs]

Nathan: Being in London, the Sugar Shack is the place that we gravitate towards for sure. As Dan said, it’s not like we have to think about where we want to record. Everyone’s like, “When do we wanna go to the Shack? Kyle’s gonna do everything”. When we play a tune Kyle isn’t afraid to come into the room and be like, “You ever thought about doing this?” or “Maybe this part should happen again”. He kinda produces on the fly a little bit and he’ll throw in suggestions which I really love. Simon used to do this too.

Some engineers or recording people will just sit at the computer and let you do your thing, which is sick, but because we have that relationship with Kyle where we’re buds and we see him at shows, when we go in there he’ll stick his head in every now and then and be like, “Maybe do this” or “Maybe the BPM of this song should be a little bit faster”. I don’t think he’s ever been wrong, honestly. [laughs] He’s always a complete love to work with.

Danny: Yeah, I agree. I find it very easy to work with Kyle. It’s always good to work with your friends. Whenever your friends are doing something that they’re really passionate about it’s always super cool to be able to support them and work with them and have them support you. It feeds both parties in a way where everyone gets to feel the support and it helps build the community. Through fostering all these relationships it just gets bigger and warmer and everyone likes it more.

Nathan: Kyle is a Muay Thai master and he’s turned into the most terrifying human I’ve ever seen.

Danny: Physically! He’s such a sweetie. He’s ripped but he’s a sweetie.

Nathan: He’s a sweetie but he’s jacked. He runs a 10K or something every morning with his dog.

Danny: So we know he can work hard.

[laughter]

Danny: It’s super cool that we can all support each other and be intermingled with all these different things together. It’s just a strong community. The only way I think things work is when everyone is friends and all striving towards the same thing. When you’re looking for a drummer to play in a band that sounds like Hot Snakes, you can be like, “Hey man, you like Hot Snakes! Do you wanna play drums in this band?” It’s fun to have a crew.

Like you said, the vinyl originally came out on Grooves Records Records and I saw on CBC News that it made it into their top 11 releases of the year.

Danny: We added 11 so we could be in it.

[laughter]

Danny: It was true though! We were actually number 11 and we added up to 11 so we could show it. It was super fun to have sold so many copies of our record that quickly. It was just super cool to feel the support of the community. To have someone like Troy Hutchison, who owns Grooves Records, come to me and be like, “Do you wanna put a record out? You know that thing that you keep booking time off for? Do you wanna do that more? Do you want some more support in that?” was super fun.

Again, it’s all about community. I feel like in London we’re leaning towards a bigger city because we’re growing all the time - I think we’re at half a million people or so now - but it always has that small, tight-knit community feeling to it no matter how much it grows. Once you’re part of it, you’re in it. I feel like Grooves Records is just an extension of that.

Two of your videos were shot around Grooves Records: “Sara” and “Hold Hands”.

Danny: “Sara” we shot with Patrick Briggs, he filmed it with help from Nathan’s sibling Alex. It was an idea Pat had and he wanted to see it through so we shot it in Grooves after hours.

The star of the “Hold Hands” video, Bob, lives above Grooves. We were playing a show the night before and Bob just whipped out that dance that he’s doing in the video. We were talking all night like, “That is the funniest dance I’ve ever seen!” We loved that. We were like, “We should just film this! The whole video will be Bob dancing the whole time because it’s great”.

The next day, me and Bob both had to work and we were like, “Hey, can we take an hour just to film this?” So he’s in the basement while there’s people shopping upstairs and he’s in one of the closets where we keep extra records while people were shopping on the floor. He basically took his break to shoot that video at Grooves. That’s why that one’s at Grooves because he was working, he was on the clock. [laughs]

Nathan: He got paid to make it.

[laughter]

Nathan: The other video, “Falling in Love”, was at Holy Diver. I think the music community in London could be associated with three places now: Rum Runners / Music Hall, Palasad SocialBowl, and Holy Diver. Those are the venues we play and that’s the bar we go to and that’s where all of our friends work. We were like, “Let’s do a live thing as if we’re playing at this bar because we’re here five nights a week anyway”. I feel like I live in that bar sometimes. We got one of our friends, Corey Slager, to do it and I think it turned out great. Grooves, those two venues, and Holy Diver are the places where you’ll always see your friends. Places like that help the community grow and stay connected.

Danny: I also love showing off the Diver! The Diver is one of the coolest bars around, I think. That was super cool. Corey filmed the video but the Diver threw up a bunch of money for it like, “You guys are always here! You’re part of our dive club!” They’ve helped super support us. They’ve let us play shows there before and it’s an incredible place. London is having a really cool moment where everyone’s very supportive of everything people are doing and I think that’s super cool.

It’s so good to have places to go to foster that community.

Nathan: Yeah! I love basement shows and everything but sometimes you don’t wanna constantly play basement shows and hang out in a dank little basement so it’s nice to have a variety and places to play in town.

Danny: Sometimes you do wanna play a little basement because they rule! [laughs]

Nathan: You can scratch that itch for sure.

Danny: There’s something about a house show that can’t be matched in a venue. We’re very fortunate that all of these people have helped us out so much and all of these people have put something behind us. We’re very supported here in London and that’s super important for us and very cool to us. That’s something that we appreciate and we know isn’t common in other places. It’s important to be very grateful that all these people have done this for us and helped us out. It feels super, super nice and I’m very appreciative of all these people who have been a part of it. Make some good friends, put some shit on film! [laughs]

With the album, it’s a collection of everything you’ve put out since you formed in 2021. How do you feel your songwriting has grown since you formed?

Danny: We put this collection together because we knew we weren’t going to re-record any of the songs and we wanted them to exist on a physical medium to be able to be archived or listened to or whatever people choose to do with it. When I listen to it, I definitely hear us figuring ourselves out as a band. When we started, the idea of putting a record out wasn’t really on our mind. It was in the pandemic and we were like, “I’m bored, let’s hang out and do something that we can do together. Maybe we’ll play the Richmond - which is a bar in town - every month or something”.

The full first half is all one EP and I start to hear more cohesiveness there. As we’re coming together, I just hear a band figuring out what it is we do. [laughs] We try country ballads because we love the Sadies. Then we try some kind of Attack In Black-influenced sort of things and we pull some Replacements-style stuff. We’re pulling from all these different avenues. Now, I think we’re at a place where we’re finding where our sound comes in. It’s an important document of growth in a way.

Nathan: We’ve grown as people too. Originally it was Dan and me and then it was Dan, me, and Pat on bass. That was the first couple of recordings and demos and stuff. Then it was Bob and then Pat was on guitar. We’ve shifted around internally which I think affects the recording and writing in a big way. I feel like we’re all cemented now in what we do musically in the band.

Craig will play guitar and keys for a song. I think he learned to play piano to be in this band so he’s the best musician out of all of us for sure. [laughs] Just, “I love this band, they don’t have a keyboard. I’m gonna learn to play keyboard”. Then six months later he was like, “I know how to play the keyboard! Let me be in your band” and we were like, “Yeah!” It’s definitely evolved internally which I think you can hear on the recordings which is sick.

Danny: Craig was starting to fiddle around with pianos. We had him come in for the first couple recordings. He’s on them but he was kinda just jumping in the studio and doing something really quick, like, “I’m gonna drop some piano over this. I’ll see y’all later”. Eventually, when he did join, those parts became more fleshed out and they became his parts instead of just a thing to throw over it. Now, he’s sitting there and thinking about the piano parts or he’s thinking about his guitar parts because he plays both now. That’s helped the songwriting. Bob has really stepped up. Bob’s pretty good at arranging songs and having different ideas. He’ll be like, “I don’t think it should be that long” or, “I think we should cut this bridge” or, “We should add a bridge”.

As Nathan said, as we’ve shifted internally our relationship has changed in a way where we have more trust. We’re able to be more vulnerable with each other and talk about those things without worrying about bruising an ego or someone getting offended. We can make the songs the best they can be without worrying about it. I think as the group has grown, we’ve found a sound and our songwriting has grown a lot in more directions that we wanna go. Maybe not all country, maybe we want to do an emo song. We’ve started recording some more stuff and there’s emo songs on it and there’s some more pop-punk kinda stuff or some more 90s-influenced things; real Third Eye Blind type stuff. It’s just shifted and grown and I love that.

Nathan: With the first recordings we had never been in a band with one another. Each of us has been in bands for probably 20 years. Then a buddy of ours, Eamon McGrath, booked us a UK and Europe tour and we were like, “Yeah, of course we wanna go do that!” We hadn’t had that experience as a unit yet of being on the road for more than two days and really getting to know each other on a different level. You were saying trust and stuff and I think that plays a big part in it. I think we grew as a family through that experience and now I look at it like, “Ok, we’re a little family and this is how we do things now”. It helped us be more confident for sure.

Danny: I agree.

What would you say is the biggest thing you learned about each other during that time?

Danny: That we can get along. [laughs] You kind of put yourself in a little pressure cooker and thankfully we all were able to really come together and there weren’t any fights or blowouts - I didn’t think there was going to be, but you never know. When you ship a bunch of people across an ocean and stick them in a van and see what happens, you don’t know what the results are going to be until it’s over. It went really well. It was learning different intricacies or different parts of people that you can work with or things you need to maybe work around, not that there was much. But just little things like that and what people need on a day-to-day basis and the way they need to communicate. Darren from Crazy Arm was driving us and he was the sweetest guy. That was super fun. It was just a really good experience.

There were some shows that weren’t all that great so we also learned how we all react when something doesn’t go as we expected or how to rein in expectations in that sort of way. If there was a show where maybe there weren’t too many people there, it was just like, “Alright guys, let’s just fucking do this. The bar staff are here and you want them to have a good day at their job. You don’t want to go up there and be all sulky and pouty about it. Get up there and play to the bar staff. There’s people here. We came here and we’re gonna just do this”. That was a really big thing that we took away from that.

I think it was a big confidence builder in ourselves in the face of any adversities like, “If there’s a problem, we’re gonna solve it. If there’s anything that we’re worried about, we’re going to have the best time we possibly can and make sure the people around us also have a good time while they’re there”. We’re just buddies now. [laughs]

That’s very important.

Danny: You would hope, right? Otherwise what the hell are you doing? You’re hanging around with five people that you hate and that would suck!

[laughter]

Danny: You have to make decisions about how you’re going to spend your weekend or a week together, you better be friends!

Speaking of shows, you’re going to be touring Ontario in May on your way to Pouzza Fest in Montreal. What are you looking forward to about these shows?

Nathan: Pouzza’s the best! We’ve played before as Pro Wrestling The Band and we’ve played as part of other bands as well. That festival is the quintessential friend fest for us because all of London goes. I swear to god, there’s no one in London that I know when Pouzza’s happening. People head up whether they’re in bands or just going to hang out for the weekend. We are playing on Saturday and we’re going up for all three days. [laughs] We’re not just showing up for the show and ripping out, we’re going to hang out with our buddies and stuff. That’s what I’m looking forward to.

We’ve also got shows on the way up. Dealbreaker reached out to us and they were like, “Hey, we had a couple shows booked. We like you guys. Do you wanna come play with us on the way out?” and we were like, “Absolutely!” We’re excited to hit the road with those guys and end up at Pouzza, which is a highlight of my year.

Danny: Absolutely! Thank god for Dealbreaker and Het Up! asking if we wanted to come tour with them. I checked out their band immediately and was like, “Oh sick! This is rad stuff!” I’m very excited to go out on the road and get to know these guys. We’ve been chatting over Instagram and they’re very, very nice. I’m excited to see what their live show is like and hang out with them and get to know people.

Pouzza Fest is a gigantic hang-out session with everyone you wanna hang out with that weekend. Then you get to see so many amazing bands! This lineup is awesome! Drug Church is playing and the first time I saw Drug Church was at a 1 am show years ago at Pouzza Fest, Canadian absolute legends Fucked Up are playing, and Maura Weaver who was in Mixtapes is playing. She released one of my favourite records of a couple years ago and I was a huge fan of Mixtapes so it’ll be great to see her. Dig It Up from Montreal who I don’t think play very much at all will be playing and Junior Battles who I haven’t seen in forever and who are an absolute favourite of mine will be there. There are so many good bands!

Nathan: Brutal Youth!

Danny: Solids too!

Nathan: Solids is closing the show that we’re on. They’re headlining Foufounes Électriques’ big stage on Saturday. I saw their name when I was checking out the schedule and I was like, "I haven’t seen Solids in like 7 years!”

Danny: I think they were on a hiatus. Me and DC from Brutal Youth and Wasted Potential used to go to festivals and play with Solids all the time. We had a running joke whenever we’d be walking down the street at whatever festival we’d see them and always point and be like, “Solids”. As soon as he read that we’re on the same bill as Brutal Youth and Solids, he sent me a picture of Solids and just went, “Solids”. [laughs] To get to go see them again is awesome, they’re so sick!

Nathan: Again, friends and community! It travels, it’s wild. I think with festivals in general, if you’re an artist you’re like, “Oh, you’re playing too? Cool, I’ll see you there! Oh, you’re playing this one? Cool, I’ll see you guys there!” But with Pouzza in particular, you’re going to see fans of music who are traveling for that too. They might not necessarily be in bands. Being from London, you’ll know about 100, 000 people or whatever that are there. I’ll be walking down the street like, “Oh, what’s up Nick? Hey!” You can’t turn around without seeing someone you know, which is sick.

I heard someone call it “punk rock summer camp” once.

Danny: It absolutely is! It’s the best way to spend your May 24 weekend. Montreal is such a beautiful city. You can just walk around all you want and get all of the delicious food and get La Belle Province. It’s gonna be a very fun festival and I’m very stoked that we are getting to play it again. It feels like a really cool milestone when you get to play a Pouzza Fest. We’re especially grateful to be part of it.

Every pro wrestler has a signature move. What is Pro Wrestling the Band’s signature move?

Danny: I think it’s gotta be the Sharpshooter. We gotta go with the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be: Bret “The Hitman” Hart! It’s gotta be the Sharpshooter all day long! Me and Pat went to a Smash Wrestling event and I was drinking at the time and I just screamed “Sharpshooter” until they did it which probably annoyed them so much. That’s like yelling “Free Bird”. But they did it and I’m eternally grateful for them and also for not beating me up afterwards. Sharpshooter all the way.

With the band name, there’s a story that Pro Wrestling the Band wasn’t the original name, Ripper Dogs was. Is that true or is that a joke?

Nathan: [laughs] That’s a long-winded joke!

Danny: Yeah! When we started the band, we didn’t know what we were gonna do with it so we called it Pro Wrestling The Band just because I was watching wrestling a lot at the time. We were in the elevator in our practice space and were like, “Do you wanna call it Pro Wrestling The Band? Ok, sick! That’s funny. That’ll be great”. I’m the only wrestling fan. [laughs] When we started we wrote a really hard song and Pat was like, “That’s a ripper, dog!” And we were like, “The Ripper Dogs!”

We came up with this whole wrestling lore about how we were super popular but we had to break up. It was all a wrestling kayfabe-style story where we were like, “We used to be so big but we had to quit because people loved us too much and the pressures were too high. We wanted to reel it back”. [laughs] It was just a joke, Pro Wrestling The Band has always been the name. It was fun for a while. We have answered a lot of people asking about that with, “Yeah, it was a whole thing, man. You should have been there”.

[laughter]

Nathan: I keep forgetting that we did that and it keeps popping up and I’m like, “This is hilarious!” We don’t talk about that anymore but clearly, there’s still evidence that we thought this up one time. I think it’s amazing.

Danny: We had this whole idea where we were gonna get backdrops made that said “Ripper Dogs” and spray paint “Pro Wrestling” over them. We were going to only sell Ripper Dogs merch. We had this whole thing going that obviously came from sitting around with nothing to do like, “You guys wanna do this?” It was all hypothetical. [laughs] That’s probably the most wrestling thing we’ve done. There’s a lot of bands that sing about wrestling but we don’t actually sing about wrestling. [laughs]

Nathan: We made our own backstory which is great.

Which part of Falling In Love With Pro Wrestling The Band are you proudest of?

Danny: That’s tough. I really enjoy the whole thing, but I’m completely biased. I enjoy listening to me and my friends making music and watching it grow from there. Musically I’m very, very proud of “Mood Pills”. I tried to write a ballad and see how that went because I don’t write a whole lot of slow songs. That’s a big point of pride for me. I really am proud of how that turned out. I’m really proud of how “Hold Hands” turned out. It’s just fun to watch something that me and my friends are working on grow and have a document of it.

I really think the first half of that record is us finding our footing. I think that’s what I’m the most proud of is just that we got there and we’re able to make this piece of music where Pat’s got these really great guitar licks, Craig has some amazing piano and keyboard playing, and Nate’s drumming is just insane. I feel like I wrote some lyrics that I’m really proud of. I think everyone just shines on it. I think that the first half of that record is a highlight to me; just being really proud of my friends for their abilities and their growth and also of myself and my own growth as a songwriter and contributor to the band.

Nathan: I’m the same way. It was a really cool experience. The music is something that I’m really proud of and I’m proud of us for doing it. It’s nice to look back at it and be like, “That was fun!” Nothing about making this was treacherous or hard or whatever. I listen to that record and memories come back into my head. I’m like, “This looks great! I like how this sounds, I like how we did it, and I like how we recorded it”.

I made it with my four best buds which is part of the reason I’m so happy about it and happy to have it come out on the internet. You don’t just have to buy vinyl which is a marketing scheme. [laughs] I’m just really proud of what we did and how the five of us came together and did what we wanted to do with it. It sounds exactly how we wanted it to sound which is great.

Is there anything that I didn’t ask that you’d like to add?

Danny: We have a show on April 25 with Lost In Japan at Rum Runners in London. It’s their release show as well as their final show. We’re very excited to play that show. Tell people to book us! [laughs]

Nathan: Yeah, we wanna play anywhere and everywhere!

Danny: Promotors, the people working at the bar will like us, so if anything else, give them a good night at their job.