April 19th, 2013 
Brian Leak 
“Life is too short to let negativity distract you.”
A Primitive Evolution are a creative and dedicated three-piece alt rock outfit originating from Toronto, Ontario.
Vocalist and guitarist, Brett Carruthers, took some time to speak with us recently about the history of the band, their newest full-length album, and a slew of upcoming plans, so read through the break and get familiar with A Primitive Evolution.
First off, how did you come up with the band name and what does it mean to you?
In the beginning there was… something. Billions of years later, here we are. It has always been a fascination to us. To think that A Primitive Evolution is what allowed us to become what we are today still blows my mind. Continuous mutations over time created all these magical creatures. That could have something to do with why we named the band after such an event.
We needed a name that suited our interests, what we love, and would also leave room for discussion. Plus, it is a great acronym, A.P.E. that also ties in with the concept. Now I wouldn’t say we are a concept band necessarily. We don’t limit ourselves to topics or tales, but we do enjoy depth and image to go hand in hand with our music. The name can apply to microscopic organisms, to ourselves and even to our music. We like to think that every creation is a primitive evolution, be it a song or a new species born out of a tiny mutation.
The Prize has been out for roughly 7 months now. What has the band been working on in the meantime?
Mainly we worked on the music video for “Lord of Reason.” We currently produce all of our own videos so that was an intensive production for us and the crew involved. Peter Arvidsson of Elektrik Playground did an outstanding job of bringing our ideas and album artwork to life. He is a visionary director and it is always a pleasure to collaborate with him! Once that was complete we immediately started writing the next album. We hope to release it this fall!
Do you feel like you’ve grown even more as musicians since The Prize or that your next album can be even better?
We certainly hope so. If the next album isn’t better than the last it will never be released [laughs]. We strive only to improve upon our last work. We went into The Prize expecting to make an acoustic album, however, once we got into the studio with John Wozniak at Mushroom Studios Toronto we were inspired and wrote three new songs to add to the album. This next album has some older ideas from before The Prize that we felt were too heavy at the time. Now, it’s time to jump in and go nuts!
With that much time gone by since you released the album, what inspirations have come into your lives that you can see playing important roles in your next effort?
The last couple of years have been a rough ride. We’ve had some friends and fans die, lots of bullshit with people outside of the band, there has certainly been a dark cloud around. On the flip side there has also been a lot of great response to our work on The Prize and to the videos we have been creating. That has inspired us to keep up the fight. I have always looked at hardship that way. Rather than let it defeat you, embrace it and let it power you to move forward. Life is too short to let negativity distract you. The reason I decided to stick with music my whole life was actually because my father died when I was 14 and he had been really supportive of me wanting to pursue music. In his death I made a vow to myself to never give up on the dream I had shared with him.
What led to the ideas for the video for “Lord of Reason”? It’s very unique and I’m curious as to the meaning behind the bears and such…
In our videos we draw heavily from Stu’s creations with his company, Playdead Cult. We will pull characters from their art and make concepts based around them and us. The cover art for The Prize features his partner in crime, Bean, dressed up as what we call the “Lady of Death.”
The story for “Lord of Reason” actually starts with the first video from The Prize for the song “I Feel It All.” That video introduces us to the “Lady of Death,” that you see in both videos. The song “I Feel It All” was inspired by a fan of ours, Melissa, who had died of leukemia. The song is a story of life and death and the impact of well being and acceptance. This girl fought and fought and lived so positively through her sickness that she outlasted her cancer by years of what the doctors told her. It really got my mind in a crazy spot when she passed, and when I sat down to write that song I felt like I was looking at the entire scope of time and the universe, like I could feel every emotion of everything that ever existed.
For the video for “I Feel it All” it follows a girl with a curious mind that finds a story book in the forest. She then meets grim reaper like creatures that we call “Moops” and collects fairies with them as an offering to the “Lady of Death.” Once offered to her she is consumed by light and ends up with the band on the other side. Much like a dark fairy tale we wanted to leave it open ended. Is she dead or is she finally free to live on in happiness? Something along the lines of Pan’s Labyrinth which is a film that had a huge impact and influence on us.
The video for “Lord of Reason” goes back to the dark reality from which this girl came from and caused her to run off into the forest in “I Feel it All.” In the opening sequence of the video we see her parents fighting over their missing child and blaming the “Lady of Death” rather than the true problem, themselves. The parents set out on a witch hunt and grab their “hounds.” We always want to keep an element of surrealism to our videos so we decided to use giant blue bears rather than vicious dogs to be the hounds on the hunt. We are all huge fans of the horror genre and all of our music videos have that influence in them, although we don’t want to be taken entirely seriously, to us there still has to be an element of fun in the horror we create.
The hillbilly parents head off to attack the “Lady of Death” with the bears. To tie us into this video, rather than have someone cross over to our realm we are now summoned into this world to protect the “Lady of Death” as she fights the parents away. She then pulls us out of the Earth like the undead and casts a swarm of “Death Fairies” on them. She stops the parents attack on her and is victorious. In the last clip of the video you see the parents chained up like they did to the bears with the “Lady of Death” holding their leashes. Their rage and ignorance has made them slaves to death itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbq6Mc4hs38
Being a three-piece band, have you ever felt like you wanted or needed more members to be involved with and expand your sound?
We have actually been through a fair share of members. The band started as a three piece originally and then we had our friend Dimitri Anastasakis on guitar for some time while we made the first album, A.P.E. We had a fifth member for a brief period around the release of A.P.E., Steve Minor, who played some keys and guitar. After that we went back to four piece with our guitar guru, Lincoln Fakira, joining us for a slew of shows. In making The Prize my cousin Scott Carruthers from the band Here Below joined up to fill in the fourth member slot. On the album The Prize, you’ll hear Scott’s playing as well as our friend, and former The Birthday Massacre keyboard player, Adm Shedden, on viola and violin. So even though we are a three piece at heart we have done a lot of live performances incorporating extra members. For the album release show of The Prize we actually had six people on stage that evening so we could do all the string section parts. Stephany plays cello so Lincoln hopped on bass and we also had back up vocals provided by Barbara from the band Mamabolo.
It’s been quite the ride with a lot of inspiring and talented people around us. For the next record we want to create something that is only for the three piece to play, I’m looking forward to that approach this time around but I’m sure in the future we will add members in again especially for larger live performances.
How do you approach writing and recording to be unique and stand out from the countless bands with unoriginal ideas?
You know, I’ve never really consciously thought about it. I think the harder you try to be one certain thing the more you dilute your true self. For this band we have always tried to write the best songs we can, taking all of our influences in and just jamming and experimenting together. We will record hours of us making noise at the studio and then spend nights listening back and taking notes of the best moments. From there we compile a list of all those riffs and parts that we love and then we start writing the songs from there. Other times ideas will just pop up in our heads. I’ll write a drum beat and give it to Stu or he’ll write a guitar part or melody and give it to me, even though neither of us can really play each other’s instruments well. Then we’ll take the idea and make our own version of it. Some songs are just born out of Stephany messing around with her bass while she waits for me to set up all of my junk. “Lord of Reason” was actually written that way, Steph actually didn’t think much of the riff, it was like a passing thought she just started thumping out while she was waiting, but it resonated with Stu and myself and we jumped on it and had this crazy jam session that turned into one of my favourite songs ever!
Do you have any current touring plans in the works?
We sure do! We are planning to tour the East Coast of Canada this summer with our friends in the band The Standstills. In the meantime we have some local Toronto shows coming up. April 26 with Die Mannequin at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto is the next one and then a few club shows around town and NXNE coming up in June. We are also really hoping to get out to the States, Japan and Europe within the next year, but it’s too early to tell when that will actually come through.
How would you describe the experience of an APE live show?
Raw, tight, sweaty and fun.
What has been one of your most memorable moments on the road with the band thus far?
I think our favourite tour has been with our friends from Quebec City, Never More Than Less. We traveled around in this crazy bus of theirs, partying all over Ontario and Quebec. Running through malls in Sherbrooke in outfits from our videos. Parking the bus in flood waters in St. Jean sur Richelieu hoping that the venue doesn’t flood while we are on stage. Staying up all night in strange jam spots getting wasted with the locals. So many good times out there it’s hard to pick just one.
What would you say has kept the band together and evolving for roughly 6 years now?
The need in all of us to create. We are so lucky to have a group of people that all want to keep doing this. The hardest part of having a band is keeping the band together. We are in for the long haul together and it just works. It’s a lot like finding true love. Takes a lot of patience, determination and hard work and we all pick each other up when one of us gets down.
What’s the next major goal for A Primitive Evolution?
Finishing writing the next album and then touring the world. That’s really all we have our minds set on lately. Write, write, write. Play, play, play! More crazy videos, maybe a movie too. There are so many things that are flying around our heads and fellow collaborators right now. It’s very exciting, but I can’t ruin it with the details just yet. Stay tuned!
Written and conducted by: Brian Lion – Follow him on Twitter
Photo credit: Samit Bhatia
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