INTERVIEW: SOUL PUSH TALK SINGLE 'GOOD MAN,' HOW THEIR MOVE TO EUROPE SHAPED THEIR SOUND, THEIR FAVOURITE DANCE RECORDS + MORE
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| Photo by: Jack Perkins |
After years of writing and performing under different names, this Canadian-born quartet, began releasing music under the moniker Soul Push early last year.
Vancouver's Andrew Dixon, Dallyn Hunt, and Tim Morrison paired up with South African songwriter Conan Jurek to create and explore multiple genres and identities.
The group was formed after they collectively decided to chase inspiration and temporarily move their lives to Europe. After writing an album in London and recording it in a small town in Portugal, they returned to the North American scene with their R&B-esque debut EP Body Is A Temple.
With their forthcoming album release, Soul Push aims to bridge the gap between the '60s idea of future music and the world we live in today. Their latest single "Good Man" – sonically-inspired by artists such as Tame Impala and Jungle, is about a ladies man on a journey to taming himself for the right woman.
The track was written in London on a small vintage synth, then re-worked in a vintage house in Portugal with plenty of 60s-era décor which is emphasized in its overall vibe:
“The production of [Good Man] is a true testament to the power of DIY and good mixing. We didn't produce or record this song in a fancy studio, it was in my grandfather's bedroom. We were just having fun with it and it shows that anyone can create something great in the strangest of places... as long you can get a decent mix. Luckily, we had Ryan Worsley mix "Good Man" and it became a banger!”
Most recently, the band put out a simplistic yet symbolic and unique music video for their newest single. The video for "Good Man" starts off by panning in to lead singer Jurek at the head of the table – seated with his bandmates and a dinner guest. This scene repeats 36 times with the only difference being that something is removed from each shot until Jurek is the only thing left in the frame.
From their artistic videos to their experimental tracks and songwriting, for Soul Push, music isn’t about finding an identity but rather exploring new ones. Releasing gloriously genre-fluid tracks while navigating through these unprecedented times, Soul Push look forward to releasing their debut full-length album in 2022.
The words that come to mind are "grit pop." At heart, we are a rock n roll band who love to thrash on our guitars, but we tend to write closer to the pop world. I think this allows for an interesting mix and sound. We do like to do a fair bit of experimentation too. I know that these days a lot of artists are supposed to "have a sound and identity" but we believe that music is about exploring different identities, not finding one. In terms of artistry, you can get away with anything behind a computer these days, so we're excited to get back to playing live shows, so fans can see what they've been missing out on. We're a performing band at the core and that's where I think most people will see our artistry and chemistry on stage – vibing with each other.
We all played together throughout high school at different stages and continued to do so afterwards. We started playing a few live shows and things escalated faster than we expected. Before we knew it, we were headlining shows and touring and were too afraid to change our name at that point, thinking we would lose or confuse fans. In 2017, we moved to London (UK) to write and record more music, and took a bit of a hiatus – this turned out to be great because we parted with our "indie rock" roots and started trying something a little different. We felt that we had matured to a point where the old name didn't fit us or our music anymore and decided to change it to Soul Push. We like Soul Push because it felt very '90s to us, and that was appealing because we were all born in '93. As I mentioned above, we like experimenting... and Soul Push feels like a name that can take on many shapes of genres.
We were feeling stuck in our hometown and wanted to try something different. We always romanticized about a life in the UK and eventually decided to stop daydreaming about it and make the move. All of our favourite bands came from the UK and we wanted to live somewhere that had a huge music scene. In Vancouver we would have to drive 12 hours to play in the next major city, in the UK we could play a festival 5 cities over and still sleep in our beds at night. We set out with a goal to write and record new music, and we did that... but I think there was a lot more drinking and hanging out involved. I wonder how many albums we would have by now if we had given up the beers...
Writing in London was the best thing we could've done. Not only did it expand our musical horizons, but it also made us super tight as a crew. We had a studio that was right next to a pizza pub (I know right?). After London (UK) we moved to Portugal and set up a studio in my grandfather's childhood home. He built the home with his father in the '60s, and that showed in the decor. It was on a vineyard in a town with less than 100 people, and no one spoke a word of English. We secluded ourselves away from the world and became one with the house and all of its strange noises and ghostly moans (that's a story for another time). We made a conscious decision to try and emulate the feeling of the house and add an old school vibe to the tracks we were recording there, one of them being "Good Man." There's a salty picture online somewhere of us in the Portugal house, and believe me, it's a mood
Lyrically, the song is about a man who sleeps around town and eventually quits his ways for the woman of his dreams, which is super ironic because at the time of writing it I was super lonely and the song was almost a way for me to live out an alternate reality... one where I had a sex drive or even someone to settle down with. I'm a songwriter who writes super dancey music when I feel low to counter my mood... so if you are shaking your hips then it came from a dark place. The production of this song is a true testament to the power of DIY and good mixing. We didn't produce or record this song in a fancy studio, it was in my grandfather's bedroom. We were just having fun with it and it shows that anyone can create something great in the strangest of places... as long you can get a decent mix. Luckily, we had Ryan Worsley mix "Good Man" and it became a banger!
Tim: Roosevelt - Roosevelt
Dallyn: Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Andrew: Kaytranada - 99.9%
Conan: Daft Punk - Human After All
It's definitely an exciting time for us. We're in the best position we've ever been in as a band and we're enjoying it more than ever. We're still trying to find a way to play live amidst the chaos, so we are working on some virtual concert material as well as planning for an early 2022 EU tour – which is probably when we would release our debut record. Oh yeah, we're working on our debut record.
Q: How would you describe Soul Push’s sound and artistry?
The words that come to mind are "grit pop." At heart, we are a rock n roll band who love to thrash on our guitars, but we tend to write closer to the pop world. I think this allows for an interesting mix and sound. We do like to do a fair bit of experimentation too. I know that these days a lot of artists are supposed to "have a sound and identity" but we believe that music is about exploring different identities, not finding one. In terms of artistry, you can get away with anything behind a computer these days, so we're excited to get back to playing live shows, so fans can see what they've been missing out on. We're a performing band at the core and that's where I think most people will see our artistry and chemistry on stage – vibing with each other.
Q: You guys had a former projects, what inspired the vision and vibe behind creating Soul Push?
We all played together throughout high school at different stages and continued to do so afterwards. We started playing a few live shows and things escalated faster than we expected. Before we knew it, we were headlining shows and touring and were too afraid to change our name at that point, thinking we would lose or confuse fans. In 2017, we moved to London (UK) to write and record more music, and took a bit of a hiatus – this turned out to be great because we parted with our "indie rock" roots and started trying something a little different. We felt that we had matured to a point where the old name didn't fit us or our music anymore and decided to change it to Soul Push. We like Soul Push because it felt very '90s to us, and that was appealing because we were all born in '93. As I mentioned above, we like experimenting... and Soul Push feels like a name that can take on many shapes of genres.
Q: What drove the band to pick up and temporarily move to Europe?
We were feeling stuck in our hometown and wanted to try something different. We always romanticized about a life in the UK and eventually decided to stop daydreaming about it and make the move. All of our favourite bands came from the UK and we wanted to live somewhere that had a huge music scene. In Vancouver we would have to drive 12 hours to play in the next major city, in the UK we could play a festival 5 cities over and still sleep in our beds at night. We set out with a goal to write and record new music, and we did that... but I think there was a lot more drinking and hanging out involved. I wonder how many albums we would have by now if we had given up the beers...
Q: How was your experience recording in the UK and in a small town in Portugal? How did your surroundings influence the record?
Writing in London was the best thing we could've done. Not only did it expand our musical horizons, but it also made us super tight as a crew. We had a studio that was right next to a pizza pub (I know right?). After London (UK) we moved to Portugal and set up a studio in my grandfather's childhood home. He built the home with his father in the '60s, and that showed in the decor. It was on a vineyard in a town with less than 100 people, and no one spoke a word of English. We secluded ourselves away from the world and became one with the house and all of its strange noises and ghostly moans (that's a story for another time). We made a conscious decision to try and emulate the feeling of the house and add an old school vibe to the tracks we were recording there, one of them being "Good Man." There's a salty picture online somewhere of us in the Portugal house, and believe me, it's a mood
Q: Tell us about your latest single “Good Man”:
Lyrically, the song is about a man who sleeps around town and eventually quits his ways for the woman of his dreams, which is super ironic because at the time of writing it I was super lonely and the song was almost a way for me to live out an alternate reality... one where I had a sex drive or even someone to settle down with. I'm a songwriter who writes super dancey music when I feel low to counter my mood... so if you are shaking your hips then it came from a dark place. The production of this song is a true testament to the power of DIY and good mixing. We didn't produce or record this song in a fancy studio, it was in my grandfather's bedroom. We were just having fun with it and it shows that anyone can create something great in the strangest of places... as long you can get a decent mix. Luckily, we had Ryan Worsley mix "Good Man" and it became a banger!
Q: “Good Man” is described as a “gritty dance party.” What are some of Soul Push’s favourite dance records?
Tim: Roosevelt - Roosevelt
Dallyn: Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Andrew: Kaytranada - 99.9%
Conan: Daft Punk - Human After All
Q: What’s next for Soul Push?
It's definitely an exciting time for us. We're in the best position we've ever been in as a band and we're enjoying it more than ever. We're still trying to find a way to play live amidst the chaos, so we are working on some virtual concert material as well as planning for an early 2022 EU tour – which is probably when we would release our debut record. Oh yeah, we're working on our debut record.
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