Three Music Thingz with easy tiger

My my my, it's another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making.

I knew I was going to like Montreal-based duo easy tiger from the first line of their single "Circle K", which arrives after a short intro of muted keyboard: "Spent all my money at the Circle K / On Arnold Palmer on ice." Now, I'm a Circle K respecter—a gas station whose name is literally its logo, what could be better—and a gas station beverage respecter...and I'm also a smooth rock respecter, which is the direction the single immediately swings toward. Breezy vocals, sassy bass, softly danceable beat, and a sax solo? Pour me a tall glass of unleaded fuel and don't forget the cocktail umbrella!

easy tiger are a fully DIY affair: Gabrielle La Rue on vocals and guitar & Sarah Dion (who also plays in NOBRO and Les Shirley) on drums and bass. Their EP Baby, Tag Along (out *today*) takes that "Circle K" energy and cracks on with it for six tracks of brassy party power pop: immaculate riffs, tidy drumming, the occasional hand clap or cowbell hit, a gentle Aquanet-esque mist of the 1980s settling over everything. The sound leans retro but the lyrics are super now; on the festival-ready "Phantom Heart," La Rue sings wistfully about a romantic rival: "She's your favorite / She likes all your posts / Lululemon from head to toe / Is she all you've ever wanted?"

Baby, Tag Along is high-energy, fun as hell, a real breath of fresh air...like if The Cars and The Donnas had a baby. Sarah Dion sent me the band's three music thingz, and YOU should learn what they are...

The shitty guitar
A couple of years ago, one of Gabe's friend was moving out and asked her if she wanted an old guitar he had. She already had a couple but said yes anyway. Since that day, all of our songs got written the same way which is by picking up this really shitty classical guitar with a missing string. It became sort of a ritual for Gabe to write songs on this particular guitar. The day she got it was the day easy tiger was born.
Being self sufficient
Gabe and I (Sarah) have been in the music scene for a long time and played in many bands before making easy tiger a thing. One day, we realized we were able to write, arrange, record, engineer, produce, promote and market our own music all by ourselves. When we understood that we had the ability to do that, we knew it was something that was very special to this band. Being able to translate every idea that crosses our mind into sound, knowing that no one is gonna block that stream of creativity, wether it's music or marketing related, became something we needed and looked forward to.
Access to creative spaces
We own 2 studios, one in the city (Montreal) and one in the woods up North of Montreal. Owning these spaces have been a long time dream of ours and in the past 2 years, we've been able to make it happen.

These spaces are essential to the creation of our music. We can plan where we go to write or record based on the mood and the time we have. This is extremely precious to our project and we're super grateful for it.

Thank you easy tiger! Listen to their EP and check out their link aggregation. They're playing an EP release show in Montreal on 5/8 and another show in Ottawa on 5/9. And thanks for reading I Enjoy Music. If you like it, tell a friend.