Founded in 2016, the Toronto, Canada based band Cigar Club is a classic rock hit with an alternative garage twist. The band is made up of Trevor Coughlin (vocals/guitar), Daniel Amato-Gauci (vocals/ guitar), Jeffery LeFort (bass), and Tyler Booth (drums). It can be seen through their playing styles that Dan, Trevor, Tyler and Jeff possess a distinctive connection with one another.
With influences such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and John Mayer, the sound of Cigar Club contains a punch of rock n roll, with soul subtleties. The band has also dived into the realm of pop rock, hard rock, blues rock and grunge, showcasing their eclectic musicality. Their latest single “Holly White” snatches every edge you could possibly have with their multifaceted components and unpredicted transitions through dynamics from soft and subtle to chaotic and brashful!
“Holly White” begins with a delicate mellifluous chord from the instruments and hazy vocals from Trevor and Daniel. Their unique vocal resonance possesses a quality of raspy and tough rock grit with also a tone of intricacy that can carry a ballad forward if they chose to. What we interpreted from listening to “Holly White” is that the lyrics is dedicated to a girl that may seem out of their reach due to her high standards and almost flawless traits. The lyricism is romantic and the gorgeous tune emphasizes the emotion being projected by the vocalist.
We like how this song immediately begins with an ear-piercing note from the electric guitar to prepare you for the musical orgasm you’re about to experience! There are very few young bands that possess the presence, skill, and sound to become a staple for today’s rock listeners. A new generation of rock bands are on the rise, and it’s only a matter of time until they surface. Bands like Greta Van Fleet, The Glorious Sons, and Royal Blood have done just that by recently stepping into the sights of the general public. However, Cigar Club are not too far behind and with a leading single like “Holly White” and other stimulating hits like “Soul” “Raised By Love” and “Jacket On The Floor” off their self titled EP, that time could be sooner than we expect!
Listen to “Holly White” here and get to know Cigar Club in our interview below!
Cigar Club, you guys have some amazing songs off your EP. Which are some of your personal favorites?
Thank you thank you... well we've been playing and writing songs together for quite some time now so when it came time to record this thing we decided we'd do 5, and that was our 5 favourite songs out of our bag. We love them all for different reasons - "Soul" and "Raised by Love" for example we wrote super early in our bands existence and we love them. They were the first songs of our own that we'd finished playing and said "oh fuck yeah!", girls also liked them which was cool. I love Miss Jane (Trevor) because of how it came together and that freight train of guitars and drums that just slaps your ears in the face when it kicks in. I had the riff beginning part for a little while and didn't know where to go with it so it kind of sat around, then one day I remembered this real cheesy and bad protest like song that I was trying to write a long time ago and I took the guitar part from it, cranked an overdrive pedal and started singing over it and a few days later realized the two half songs would make really good friends, becoming Miss Jane. "Jacket on the Floor" is funny because I wrote it in my basement really high and alone one night about a nonexistent girl with no jacket to put on any floor, and then a few months later the song came to life and it sucked.... but I do really love that song now... brings back a lot of nice memories. "Holly White" I love because of where I was at in my life when I wrote it and how excited Dan was when I showed him when we were both drunk as hell at his place in Waterloo. Also people that come to our shows usually tell us they like it and we always have fun playing it. Out of all 5 definitely Miss Jane and Holly White rank on top for all of us.
"Holly White” could be interpreted in many different ways by listeners, but how do you guys interpret the song? What is the meaning behind it?
I think most people have a good idea of what it means, most people have been to that place at some point and if they haven't yet they're either really good at being social or they should get out more. It's just about being insecure and socially anxious and dealing with peer pressure.
There’s a lot of cool transitions in this record. Do you guys like to switch it up and show versatility within the song?
Sometimes, yeah. We just enjoy playing together and all love so many different genres of music it just kind of happens
What's the bands favourite lyric line from "Holly White", was the songwriting process collaborative amongst all of you?
"lights out, telling me to be social" ...
Usually one of us will come in with lyrics and a basic structure and we'll all add our own flavours, that's how we did this one. Tyler actually wrote the second half of the second verse too.
What can we expect to see from Cigar Club throughout 2019?
Not as much as you can in 2020 .......... But in all seriousness we have a lot of shows planned and mainly just focusing on writing new stuff for an album come some time. Not too sure when we'll be stepping in the studio for that but 2019 definitely will consist of its writing process.
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