Bringing new life to the Toronto rock music scene, Drop Top Alibi has been making waves in their city since 2016. Founding members Brandon Gregory and Dylan Wykes solidified their lineup with Luc Ricci on bass and Jeff Cox on drums. The high-energy 4-piece, Drop Top Alibi, is quickly becoming one of the most sought after rock collectives in the GTA.
Drop Top Alibi’s brand new single 'Summer Nights & City Lights' is a timeless track that was produced by five-time Juno award-winning and Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter Michael Hanson. The guitar comes in soft but quickly intensifies. The soundscape is reminiscent of 90’s alt-rock with more a classic feel. Drop Top Alibi puts their authentic flair and spin on a familiar sound and makes it all the more contemporary and accessible for the masses. A journey through spectacular instrumentation, skillful use of contrast, quiet, chaos, and everything that it means to craft artistic audio from scratch. DTA’s 'Summer Nights & City Lights' is a superb example of how you can take a genre that’s exceedingly well known, and re-build it in a new yet still soulfully relevant manner. Let your mind wander and groove into the melodic and wonderful soundscape of 'Summer Nights & City Lights'.
Check out 'Summer Nights & City Lights' here and read more with Drop Top Alibi below!
Welcome to BuzzMusic! We love your track “Summer Nights”! What do you hope your listeners take away from it?
Thank you so much! This song is about going all-in on whatever it is that makes you feel alive. I guess I’d like for the listener to just feel an overwhelming feeling of good vibes, rejuvenation, anticipation, and excitement when they hear this song. The journey is oftentimes the most exciting part of achieving anything, and this song is an expression of that. Being blinded by the light, knowing the risks, but not giving a f*** about it.
What’s your writing process like as a group?
Typically I’ll (Brandon Gregory) have a decent amount of a song written. The main riff, some sort of hook, maybe even some arrangement stuff as well. I’ll purposely leave some things undone before bringing it to the room with the boys, to see what other flavors can come about. Everyone in this band has their strengths, and since we’ve had this four-piece lineup, the writing has become a lot more collaborative. Sometimes I’ll have a whole song done, but even then, sometimes someone else just has an idea that works well and we start exploring that option. It’s become a lot more fearless, not worrying too much about norms and structure formulas. Having multiple guys who are good singers and melody writers helps that as well.
For someone who has never seen you perform live, what’s your stage presence like?
Drop Top Alibi is definitely an energetic and high octane rock n’ roll experience. We’ve always prided ourselves on being the band that everyone walks away from the show thinking, “who the fuck were those guys?!?” It’s been a lot of fun this year, our confidence is high and we’ve been turning a lot of heads in the industry. Drop Top is lucky in a lot of ways too. We’ve had the pleasure of working and touring with legends like Gilby Clarke (formerly of GnR), I Mother Earth and Norwood Fisher from Fishbone. The lessons we’ve been able to learn by just being around these people are immense. I guess I would tell someone who’s never seen us that they are going to see an old school well-oiled rock n’ roll show. Face melting and gut-busting!
When you’re not making music, what do you all do?
Everyone works. I was working as a carpenter building custom cottages and mansions for a while, but now I’m teaching music and playing a lot of cover gigs for cash as well. Dylan works as a BMW Motor Rad mechanic, Jeff is a supervisor at a parts warehouse for a medical company and Luc works as a server/manager at a fancy Italian restaurant. It’s helped fund everything we’ve done so far, and has helped to keep us humble. If music can one day become our full-time job, we would’ve earned it by burning the candle at both ends for years to make it happen.
Do you have any upcoming events or shows you’d like to talk about? What’s next for you through the end of 2019?
Drop Top Alibi will be hitting the road across Ontario and Quebec in Canada, come October to support “Summer Nights.” We have the pleasure of playing with “The Wild!” In November, and are hoping to get back to LA early next year. It’s time to reconnect with some old friends, and run away from Toronto’s winter!