July Talk is back on Canadian soil, and could not be happier to be home. Since headlining McMaster’s Welcome Week concert in September, the band has toured Europe and the United States to promote their new album Touch.
The five-piece outfit began the Canadian leg of their tour in Kitchener on Oct. 25, and frontman and woman duo Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay shared their excitement about the Canadian rock scene, taking more risks in their songwriting and their relationship with their fans.
"The community here is very tight and sort of genre-bending," Dreimanis explained, referring to the collaborative dynamic of Canadian rock artists.
"I think we make a particularly subtle but intense artistic statement. I don't think we're… trying to get clicks or get headlines in the same way international music sometimes has to do to get noticed. We sort of all listen to each other and we make music together."
Both Fay and Dreimanis performed in multiple bands prior to July Talk, and combined elements from those experiences when they started playing together.
"There was sort of a confidence in knowing we both really wanted to push each other's buttons and interact as much as possible within the show," Dreimanis said, referring to the high-energy performances he and Fay give.
Although the sensual live shows that put July Talk on the map are still an integral part of the group’s identity, Touch highlights a side of the band not yet heard by fans.
"I guess with Touch, there's… four years of tour experience— and life experience, more importantly— to kind of influence the things we want to talk about and the way we want to make music and the way we wanted it to affect people's minds and people's bodies when they heard it," Fay said, describing the new approach the group was able to take with their second album.
"When we made the first album, we'd only played a few live shows together," she added. "That album was mostly made by the few rehearsals we'd had… and not really having any input about what it was like to record an album that people were going to actually listen to, because obviously we had no idea if anyone was going to hear it or not."
July Talk’s eponymous debut album was highly successful, perhaps best quantified by their incredibly varied fan base.
"When we first started the band, Peter was like, 'my dream is for us to have a cult following,'" Fay joked.
That following has received Touch with open arms, however Dreimanis admitted that parts of the album presented new challenges for the band. He listed the album’s finale, "Touch," as one of those challenges.
"When we started the band, we had a rule against songs longer than four minutes… I had played in a lot of bands, and played music with a lot of people that sometimes fell into that line of being masturbatory art, where you're doing it for yourself more than the audience," Dreimanis said.
"And so "Touch" was the first time where [our producer] Ian kept… saying to just let it build, slow it down, let it be gradual… I think it opened an entirely new door for the band moving forward."
While July Talk’s following has grown since they first broke onto the scene in 2012, both Fay and Dreimanis have maintained a close relationship with their listeners.
"We just really like being close with the people who enjoy and like experiencing our music with us and learning about us and themselves through listening to it. Because that's kind of all it is: just one big pool for everyone to jump into and get messy with," Fay said.
"As long as it's not absolutely insane I think we'll always try to figure out how to be present and stay connected and be out there with the people after the show."
Despite their constant interactions with audiences around the world, both Dreimanis and Fay have their own pre-show rituals to fully slip into the performance mindset.
"I've been dancing [to Nick Cave’s "Dig Lazarus Dig"] a lot, which just kind of gives me a confidence and swagger that's not necessarily gained by sitting in a sweaty van with a bunch of your best buds," said Dreimanis.
"And I'm really into finding the most reverb-y spot in a venue and just going in and singing Michael Jackson really loudly. Because there's no better friend for a self-conscious singer than a room full of reverb," Fay added.
As July Talk begins their tour across their home country, their excitement is palpable and there is no doubt that they will continue to touch the lives of their fans.
As a Welcome Week rep, I get asked a lot of questions, from where the nearest washroom is to how to navigate the Arts Quad basement.
But I also get asked about staying healthy in university, namely, how to avoid the dreaded Freshman 15.
I entered university with a few set goals for the year. Number one on that list was to be a little healthier—exercise regularly and eat my greens.
The summer before I started at Mac, I read up on the Freshman 15 and made notes on how to avoid the seemingly inevitable weight gain that comes with starting university.
However, what began as a mild precaution about skipping fries and eating more kale morphed into an all-consuming obsession with food.
Essentially, my anxiety about the Freshman 15 nearly became an eating disorder.
I worried constantly about my weight. I counted the calories in every bite I touched, and when that wasn’t enough, I started skipping meals altogether, claiming to be too busy to eat or that I was worried about running out of meal plan money.
Exercise became a punishment for what I saw as lapses in self-control, and something I had always seen as a form of relaxation became a stressor in its own right.
This went on for a large portion of first year. It took a few reality checks and a lot of internal dialogue for me to finally abandon the calorie counters and feel okay about going out for a treat with friends.
I don’t mean to scare anyone — there are enough of those in univeresity. But there are still times where I can feel the urge to revert to where I was two years ago, hunched on my bed calculating the calories in a snack container of carrots and hummus. It felt shitty then, and it feels just as awful now.
Yes, it’s absolutely important to eat healthily, but there should be no shame about comforting yourself with an ice cream after a rough midterm either.
If you gain a few pounds, you gain a few pounds. It’s not the end of the world.
As I made my way through throngs of students adorned by glow sticks in Faculty Hollow, the sheer anticipation for Adventure Club was as palpable as the heavy evening air that hung above us. Just moments ago, Toronto-based synth-pop duo Featurette had set the stage ablaze with infectious energy by playing a dynamic set in front of hundreds of McMaster students at the annual Welcome Week concert. Although the combination of bright lights and loud cheering jarred my nerves, they were quickly quelled as I was warmly welcomed into the duo’s trailer for our interview.
Comprised of singer Lexie Jay and drummer Jon Fedorsen, Featurette is a synth-pop band that features a combination of tantalizing synth hooks and emotionally-charged lyrics. There is a filigree quality to Jay’s voice that infuses every song with a dreamy, iridescent quality on top of punchy bass lines. Similar to other artists in the genre, Featurette draws influences from electro-pop sounds that originate from Northern Europe, Denmark and New Zealand. In 2015, the duo released a two-part debut EP titled Crave Volumes 1 and 2.
Although Featurette is now a synth-pop band, Jay and Fedorsen started off as a folk outfit who later traded in soft acoustic tunes for electronic beats.
“We actually met at band camp. We were both teaching and I knew she played a little of bit of music on her own so I kind of bullied her into playing with me. She had a song book she had been keeping for a couple years and there were some pretty great songs in it,” said Fedorson.
Jay added that the pair were able to fulfill the gaps they each felt in their own music.
Fedorsen said, “Honestly, no real instrument can really give you that sub-bass fullness with as much control as the technology we use does. Having the freedom to dial in certain sounds makes the [process of making music] awesome.”
“It was all [Fedorsen],” Jay said. “He came to me with the concept [for the name of our band].”
“I’ve been in a couple bands when I was really young and what I found happened was that after some initial success with radio tours and perhaps a second album, [the band] would get bullied into making an album of singles,” Fedorson explained.
“And this process would kind of would lose a lot of fans who liked the first work. So I thought it would be nicer– it’s so hard to make an album these days, it takes so long– to have a band that did small featurettes, small stories. [Jay] had a book of songs so essentially that’s the story to our EP.”
“Exactly. It’s the story of a girl. It’s the girl you see on stage,” Jay added.
“In our next album, or the next featurette I should say, she might be angrier. Something else might have happened to her,” Fedorson said.
Jay explained that each vignette will feature a different concept.
“It doesn’t limit us either, we’re allowed to be angry and change with her mood.”
When asked how she began to write songs, Jay accredits her talent to her classical training in music theory and musical theatre.
“I got a guitar for my birthday and I’ve always loved music… In my own deepest darkest moments I would write things down in this book that were just for me; creative but more introverted. But when you take these ideas and put them together with this massively extroverted music [Fedorsen] and I come up with the juxtaposition just makes some really cool [stuff]…In fact, when we wrote our first bio we described our music as 18th century song cycle meets modern day digital romance.”
And it is this juxtaposition that seems to give Featurette its unique persona. Talented musicians who produce great music aside, the duo possess an air that sets them apart from the rest of their field.
The combination of Jay’s classical training in musical theatre, theory and orchestra along with Fedorsen’s experience from playing in jazz, rock and funk bands offers them a diverse array of talent to cultivate their music from.
Judging by the looks on the audiences faces after their set, I’m confident to say on behalf of everyone that we look forward to what story the next EP– or the next featurette– will tell.
Over the years, Frost Weeks, Light Up the Nights and Homecomings have continuously helped McMaster grow together and celebrate. While there are smaller events sprinkled throughout the year, such as coffee houses and club-related events, they typically only include students with a small set of interests and lack the diversity of large-scale events. The magnitude and anticipation that big MSU events have can’t be matched.
Welcome Week passed, and disappointment followed. Not that it wasn’t a great event, I’m sure a large portion of incoming students will cite it for a long time as being their favourite university experience, but that it doesn’t unite the students as successfully as these other events.
If the point was to include returning students, then the advertising and social media wasn’t there to support that purpose. The McMaster Students Union Facebook page had a total of five posts in August concerning the week — all of them focused on the concerts. The McMaster Welcome Week page was centered on first years with lots of coverage on the reps, first-year experiences and an Issuu featuring tips for starting university.
The MSU Campus Events page had a mixed message. The schedule was posted on Aug. 10. 17 days before the first events, the selection of people who saw the post were able to plan out their schedules well ahead of time. However, the extensive coverage about Airbands only began the day of, Bedracers was previewed only two hours before the event and no other events were featured. While Facebook isn’t the only social media avenue, the MSU often doesn’t focus on alternate web channels. The #McSU sidebar persisted instead of #MacWW2016 on their site, and there is still no Instagram link next to their other social media. There simply wasn’t enough promotion.
If the point is to only include upper years for specific events, why is that the case? A constant bubble already persists for a lot of first years in being confined to faculty and residence cliques. The previously mentioned MSU events and general clubs do a decent job of introducing students to the community at large, but the question becomes whether these alone are good enough.
In Patrick Deane’s “Forward with Integrity” letter in 2011, he notes that “We are an institution devoted to the cultivation of human potential, which we believe cannot be realized by individuals in isolation from one another, from their history or their imagined future, from the society which surrounds them, or from the physical universe which sustains them. Our programs and activities will reflect this comprehensive view.” While intended for a larger discussion on the school’s academic identity, it can be directly applied to the separation that happens between incoming students and the rest of the community that aren’t reps.
There is a big opportunity to introduce new students to a large MSU event early on with the rest of the university outside of sports and concerts.
We already have examples of McMaster being able to serve the entire community with Frost Week and Light Up the Night. While it’s difficult to advocate for fixing what isn’t broken, Welcome Week could serve the purpose of introducing new students to one another and bringing the entire community together at the same time.
Even if none of the events change, simply promoting these events to returning students would help with things like lining the sides of the PJ Parade, give Justin Monaco-Barnes a few more trips to the dunk tank and reminding people they can donate to Shinerama. Even if it was always the case, Welcome Week should feel more like everyone can contribute.
Welcome Week is a marathon that passes like a sprint.
First years are bombarded with information. Of course, the intention of this overload is pure, but still. It is a lot to take in.
Everyone is interested in helping first years succeed. But there is a catch: to succeed, some of us need to fail.
It is not hard to find the listicles that give you advice for your university career. They vary, but there is crossover in the advice we hear during Welcome Week and these online sources: “Go to class!”, “Go to your prof’s office hours!” “Do not procrastinate.”
All of this is true and good advice. Following those tips will guarantee you that you get good grades and reduce the stress in your life.
It does not mean you will get a good education.
At university, some of the most important experiences start beyond the classroom. There are opportunities and freedoms that are afforded to you for the first time, and taking advantage of that is not a bad thing.
If you want to sleep in past your 8:30 a.m. anthropology lecture so you can go to Tuesday night karaoke at Boston Pizza, do it. If you are lucky, you will see the 12-year-old kid who shows up and sings “Uptown Funk.” He is an inspiration.
Feel free to put off that essay because there’s literally anything else that’s more exciting going on. Objectively, this is such terrible advice that I am not sure it can even qualify as advice. But if you want to do it, go ahead.
Understand there are some consequences. Experience is the best teacher, and when you’re up at 4:30 a.m. finishing a works cited page, just to realize you’ve used MLA for the entire paper when you were supposed to use APA, you will probably never want to do that again.
Late essays and missed lectures are not ideal, but they are not the end of the world.
You have some room to make mistakes here, and failing can be okay if you learn from it.
By focusing strictly on your studies, you are going to miss out on so much.
Sept. 3 marked the last day of Welcome Week 2016.
This year, approximately 6,000 incoming first year students, McMaster’s largest incoming class since 2003, engaged in eight days of cheering and activities led by enthusiastic reps.
“It was the smoothest welcome week so far,” said Patricia Kousoulas, fourth year Honours Life Sciences student and faculty orientation planner. First-year midwifery student Lauren Tignanelli, the residence orientation planner agreed.
“Everything seemed to click.”
Tignanelli explained that the reason things felt smooth was due to the increased effort of ensuring that people in charge were in better communication with each other before first year students arrived on campus.
“One thing that I felt this year was that people were a lot more open to talk and work things out together before the week happened. People had known each other early enough to work out those knots so when it came to, it was like ‘oh yeah we have a good relationship, this is good, we know what we’re doing.’”
Marina Bredin, fourth year Honours Arts & Science student and faculty planner agreed.
“Lauren and Patricia really cultivated a bonding environment for the reps throughout the summer that really trickled down and spread throughout the rep teams.”
Many of McMaster’s traditional Welcome Week events returned this year, such as the Faculty and Residence Cup competitions. The competition consists of points being awarded throughout the week for faculty and residence teams for events such as Airbands, Bedracers, PJ Parade and Shinerama. Nursing won the Faculty Cup while McKay Hall earned the Residence Cup.
This year, the competition seemed less emphasised than in previous Welcome Weeks.
“In the past, the cup was more of a focus of Welcome Week, especially for faculties,” said Bredin.
To Kousoulas, the cup undermines the aim of Welcome Week.
“For a lot of people Welcome Week feels like a giant competition and that’s why I’m not the biggest fan of the cup.”
This year, however, Kousoulas explained that there was a more collaborative atmosphere around campus.
“It felt like there was a lot more love between the faculties and students. You have an event like Faculty Fusion and everyone’s cheering for their own faculty but you always end with the message that we are “One McMaster.”
The collaborative spirit was also seen in the Shinerama fundraiser, a national post-secondary fundraiser for cystic fibrosis research. Rather than promoting events from previous years that aimed to decrease other groups’ points during Shinerama, reps embraced a more mutually beneficial approach to fundraising. Massages given from Kinesiology reps in exchange for donations were a particularly popular fundraising initiative throughout the week.
Though students and reps did not beat the 2013 Shinerama record of $180,000, McMaster students still came together to raise a total of $107,000.
To concerns regarding the dwindling attendance of first year students at events toward the end of the week, Tignanelli explained that the low turnout is actually a positive sign.
“It shows that students are starting to feel more comfortable on campus. Students are more comfortable going to places on their own and choosing what events to go to, and I think that’s why we do Welcome Week - we want students to make connections and feel comfortable on campus.”
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
A recommendation by the Welcome Week Advisory Committee for an Aug. 29 and 30 move-in day schedule for Welcome Week has been confirmed for next year.
Due to a late-falling Labour Day this year, the structure of Welcome Week 2015 is expected to differ significantly from previous years. Traditionally, the Saturday and Sunday of Labour Day weekend have been marked as the official move-in days to kick off the beginning of Welcome Week, with events continuing concurrently with the start of school on the Thursday.
With the recent announcement and the fall schedule beginning Tuesday Sept. 8, Welcome Week is instead expected to run completely before Labour Day, and thus run separate from the school term.
Beyond that, the options are completely open.
“That announcement marking the move-in days was also the official confirmation for us,” said MSU VP (Admin) Jacob Brodka at the Feb. 22 SRA meeting.
“We’ve had a few conversations about how the week will look, and the next task which we’ll start to look at [will be] the keystones of the week, so we can position those and give a sense of guidance for everyone else who is trying to book venues.”
“The reality is, right now, it’s a blank slate, and that’s the next task for the committee,” Brodka said.
The Welcome Week Advisory Committee is still deciding on the official end of Welcome Week for next year, but a positive recommendation has been put forward for Sunday Sept. 6, in order to leave Labour Day as a recess between orientation events and the fall term.
In the previous SRA meeting on Feb. 8, Brodka acknowledged that moving in the week before the Labour Day weekend would cost students a slight increase in residence fees. However, he noted in that scenario that Residence Life would forego the $15 orientation levy received from each student, reallocating the funds to various other programming options.
A positive recommendation by the WWAC was also made and approved by the Student Services Committee involving a five percent increase of the Welcome Week levy going to faculty societies, as well as a 1.4 percent or about a $10,000 increase to the MSU to cover the Faculty Coordinator position. In addition, $11,000 will remain to cover special projects during the week involving mental health, consent and gender violence, and substance abuse, as well as equity in funding of programming for smaller faculties.
[feather_share show="twitter, google_plus, facebook, reddit, tumblr" hide="pinterest, linkedin, mail"]
A video short by Video Editor Colin Haskin
Another week, another success.
Seven months ago, that success was anything but certain.
After controversy and close scrutiny fell on the McMaster Redsuits for a sexist and degrading songbook connected to the organization, Welcome Week has come and gone with little issue for the Engineering reps. But that's just fine with Shane Zuchowski, one of the Redsuit planners alongside Jose Mercado, who already had their hands full with the ups and downs of the week.
Even after an improbable train of setbacks that includes mixed-up bookings, rain, fire alarms, and losing two buses for faculty night due to accident, Zuchowski has had a good attitude about it all.
"Someone should have just told me to wear spandex - the chafe is real," he said, laughing.
In terms of the first years, it's been one of the most successful Welcome Weeks the Redsuits have had.
"[For faculty night] we had a record turnout of 600 first year students,” he said. “The biggest problem was getting students to go back home. We had to get students back on the bus that were like, 'I don't want to go yet.’”
Of course, it hasn't been all rosy, and it certainly hasn't been easy. Shifting the culture of a group whose identity has been at times associated with drinking and promiscuity was going to receive some pushback. But despite a formal investigation and a rigorous selection process, the responsibility for changing the attitude was largely entrusted to the new Reds by the university.
"We never really had to have a conversation [with the university] about what we can and can't do because we both understood where that line was. Obviously, [things like] glorifying alcohol... and over-sexualizing everything the engineers have done in the past; that was something Redsuit culture was shifting [away from]," Zuchowski explained.
They've had to be creative, but small changes like changing a cheer from "smoke and drink and fool around" to "joke and think and fool around" have helped adjust their approach without neutering the brash and irreverent attitude the group is ultimately known for.
Zuchowski said, "For old Reds, at the very start, there was still the soreness from what happened because for people, Redsuits are a family. We've all been through Welcome Week together, we've all been sleep-deprived, but we've also all gone through the same program, we've all had the same struggles during exams... your friends are right there to support you."
The culture and conversation has changed outside of the controversial subjects, too. Traditions like the fake math test were changed to be called a "success portfolio" to alleviate the real stress some students had in advance of the test.
However, while the shift away from the old culture has been largely successful, other issues were bound to come to the forefront, one of which was a complaint that was submitted for a “fuck yeah” cheer.
“I will fully take responsibility for that issue,” Zuchowski said. “Since the start of Welcome Week, what we’ve focused on mainly were the things specifically outlined in the investigation, which were things like glorifying cheers about alcohol and oversexualization.”
“We realized our mistake… we got rid of it,” he said. “We wanted to apologize because we really didn’t mean anything of it.”
He continued, “understandably, everybody has a different level of sensitivity to things like that, especially curse words, but it slipped my mind [to discontinue it].”
When asked how he felt the Redsuits were able to adjust this year, Student Development Manager and member of the Welcome Week Advisory Committee Jeremy Sandor commented that he was “incredibly happy with how the week went.
“The two planners, Shane and Jose, were tireless through the summer in terms of working with staff from the Faculty of Engineering, the Student Success Centre, and the McMaster Students Union [in order] to make sure that the spirit and energy that the faculty is known for during Welcome Week was preserved,” Sandor said.
Although inclusiveness seems to have had a greater focus this year, Julia Clemens, the Welcome Week Faculty Coordinator, maintains that the philosophy has remained the same.
She said, "In some ways, we've refined behavior, and maybe there's a new perspective where a cheer that you think is harmless... and 95 per cent of students would have been ok with it - we're maybe a little more conscious of the five per cent that is made uncomfortable by it."
When looking at the lack of controversy during Welcome Week relative to the firestorm seven months ago, it’s clear that perspective took a new step this year.
No one ever tells you how to move on after Welcome Week. Maybe you met some new friends, maybe you met some old friends, or maybe you met no one at all (which is totally okay!). No matter your Welcome Week experience, adjusting to the academic grind is always a hassle. The transition is hard - it's tempting to soak in the last days of summer, and midterms are far off on the horizon - making it easy to fall behind. But fret not. Here are three quick points to help you get into university life again no matter what year you are in.
The school grind gets busy fast, so it's easy to get overwhelmed and feel that there isn't time for extracurriculars beyond what you're already involved in. Wrong! It's all about time management - trade those endless hours on Netflix and explore your interests. Be willing to get involved, and take initiative, something only you can decide. Spending time with like-minded people can help keep you grounded even if you are all a bit more introverted or shy. If you do decide to get involved, the newly released MSU Clubza service is an excellent way to catch up on any clubs you may have missed. Better yet, get involved with us here at The Silhouette.
This is easier said than done. Everyone has a story of how procrastination put them in an awkward situation, yet very few people ever take the effort to prevent it from happening again in the future. Again, your time management skills will be tested as you attempt to prioritize what is important to you. Find a balance between academics, hobbies and your inner socialite. As a general guideline, a balanced lifestyle leads to more happiness and a better state of mind. Plan for the unexpected - like the unavoidable all-nighter - but leave room for life as well.
This common phrase does well to paint a perfect picture of health. With help from the Peer Support Line, someone is always there to listen to anything you may face, and psychologists in the Student Wellness Centre can help through counselling. Mental illness is serious business, and seeking the advice of professionals can definitely help. No matter is too small, and someone will always be there in times of need.
A Pulse gym membership is not required for a sound body, but it can help. The stress of being new to the gym is one that is quickly vanished once the realization that there are a lot of new people, as well as staff members who are more than willing to listen to any question you may have. The Student Wellness Centre also has physical-based services such as weight management, screening for sexually transmitted infections, birth control options, general health counselling, and anything else you could think of related to keeping your body in good health.
