Interview with CODA FACTO: ‘What we strive for is to have a classical element mixed with contemporary rock’

Hamilton, Ontario rock band CODA FACTO will release their debut EP ‘Jamesville’ on 1 October, fusing Brit-rock, Americana and melodic, lyrical storytelling.

The band comprises founders Alex DeRoo (vocals, guitar and piano) and Jon Harley (strings, mandolin and vocals). On their debut EP, they’ve also involved esteemed, session collaborators Joel McCabe (guitar, vocals), Matt Gormley (guitar, organ), Chris Gormley (drums, congas), Tim Jennings (drums), Carl Jennings (bass, vocals, producer) and Jason Frederick (synth). DeRoo and Harley met at school 11 years ago. Their name references both the ‘coda’ in music and ‘de facto’: ‘We wanted something completely out there but unique,’ Harley said.

‘Jamesville’ references an area of Hamilton. which DeRoo describes as ‘right in the downtown core, lots of arts and food places and where I work’: ‘I lived down there in that neighbourhood,’ he said. ‘That pink building on our recent artwork (for ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Sounds and ‘Ode to Rose’), that was my apartment, we went out onto the fire escape for that photo. Then, when we were making the album, we got the artist Loraine Mohar to do a piece of artwork for each song. We sent her the demo versions and she interpreted the songs and did collages for us.’ Harley grins: ‘She calls it “analogue collage”, taking inspiration from Victorian art.’

The EP comprises five tracks: ‘Ode To Rose’ and ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Sounds’, which have both been released as singles, and three new tracks, ‘She’, ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ and ‘Hidden Treasure’. DeRoo wrote the ballad ‘Ode To Rose’: ‘Jon and I, at the time, were going to Toronto to see some people close to us. It’s almost a break-up song but it’s not, it’s a reflection piece. The Rachel McAdams part ‘I find it hard to fathom how she looks like Rachel McAdams’ was me trying to be cheeky. The ‘bird’ part (‘I’m the bird who fucked it up’), you say that here if someone says or does something stupid.’

‘It touches on isolation and finding a release through music’

‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Sounds’ is my favourite track and DeRoo says it is currently his favourite as well. ‘I like the energy of that song, that song really makes sense to me – the story, the vibe.’ Harley acknowledges that his favourite changes ‘quite a bit’: ‘I come back to ‘Hidden Treasure’ a lot. ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Sounds’ is one of the oldest on the EP, we chose it because we know it’s really good,’ he grinned. ‘It was inspired by Alex seeing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it’s a cheery, summery song but it touches on isolation and finding a release through music. That song captures it really well.’

It does, as the lyrics attest to: ‘You bring me ‘round when my head’s in the clouds. In the here and now, I’m found making rock ‘n’ roll sounds. You bring me ‘round when I’m upside down.’

Harley continues: ‘What we strive for is to have a classical element mixed with contemporary rock, there’s part of us that always tries to bring in the symphonic (like Muse, of whom they are fans). In ‘Ode To Rose’, in the bridge, I’d rather play the violin part live. I play both violin parts, the viola and the cello in this song.’ DeRoo is looking visibly excited: ‘We did a “strings” day last Tuesday for a new song. It’s such a great day, I don’t have to do anything (laughs). The violin is such an alien instrument to me.’ Interestingly, Harley started to play the violin when he was six but didn’t pick up the cello until he rented one when he was 27, partly because ‘the bow technique is similar’.

DeRoo describes the new as-of-yet unnamed song that isn’t on the EP as ‘big’ and Harley agrees: ‘We’ve always been proud of being multi-instrumentalists. Alex is a multi-instrumentalist, he also plays keys and I play the mandolin as well. I think more of these sounds are coming into our songs as we become more confident in the studio. At the same time, we don’t want to end up like the Walk Hard movie (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007, which criticises many notable musicians and songs), where they make fun of songs like Sergeant Pepper. You have to be careful not to add too much in, it’s so easy to, but we want to avoid going down that line. With this song, we had a sense of where it was going.’ DeRoo is looking pensive: ‘I think I wrote a name down last night for it, I wonder if I can find it? One of the things a song needs to sound good is to be good with just a voice and a guitar. Recently, we did a video of us playing ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Sounds’ at home and it was good to remember that even with the two of us, it still feels big.’

Another track on the forthcoming EP is ‘She’, which for me is one of the most layered and beautiful tracks, it’s incredibly catchy and turns out to be their oldest song. ‘That’s the one we used to play when people asked us what we could do,’ Harley said. DeRoos is smiling: ‘I LOVE that song,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t about anyone in particular, I wasn’t madly in love when I wrote it but I wanted to write a song about the initial stages of falling of love. I wanted it to make people hold their loved ones closer. It’s overwhelming, infatuation, really. I was trying to think about what it would feel like. It was a really quick song, the guitar part came first. I showed Jon that song and he said “Now, you’re on the right track”, he laughed. ‘I was always hesitant about it, it’s a ballad and folky. At the beginning, playing it live, I didn’t know where to put it in the set but I noticed that people were enjoying it, that they started standing closer together, holding their loved ones’ hand, it didn’t matter who you were. On the EP, ‘She’ will definitely be one of the focus tracks.’

It’s the ultimate feel good song: ‘The girl right there is all I’ll ever see. The girl right there is all I’ll ever need. Luckily, she’s with me. The girl right there, I found in my dreams. She wants to be a movie star or something in between.’

‘It’s about exploring the unknown’

‘Hidden Treasure’ is a great closer for the EP, with big, crunchy riffs: ‘I LOVE the big riff,’ DeRoo exclaimed. ‘That was a great collaboration with our producer, he worked on that bass line. The rhythm, lyrics and melody, I’d written those two years before but then Carl started on that big bass line. I was listening to a lot of Talking Heads at the time (laughs).’ I say it would work brilliantly to both open and close a set: ‘We’ve opened and closed with it before,’ DeRoo said. ‘It was written so long ago. The original feeling when I wrote it was more excitement and anxiety, it was written to be a duet, which it isn’t really, although you do hear a female vocal on it. It’s about exploring the unknown and getting to know someone. Those connections are very exciting but they make you very vulnerable, it’s a sensitive subject, but it has an edgy sound.’

As the song goes: ‘Give me your heart. I have no care if it’s broken or scarred. Where do we start? I know it’s hard to lower your guard. Under stones, we can find hidden treasure in our minds.’

Recently, I interviewed a brilliant garage rock band in Hamilton, The Ruddy Ruckus, who mentioned to me that they knew CODA FACTO. It turns out that they have played at a lot of the same venues. ‘A lot of our stomping grounds have gone, though,’ Harley said, looking dejected. ‘Gentrification made it so hard for some places to survive and COVID was the final nail in the coffin.’

Growing up, DeRoo was a big fan of classic rock: ‘We both love The Beatles,’ he said. ‘I’m a big fan of Billy Joel and Rufus Wainwright and Supertramp is one of my favourites for their arrangements and piano parts. We’re both classically trained musicians.’ Harley’s love of The Beatles is evident, as he has a wall behind him full of Beatles’ photos. ‘I love Broken Social Scene (a rock band from Toronto) and Arcade Fire, that was the last concert I saw before the pandemic,’ he said. ‘Radiohead was a big influence and I was hugely into Hendrix as a kid.’ DeRoo interjects: ‘When we were younger at Jon’s place, Jon’s violin would come out and he’d start playing movie themes like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean (laughs).’ Harley is grinning: ‘I was a violin jukebox!,’ he said. As befits their classical training, they both appreciate Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin and Harley is a huge fan of cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

If they could tour with anyone, DeRoo picks Arcade Fire: ‘I’d love to tour with them, there’d be a big crowd,’ he said. Harley agrees; ‘When I was a teenager, they reminded me that classical influences are very cool,’ he said. ‘I love all of their music, I like that they’re a Canadian band in Montreal. If we could tour with them, that’d be a “Woah, we made it” moment!’

(Photo from left to right: Jon and Alex. Photo credit: Ashlyn Vickery of Vicksprints Photography.)