The Sailor Jerry Podcast
Inspired by Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins' Old Ironsides radio show on KTRG, we present THE SAILOR JERRY PODCAST! This is a wild homage to all our favorite things – Music, tattoos, travel, spiced rum, and more. Partnering up with our pal Matt Caughthran, the frontman of The Bronx, we're spilling these tales in our own damn style. Brace yourself for biweekly episodes, dishing out killer interviews with musicians who fuel our fire. Buckle up for The Sailor Jerry Podcast – where the coolest stories come to life.
The Sailor Jerry Podcast
82 - Aurora Evans (Wine Lips)
Aurora Evans from the high-energy garage rock band Wine Lips joins us on the Sailor Jerry podcast to talk about the band’s wild ride through the Toronto music scene and beyond. From playing tiny local bars to tearing it up on international stages, we dive into the moments that shaped their journey. We also take a look back at their 2019 album Stressor—the record that kicked off their adventures in the U.S. and Europe—and get the inside scoop on their latest release, Super, Mega, Ultra. Plus, we hop in a Time Machine back to Woodstock, manifest world peace, swap rock ‘n’ roll influences, and so much more!
As always, brought to you by Sailor Jerry!
https://www.instagram.com/winelipsband/
https://www.instagram.com/instaurora/
https://sailorjerry.com
Yo, what's up, Aurora, how you doing.
Speaker 2:Hello yeah.
Speaker 1:Can you hear me okay?
Speaker 2:Yes, I can.
Speaker 1:Awesome. What's up with you, how you doing.
Speaker 2:How's it going?
Speaker 1:It's going good. I'm stoked. I'm stoked to get to talk to you. I didn't know Jazz didn't tell me who I was going to get to talk to, so it was like Russian roulette. I'm excited.
Speaker 2:I don't think we knew who you was going to get to talk to, so it was like Russian roulette. I'm excited. I don't think we knew who you were going to talk to.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, I appreciate you, aurora from Wine Lips being on the Sailor Jerry podcast today. A big fan of the band, we've been trying to make this work out for a long time, so stoked to have you on. Are you guys driving across the states right now?
Speaker 2:uh, no, not well you guys flew.
Speaker 1:Did you fly from la?
Speaker 2:yeah, we flew from la. We just got home on like late late on sunday night I think, and then we're leaving tomorrow morning for the drive oh yeah, oh that's.
Speaker 1:I was looking at that drive going ooh, was it like Long Beach to South Carolina or something? I was like that doesn't look fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no, not doing that, not doing that. We're driving from Toronto, so oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right on.
Speaker 1:So you know, you were just in LA, super bummed, I missed you guys. Alex, alex's Bar is one of my favorite venues. How were the LA shows?
Speaker 2:They were great. Alex's Bar was a lot of fun. Other bands were awesome. We played with Guan and Death Cult, who are sick, annie Taylor as well. They opened. They were great. We did the Days of Confused at this giant warehouse in San Pedro. That Space Agency collaborated with a brewery out there and they yeah they put on a great makeup show for day or for a desert days.
Speaker 1:Nice Is that, was that at the, that kind of brewery space that's over there towards the end of the like. I just went to the, the last no effect show out there in San Pedro.
Speaker 2:I don't think it was the exact same spot. Okay, it was very close from what I know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Yeah, San Pedro is getting pretty active with with venues and shows and stuff. It's pretty rad. It's a great place to go hang out and see some music.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we played there in the past before, I think at a place called the Sardine. Oh, I played there in the past before.
Speaker 1:I think at a place called the sardine. Oh, I've heard of the sardine, I think. Uh, who owns that? There's like a music dude owns that. Uh, fuck, it's escaping me. It's like a guy from a punk band that I should fucking know and I don't know it. This drives me crazy now. But that's, that's dope. Yeah, the sardine is is a good spot. Um, you know, super, mega, ultra, okay, dropped in April. You guys have been, uh, it's an awesome record, congratulations. I know you worked hard on it. Um, you know, you guys have been pretty much on the road since then. You know you're a touring band, which I love. Um, how's the vibe of the band right now? How's everyone feeling? Are you guys road weary? Are you getting your rest where you need to get some rest, or are you just rock and roll all night?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're, we're good, we're good. We're definitely getting tired from like just a big year, but it's been good, it's been fun, it's been good to us Like we've been having a good time and um, yeah, Awesome, that's cool.
Speaker 1:That that's cool. And you guys are from toronto, right we are, yeah, we're.
Speaker 2:We started in toronto, like right now we kind of live all over the place. Our base players in brantford me and andrew, are here. Uh, cam is out in quebec, so we're a little spread out, but uh, kind of base here I suppose yeah, and you.
Speaker 1:So the band started as a two piece. Am I right with that?
Speaker 2:We started as a three piece.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:With our roommate Justin at the time, who also, like, did a bunch of our art for us. But he was probably with us for maybe like the first year which we played maybe like four shows in, and then he moved. He went to like up to a calute um for a while and got some like cool job opportunity out there. He was like an art guy, obviously he was doing our art.
Speaker 2:That's what he wanted to do. So we did that and we kind of just like continued from there, had a couple bass players, eventually tacked on a second guitar, and we've sprinkled in a little more here and there, but mostly just now we're four piece.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Cool. And what about? What about you? How did your kind of musical journey start? What's your, what's your background? Do you have any like musicians in the family or anything like that?
Speaker 2:ish. My background with music was like I kind of started in church. I was like my brother like kind of played like a little guitar, a little drums and like eventually I like kind of picked up from him our parents like us a drum set, um when I was probably 10. Um took a while to like pick anything up with it, but eventually I was like learning a bit from my brother, learning a bit from like eventually like putting in music and like kind of playing along to it, and took a few years for that stage, but eventually I started getting into it a little more and at one point I was playing drums for like the church band I was gonna say you had to be at one point.
Speaker 2:At one point it had to happen and and like to tack on to that the drum set that I have now. I actually bought off this church like probably, uh like, 15 years ago now 15 year old drum kit, blessed by god, can't be.
Speaker 2:Can't be that bad older than older than 15, because the church probably had it for five years, because I was there when they bought it, brand new too. So I kind of like I almost feel like they got it for me. No, I didn't pay a little bit for it, but no, yeah, that's the one I still use every show to this day.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. And as you started kind of branching out outside of the church into music and stuff like that, what did you like? What were some bands that kind of had an impact on you and your kind of formative years.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean I played a lot of paramore when I like hell yeah believe it or not, um, and then like in.
Speaker 2:So it wasn't until I got to college, which I was like 20 years old, um, that I like started playing music with bands, um, and like going to actual like live shows and stuff like that. So a few of like the bands that were like going at the time, that were like hyping me up, were like dirty nail pup, um, the mothers, um, and these are like ontario, sort of like rock and roll bands that were coming up like back in 2010, 2012, sort of thing, and that was what was like getting me excited about, like doing this yeah, I uh, we've we've toured with 30 nil a bunch of times and we took out single mothers on on a run.
Speaker 1:That was amazing. Drew is the fucking best and you know. Speaking of Toronto, you know, for those who don't know incredible music scene there. A lot of great artists come from Toronto, toronto area. As the band was getting started, you know like what were. If you were to look back on like the early days of the band was getting started, if you were to look back on the early days of the band, what are some things you remember about those times?
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, when we first started as a band, just like playing little shows at this bar called the central um, that was like that's just like two blocks away from where I still live now and just like walking gear back and forth from the bar, so close, and we'd have our friends come out and we're at that. We were still partying after shows and like we just come back here and party and have like a brigade of people help load the gear back. That's how everything started.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you know, as the band kind of progressed, you know, album to album, you got four full lengths out now, which is incredible. I mean you've got the debut in 2017. Stressor came out 2019, which was a big record for you guys. Um, you know, I guess, if we can kind of divide the band by covid, um, you know what was, what was the kind of, what was the kind of pickup like from self-titled distresser, because I know you guys started getting a lot of press around then were you just touring pretty heavy. Uh, was there really any like big difference in the band album to album, from self-titled to stressor?
Speaker 2:um. So from self-titled to stressor, that sort of stressor is where we first started booking ourselves in the states and that's sort of like that's a big thing like breaking over, breaking over the other side of the border. Um, is was definitely helpful and I think that was kind of like the start of it. And then it kind of jumped from there. With the second album we did, or with the third album, sorry, from stressor to to mushroom we were a stomp and then we started like going to europe as well, which was like a next step and kind of goes from there hell yeah.
Speaker 1:How's Europe for you guys?
Speaker 2:Europe's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Europe's sick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great. It's great. They're great to us. Shows are awesome. Everything's pretty, pretty dope.
Speaker 1:Awesome. And then you know, just from a listener standpoint, you know, one of the things that I hear in your guys' sound evolution, album to album is I feel like the guitars just seem to get more and more kind of just like crazier and unhinged like record to record, and it's something that I really, as a listener, enjoy. You know, I know as a singer there's only real so much you can do album to album without. You know. I mean, your style is your style and I feel like, instrumentally guitar it's one of those things that can kind of really elevate a band sound. As a drummer, where do you sit with like your own personal like music evolution versus band evolution? I know sometimes it's tough to exist in a band and kind of get your own wants and needs out of it. From your instrument standpoint, how do you feel about the band's kind of evolution from where it started to where it is now and your drumming involved with it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so like with guitars, as you're saying, there's a reason why we needed to get that fourth member thrown in because between Stressor and Mushroom Best Ex-Bummer Party. We started slapping a lot more guitars onto that record in comparison to Stressor, and that's when it was like all right now, I think we need the extra person to to fill these parts in, because it's not going to be.
Speaker 2:It won't be the same without it yeah, yeah, absolutely and then, as for myself, uh, I feel like I definitely was a little more raw. Um, just looked like the first album and like, that being said, like we recorded that in this basement apartment. Um, it was like super diy, everything was raw. Like cam probably had like a third of the pedalboard or like a quarter of the pedalboard he's got still using the same drums but and almost symbols, but uh no, with the sound it just elevates with or escalates with, like whatever band I'm listening to heavily like the hive the hives, uh like returned into my rotation and a lot of like how they sound is kind of what I dial into sometimes when we're playing and I like that comparison.
Speaker 2:It's sweet. I love the hives. Just like new bands that we've like I've started listening to over the years, like the OCs or Ticey Geller, like Bad Nerves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Bad Nerves are so sick. Yeah, How's your? How's your? How's your high hat, How's your? Yeah, you got a tight high hat with the nothing, but I'm working on it yeah, that's. It's a key to the punk rock sound. Not a lot of people understand that the hi-hat is very important. Um, you know, I was gonna say this is your second record with, is it simon? How do you say his last name?
Speaker 1:simon lever shet yeah yeah, what's, what's, uh, your guys's relationship to him, and like, how was the like, how's the recording process going for for super mega ultra? Like how was that kind of walk me through it? Like, how do you, uh, how do you guys write a song?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean yeah, so this is, this is, or super mega ultra was the third record we actually did with simon.
Speaker 2:The other, the self-titled, was the only one we did without him okay, cool but uh, as for like the process, we we met simon because we all went to school in london, ontario, um, at fanshawe college, um, he also went to school down there and sort of opened his own studio down there and kind of word of mouth and just like people that we knew, sort of using him. That got good results. Eventually we tried him out with Stressor, that first record and yeah, no, it's a really good experience. Everything's smooth, everything's comfortable. Like we connect with him like really well on like a personal level, um, and then on a business level. Everything is really well done and really casual but efficient, you know, and the process is like like he has his studio, um, typically like we stay there as well. There's like a room on board, we're in the kitchen and everything where we can just kind of make ourselves comfortable. It's. It's nothing like super fancy, but it's like homey, yeah, nice and cozy.
Speaker 2:Um, and yeah, the writing process, like a lot of the time we're pretty much coming in with having done some demos for these songs already. Cam will uh like record a demo and sometimes I'll have drums with it, sometimes he won't, depending, but those will get put together, um, and then we'll just sort of bring it to the studio and from there, like simon kind of helps with some production as well, like on top of engineering. Um, him and cam will often just sort of dial everything at the end and piece it together. As it turns out kind of been a similar process for all three records. I can't say that they've been identical in like the sense of whatever microphones he's using. I couldn't speak for that. But, um, honestly, yeah, the the process has always kind of been the same and just the the writing is just kind of gets a little bit different every time and yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, going back to your own kind of musical journey for a second, you know, was there a moment like, were you? Were you always like, okay, as, as you went down the the rabbit hole with, with, with the drums, were you okay, I want to be a drummer? When was the point when you were like I want to be a drummer in a band? And then, when was the point where you're like, okay, actually, I'm going to do this, I'm going out on the road, I'm committing myself to being in this band? How was that moment for you and is that something you always wanted to do?
Speaker 2:I think like when I was younger, whatever I wanted to do was always changing um, but definitely I and I never really considered like drums as a career. When I went to school, like where I said we all met at fansha, I was going to like see if I could like be like a sound engineer kind of thing. I was like yeah interested in playing drums. Maybe this can translate to being a sound engineer. Turns out it doesn't.
Speaker 2:I mean it could have. It could have. Um, for me it did not. I'm I'm not a sound engineer expert by any means. I know a couple things here and there, but definitely nothing, uh, that'll get me anywhere, um, with that career. But through that we met musicians and started bands and that was, like I said, that's when my first band was. So from there I was like, okay, this is cool, this is fun. Um, but I and then I just sort of started doing small tours, like um one weeks here and there with like the bands that I was playing with. And then it wasn't until like maybe when wine lips started and probably like did our first Europe tour where we saw like the audience kind of really growing and coming out of nowhere also because we've never been here before. Um, that's when it got cool and real.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hell yeah, that's awesome. That's always such a uh, you know, such a cool. Sometimes it's not identified by a single moment, but I feel like there's a time in every musician's or artist's or band's life when it goes from, like you know, being something that you're just casually doing, and then you know you're doing it full time, it full time. But then outside of that, there's like an internal moment where you kind of flip that switch and you're like, okay, like this is it Like? I'm going to do this, I'm going to apply myself to my instrument, I'm going to be, you know, serious about what we're doing in the band. I'm going to show up, make sure I'm this. You know, I'm here for everybody who needs me, all that type of stuff. And then I feel like the collective energy of the band just levels up a little bit as everyone kind of steps in, and then it just goes and it builds and it evolves and it's a cool thing, man.
Speaker 1:I see you guys getting bigger album to album and I have a ton of friends that are music heads that are coming to me being like, hey, have you heard, have you heard, wine Lips? I went and saw them and it's just, it's cool, you know, cause I see you guys over in the States just kind of leveling up on that. So it's rad. Congrats to everything you guys got going on.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, a couple of questions from the internet here. Okay, the first one is this we got, we got. There are a lot of sketchy biopics about musicians coming out lately. We got bob dylan, uh, amy winehouse, bob marley, jimmy hendrix. No one seems to really enjoy the actor or actress playing the lead role. Um, who would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
Speaker 2:I'm really bad with, like actors and actresses names. Okay For me. Um, well, I'm like a redhead, so that I feel like I should like stick with that, and that narrows down my options, which makes it great. Um, I'll say, the little redhead girl from, uh, stranger things, she could, yeah, she could probably pull that off. She was cool.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that. She is cool. All right, here we go On a scale of one to ten. How sketchy is your algorithm?
Speaker 2:my algorithm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like what's your explorer page look like on Instagram.
Speaker 2:A lot of probably tacos Always looking up. We were just in like LA and trying to find tacos every day and we just ended up at the same spot.
Speaker 1:Where'd you guys go?
Speaker 2:There's like a street corner that had like a tent that was put up. I got some hives in my uh, my feed in Dawson's Creek. Uh reminders.
Speaker 1:Are you a Dawson's fan?
Speaker 2:Not really, but the pop-ups always come up, do you remember?
Speaker 1:that meme of him crying that was going around for a while. That was such a great one. It was a really old school meme.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I it's not really that's not very sketchy aurora.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna be honest with you. I feel like that's pretty, that's pretty safe. It's pretty safe like 182 truck, that's cool oh yeah, yeah, that is cool yeah no, it's not really sketchy, sorry. No, it's all right. That's good. That's good, that's a good thing. You mentioned Paramore already. What's a? What's a band or artist who has had a big impact on you personally?
Speaker 2:Probably the hives I'll recirculate back to them. They've been. They've been pretty, pretty inspiring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're the best. Have you guys gotten to play with them yet?
Speaker 2:We haven't got to play with them yet. I don't know when we will, I don't know if we will, but we're trying constantly to make it work. Um, but yeah, we saw them with bad nerves, um, like three weeks ago at history in Toronto, which was dope, great show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, bad Nerves is crushing right now as well. And yeah, the Hives are good friends and one of the best bands ever. I mean, just the coolest group of dudes and just the most amazing band. I'm sure what's that?
Speaker 2:Show and ship like the music, everything, oh yeah it's, it's um, and they're, you know, in.
Speaker 1:You know they're also one of those bands who is still very interested in like the scene music bands coming up. You know that's why I'm sure at some point you guys will end up playing with them, because they're always looking out for, like, new bands, garage rock bands, punk rock bands, anything that they can do to kind of help the next generation come up. And you know the Hives also like to like. You know they also like to remind the next generation coming up who they are, that the Hives are still the greatest rock and roll band of all time.
Speaker 1:It works both ways for them, you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Awesome. A couple of hypotheticals here to finish out the interview. I don't want to take up too much more of your time. Roy, I appreciate you being here on the podcast. Let's go with the first one. We're going to go classic. We're going to go classic time machine, hypothetical. Okay, so you step out of your apartment, condo, house, mansion, whatever it is that you're coming live from, and there's a time machine right outside. Someone super cool opens the door Jimi Hendrix, or something like that and they say hey, aurora, come on in Anywhere in the future or not in the future, anywhere in history you want to go? Where are you going to go first and why?
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is a question I should know the answer to. Where would I go and why there's so many? Obvious? I'd go to Woodstock because wouldn't it be like something to experience? Woodstock would be cool yeah, um, is there anything else that I've missed? So many things, so many. What good things have I missed? I think I might just stick with that like that woodstock.
Speaker 1:You go to what? Hey, you know what stock is, a. It's a good answer. It's a good answer. What?
Speaker 2:about. I know it's so generic. I wish I had something better. I feel too on the spot. I need more time.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, in in your defense, no one's ever said Woodstock before, so it's you know you're. You're our first Woodstock, so that's good. I feel like sometimes it was like sending questions out to people, Like they get so like I've done it a couple times and they get so wrapped up in their own answer that it's like the most ridiculous, like it's so much time, I would have like said something like like one stock yeah, so all right.
Speaker 1:So get ready for this one. Then we're going from. We're going from a time machine, we're going to a genie in a bottle. Okay, I don't know. You pop open your beverage of choice. Genie comes out, says what's up, aurora, one wish it's all yours Granted. What's it going to be?
Speaker 2:Oh man, one wish, and this could be on any spectrum.
Speaker 1:Any spectrum.
Speaker 2:How could I not wish for world peace? Come on yeah. I'd love for you to have one wish. And not say that, yeah, is that about as good as have one wish? And not say that yeah. Is that as about as good as an answer as Woodstock Definitely?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know, world peace is one of those things where you can't I mean you can not wish for world peace. There's people who have not, but I feel like you have to, you know, and then if anyone ever found out that you got one wish and you didn't wish for world peace, might be a problem yes, now let's say world peace is already thank you, yeah let's say that, let's just say that let's just say the world is peaceful having a better answer and not, um, having a world worry about, about the status of the wellbeing of humanity.
Speaker 2:On top of that, I would say, if I could be granted one wish, it would be to keep doing what we're doing, probably just until I need to retire, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I take that like comfortably just keep doing what we're doing. Yeah, hell, yeah, I like that comfortably just keep doing what we're doing.
Speaker 1:And yeah, hell, yeah, I like that is there. Uh, I know you guys got a lot of touring plans coming up this year. Is there? Have you got? Where haven't you guys been? Have you done like South America and all that stuff? Yet?
Speaker 2:no, we haven't done South America or Mexico. We've kind of we've done like Canada, us, we've randomly done China and Hong Kong at one point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was that all about? How was that? Was it sick?
Speaker 2:It was weird, it was cool. It was cool. It was like 10 days of like a jet lag, like confusion, but it was just an interesting experience, that kind of we just decided not to pass up on and played some shows.
Speaker 1:How were the shows? Were the shows like what's the energy like in hong kong?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean we kind of played like uh, almost like english pub style places, like it was a very interesting experience. Um, yeah, and like some of them were like, we kind of felt like we're like maybe eating during or playing during like dinner time. Some were like fun and the energy was there, but we also, um, worked a bunch of covers into our set because that was kind of oh, what were the covers?
Speaker 1:what were the covers? What is what's wine lips covering?
Speaker 2:white rabbit flash by the rolling stones really we did. Um devil in disguise uh, we did. These boots are made for walking nice I can't I know those three for sure. And there was probably what's.
Speaker 1:What's? Is it a guitar lead? When it picks up the bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, the boots are made for walking part. What's? Do you guys have someone come out and play horn or something? No, no horn I can't remember so they'd like just paint. Just paint a little bit of a picture for me and honest, like are they? Are they moving around like a like? Okay, if you had your regular Wine Lips crowd moving around, what was it? Like? Hong Kong, china? Are they just kind of watching the band play?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was a lot of watching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but still cool as fuck.
Speaker 2:Still cool as fuck we're there, that's awesome. Someone kind of like arranged like the transportation and accommodation kind of stuff for us. So it was just kind of like us just trying something new.
Speaker 1:Did you see the Great Wall?
Speaker 2:No, we weren't anywhere near that and we were in, like, southern China, which is like close to Hong Kong, and we didn't really venture too many hours from there, cool, you guys been to Australia.
Speaker 1:I've been but not as a performer. A performer, oh man, you guys have got to go. It's going to be sick when you do trying.
Speaker 2:We're trying, we've uh, I think we've maybe found someone that might be able to help us out. Uh, because, yeah, we've dipped our toes into some conversations about it before, but nothing is uh nothing's happened yet. Yeah, yeah so we're just trying to figure, find the best uh option for it to happen awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so sick down there, man, they go, they go crazy for for rock and roll. It's, it's amazing. Um cool, aurora, thank you so much for your time here on the say the jerry podcast. We got one last question. Okay, we got one last question and it's going to be all right. I know you got this. What, to you, is the meaning of life?
Speaker 2:Oh man, what is the meaning of life? To live happily and generously and just be content with the? Oh gee, I don't know.
Speaker 1:You were doing so good. You were doing so good.
Speaker 2:I can't answer that question. What is the meaning of life? Yeah, live happily.
Speaker 1:I like that. Aurora, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate you being here on the Sailor Jerry podcast. Everybody go check out Wine Lips on Tour, super ultra mega out now. Go listen to that shit, aurora. Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, you're welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:Awesome Peace.
Speaker 2:Take care.
Speaker 1:Yeah.