Still Life Still Are Slaves to Their Art

Posted on Sep 16th 2009 6:00PM by Drew Berner
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In our digital music age, it's easy for album art to become an afterthought to both fans and musicians. But for Toronto indie-rock quintet Still Life Still, creating the perfect package for their debut LP, 'Girls Come Too' was a labour of love.

Drummer Aaron Romaniuk was the mastermind behind the artwork and layout, slaving over every last detail to ensure the band had the perfect presentation to go with their upbeat tunes. "It was such a battle. It took longer to do the art for the album than it took to record it," he tells Spinner in the offices of their aptly-named (and Broken Social Scene-affiliated) record label, Arts&Crafts.

That may sound like an exaggeration, but considering the 11 tracks that make up the album were recorded live off the floor in just two days, it makes perfect sense. Frontman and lead songwriter Brendon Saarinen-Pernar acknowledged the effort Romaniuk devoted to the project. "This guy had one day off a week and he was coming here and slaving away all day."

The end result looks like an art student's thesis project -- a collage of distorted faces surrounded by swirls of watercolour -- but coupled with the lyrics, some of which are typed up, dissected and reassembled like a series of ransom notes, it offers a fresh perspective on the music.

Having played music together for better than a decade -- the core of the group grew up together and started jamming in their early teens -- Romaniuk and Saarinen-Pernar admit they were a band before some of them really knew how to play their instruments.

"Brendon played a little bit of drums and guitar. Eric's older brother played guitar so he kinda knew how to play," Romaniuk explains. "But Brendon showed me how to play the drums and gave me his old drum kit. Derek bought a bass and joined in. Basically, we learned how to play our instruments [by being] in the band."

The group has been building their presence in the Toronto scene by performing live every chance they get and relying on a little old-fashioned word-of-mouth (and hipster hosannas from their BSS booster Kevin Drew). They'll be heading out on the road for the first time ever in September, touring with the Most Serene Republic for their US dates and supporting the Hold Steady as they trek across Canada.