The New Cities Spotlight

There's a new band on the Canadian music scene...they have a hit single which you've likely heard all summer long.

The band? The New Cities (Sony Music). The single? Heatwave

The New Cities hail from Quebec (the original core of the New Cities hails from Trois-Rivières) and they seamlessly blend together a mix of pop, punk, modern rock and dance into a radio friendly vibe and their live shows are getting a lot of attention.

They may already have a hit single under their belt, but The New Cities are already itching for what comes next. Their high-voltage live show is making a mark on the Canadian concert circuit, but the band’s vision is wider than that...as band member Nick Denis sees it, “There’s a mentality where you don’t feel like you can take it out of Quebec. You always feel like it’s more of a dream than a possibility.” No such limitations exist for the New Cities, as they’ve signalled to their label and management. “We made it really clear that we love to play in Canada, but it’s always good to know you can go further.”

The New Cities have a new album coming out on September 27th called 'Kill The Lights' and during a stop in Ottawa on their massive promo tour (as they gear up for a big concert schedule), I had a chance to catch up with Julien Martre (bassist/singer) and we chatted about their live shows and growing up in Quebec.

Your band has a really strong online/social media presence. How important is for you as a band to connect with fans on that level?

It is very important to us to be able to connect with our fans on a regular basis. Their overall feedback for sure has an impact on some of our band decisions!

Growing up in Quebec - were you influenced any way by the very unique and distinctive Quebec music culture?

I think everyone in the band has listened to some Francophone/Quebec music at some point, I personally really like acts such as Jean Leloup and Daniel Belanger and I'm sure we got individually influenced by it at some level.

If we had to come up with a 'New Cities: These are the bands that inspired us' list, what 5 bands/artists would be on it?

Hard to speak for the whole band but I'll try! Daft Punk, Blink 182, Bloc Party, NIN, Death From Above 1979.

Now it's your turn to play DJ and create a 'New Cities Playlist'...what 5 songs are you listening to right now that you love?

Skrillex - First of the Year (Equinox)
Band Of Skulls - Fires
Take The Night - Take This Party Home (awesome brand new act from Montreal)
Awolnation - Sail
Blink 182 - Up All night

So you've done a lot of touring with major acts...BEP, Katy Perry, NIN....any stories from the road that you want to share? Any favourite touring moment?

Definitely a lot of awesome and memorable moments, the NIN concert was definitely one of them. We were totally amazed by them definitely one of our favourite moments! As far as touring stories...a very recent one actually...Nick and I literally got attacked by a wasp on stage, good thing our stage tech, Jeff resolved the issue quickly!

With all the touring you've done you're known as a great live act that is fun and very energetic...what is it about performing live that you guys love so much?

The connection with the audience is definitely our favourite part, no matter what type or size of venue it is a really important thing for us to make everybody dance and have a blast!

Last word is yours....anything you want to say to your fans?

Well we just want to thank all our fans, in Canada but also everywhere in the world and assure you all we will be seeing you very soon as we plan on doing a crazy lot of touring for our new record Kill the Lights!!