www.myspace.com/heypredator
Sally Lin / The McGill Daily
Band Members
Avrum Hollinger, Taylor Fredricks, Luke Fowlie, Zakir Jafry, Tristan Matthews, Vincent Richard
Sounds Like
A pack of feral dogs eating Blood Brothers, Ultra Dolphins, North of America, and Weights and Measures.
Record Label
Aribin Sillah
Upcoming shows
November 22 with Parts and Labor, Special Noise at Zoobizarre (6388 St. Hubert). Doors are at 8 p.m. and tickets are $8.
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McGill Daily: What’s the story behind your name?
Zakir Jafry: There were gazillions of band names…
Tristan Matthews: We’d keep one as a joke, for two weeks, and then change it for another. It’s really hard to come up with a band name that six people can agree on! […] The Blood Brothers were a band we all liked, and they broke up, so Taylor said, “It’s totally fair to take one of their lyrics or song titles as a band name.” So he compiled this giant list of eighty Blood Brothers-related names, and we all had different choices. And he kind of just threw Hey Predator! in without telling us. I didn’t recognize it, but I just assumed it was a Blood Brothers reference. It was something we agreed on, and it was the only one that wasn’t a reference. […] Because there’s an exclamation mark, it’s sort of goofy and cutesy, but then really creepy. The term “predator” especially has this underlying creepiness. It’s a cool conflict.
MD: Is there a certain sound you want to create?
TM: It’s usually on a song-by-song basis. Someone will come in with a part or an idea, and have to sell it. It never sounds good right off the bat because there are so many of us. I’d say the best description we’ve heard so far was from [Toronto band] Whiskey Priest, who said, “Your songwriting is so eccentric!” and I thought, “Yeah, I think that’s what we’re going for.” Eccentric is great.
MD: Would you describe your sound as eccentric, then?
TM: I think it just comes out like that because there are so many of us.
ZJ: I wouldn’t say we necessarily try for a specific sound. Our influences show in our music, but I like to think we don’t sound like any one of our given influences.
MD: Four of you live together. Has that affected your music?
TM: Usually when you play in a band you see them whenever you’re rehearsing, but then you kind of go a while without seeing each other. But if you hang out anyway, it makes a huge difference.
ZJ: It’s a lot easier to make songs when you like everybody!
TM: There’s also this tension, like “Listen, you didn’t do your dishes, and you also didn’t finish the part for that song!” sort of wrapped into one. (Laughter) I think it’s been productive.
– compiled by Joshua Frank