BBQ Pope (Sean, Reid and Duncan) have been nothing short of legendary during their time in the Toronto rock scene. Their individual growth as musicians has made their new material all the better, and the continued lively connection they maintain with audiences makes them a must-see show. Unfortunately, the group took a break a few years back, not leaving much for fans to grasp on to. I was lucky enough to sit down with ⅔ of the band to discuss their disappearance, along with their much anticipated return.

Sparky: I know you guys have been on a hiatus for a while, but has that included listening to music? Are there any new artists you guys are excited about?

Reid: Yeah, no, definitely not a hiatus from listening to music. We’re both big audiophiles, Duncan too – our drummer, who’s not here. Some bands that come to mind for me that I’ve been listening to are Military Gun from L.A. Sean and I both went to see them with our friend Nikki not too long ago. There’s been a lot of punk and hardcore from Toronto that’s been pretty exciting, and from the suburbs too in Brampton. I was listening to DoFlame a lot last year as well. What about you, Sean?

Sean: I’ve been super big into the new Bully album lately. I don’t know if you’ve heard that, but it’s awesome. One of my other favorites recently has been a band named Dazy, just really cool stuff – kind of alternative, electronic, grungy stuff. Also, Primal Scream always. That 90s brit pop, shoegaze stuff is great.

Sparky: Sweet! I’ll keep those in mind. What caused your hiatus, and how does it feel to be back? Is this a full-swing return or are you guys just taking things slow?

Reid: What caused it was we were all really busy in our personal lives leading into the pandemic. I was wrapping up my undergrad, Sean was wrapping up a college program, and we were playing in a lot of side projects. Sean and Duncan were both in a band called Fadeaways, and I’d had some other music going on too. I think we collectively were just pretty burnt, and decided to focus on some other things, while also just taking it easy. That was what caused the hiatus initially, but it’s been really fun to return to. We’ve played two shows technically. Our friend Deanna Petcoff asked us to play her birthday party which was more of a closed event. Going into it feeling like a one off thing, playing in a room with our friends and people that have been around since the beginning of our band felt really refreshing and fun, everyone was excited about it. We were also able to play a show through the Happy Sunday series that The Garrison runs out of their sister venue, The Baby G. Because that event was public, a lot more people that have been around for the whole run came out and were super stoked. That exciting and positive energy is really nice to be feeling. It’s looking like a full comeback, for sure. We’re planning some things, booking some shows, and writing some songs again. It’s been really fun to feed off of.

Sean: We have a show booked at Expo Warehouse on February 24th that we’re focusing on right now. We did that Happy Sunday show and got tons of great feedback, which felt really inspiring. We just decided we should really go for it while we can, so we’re seeing what happens.

Sparky: Yeah, that’s awesome! I’m glad to see you guys are back out in the streets of Toronto. Speaking of you guys talking about how you were busy with school, do you have any advice for anyone that is in the same position you guys were in—struggling to balance their creative passion with work or school?

Sean: Well, we’re both out of school now, but we do work jobs occasionally. I think that for artists, there’s always more time. Time is one of those things that stresses artists out the most, so definitely being able to spend time focusing on your art or passion is one of the most valuable things. But at the same time, you do need to make money, educate yourself, learn, and advance yourself. If you don’t do that stuff, your art is not going to benefit necessarily. I went to school for audio production and music business, and I learned a ton. It really helped, but at the same time, doing the grunt work is necessary too for any artist or musician. Just don’t stress out about not having enough time, ‘cause you always do. That’s really the key, just take care of yourself and if you feel you need a break then take it. You can always come back to it.

Reid: Totally, echoing all of that. What was specific to Sean and I’s post-secondary experience was that we studied things related to the arts. I studied theater, while Sean and Duncan both studied production and songwriting. There were definitely communities in our high schools, colleges and universities where we were mostly just studying with other artists, but it’s easy to get stuck in your own institution. I would encourage kids in programs to seek out what's going on in the city or town they’re studying in and try to create their own spaces and community. As teenagers, that’s definitely what benefited us – finding kids that were putting their own shows on and being inspired by that. Also, if you can manage it, find a job related to the arts in some way. Whether it’s administrative, or in another industry where you can transfer skills. I work in publishing, and have a background as a music promoter. I’ve applied that to organizing events for authors. If not that, find a job that’s artist-friendly. Is your boss going to be okay with you asking for time off to go on tour? If not, maybe work at a different restaurant if you can manage to. That would be my two cents.

Sparky: Honestly, that was a bit of a selfish question, as I’m in school in Toronto, and I have a job, while doing this and making music. It’s something I like to ask artists because I really don’t know how to, so I appreciate that.

Sean: Nobody really knows how to do it all, there’s so much work. I saw you’re running that magazine, right? That’s a huge thing, but if you have a school project that needs to be done, focus on that stuff, because your passion will always be there. Your music will always be there too. There’s been months where I haven’t touched a guitar, and comeback to pick it up knowing I’m probably going to be pretty sh**, but you get back to it.

Sparky: Absolutely, thank you. Looking back on your self-titled album, what songs stand out as ones you’re most proud of?

Reid: We were talking about this leading up to this interview, and we both agreed that “No More” is a song that still stands out to us. I think for its simplicity and its honesty—but it’s still very effective and raw. “Blank Screen” is a song that I think also stands out for similar reasons. Maybe this is a selfish answer, but I don’t think there’s a song I look back on and cringe at or anything. I think that collection was a nice time capsule of our senior year of high school. There’s a lot that didn’t make the cut, so it just feels like the best of what we started off with. I definitely still like that record a lot and really enjoy playing those songs.

Sean: I really like “Sad and Stoned.” “Blank Screen” is also a really old song that was on our first EP, same with “Cartoon Moon.”

Reid: Yeah, there are demo versions out there. Sean and I were in a band in middle school, and the riff for “Blank Screen” was the last one we wrote in that band before we discovered music that would go on to inspire BBQ Pope. It’s kind of a weird archetypal shift in our music taste and playing styles that followed us, which is fun to look back on.

Sparky: I like that album a lot because it’s not trying to be something it’s not. It’s very authentic and feels like something you can look back on and be proud of rather than a cringe-fest for you guys. I feel like that’s hard as an artist, but like you said, it feels more like a time capsule than anything.

Reid: To give myself one thorn, it’s definitely a time-capsule of me not entirely knowing how to sing yet. There are a couple of times where I deliver a line and think, “If I could go back and redo that I would.” Other than that, I agree; it’s not trying to be something it’s not. I kind of like that there’s little errors in it.

Sparky: I feel like so much of that is what makes it special. When you’re listening to something like “Cry,” which is one of my favorite songs of yours, you can hear tiny cracks in your voice. It’s so raw, I love that. What’s different about your guys' creative process as a band now? Do you feel the need to differentiate your sound from your older work, or are you guys comfortable using the same formulas?

Reid: We were also talking about this beforehand. It’s kind of funny, our process is basically the same. It’s really just the three of us getting in a room with our instruments. A lot of the time one of us has an idea, maybe some lyrics or chords for a progression, then we start disseminating and expanding. I would say the one difference is that we’re much better players, and we’re much more competent in bringing more textures and sounds. Before, it was a lot of power chords, but now Sean is such a crazy guitar player in terms of his growth. The sounds he’s bringing in are a lot more reminiscent of Brit-pop and grunge. Even psychedelic stuff like the Primal Scream and British bands he was talking about. Our playing styles are a little different, but it’s still just the three of us writing live off of the floor, which is fun. We aren’t really a demo band where we’ll start with demoing as a writing process, we do that afterwards.

Sean: I think one of the really key things for our process now more than before is finding the space for each instrument. Reid said there were a lot of power chords before— not that there aren't going to be more power chords—but because there’s only three of us, each instrument occupies its own range. The bass acts as the rhythm guitar most of the time, the drums obviously act as the driving force, and my guitar has become a bit more of an atmospheric texture. The best reference of that from a more recent release was on the song “Thoughts Grow” from the Sad Reprise EP, which was actually one of the first songs we ever wrote as a band in 2015 or 2016. We’re really just playing with more psychedelic, atmospheric, indie guitar textures. Just finding the space for each instrument to really thrive.

Sparky: Never hurts to add a little bit of texture. Your guys' songs are undeniably catchy, so just out of curiosity, how much of the audience do you consider when you’re making a song?

Reid: I don’t know if I’ve ever considered it as something that’s going to inform a decision that we make. But as teenagers we were the kids singing along, so that experience permeates into songwriting. I find it hard to identify as a musician sometimes, I feel more like a fan of music and I’m emulating things. That role of being part of a scene definitely informs what I want to gain from playing a song, if that makes any sense.

Sean: I feel like when we’re songwriting we’ll try to find little moments like, “Oh, this would be a really cool spot to make a breakdown and make the crowd hush down a bit, then bring it back up.” Just playing with dynamics more. Playing with shots is a really cool way to get people excited about some kind of motif again or whatever it is. We do consider it, but it's not something that informs the overall songwriting process. It’s more for our own pleasure when we’re writing the song, that’d we’d say, “It would be cool to do some crazy shots right here.” Me and Reid have been playing together since we were 9 years old. But with me and Duncan, we met in high school, and we used to jam all the time. It was this really honest chemistry between us where we could read each other's minds sometimes to throw in some crazy fills or a crazy part, just because we can. I think what’s nice about BBQ Pope is that we have always taken ourselves not too seriously. That definitely allows space to experiment and try funny or outrageous things.

Sparky: Yeah, I was reading an interview you guys had done before where you said the first performance you guys did together was meant to be a joke, but that joke ended up being really well-received. It’s not a bad thing though, you guys are having fun and that’s the best part of music, right?

Reid: Yeah! To expand on both answers, like Sean said, I think in the writing process we’re definitely thinking about dynamics. But in terms of the live process, we are really thinking about the audience. Being a live band, it’s really important to us that we’re putting on a good show—generating an atmosphere and energy. Our joke as kids was a bad band gets on stage and j***s off for 30 minutes, while a good band gets on stage and makes love to the room and the atmosphere. That may be an ignorant way to look at things, but to this day that’s kind of my attitude—go give it my all and really make an offering. In terms of that, I’m definitely thinking about the audience who came out, paid money and are there to be part of it.

Sparky: That’s it from me, thank you guys so much for doing this! Before you go, when can we expect new music?

Sean: We’re hoping to start doing more recording soon, not going to say when exactly. Hoping to have new content and music out this fall at the soonest. But we’ve got some plans in the works right now, and we are writing a lot. Just trying to work with some really great people and make another cool album.