Written by Ian Blechschmidt

Ten Ways from Sunday have been busy. They've got a new album, they're working on a new tour, they just finished up their appearance in a documentary — and they're saving the world's 7-11s, one robbery attempt at a time. Ten Ways' vocalist Matt Layzell tells Indiesoundz all about it in our latest interview.

You guys talk about how you want to change the soundscape, to change the face of mainstream radio — why is that you want to do that and where do you want to take it?

I think up until recently the limitations of radio, of what they'll play — it's been hard for bands to break into that. I mean [change is] happening already, there's lots of bands that are probably trying to break that radio mold. There's bands on the radio like...Hot Hot Heat — there's a band that you never would have heard on the radio two years ago, let alone five years ago. So it's definitely more open to different music now, radio. But we're doing our thing and it's working for us right now. I mean, we're never going to try and sound a certain way. You've just got to do what's natural and I think people appreciate that more.

Why do you think radio is opening up now?

Well I think a large part of that is the internet and the exposure bands can without having a record company buying them. So there's so many great bands that are getting word of mouth, which has always been the best exposure, they're getting that through the internet ... And you can have a reputation without ever playing somewhere because of the internet now.

Have you found that you guys are getting a lot of exposure that way, through the internet?

We are recently ... We've kind of really been pushing our internet exposure lately and it keeps you working. Like, we have people buying our CD from Sweden, England, the southern states, Quebec..obviously, we haven't played any of those places, except for Quebec.

You guys have a new CD out...it's a follow-up to your [last] album. Do you feel that you guys have progressed in that time in between?

Yeah, ten-fold ... The band has now become a four-piece, on our last record we did we were a five-piece. It was a guitarist who left and he did part of the writing, so the song-writing has definitely changed, and the group dynamic has changed and the overall sound has changed. And I think with any group when you're at the stage where you're recording and touring, you're going to grow personally as well as as an artist. We did three tours and worked up a new album ... We came up with more of a distinct sound for ourselves.

How do you think touring helps with that progression?

It changes you so drastically as a person, life on the road. Touring is another animal. There's nothing really to describe what it's like living in a van for a few months at a time and playing in different cities all the time. It's definitely an experience. So you're bonding with the guys around you in the band and you're seeing the world from a different view and you're seeing things you haven't seen before and going places you haven't been ... And it makes you better musicians as well - you're playing every night, you have to be on-point every night. It's great. Touring's where we want to be. We're just waiting to get out there right now.

When does your new tour start?

We'll definitely be touring in July. But we're in the works, talking about a couple mini-tours of Western Canada right now. And we'll see, if we can get out before July, we would, definitely.

I was wondering about the Dreamers documentary. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that and what it's about and how you guys are involved with it.

Dreamers approached us about a year ago and it's a documentary following four up-and-coming artists in Vancouver. And the idea behind it was to see what goes on in their lives and in the struggle to make it as an artist. And also to see how far they could progress in a year, what they could accomplish. So actually, the year has just passed, we just did our final wrap-up interview with them last weekend. And it was as much finishing a project for us as it was for them, because we got a chance to see what we were doing for a whole year. And now we'll get a chance to look back and see what we did and hopefully see positive things that happened as well as the negative things. It's a cool project, they're going to be marketing it and shopping it around to networks. So hopefully it'll get some airplay. As well as the festival circuit, they're putting it in.

And speaking of which, I gotta ask about the 7-11 story.

That was actually when we were downtown for the wrap-up interview for the Dreamers documentary. A couple of the guys went into a 7-11 in downtown Vancouver just getting their sugar fix. And it got robbed.

That's crazy!

Yeah, this crazy guy robbed the place. And I really don't know what our drummer, Travis, was thinking, but he jumped on the guy and they both came crashing through one of the display stands and...it was a DVD rack, actually, so DVDs went flying everywhere...and our road manager jumped on top of them, and they held his arm behind his back and pinned his head into the ground for a good 15 minutes or so until the police showed up and put him in handcuffs. And then the paddywagon came and took him away. He was a wanted criminal, I guess. He was screaming he was going to kill us all when he gets out.

That's wild.

But that was some excitement, that was right before we went in for the final interview, so we were kind of on a buzz when we went in. It's too bad the cameras weren't there. But that's what they were talking about on the radio for a couple days, was Ten Ways fights crime.

That could be your new hook — the crime fighting band.

Hehe — yeah. We wanted to stay away from the spandex, but maybe we'll have to wear the spandex now.

There's nothing wrong with spandex. Justin Hawkins wears spandex, it seems to work for him.

Yeah — I don't quite have the hair to go along with it.

(laughs all around)

A lot of bands are getting their music out there by getting on big-name video games. And you guys were on NHL 2004... have you gotten some exposure from that?

Well that was a pretty cool opportunity. I mean, obviously, you're reaching a different audience when you're getting your songs on video games and that particular video game sells over a million copies worldwide. So it's not just here, it's worldwide obviously. And music plays a big part in video games. People are buying systems for their home just to pump up the music and the sound levels in the games that they're playing. So it's cool, potentially there are a million people out there who, at some point, will be rocking out to one of our songs during the game. Whether or not that translates into merchandise, or album sales, or people at the shows, I'm not sure. But definitely the awareness is there. And we have a lot of people that have come to our website and have found us through that. So it's another opportunity for exposure. And it's a welcome one.

Do you have anything else you want to tell people about?

Yeah, well we're busy working on putting together this tour. And hopefully we'll be playing across Canada again through the summer ... Hopefully we'll be playing for bigger crowds as we build the exposure here and get some more radio play. And if I could ask anything of people, it's just to go to our website and sign up and say hello. We're great guys, we like to chat and make friends with the fans ... We're totally approachable guys, we love for people to come say hello, and check out the music, and hopefully they dig it and come out to the shows.

Don't forget to check out Indiesoundz' CD giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Ten Ways From Sunday's self-titled EP!