‘Before the Collapse of the Hive’ is the Stephen Stanley Band’s latest record. Out on Wolfe Island Records the album features guests Kate Fenner, and fellow Lowest of the Low founder Ron Hawkins. The band behind Stanley consists of Cam Pyziak on drums, bassist Chris Rellinger, and guitarist Chris Bennett. Bennett will join Stanley when he plays a record release show at Kops Records in Oshawa Friday Dec 15 2023. Evan Rotella will open.
But before we get to the show we reached out to Stephen by email.
Slowcity.ca: You say in the PR this album is a continuation of a conversation you were having with (the late indie radio personality) Dave Bookman - what was that initial ongoing conversation about?
Stephen Stanley: “Outside of a constantly ongoing conversation about music, we talked about politics a lot. The state of the world, things Dave maybe couldn't express on the air. He was my sounding board on a more than regular basis and I hope I offered him the same. This question made me look back at my last texts from Dave. They were about the Raptors, who were about to enter round two of their championship season. That Dave didn't get to experience those crazy and amazing days makes me so sad. I did not know a bigger sports fan - across the board. (We did have our troubles because he hated the Leafs - he was a dyed-in-the-wool Senators fan). Then a quick exchange about Lindsay Graham - "I hope he burns in hell" - this was happening during the last days of the Trump debacle. When something sensational would happen on the political landscape, I would expect a text or call soon after.”
SC: Bookie used to work at Star Records in Oshawa - I think he was at Durham College, I recall meeting him there and then obv on to Toronto for him, where did you meet your friend initially, and do you mind telling me about your friend and what he brought to your life?
SS: “If I had to quantify it in simple terms, he brought a heck of a lot of joy to my life. And all of his friends would say the same thing. He cared deeply about his friends. If a band was coming through town and he knew one of my daughters was a fan. He would go out of his way to get tickets and make sure they could be at the show. On one birthday he arranged a personal video for my younger daughter from her favourite band. They asked for it to remain outside of the public realm, and it will do so - but man, that meant so much to her.
Anything major I was going to undertake in music, life, anything. It would all be discussed with Dave beforehand, and he always knew how to put things into context and perspective.
We met via the early days of LOTL... He was an unabashed fan of the band, and was at most of the shows in the early days. That led to a lot of different radio opportunities and somehow out of that, when the band broke up in 1995 - Dave and I became close friends. Likely started up around Tuesday nights at the Horseshoe - New Music Nights. Those were major hangouts for so many friends inside the music business, and when the night was over Dave and I would usually end up at Sneaky Dee's.”
SC: I think the line (in Straw Man) "Maybe all it takes is just one person to look at that elephant from all eleven of those angles" is so on point - people do seem to be so myopic, walking around with blinkers and tunnel vision - it seems to me you have spent some time deep thinking, maybe deep reading - tell me about the genesis of the album, is there something to a confluence of your own heartache and this ongoing global heartache we are living through?
SS: “I like how you described that, personal heartache mixed with ongoing global heartache. I think my last album, ‘Jimmy & the Moon’, delved deeper into the personal side while this album, ‘Before The Collapse Of The Hive’, looks more to the global aspects, but through a personal vision. Perspectives and how we can each look at any given situation and feel something completely different about it informed a lot of the lyrics and themes on this record. Unfortunately, a lot of that has to do with manipulation, a lie that gets told so many times that it is accepted as truth. We rally, we look away, we carry on but either way it continues to erode the ground we believe we are standing on. The cameras roll and it gets told again. To the advantage of a very few, but appealing to a much wider mass that for some reason suspends their disbelief and swallows the pill. I don't know if I'm a deep thinker but I fear the world we are leaving for our kids and their generation, and I think about that a lot and that it wouldn't be all that difficult for it not to be the way it is. . . “