Winning and Losing the Lottery: An Interview with RVNNERS
Imagine there are two lottery tickets. The first ticket is a
record deal; the ticket that many will take. What they won’t see is the second
lottery ticket: the chance to not get fucked over.
Andrew Cameron heard this analogy from a friend and it stuck
with him; his original band, Tiny Danza, learned the hard way that walking into
a record deal without any knowledge of the music industry could end poorly.
This time around, the band – reformed as RVNNERS – has a better grasp on what
to expect.
“We've been around for almost 15 years which is a very long
time for a band. It's long for a marriage even,” Cameron joked.
For the first six years as Tiny Danza, these high school
friends didn’t take much seriously until winning Indie Week International in
their hometown of Toronto. Once they signed to a boutique label, they thought
they had made it. A seven album deal, no real negotiations. What they didn’t
realize was the rest of the label’s roster consisted of bright pop vocalists
and nothing like their blend of jazz and hip hop.
Just when things finally seemed to be looking up, everything
came crashing down. After a dramatic falling out, the departure of vocalist
Galen Hogg and Cameron suffering a breakdown, Tiny Danza had run its course. When
talks of reforming occurred, the band – Cameron, Andrew Santaguida, Matt Russo
and Nick Shao – knew they couldn’t go on as Tiny Danza without Hogg. They felt
that a complete transformation would be best to honor their former project. They
ditched rap altogether to pursue indie pop, which was outside of Cameron’s comfort
zone of R&B but was the secret weapon to creating a one-of-a-kind sound.
RVNNERS hasn’t stopped Cameron from sharing personal details
in the form of lyrics. The band’s latest single, “Through The Wall”, gave multiple
meanings to his personal life and the new chapter of the band’s life with
RVNNERS.
“I've been through some shit; and understand when every time
you say that it's got to be in context [because] someone has always suffered
more than you,” Cameron said. “When I broke down and started to recover, and
with this rebirth of RVNNERS and this second chance that we had, “Through The Wall”
was this double meaning. Metaphorically it was us trying to break into the
music industry and trying to break free and be happy in life.”
This time around, the band has a better idea of the music
industry and how to release music that will make an impact. They’ve learned the
importance of building connections, trusting the right people and doing what
they feel is best. This is their chance to do things right.
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