Wearing their Songs on their Sleeves

By: Adam Grant

Click to Listen to Singles Only

Clothes Make The Man is one of those bands that have come to realize that in order to make it in today’s dog-eat-dog independent music scene, you have to shovel your own path.  Comprised of four friends originally from Ottawa – Ryan McLennan (vocals/guitar), Scott Henry (guitar/vocals), Adam Thrasher (drums), and Ross Machon (bass), relocated to Toronto a few years ago to begin their rock n’ roll adventure.

It was 2003 that this journey started off, as the band would subsequently release two EP’s that year in hopes of getting their sound off the ground.  What followed were very kind words from heavyweight Toronto music mag Exclaim!, as well as appearances at NXNE and Canadian Music Week.

Since that point, the band had been scrimping and saving as many of their pennies as possible to fund a full-length recording that they could launch upon the public.  With no major or independent label supporting CMTM, the quartet has taken their future in their own instrument-clenched hands, by booking all of their gigs, personally arranging all marketing ventures, and as hinted, paying for everything.

“We do it all ourselves,” confidently states McLennan from his Toronto area home.  “(But) we end up playing shows with bands who are signed to ‘whatever,’ and have people helping them.  We just came to the realization that we’re doing it ourselves, and we’re at the same place as the bands that are getting help.  So to rush into a deal or something would be silly because we might not be (the labels) top priority – where as we know with us, we are our top priority.

“They have to pay people, and we don’t,” he laughs.

Released in music stores on February 28th, Clothes Make The Man’s self-titled debut disc is a mix of gritty, gravel voiced rock, with sprinkles of slower, more introspective moments. 

Unlike previous recordings, this particular project was approached with a supreme focus, and conscious effort that didn’t have any “grey areas within the music.”  To help this process along the band enlisted friend Geoffrey McPeek to produce the album – a move that appears to have really helped the band accomplish their goal of taking their music “way more seriously.

“We had a producer which was super fun, because he helped us,” explains McLennan.  “He’d come to rehearsals, and really interrogate us about what we’re trying to do.

 “For example, (after) listening to parts of songs, he would demand to know why something was happening, and once you start being questioned from an outside person, you realize what’s good, and what’s not.”

Next up for Clothes Make The Man is getting as many stages to house them as possible.  With solid fan-bases in both their adopted home of Toronto, and their old stomping grounds of Ottawa, these hard-working rockers are looking to take Canada one city at a time.

“Toronto is the New York of Canada,” McLennan believes.  “Everyone who’s doing the most interesting musical things, at some point go to Toronto.  It’s like, if you can conquer Toronto, then you can conquer the rest of the country.”

For more on Clothes Make The Man please visit: www.clothesmaketheman.org