Selfish Things: "Our successes are as important as the things that destroy us"

Toronto-based four-piece Selfish Things are straight out of the gate with a real gem of an EP, ‘Vertical Love’. It sees frontman Alex Biro taking control.

Hey Alex, how’s it going?
Currently driving through Iowa on our way to Wyoming. It’s freezing rain, and we’re white knuckling it, haha.

Tell us about your band, then - who are you all and where did you meet?
I play piano/guitar/sing. Burton plays bass. Jordan plays the drums. Cam’s on rhythm guitar, and Mike’s on leads. I started the project in my basement in 2015 after parting ways with my old band and have been slowly acquiring the right pieces since.

Whose idea was it to start playing together?
Mine.

What were your first few songs like? Are any of them still kicking about?
All of them are! The first song I wrote for the project was 'Spooky Action At A Distance'. I used some songs I’d recorded in 2013 with Nygel Asselin (Half Moon Run) to pad our content while we got all of the right pieces together. Then we went straight into releasing songs from 'Vertical Love'.

"You can’t control God, or the universe"

How do your later tracks compare to that early material?
I think we began to find our sound. The earlier tracks were just songs I’d written without any real trajectory in mind. Once things started to develop a lot of what I/we hoped to accomplish musically became clearer.

What’s been the highlight of your time in Selfish Things so far?
Touring with Simple Plan was a huge highlight. Having the opportunity to play with them in their hometown was definitely something I won’t forget. Otherwise, getting to work with James Paul Wisner was incredible. He produced some of the seminal albums of our generation and to have his hands/insight on our project was a huge blessing.

How did you go about creating your debut EP, ‘Vertical Love’?
We flew to Florida, lived in a swamp town and didn’t have access to vehicles or anything that could quell our cabin fever. The water smelled like blood so every time you showered you didn’t really feel clean. I flew out as Hurricane Matthew was making landfall. Otherwise, we just plugged in a bunch of microphones and instruments and recorded.

Where do you look most often for inspiration? It sounds like the EP is pretty contemplative.
The human experience is inspiration enough. Our complexities are as unique as our failures. Our successes as important as the things that completely destroy us. I think a lot of people write about things they want, or miss, or presume is theirs. I feel like most of the time when I write; I do it in an attempt to sort something out from an exterior perspective.

Do you think you’re a better or happier person for having worked through a few personal issues via the EP?
I think I’m a better and happier person because I took control of my life and came to the harsh realisation that everything bad and good that had happened to me was ultimately my own doing. You can’t control other people, or how they treat you. You can’t control the family you have. You can’t control god, or the universe, or whatever deity you believe in. The only thing you can control is how you react to the things that come toward you. And the only choice you have is to either let life defeat you, or accept its innate tragedy and move forward.

What are your plans for after the EP, do you have a busy summer ahead?
We’re currently on our way to start our first NA tour in San Francisco. Afterwards, we have something cool that I’m not allowed to talk about yet. Otherwise, just more touring/videos/the like. Guessing we’ll be on the road for 6-7 months of 2018. The album’s already more or less finished, so that gives us some time to get our heads straight creatively.

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Selfish Things: "Our successes are as important as the things that destroy us"

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