Interview with Pop-Punk band Minority 905 – Check out their new album “Dangerous Ambitions”

Interview with Minority 905

By Lauren Dix

Out of Ontario, Canada the heart of pop-punk is still growing and the band Minority 905’s new album Dangerous Ambitions showcases their growth and sound. An album filled with melody and radio primed tunes we can’t wait to hear what is to come as Minority 905 continues their musical journey.

It was great getting to know more about each band member and their musical influences along the way.

Lauren Dix: How would you define your sound and how does what you write reflect what is happening around you?

John: I like to write about my own personal experiences usually. All of the lyrics I write in one way or another is inspired by my life, even if not every song is necessarily about me in particular. I think our sound is generally sort of like early to mid-2000s pop-punk.

LD: Would you say you lean more towards the pop-punk side, the punk side or the rock side of music on this particular album Dangerous Ambitions? Would you all consider going towards a whole different genre ever? Why or why not?

John: Probably on the poppier side of pop-punk. I try not to think about genre too much when writing music. I think what comes out is usually a mix of all my current influences and inspirations.

Spasimir: I don’t want us to take a complete 180 and change our style entirely but I’m very open to taking influences from different genres (pop, jazz, funk, metal, rap, etc) and mixing them with our own sound.

LD: What is the music scene like in your hometown?

John: I think it’s okay. I don’t really have any other town to compare it to so I don’t know.

Steven: Mississauga’s music scene kinda sucks to be honest, although there’s a group dedicated to promoting artists from that area called “Mississauga Music”. Toronto’s music scene is fantastic on the other hand, lots of gigs to come by there.

LD: How does it compare to the other cities and towns you perform at? Do you find people are music and music is people wherever you play?

John: I don’t think we’ve been to enough places for me to make a fair comparison.

Spasimir: From the cities, we’ve played in, I’d say the Toronto scene is the best I’ve seen so far.

LD: Can each of you play other instruments? Do you ever switch up what each of you plays when practicing or performing or recording?

John: I only really know how to play guitar. The piano would be the only other instrument I would consider learning/practicing more. I’ve practiced it a bit but I don’t think I’m good enough yet to say I play it.

Steven: We kinda play other instruments, but we’re not good enough to switch at practice or anything like that.

Spasimir: I know the basics of guitar and how to play chords so I could play some easy songs but I wouldn’t consider myself good at it. I think there have been a few rare occasions where we jammed some easy songs (eg Smells Like Teen Spirit) where I played guitar and Steven played drums just for fun.

LD: How many EP’s and album’s total have you released? What have been some of those changes along the way to your approach to music?

John: This is the third record, we released 1 EP and 1 album before this one. I think my mindset and how I approach music has mostly stayed the same throughout the records but my skills have naturally improved. I also think the sound changed between every record since I discovered new influences along the way.

LD: What have been some of your great challenges as a band so far? How about accomplishments?

John: I think getting 25,000 YouTube subscribers is one accomplishment. A challenge early on was just gaining traction and building a fanbase.

Spasimir: Learning how to use social media effectively for promoting our music and reaching as many people as possible I think is still something that we are figuring out to this day. For accomplishments definitely reaching 25,000 subscribers is the biggest one. Getting our videos noticed by Green Day and All Time Low was pretty cool too.

LD: Talk about your current music video/single “Soundtrack.”

Spasimir: The music video was filmed at a cottage in Feversham, ON (about 1-2 hour drive north of where we live). We were able to film at that location thanks to the director of the music video, who was able to get the cottage from a friend of his. The whole idea was to make a video that is of just us and our friends having a good time, without having some intricate storyline or taking it too seriously. We think videos like that have become rare these days so we’re glad that we took this approach.

LD: Which song off your new LP ‘Dangerous Ambitions’ will be next to release as a single/video?

John: I don’t know for sure.

Steven: We’re thinking it could be “Catching Fire” or “What If”

Spasimir: “Catching Fire” and “What If” will probably get their own videos. I think “Run This Town” is another one that we might make a music video for, probably with similar concept to “Soundtrack”.

LD: Looking at all of the songs written over the past few years is there one you have left unfinished that you feel may finally be next to come to life?

John: I save all of my ideas usually, and some of them take forever to finish but I can’t say for sure which one would be next to be recorded/released. The song “27 Club” on this most recent album was a really old song I wrote when the band first started but it never got recorded. I rewrote the song completely but kept the title the same and the rewritten version is what ended up on the album.

LD: Please shout out your Spotify to us all and what is each band members top five Spotify songs currently streaming?

John: You can find all our original music on the Minority 905 Spotify page. I looked at my stats for my personal account and here are my current top 5 songs that I’ve been listening to for the last month: