Dad Patrol is one of New Brunswick’s rising stars in the music scene. The band’s members have diverse and ranging talents – Zachary Pelletier does both guitar and bass, Gregor Dobson not only handles vocals, but also takes on some guitar and bass, and Jonathan Marino is their drummer. They have everything a low-key indie punk group should – the punchy vocals, the soft interludes. In reality the group’s strength is in their orchestration and its natural cohesion, but what gives them that talent? Where does the inspiration come from? What creates that unique sound? Sitting down with the band, The Brunswickan gets a Rolling Stone-style insight into what drives Dad Patrol to make music, and the thoughts behind their latest album, Yellow Phase.
What brought you together as a band?
Being friends was really the biggest thing that connected us as a band. We started playing music more or less as just something fun to do and really that is still all it is. Something fun we do with our friends.
What influenced the sound of the album? (Yellow Phase)
There’s definitely a pretty broad selection of bands that influenced this album. It’s funny because we’ll write like 20 songs that are all inspired by one band, but the next minute we’ll become heavily influenced by another and do the same thing again. Just some of the bands that inspired us during the writing process for this album would be Peach Pit, Surf Dads, and The Backseat Lovers.
Did any of your real life experiences affect songs on Yellow Phase?
Absolutely, as songwriters I think all of our songs are affected by our lives in some way, whether it’s just how we were feeling while writing a song or writing about a specific thing that was happening during the writing process. There’s even some songs that are about things that happened years ago that have really stuck with us.
What are your favourite songs on the album?
The one the three of us agree on the most is “Backseat”, but “Old Bones” and “Turning Blue” are definitely up there too. But it’s hard to pick favourite songs, it’s like picking your favourite child…
What did you learn from making this album?
I think we learned a lot during the recording process. We’re definitely getting better at taking the energy of the songs when we play them live and figuring out the best ways to translate that energy into the recording. It’s something we’re still continuously getting better at right now but this album was definitely a turning point for us in terms of making songs that sound full and polished.
How do you want people to feel listening to the album?
I feel like I want everyone to have their own experience while listening to the album. We hope there’ll be people who feel like they can relate what we’re saying in our songs to their own lives, and the music itself is able to compliment those emotions. And if they listen to a song and it makes them feel happy then that’s amazing, but maybe someone else will feel really lethargic or sad while listening to the same song, and that’s okay too. We just want people to enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed listening to it.