CMW 2010 Hot Acts: Arietta

Toronto's Arietta have been making waves all over the city since the release of their debut album, Migration, late last year.

The band are praised for both their energetic, engaging live show and their technical musicianship and have established themselves as one of the must-see acts in the city for this year's Canadian Music Week.

Hometown:
Toronto, ON

Members:
Tyler Johnston (vocals)
Sean Ramesbottom (guitar/keys)
Brian Craig (guitar)
Kyle Smith (bass)
Shehzaad Jiwani (drums/vocals)

Official Website: www.myspace.com/arietta

So, you're about to play the big industry event that is Canadian Music Week. What's the most shameless thing you've ever done to promote your band?
Shehzaad Jiwani: Define "shameless." We played next door to a Vice Magazine party once, and I remember telling the people in line that Steve Aoki was DJing where we were playing.

Also, we opened for The Antlers back in September, and we have a deer on the cover of our album, so one of the more inebriated members of the audience thought that our record was actually their record. I didn't go out of my way to tell him differently. He ended up coming back and buying their album a half-hour later, so I guess it all worked out.

What's the hardest part about being an up-and-coming band?
Constantly being asked about being an up-and-coming band.

We've tried our hardest to establish and maintain this illusion of success to our friends and family, not to mention potential fans. Then people ask us what it's like to be nobodies the entire facade comes crashing down on us.

Honestly, though, it's somewhat hard for us to find bills that we fit on sonically in and around Toronto, to a certain extent. It's a bit of a double-edged sword for us, because on the one hand, we can play with a variety of bands, like Cursive, or Simple Plan, but we're generally the odd band out on most bills. But once math rock with pop hooks becomes a fad, we're going to be huge.

How important is it for your band members to circulate and flirt with the audience before or after the show?
We're all pretty sociable dudes. We really do like talking to people after we've played. We're the kind of band who seem to attract other musicians and other real music fans, so often what happens is people come up to us after we've played and we end up talking about music for hours.

That's one of our favourite things about touring, I'd say — meeting new people and hanging out with new fans. That, and taking their money. We'll only talk to you after you've bought our record. Just kidding. But not really.

Have you ever stolen from someone else's rider? If so, who was it and what did you take?
We stole not one but two pizzas from a rider that belonged to some of the guys from the new Degrassi show. I hope they don't read this, because we've since become good friends. Ray, if you're reading this, that's just how musicians roll. No hard feelings!

Have you ever been graded before according to CHARTattack.com's Rock 'N' Roll Report Cards?
We haven't had the pleasure. I've graded other bands in the past [Jiwani is a contributing CHARTattack writer], so hopefully I was nice enough to them that karma will grant us a decent review. If anything, you should come watch our band just for the opportunity to get back at me for any bad reviews I may have given out.

Have you done anything new or interesting this week?
We wrote some new tunes that we will be playing at our next few shows, including CMW. Other than that, we all live pretty boring lives that essentially circulate around writing and playing music.

Arietta will play the Horseshoe Tavern on Thursday, March 11 at 2:20 a.m. as part of the annual CHARTattack/Horseshoe/Canadian Music Week showcase.