The Salads Look At The Big Picture

After three years of parties, recording, concerts, more concerts and some more concerts, Toronto party band The Salads are back with a new album this month.

In the three years since the release of Fold A To B, they've probably played in or near your city. So why did it take so long to release their latest, The Big Picture?

"With all of the band changes and business changes came more understanding and responsibility and more business people to deal with," explains lead singer Darren Dumas (a.k.a. Mista D).

"You know the concept of the broken telephone? It's like when there are more wheels to turn the machine, it turns a little slower sometimes. We were ready to put this record out last year, but 'this has got to happen' and you've got to wait for this guy to do this and that. That was a little frustrating, along with our own personal life changes. We've got one guy getting married, so we've got this much time off, then a baby coming around, and then another guy getting married.

"There are all sorts of things that slowed down this process, but in the same way influence what the ultimate outcome would be with the record."

The outcome is a little different than you might expect. All of the changes in their personal lives definitely came out through the sounds and more mature lyrics. Mista D says it was a natural progression for them, but what you hear on The Big Picture came down to what they want to play live.

"Our live sets consist of mostly the fastest tunes on all of our records. We don't put too many ballads in there. We want to see the crowd losing their mind the entire time, and we need that energy, too.

"We really thought about how the tunes would transfer to a live setting for this record, and just keep it super-high energy. That's probably why it rocks more than any of our other records. Rock in the sense of there is more distortion on the guitars and lots of wanking and guitar solos and drum fills. It's really over the top in that sense."

Canadian fans should have a number of opportunities to see The Salads live over the spring and summer, including on the Warped Tour. The group will also play some U.S. dates, are hoping to return to Australia and are looking at a possible first trip to Europe.

Here are The Salads' tour dates:

May 13 Toronto, ON @ The Reverb (4 p.m. all-ages)
May 13 Oakville, ON @ Philthy McNasty's
May 17 London, ON @ Call The Office (all-ages)
May 27 Langenburg, SK @ Langenburg Community Theatre
July 18 Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Stadium (Warped Tour)
July 20 Calgary, AB @ Race City Speedway (Warped Tour)
Aug. 12 Barrie, ON @ Park Place (Warped Tour)
Aug. 13 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean-Drapeau (Warped Tour)