Young Rival Won't Make Enemies Of Ride Theory Fans

We were the first to break the news of The Ride Theory changing their name to Young Rival back in April. And although the Hamilton quartet haven't toyed with their vintage rock 'n' roll sound at all, their new moniker has definitely ushered in a different approach and mindset.

"Once we all finished school, it was kind of like a new beginning for us," explains bassist John Smith. "That's why we changed the name. It was kind of a new focus and a more focused focus."

The quartet were given a crash course in the music industry during their time as The Ride Theory, as they essentially did everything on their own. Looking to take their budding careers to the proverbial "next level," they're now dealing with a manager, publicist and booking agency.

"We spent so much time doing everything for ourselves for almost five years, so it's kind of weird to just download all the business responsibilities to another person," says drummer Noah Fralick. "It's obviously for the better, though, as the people we are working with have more experience and contacts."

The only thing Young Rival are missing is a record label. With several imprints expressing interest in releasing their material, it seems like the perfect time to head into the studio. They're currently recording in New York City and Hoboken, N.J. with producer Emery Dobyns and, despite putting out two albums as The Ride Theory (2002's self-titled release and 2005's In This City), in the band's mind their Young Rival debut is their first real record. In a way, they're right.

"This will actually be the first album that we will have time to tinker with things while in the studio," Smith says. "The last album was recorded in three days and mixed in one or two.

"It was a huge rush for mixing and mastering. This time we should have two to three weeks to work on it. It'll be nice not having to rush through everything."

Looking to make the most of the experience, the band completely laid out what they wanted to do with the record before leaving. A recent string of performances opening for The Sadies allowed them to road test all the material one final time, making it easier to whittle down the two dozen songs they've demoed to create a final track list that they're confident that both old and new fans will enjoy.

"The music was written half when we were The Ride Theory and half as Young Rival," says guitarist Aron D'Alesio. "It's a natural evolution from where we were on the last record to where we are now.

"There are some different kinds of sounds in the new songs, but there is nothing that wouldn't be there anyway if we were still called The Ride Theory."

Ideally, the act would like to have the album out sometime in late spring, but that will depend largely on how negotiations with prospective labels develop. They plan to play some shows around Ontario in late January, and there's talk of doing dates out west in February. An extensive tour of North America and possibly Europe should occur around the time of the disc's release.

"It's important to always have something to look forward to," says Smith. "For a while it was kind of like we were at a bit of a dead end, but we feel like we have that right now."

Young Rival will perform on Dec. 26 at their fourth annual Boxing Day show at The Casbah in Hamilton. The Sweet Homewreckers and The Bicycles round out the bill.