All about the ins and outs of Whale Tooth

Having just finished touring Canada with Mother Mother, indie-pop rockers Whale Tooth have spent no time “sleepwalking in the city.”

This week, the band started a final 2011 mini-tour across Ontario to prepare for the release of their upcoming album, Search Party.
However, fans eagerly awaiting their first full-length album will have to wait a little longer, as the album has been pushed back to an early 2012 release date.

“We had talked about the fall but things got pushed back a little bit. We are really excited about it—we are happy with the songs,” guitarist Norm Mascke says. “It’s the next level up from the EP.”

Their upcoming album promises to expand the pop-rock sound representing a more serious commitment from the band. Vocalist Elise LeGrow noting that the self-titled EP was recorded quite quickly after the band had started.

“The EP is a brief indication of where we were headed at that time,” guitarist Alex Denike adds. “It’s light listening—I think that while we still offer that pop escapism with the new songs, there is a certain maturity we’ve reached with the new recordings.”

The band has come a long way since being founded in Toronto as a project in 2008. The members of the band met after Mascke posted an advertisement on Craigslist to start a project to arrange some of his songs.

“I found Alex Denike [through the ad], I knew Sep Noroozi from another band I previously played in. That’s the nucleus that started, then Michael McCreary and Elise LeGrow joined and so we all came together as an official group,” Mascke recalls.

Whale Tooth’s name is a strong reflection on the band’s origins. Mascke came up with the name after reflecting on finding a whale tooth in a box of his father’s possessions.

“I thought about what is the origin of this tooth, where did it come from? How did it come into my possession?” Mascke says. “Music is somewhat like that—you meet people you wouldn’t have met otherwise. A lot of the times, they are almost complete strangers.”

The recording sessions of Search Party have given Whale Tooth the opportunity to experiment with their sound. As one of the few pop-rock bands not based around synthesizers, Whale Tooth has become a mix of the five members’ influences.

“We hearken back more to the older stuff just because it is guitar-based and guitar centered. The driving force behind the band really is the guitars,” LeGrow says.

Recording Search Party has been hard work for Whale Tooth, but not without its unexpected surprises.

Denike recalls “Growing Pains,” a song from their new album that came together perfectly.

“I distinctly recall going to Norm and Elise with these scraps of ideas that I didn’t know how to put together. We took it to the studio and we hadn’t really jammed on it all that much but it turned out as [well] as I could have imagined—It was a happy accident.”

For Whale Tooth, the release of Search Party will be the first of many planned accomplishments for 2012. The band plans to spend the year on tour to promote the album.

“Wherever there’s a room to play and people who want to see us. We will be there,” Denike says.

Whale Tooth plays Call The Office with Hey Ocean on Thursday, November 3rd.