The Place We Call Home: Like Pacific

Over the coming weeks, Already Heard will be highlighting a variety of bands set to play the Slam Dunk Festival later this month.

Like it or not, the “pop-punk revival” isn’t going away anytime soon. With the bands popping up from all corners of the world, our latest edition of ‘The Place We Call Home’ sees us heading to Toronto, Canada.

“Hogtown” natives, Like Pacific having been turning heads in recent years with last year’s ‘Distant Like You Asked’ especially gaining plenty of praise. The well-crafted, angst-driven songs such as ‘Distant’ and ’22A’, wrap themselves firmly around a boisterous pop-punk ball with a therapeutic undertone.

As for their hometown of Toronto, the Ontario capital is the fifth largest city in North America and is home to various landmarks including the CN Tower. It’s also a city dominated by sport, with major teams playing in the NHL (Maple Leafs), NBL (Blue Jays), NBA (Raptors) and MSL (Toroton FC), and by music. It’s home for rapper / R&B artist Drake, influential prog rockers Rush, hardcore punk band F*cked Up, EDM superstar deadmau5, alternative R&B singer The Weeknd and many more. While the likes of Seaway and Safe To Say are amongst the group emerging from the city in recent years.

Despite their love for Toronto, Like Pacific are touring the world and are set to return to the UK soon. Along with shows supporting Trophy Eyes, they’re going to be playing the Slam Dunk Festival alongside fellow countrymen Seaway and more. Nevertheless,

We recently spoke to bassist Chris Thaung about all things Toronto.

The City:

We’re from Toronto, Ontario Canada. I love that We are a very diverse, multicultural and progressive city. Over the past few years Toronto has been on the map, comparable or at least in the same conversation as New York City, London and Los Angeles. There’s a lot of pride lately being a Torontonian.

Its People and Culture:

Toronto is very diverse. Everyone is very accepting of race and sexual orientation. Part of that is probably because here in Canada everyone is considered to be “nice” or “friendly” or so I’ve been told haha. We have the same hustle and bustle and business as other major cities but everyone has a smile on their face.

The Music It Inspires:

We’re all very humble. We know there’s not a huge scene here in Canada like there is in the US, so any sort of success is never taken for granted. Everyone helps one another and contributes to keep the scene alive and well.

The Local Music Scene:

To be honest, every and any genre is associated with Toronto. The music scene here is pretty insane. There’s always shows going on in the city, no matter the genre or size of the artist. There are multiple music festivals throughout the year ranging from EDM, Punk, Indie, Jazz. It’s all good here.

Its Most Famous Musical Sons and Daughters:

Billy Talent is a big one. They’ve had success worldwide, and I’m pretty sure they all still live within the city. Alexisonfire are another one, they’re from St. Catharines which is about an hour, if not less, away from the city. Both bands are a great representation of the “alternative” genre and how Canada can actually produce something that isn’t Shania Twain or Justin Bieber.

Its Unsung Heroes:

This would’ve been a great question a few years ago haha. Most bands that we all played with and came up together with, have all been signed. Seaway, SafetoSay, Coldfront and Rarity have all been doing well. It’s honestly so rad to see the hard work paying off for everyone.

The Bands To Watch Out For:

Check out this band from Ottawa called Bearings. They’re fairly new, within the past three years but man they kill it! They are along the lines of pop-punk but they do it extremely well, and have such a hard working work ethic. Expect big waves coming from them this year. Also check out Curses, they’re an indie/pop band from Toronto, very infectious songs.

The Venues We Visited:

I remember seeing some of my favourite bands play venues like The Kool Haus and Lee’s Palace. It was cool because as a kid, these venues seemed soo big, but they were only 500 capacity rooms looking back at them now. I’ve never been much of a stadium/amphitheatre kinda guy. I love the feeling of club venues and how intimate the performances can be.
So for us to be playing venues like that is pretty surreal.

The Venues We Played:

We’ve probably played Sneaky Dee’s or Hard Luck Bar the most. Both venues have the same owners and management, and have been huge supporters of Like Pacific for many years now. There’s a lot of bands that go through the doors of those venues, but I feel like we’ve always received some extra love ever time. Those venues is where we really cut our teeth coming up as a band.

If I wrote a song about my hometown:

It’d be the complete opposite of what a lot of pop-punk bands write songs about now. We never want to run away or leave our hometown, we would celebrate Toronto and everything the city has given us.

Like Pacific will be playing at 1:35 on the Monster Energy Stage at Slam Dunk Festival on all three dates.

May (with Trophy Eyes)
25th Camden Assembly, London
26th The Attic, Glasgow
30th Joiners, Southampton
31st Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

‘Distant Like You Asked’ by Like Pacific is out now on Pure Noise Records.

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