Canadian Rockers Across The Board Declare “Rock Is NEVER Dead” In This Exclusive Interview

Canadian Rockers Across The Board Declare “Rock Is NEVER Dead” In This Exclusive Interview

Canadian rockers, Across The Board, are a band of multi-instrumentalist musicians with over 500 Youtube videos, three original albums and a growing social media fanbase and live audience following. They seamlessly combine creative talents to push their pop-rock sounds to the edge of the rock ‘n roll envelope. With harmonious power vocals and catchy electric guitar riffs, Across The Board have been touring their new album “Sonic Boom” around Ontario, Canada. They are soon to launch their second coast to coast tour in December of 2018, traveling across the country from Toronto to Vancouver and back by rail. Then, an East coast of Canada as 2019 unfolds for the Toronto-based group.

Having won two gold-medal Global Music Awards for “Sonic Boom” (best album, best song), Across The Board is heading south to Dollywood to attend the Josie Music Awards Sept 8th, 2018 where they have been nominated for two awards (best album, best song) for their rock opera collection of story-telling tracks.

Congrats on the release of your album, “Sonic Boom.” Tell us about the concept behind the songs:

Across The Board: Thank you! The album was written as a rock opera—a collection of songs that together described a journey, tell a story from start to end. The story is of a small town girl who wants to take her music to the big city. She comes across some amazing folks and falls prey to some not-so-nice people along the way. The dream of making a big sound (a sonic boom) so that the world can hear her music is premise behind the title. The album paints a picture of hard knocks and chaotic good luck spattered with some sad moments –like playing to an empty bar (No Curtain Call) and amazing victories (Two Step).

Is Rock Dead? Why, or why not?

ATB: Are you nuts!? Rock is never dead. Rock in it’s purest form is the idea of pushing the envelope from jazz and blues and just letting lose-losing the convention, breaking the rules and bearing one’s soul, body, mind, blood, sweat and tears for fans to fell, taste, hear and live along with you. Rock songs like “Summer Of 69” (Bryan Adams), American Woman, Sympathy For The Devil, or Beatles’ “Back in The USSR” will never get old. There will always be a Springsteen, a Lenny Kravitz, a Mick Jagger, a Dave Grohl out there to inspire the kids to carry the rock flag through their own lives. I think rock is making a comeback in it’s original sense.

What is the single biggest challenge facing music artists today?

ATB: Being heard through the noise that is the internet. The internet is a friend and a foe to the independent artist. On one hand, it allows us to reach an audience who would have never heard is pre-internet. For unsigned bands, it allows us the vehicle through which we can build a massive fan base without the need for a label’s wallets or influence. In fact most labels won’t sign an artist these days without all that groundwork having been laid—almost making it easy for the label to capitalize on all the social media work and fanbase building that an unsigned artist would have done. On the other hand, it can be very difficult to be heard through the noise. Every kid and their buddies can make music with garage band and tablet these days. And all of those, many of them working projects, semi-completed test beats, or compilations documenting the progression of someone’s early musical journey are all fascinating, but the fans have to find a way to filter through all of that—much of it not what they are looking for—to get to the indie artist with the polished painstaking high quality track that he/she is trying to get to your ears. The trick is to understand who your audience is and put yourself directly in front of them! This takes time, thought, research and a lot of trial and error.

Tell us about an Across The Board live show. What should fans expect?

ATB: Our live full—band shows are exciting. We have 6 musicians on stage playing a variety of instruments and 2 backing vocalists who are amazing singers. We are energetic, often a bit crazy and always fun! We don’t use backing tracks, so what you hear, is what we are playing for you at the moment. We tend to use backgrounds to enhance the show where possible, and the occasional special effect when allowed.

Where in the world would you love to play, that you haven’t and why?

ATB: EUROPE! I would love to play a big European festival and reach a new audience of fans. It would be amazing to look into the distance and see the Eiffel Tower while playog on an outdoor stage somewhere in Paris!

Thanks for the fantastic conversation! Where can our readers find out more info about you?

ATB: Thankyou! Here are our social media and website links:

Across The Board

Across The Board. 8,234 likes · 522 talking about this. AcrossTheBoard is an award-winning rock band with a new album “Sonic Boom” out on all platforms and an upcoming Canadian tour.

@ATBmusicCanada twitter.com/ATBmusicCanada

Across the Board

Across The Board (ATB) is an award-winning Canadian rock band and creators of the popular Youtube series “Pick Up and Play”. You can stream each of ATB’s 5 studio albums here on Soundcloud–Sonic Boom and Wild Ones both hit the Canadian iTunes Rock Charts in 2018 and 2019 respectively, landing the Canadian rockers several indie music award nominations and Kudos.

Across The Board | Rock from Toronto, ON, CA

Rock music, lyrics, and videos from Toronto, ON, CA on ReverbNation

Official EPK – Across The Board – Indie Pop Rock Band – Canada

Across The Board (ATB) is a Canadian Pop Rock/Americana band of multi-instrumentalist musicians who seamlessly combine creative talents to push their pop-rock sounds to the edge of the rock ‘n roll envelope with rootsie influences from country, classic rock and blues that create the band’s Americana crossover signature sound.

Official EPK – Across The Board – Indie Pop Rock Band – Canada

Across The Board (ATB) is a Canadian Pop Rock/Americana band of multi-instrumentalist musicians who seamlessly combine creative talents to push their pop-rock sounds to the edge of the rock ‘n roll envelope with rootsie influences from country, classic rock and blues that create the band’s Americana crossover signature sound.

###