Artist Spotlight: One and the Same
An interview with One and the Same
“You put us all together and somehow we manage without killing each other,” says One and the Same drummer, Corey Buchan. The band consists of a noise rock guitarist, a pop punk frontman, an alternative metalhead drummer, and a jazz funk bassist. Guitarist Josh MacDonald adds, “We’re capable of pulling from a lot of different genres stylistically. It makes it fun and unique.”
Their diverse tastes make for interesting songwriting, but they also create a lot of genre-related confusion for the band. After a few minutes of discussion, they decide that the closest thing to an apt genre tag for them would be either “alternative noise punk metal” or “fuzz emo thrash funk.” Identifying with eight labels doesn’t do much to narrow down the nature of their sound, but that eclectic nature is part of the group’s charm. One and the Same’s upcoming EP release, Weapons, due in February, will continue to take from genres all across the board.
“Every single song on the EP is very different,” says Buchan. “We have ‘Bad’, which is alternative metal. After that is ‘Aggressive Advertising’, which is just so silly. The song itself is about a very personal encounter, but we had no lyrics for the bridge. There’s this video game streamer online who had a video about why he hates Subway, and the rant just happened to fit in the length of that bridge, so we used it. It was supposed to be temporary but everyone loved it so we kept it,” he chuckles. “After that one is ‘Cat Lady’, which is a bluesgrass-y song about video games.”
Frontman Colin Ferreira continues, “Afterwards there’s ‘Digital’, the first song Josh ever brought to us. Our final track is ‘Grey Stations’. It’s an alternative rock song about riding the SkyTrain.”
Buchan nods, “And that’s the EP.”
There was a time when they were a clearly defined pop punk band, but that changed when Conor Naylor—who was unable to meet for an interview—joined the band. His introduction to the group meant a brand new name, approach, and dynamic. Since then, they’ve accepted and welcomed their differences in musical preference. It does lead to occasional bickering between the members, but they’re still together after many years of tribulations.
The most notable of tribulations was likely a near-death experience that occurred during the band’s tour of the province last year.
“We were driving to a gig in Calgary in the middle of the night. It was a good time. We looked at stars. We had sing-a-longs,” remembers Ferreira. “But at one point around 2 a.m., we were driving down the mountain and started feeling a rumble strip even though we were nowhere near the side of the road. I started wondering what was happening, and we had about a five-second warning until the back right wheel flew off into the night.”
“Colin managed to navigate us to the one available safe spot,” Buchan smiles. “No one was hurt. None of our gear was damaged. Nothing.”
The next day, the band had the van towed, rented a U-Haul, and continued to drive to their show. They finished the tour, and with even more bravery, are planning to do another this summer.
“It’s tentatively titled ‘The Four-Wheel Tour’,” laughs MacDonald.
