Ones&Zeros’ early ’80s new wave and post-punk tinged songs are steeped in Jason Maxwell’s observations about life in the city.
“The City Don’t Care,” also the name of the EP Ones&Zeros will release at the Media Club on June 20, features Maxwell musing about a general sense of alienation and the pace of change in Vancouver.
“And how our identity can get tied to certain places or certain situations and when those touchstones or those landmarks are ripped down and replaced with more glass condos for foreign buyers, for the most part, what happens to our identity,” Maxwell said.
“Last Goodbye,” also on the new EP, deals with addiction and “Life on Video” was inspired by the “bystander effect” Maxwell noted during the Stanley Cup riot downtown.
“All this chaos was happening and violence in places and most people that I saw were just standing rooted on the spot holding out their phones recording it all rather than trying to do something about it,” he said.
Upbeat, somewhat distorted pop songs buoy the moody lyrics Maxwell says reflect his influences, which include early Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and the Clash.
“I can’t escape these observations about things around me and around us,” Maxwell said.
“We hear so much drivel on the radio and through TV these days,” he continued. “That whole so-called R&B category, the Beyoncés, Rhiannas and Katy Perrys and Jay Zs and Pharrells, all that stuff, drives me nuts.”
The ’90s saw Maxwell, then frontman and guitarist for noise/punk band Lung, which opened for the Pixies and the Flaming Lips, roar about what moved him.
Learning digital recording programs in 2012 gave him a new melodic world to explore at his fingertips.
“Now I could play keyboards, I could set up drum tracks,” Maxwell said. “It was amazing.”
Before Maxwell knew it, he had written more than 60 songs.
Writing so prolifically satisfied him initially. “But musicians have an innate compulsion to want to share their music with others,” Maxwell said. So he formed Ones&Zeros.
Amanda Rawlings, Maxwell’s younger sister, fronts the band, channeling Debbie Harry and Patti Smith, her long blond bangs in her eyes.
“[She] actually has more of an encyclopedic knowledge of music and bands than I do,” Maxwell said. “So she gets where I’m coming from in terms of those early influences. That’s been nice because with other bands, when you’re trying to convey ideas to the other members it can sometimes be difficult.”
The siblings share vocals, 60-40, in Rawlings’ favour.
Maxwell’s old friend Greg Hennessey plays guitar, Michael Lauder’s in charge of drums and percussion, Duncan Stewart’s on bass and Lance White joined Ones&Zeros in January to play keyboards.
Andy Schichter engineered and mixed the EP at the now defunct Hive studios. Carl Saff mastered both the 2013 and new EP in Chicago. Saff has recently worked with Thurston Moore and Chelsea Light Moving and J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.
Doors at the Media Club, 695 Cambie St., open at 7:30 and the Flintettes kick off the show. For more information, see onesandzerosmusic.com.
