The crowd may not have known who Featurette was before they performed on Sept. 6, but they were certainly jumping to the beat by the end of their set.
Featurette is a new electronic pop band coming out of Toronto featuring vocals by Lexie Jay and drums by Jon Fedorsen.
“How long did it take to get here? I feel like this is day two for us,” said Jay in an interview with the Times before the show.
This is the first campus tour for Featurette since they started doing gigs in January of this year.
“The reason we got the campus tour is because we were part of COCA [Canadian Organization of Campus Activities]. We got a showcase for COCA so we played the stage with other known acts like Ria Mae. Someone really liked the track,” said Jay. “We can’t believe that we are playing with Walk off the Earth and Dear Rouge. We’re star struck.”
After the tour, Featurette plans to take the two EP’s and release them as an LP that is planned for release at the end of September. They also plan on releasing a mini EP in order to keep the momentum going.
“We are going to keep releasing little snippets of things so that everyone gets the flavour rather than this waiting — and big album drop — and waiting,” said Jay. “We would rather keep the energy behind it.”
Jay and Fedorsen initially had difficulty finding the unique sound for Featurette.
“When we brought all of our ideas for the first Featurette album to the producer, we had so many things playing all the time and they kind of picked the ones that connected better,” said Fedorsen. “That definitely made it easier. I don’t need the tambourine on every chorus.”
Featurette also provided some advice before their set for Music Industry Arts students looking to make it into the industry in the future.
“Write everything down. Keep a notebook by your bed because you don’t know when the good idea will come and you won’t know what it is until later,” said Jay.
“As a drummer, one of the greatest tools is your voice. I’m sure that some of the best songs we’ve had are now lost because we didn’t grab our phones and record it.” said Fedorsen. “And your first 10 songs are going to suck, at least 10. Maybe the first 20 songs are going to be garbage.”
Jay and Fedorsen described how their stage show is a bit different than their EP.
“The album’s very introspective. It’s also very catchy, but it’s a bit of a drama. On stage is more of a party,” said Fedorsen.
“A lot of the songs that we play on stage are different than the LP that’s coming because the songs are too intense for the stage,” said Jay. “If we were to play on the Algonquin Commons Theatre, we could play music like that and really take you on that journey and have a set to help us and have props to really show you.”
Featurette is hoping to come back to Algonquin in order to play some of their darker material in the future.