Massive Hits!
Local Pop Band hopes to follow the Robin Black route to stardom
Mike Warkentin

“Holy shit! That guy just fell down. He just fell and lay there for a while. He’s super drunk.

“Holy shit! He just fell again,” says Quinzy drummer David Pankratz.

“Whoa. This place is hardcore now,” chimes in bassist Sandy Taronno.

“Massive hits!” guitarist Brian James yells into my tape recorder. “Make sure you print that.”

It’s Friday night, and the Quinzy guys are unwinding over pitchers of beer at Flea Whiskey’s on a rare weekend night without a gig. They’re also brushing packing chips off their clothes after Uptown photographer George Douklias had the fun-loving, guileless popsters sit in a dumpster for a photo.

We’re talking music, and James paraphrases Robin Fucking Black when I ask him what new songs Quinzy is writing to follow up last year’s Pleasebabypleasebabybabybabyplease.

“New massive hits,” James says of the fresh stuff. “Robin Black-style massive hits. I remember I saw him in Toronto two years ago, and he just kept yelling the phrase, ‘Massive hits!’”

It turns out the power-pop band will be heading back to Black country in June to record three songs with Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Rheostatics). The band plans to give the producer all its material — a wealth of catchy tracks with layered vocals and singalong choruses — so he can choose three songs to record for a demo to shop to labels.

“It’s going to go platinum, as far as I know,” James deadpans after a sip of beer.

“Hopefully it’ll get us a record deal and we’ll be able to do an album,” Pankratz, often the voice of reason, clarifies.

Glen Willows is a werewolf?

Flying to Toronto to record is a new step for the three-year-old band of 20-somethings, whose last disc was recorded in Winnipeg at Unison Studios. The band is also now without a manager, as it recently parted ways with Harlequin guitarist Glen Willows, who also manages Inward Eye and other local acts. On its website, quinzy.ca, the band whimsically blames the split on its own opium abuse and the fact that Willows is a “werewolf.”

“I think it was just a number of disagreements on things, and we just decided as friends and rational human beings that it wasn’t really working,” Pankratz clarifies again.

“We’re really, really good friends, and that almost caused a lot of the tension… To save the benefits of our personal lives we just ended the business end,” Taronno says.

I ask if Willows quit because he was tired of typing the band’s endless album title on infinite press releases.

“We were trying to keep that under wraps, but that’s actually the real story,” James confirms, tongue in cheek and beer in mouth.

Before getting set to record, the band is planning a couple of special dates above and beyond its regular club sets at such places as Dylan O’Connor’s and Shannon’s. The first gig is the May 5 second half of the Kick FM Home Spun CD-release party scheduled at the Pyramid. The second is an all-ager on May 7 at the West End.

“We were at Canadian Music Week, and we saw Paper Moon and I was really blown away,” Taronno says. “And I sort of quasi-knew some of them before, so I just approached them and said, ‘We’ve got to do a show.’”

Local outfit Paper Moon indeed signed on, as did up-and-coming act Sons of York, both members of a growing Winnipeg pop-rock scene that includes Tele, Novillero, The Perms and many other talented groups.

“I remember three or four years ago there was literally not a band or a show I wanted to see,” Taronno says of the local scene. “I know Novillero and Paper Moon have been around for a while, but they sort of resurfaced in the last couple of years.

“We started doing shows and we started meeting so many bands, and now that we’re all on sort of an equal footing — it kind of feels like we’re watching it happen before our eyes.

“All three of us strongly believe that Winnipeg has one of the strongest scenes in North America,” Pankratz adds. “All it will take is a Rolling Stone article or a Time article, seriously, and it would blow up like (the scene in) Montreal.”

The interview goes south — for beer

As a glass of beer falls over — the second to go thus far — it seems we’re making scenes rather than talking about them.
“She knows the trouble table…” Taronno says as the waitress flies over with a rag. “I’m going to have to call a ‘my bad’ on that one.

“Ah, I would have done that if I was drunk or not.”

And then he puts his foot in it.

“Thanks, mom,” he says to the waitress, a young woman who gives him an indignant look.

“That’s how Quinzy picks up girls,” Brian says, and the table erupts in laughter.

“Our key demographic is girls who have a crush on you,” Taronno snaps. “Do not give up the dream.”

Actually, Quinzy reveals that its main supporters are guys in bands and the girlfriends of guys in bands — but they also say there’s a lot more of those types around since Pleasebaby... dropped.

“The biggest difference I’ve seen ever since the album came out is that everyone knows the songs,” Taronno says. “Everyone is singing along. Everyone is coming up and saying every individual track is their favourite song. That’s been the most rewarding thing so far.”

The conversation is interrupted by the KISS anthem Lick It Up, which demands table drumming and a singalong, then the debate turns to Gene Simmons, music marketing and charisma.

I mention that Simmons once told me he could leave a party with anyone’s girlfriend even though he doesn’t think he’s very attractive.

“We need someone like that,” Taronno says. “Brian, get to work.”

“I am a good-looking man,” Brian intones robotically, “and if you bring your girlfriend to a party I’m going to leave with her.”

We all laugh, and I decide to visit the bathroom, mistakenly using the women’s facilities. When I return, Quinzy are snickering and looking guilty. I realize the tape was running while I was gone.

The secret recording

“The tape is still on, but Mike isn’t here,” Taronno says. “I’m going to write something in his notebook.”

“Sandy, write this,” Brian says, dictating a few things that should remain unsaid.

At that point the waitress comes by and asks what the boys are up to.

“What do you think about our band?” James asks the waitress.

“I don’t know about your band. You guys have to tell me about your band before I can comment on it,” she replies.

“We have massive hits,” James says earnestly.

“Yeah? That’s wicked,” she says, perhaps patronizingly.

But who knows? Maybe the massive-hits approach will work for Quinzy in Toronto.