Lost Cousins

There's nothing more isolating than being 1,000 feet underwater in a diving suit all by yourself. And Toronto-grown indie rock band Lost Cousins finds themselves in this very same situation for their debut video for "Feel An Emotion". The video tells a story of a lost diver as he struggles to find a connection with everything inland. From relationships to parties, the diver is reclusive and is haunted by his underwater past. The band also brings bright strings and thick harmonies accompanied by a slow groove that brings the visual narrative to a close. Watch the video below.

"People often find themselves at contrasting points in their lives at the same time," the band explains. "'Feel An Emotion' is about the struggle of truly connecting with the people around you at those times. So, with the music video we were trying to capture that sense of disconnect, both in relationships and from society itself." - Noisey by Vice

Lost Cousins, and indie rock four piece from Kingston is swinging into town this weekend to play the Rainbow Bistro on Saturday. The four former Queen’s students are touring their latest EP Not Now What We Were and riding the wave of placing in the Top 10 of CBC Music’s national Searchlight competition last year.

We had a quick chat with Lost Cousins’ lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter, Dylan Cantlon Hay.

HOW WAS THE EAST COAST TOUR?
The East Coast tour was an incredible time. It was the longest tour stint that we’d been on to date and it was our first time touring through the U.S. as well. It was also the first time we hit the road in our new band van, The Hot Potato, which made for a much comfier ride than we were used to. We met so many great people along the way and were able to visit some amazing cities that we’d never been to before.

TOURS ARE FUN, BUT WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF COMING BACK TO ONTARIO AND HEADING HOME?
It’s always great to come back and spend time with all our friends in Toronto, as we spend countless hours on the road with just the four of us. We also end up eating a lot of fast food on the road, so it’s nice to be able to make some good home-cooked meals for ourselves. Lastly, nothing beats the comfort of our own beds, especially after sleeping on couches, floors, and car seats for days on end.

WHAT MADE FOUR FORMER QUEEN’S STUDENTS GET TOGETHER AND FORM A BAND?
Cam and myself (Dylan) met in first year and immediately started writing songs together. Throughout high school we had each played in bands in our hometowns, but in high school you’re too young to play at most venues and your band probably sucks. So by the time we got to university all we wanted to do was hit the stage and rock out for hours on end. After playing as part of a three-piece for awhile in the campus pub house band, we started to feel that we needed more instrumentation to be able to take our songs into the creative realms we were starting to imagine them in. We started playing music with Lloyd and Thomas in the Queen’s Players Pit Band and soon realized that they would be great fits for the band from both a musical perspective and as friends. A few weeks later we played our first concert in the living room of our house and Lost Cousins was born.

DOES THE NAME DERIVE FROM FEELING LIKE FAMILY, BUT NOT CLOSE ENOUGH TO BE BROTHERS? IF SO, PLEASE EXPLAIN, IF NOT, PLEASE ELABORATE.
We definitely intended the feeling like family part, but not necessarily not close enough to be brothers. The name came from a lyric of an old song of ours and it’s really tied in with the coming and going of not just close friends, but all people in your life. We also felt that a lot of people tend to have cousins that they may not know that well or that they’ve lost touch with so we thought that people would be able to relate to it in a sense.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR DEBUT EP, NOT NOW WHAT WE WERE IN ONE SENTENCE?
With songs that can set the mood in the heat of summer or on the harshest days of winter, Not Now What We Were is a refreshing collection of soul rock songs that blend influences of the past with lyrics that express growth and transformation.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO PLAY LIVE OFF THE EP? OR WHAT’S THE SONG THAT REALLY GETS THE CROWD GOING?
Our favourite song to play live off the EP would probably have to be “Strange Dreams,” as it’s got a decent amount of groove in the verses and we’re able to rock out in the choruses. It also happens to be the one that gets the crowd going, as everyone yells “wooooo!” during the pauses in the riff section of the song. When the crowd gets involved it always fires us up on stage and gets great vibes going in the room.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO PLAY SUCH HUGE FESTIVALS AS WAYHOME AND WOLFE ISLAND LAST SUMMER?
Both WayHome and Wolfe Island Music Festivals were such valuable experiences from us. Not only were they amazing opportunities for us to play our music in front of new fans, it was also a chance to get a glimpse of the professional side of the music industry. The stages had phenomenal sound and lighting setups and were terrific introductions to performing to large crowds outdoors. We were also able to interact with other artists and industry professionals backstage, which was valuable for gaining insight on the industry. More than anything, being part of these festivals motivated us to work more diligently at our craft, as being exposed to these events and musicians made us realize how far we have to go.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN-STORE THIS SUMMER?
We’re planning on doing a lot of writing and recording over the summer. We’re currently starting the process of working on our first full-length album, which is both very exciting and nerve-racking for us. Later this month we’re going into the studio to work on pre-production with Nixon Boyd of Hollerado. It will be awesome for us to work with someone with an outside perspective and to learn a new process of fleshing out material, especially someone like Nick that we look up to. Along with writing and recording, we’re planning on continuing to tour throughout most of the summer as well. We’ll be playing shows in our regular tour stops of Kingston, Ottawa and Montreal, as well as heading down south to newer cities such as Boston, New York, and Chicago. - Ottawa Showbox

When he arrived at his Queen's University residence four years ago, Dylan Cantlon Hay, like everyone else on his floor, started sussing out who of his new neighbours was "on the same page" as he was. That's when he first met Cam Duffin.

"We started playing acoustic guitar together for awhile," recalled Cantlon Hay.

In their second year, the duo -- who now comprise half of Queen's-born band Lost Cousins, one of the bands on the bill at the inaugural MacKinnon Brothers Beer & Music Festival on Aug. 23 -- landed a regular gig on campus, at the Clark Hall pub, where they would play cover songs as part of its live band bingo night.

"That was really fun for us because, first of all, we were 18. When you're in high school, you want to play gigs, but you only get to play a couple. Your band probably sucks, you're underage, and your parents are going to come to it," bassist Cantlon Hay chuckled.

Duffin, a drummer, joined the university's jazz band, where he met multi-instrumentalist saxophonist/guitarist Lloyd McArton. They met keyboardist Thomas Dashney when they played together in the Queen's Players band.

Cantlon Hay and Duffin were already in a different band, Mountain City, who played mostly cover songs and a few originals. That changed in the early months of 2014.

"Mountain City was our fun college band, and we were like, 'OK, we're actually going to make an effort here to try and start an online presence, see if we can get some recordings going and make something of it,'" said Cantlon Hay, and Lost Cousins was founded.

They pulled the plug on playing so many gigs, reworked some of Mountain City's songs, and started jamming in the (sometimes leaky) basement of Duffin and Cantlon Hay's house on campus (the band is living there this summer, and have moved their rehearsal space to a drier floor).

They recorded and released a five-song EP, Not Now What We Were, and offered it as a free download through their website.

"I feel like we should just toss it out there for free because people are going to find a way to download it anyway," Cantlon Hay said, adding that it's really about just getting the band's name and music out there.

If that didn't do it, then their success in this year's CBC Searchlight music competition, which aims to find Canada's best new band by a voting process, certainly did. Along with fellow Queen's-formed duo Devan & Khalid, Lost Cousins finished in the top 10 from the 3,333 entries.

In addition to their harmony-driven pop songs and growing fan base, Cantlon Hay credits their social media savvy, in part, for their higher than expected placing in the competition. They sang a version of the Queen's staple Oil Thigh, along with Devan & Khalid, and posted it on the popular Facebook page "Overheard at Queen's," where it received well over 1,000 hits.

They also shot some lighthearted videos of the band doing non-music things, such as diving, playing golf and tossing Frisbees.

"It's really another way to be creative," Cantlon Hay observed.

"Obviously, we're in it for the music, but it's a bit of a fun side of it as well. You have to think outside of the box because there are so many great bands out there, and great music, you've got to work just as hard at getting it out there as you are making it. Both sides to it are huge."

It seemed to have worked, as the band has found itself at a few festivals this summer, including last weekend's Wolfe Island Music Festival and the inaugural Wayhome Festival a few weeks back.

"I was trying to get the Friday off work," Cantlon Hay said of the "next level" Wayhome experience, "so I was telling my boss, 'Yeah, we're playing a festival and Neil Young's playing it.' It was pretty fun to drop that."

Come fall, the quartet are packing up -- they all graduated this year -- and moving to Toronto to pursue their musical careers.

The band's sound is continuing to evolve, and, with the departure of one of their guitarists this past spring, they have been rearranging their songs for a quartet instead of a quintet while working on new ones.

"I think we're starting to find a sound you can stamp 'Lost Cousins' on," chemical engineering grad Cantlon Hay said.

The band, which has a series of frosh week gigs lined up, will continue to return and play Kingston frequently, he added.

"We'll always be a Kingston band," he offered, "because that's where we started." - Kingston Whig-Standard

Multiple performances in Ottawa, Barrie and Toronto indicated a strong end-of-summer finish for indie-rock band Lost Cousins, who hope to continue the success this year with an influx of new music.

The Kingston band is comprised of members Dylan Hay, Sci ’15, on bass guitar, Cam Duffin, ArtSci ’15, on drums, Murray Spencer on guitar, Lloyd McArton, ConEd ’14, on guitar and saxophone and Thomas Dashney, CompSci ’15, on keyboard.

All members contribute equally to vocals.

They created the band starting in 2007 with Duffin and Spencer, Hay in 2011, and the rest in 2013 onwards.

The band, originally called Mountain City, chose to change their name to Lost Cousins.

“We chose our name because of how our band met and came together over a long period of time and through different occurrences,” Hay said.

Since most of the members attend Queen’s, the majority of the fanbase are students who see the band as a household name in Kingston.

“Most of our crowd is Queen’s students and it’s great to play for them,” Hay added.

“We’ve been gathering a solid fanbase of students and close friends who always come out and give us energy and help us really give a great show.”

Although there is a bit of a divide between the Kingston local crowd and student crowd, the solid following of friends and supporters that come out to cheer the band on help make their shows in Kingston special and fun for the band to play.

Lost Cousins are looking to take a different approach to their music this year, having worked diligently to produce precise songwriting skills they felt would be more in sync with their sound.

The band is ready to continue their creative process and show off their new music to their long-time friends and fans, Hay said.

“We’ve had time over the summer to really work on some new material and really flesh out a bunch of songs that we really like,” he said.

“We have a lot of new material in our back pockets that we’re hoping to put out soon.” - Queen's Journal

[Editor’s Note: Lost Cousins is the lovechild of Cam Duffin, Dylan Cantlon Hay, Thomas Dashney and Lloyd McArton. They will be playing at the Clark Hall Pub in Kingston on April 1, the Rainbow Bistro in Ottawa on April 2 and the Virgin Mobile Mod Club on April 22. Tickets are now available. See their awesome website for more details.]

“Do you know the band ‘Lost Cousins’ from Kingston?”

This was one entry in a game of one-up-manship over who knew the most Indie bands between myself and a co-worker. She thought she had me. While she thought the blank look on my face was me struggling to say “no” once again, in reality, she had just blown my mind. This was the moment I realized how big my friend’s band had gotten.

Which, in retrospect, was stupid. There had been plenty of opportunities prior for this realization to smack me in the face. In addition to a cool website and a busy SoundCloud page, Lost Cousins had played a stage at WayHome Music Festival – headlined by Sam Smith and Kendrick Lamar, although I was salivating over Modest Mouse and Passion Pit – with the crowd for their set being described as the biggest for that stage during the festival. They had also reached the Top 10 Nationally in the CBC Searchlight competition, to find Canada’s best up and coming musicians, on fan support alone.

Hell, the weekend before I was asked about them I watched them play, at House of Targ in Ottawa, what is possibly the best live set I’ve seen. What made it the best? The gathered hundred odd people, all a flick of a coin away from the band, swayed and sang the lyrics in time. There was literally no way they were just figuring out how to move as the song went on: the Crowd had heard these songs, repeatedly and lovingly, before.

All of this success made me being blown away by my co-worker all the more dumb. It makes sense she would know them to: these guys are hella good. They are an unstoppable force of energy when they are playing live – bodies gyrating violently, yet completely under control, on stage – and they somehow manage to capture and convey this infectious energy on each of their recordings. You can’t help but bob your head and smile.

Lost Cousin’s music is a balancing act, too: they manage to both be decidedly Indie while appealing to everyone:

Do you like to sway and bob your head when you listen to music? You should listen to “Feel An Emotion.”

Do you love fast, catchy intros? Wicked Choruses? Good – they have you covered with “Drift.”

Do you like to cock your head to the sky and sing emotionally like a wolf? Just try not to do that while listening to “Can You Make Me Feel Blue?”

Do you like experimental noise that makes you enter a kind of existential crisis of sorts? Elegy, dude. Elegy.

Do you want a sexy sax man in your life? “Strange Dreams” will make you melt.

Would you like to learn more about the game of basketball? Were you thinking about incorporating more videos of people larping into your life? Well Lost Cousins’ Youtube channel has you (surprisingly) covered with that too.

I went to high school with lead singer/guitarist/bassist/good dude Dylan Hay. We played basketball, football and countless hours of Halo 3, while listening to Wilco and Alexisonfire, together.

Eventually Dylan moved on from Halo 3 when he got really into Guitar Hero. The rest, as they say, is history. I wanted to learn more about the Band and, because I can’t speak enough about how awesome they are, shed some behind the scenes light on the band themselves. Dylan was kind enough to answer some questions for me.

A crucial selling-point for Lost Cousins during CBC Searchlight and continuing on your website and other places is that the band was “formed in the basement of a student house in Kingston, ON.” What’s the story behind how this formation happened?

Dylan: A lot of the houses surrounding the university in Kingston are gorgeous old century homes that were built in the late 1800s. Due to their close proximity to the university, families moved out of these houses over the years and the neighbourhood eventually transformed into student housing. We were lucky enough to live in one of the bigger, more badass houses in the neighbourhood and our basement was huge. After living in residence in first year, we really wanted to be able to jam at any time of day (or night, unluckily for our housemates/neighbours) so setting up a jam space in our basement seemed like the best way to do it. Unfortunately the basement was super musky and dirty but we loved it nonetheless. We also played our first shows in the living room of the same house – the energy that first came about in these house concerts is still a large part of our live performance to this day.

When you all came together in that basement, did you ever picture Lost Cousins would be here today with all the success that you have had?

Dylan: We were definitely taking writing and performing music seriously from the get go, but I don’t think any of us pictured the band taking off as quickly as it did. The first time we headlined a show was at The Mansion in Kingston just a few months after we formed. We only booked the venue two weeks in advance, yet somehow the show sold out and there was a line-up out the door. After that show we had a new feeling of confidence in ourselves and in our music, and our fans have been helping us bring it home ever since.

What is the creative process like when you guys are writing and recording a new song?

Dylan: Most of our songs start with a riff, chord progression, or melody that Cam or myself will bring to the band. We then adapt that idea to make it work for the band. The arranging process is very democratic, all members play an important role in determining how to make the song flow properly and how to make the instruments fit well with each other. Although it is not always the case, lyrics typically tend to come after the melodies have been written.

What indicators do you look for to see if a song is resonating with an audience?

Dylan: When looking into the crowd there are obvious indicators like people dancing and singing along that let us know if a song is resonating with an audience, but I find that I can tell if someone is truly intrigued by our music by looking at their eyes. I feel a bit creepy saying that, as if I’m staring into people’s souls or something, but you can almost tell when someone is really listening just by the way they’re looking at the stage. Sometimes we’ll even see people start to smile when we get to a certain part of a song that they might enjoy, which is a great feeling for us on stage.

I love the stuff you guys do on your Youtube Channel. The larping video was hysterical. What is the thought process behind some of these videos? Is there a strategy or were you guys just going to larp anyways and wanted to record it?

Dylan: Awhile back we had the idea of doing a Youtube series of “How-To” videos with Lost Cousins as a unique way to promote our shows. It started with mostly sports videos, and rather than actually being How-To videos they were more or less just videos of us goofing around. Since then they’ve transformed into us doing other activities like larping and such. We like that the videos show the light-hearted side of our band, since we don’t want to take ourselves too seriously.

A huge moment for Lost Cousins was the debut of your new music video for “Feel an Emotion.” I must say it’s spectacular, deep and awesomely produced. What was the inspiration for the video?

Dylan: People often find themselves at contrasting points in their lives at the same time. “Feel An Emotion” is about the struggle of truly connecting with the people around you at those times. With the music video we were trying to capture that sense of disconnect, both in relationships and from society itself.

How did you find the music video recording process? How involved was the band in it?

Dylan: For awhile we tried to come up with a concept for a music video, but we couldn’t come up with anything that we felt would truly capture the essence of the song. We reached out to director Czlowiek Kamera from Poland, as we were big fans of some of the work he had done with Half Moon Run and Cairo. He sent a couple of treatments our way and we felt that one of them was totally in line with the lyrics and meaning of “Feel An Emotion.” We weren’t actually that involved in the music video recording process itself, as we wanted to give him full creative rein to take our song into a realm we couldn’t imagine it in. The video was shot in Poland, rural Norway and Berlin, all places that none of us have been, so it was very interesting for us to see our song visualized in places that were foreign to both us and the majority of our fans. - That’ll Do Blog

On its soulful debut EP, "Not Now What We Were," Kingston, Ontario's Lost Cousins prove itself to be seasoned indie rock scholars. Crooning Local Natives-inspired vocals coast over sidewinding guitar leads and organ bursts that would feel right at home on a Foals record. While Lost Cousins wear its influences on its sleeve, the music contained on "Not Now What We Were" never comes across as anything less than unique and inspired. The track "Can You Make Me Feel Blue?" sounds like Otis Redding performing at the Back to the Future prom and "Strange Dreams" is so infectious that its "Careless Whisper" sax line actually feels cool, which is no small feat. - Rochester City Newspaper

After their formative years at Queen’s University, including becoming the staple local talent at Kingston bars and a successful run deep into CBC Radio’s Searchlight series, Lost Cousins released this tidy little EP in early 2015. Feeling like a long time coming, loyal fans, friends, and concert-goers were treated to professional recordings of some of the groups’ setlist that they’d been bobbing and grooving along to for ages. However, cementing themselves in the college scene was only the beginning for the burgeoning band, and these five songs are just the film on the bubble set to burst out of southeastern Ontario.
I’ve seen the fellas play a couple times, but have heard them many more than that (a digital sound design course I took this year tasked us with mixing a Lost Cousins track from raw masters of a song not included on this EP). There’s an eclectic smattering of characteristics that make the band’s performance both enjoyable and memorable, and these are spread out evenly throughout the album’s brief 20 minute runtime. Opening tracks Drift and Feel An Emotion pack powerful hooks, tearing solos, and intricately dense yet irresistibly smooth lines that boast some effective supporting group vocals with real staying power. An overall driving groove, especially noticeable in Can You Make Me Feel Blue?, lends the album a late-night crooning heartthrob sort of tone that I’d expect backed by a big band down at the local watering hole.
Yet somehow the five members pull it off, and I really wanted to highlight this point — not only does Lost Cousins produce songs that sonically come across like more than five musicians, they also profess the momentous soul of what sounds like several additional contributors as well. Not Now What We Were flows effortlessly between so many different tantalizing sections that it’s almost teasing you to get up and dance along with it (if you can keep up). Even the no-holds-barred finale of Elegy, wherein Lost Cousins throws their entire sonic spectrum at you, is unpretentious and full in a manner that I was pleasantly surprised by. Other than the occasional unsteadiness in the brass tones, the mix of the album is incredibly warm and appealing — it even sounds like a welcome made-for-vinyl release and an introductory dip into the passion of the band’s incredible live performances.
Verdict: If you’re in the Kingston area you have no excuse not to have heard this band by now — for everybody else, I think a taste is well worth it (especially if you get a chance to see them in person). - Medium - Mathew Kahansky

I first saw Lost Cousins about a year ago, they were playing the Horseshoe and they were friends of a friend of mine who recommended I check them out. I was impressed but they still felt like a young band. A lot has changed for them in the last year. They not only made it to CBC’s Searchlight national top 10, but they kicked off the final day of WayHome on the WayBold stage. The band has definitely improved in the year since I’ve seen them, they’re tight, high energy and put on a hell of a show. I was surprised how many people there were at the WayBold stage to see them. They even got called out for an encore. This band is going places and I can’t wait to see what’s next. - The Indie Blender

Kingston, Ontario’s Wayhome Festival alumni, Lost Cousins, took to the stage at Plan b Bar & Lounge on February 16, 2016 introducing a Moncton crowd to their pop infused brand of indie rock. Lost Cousins performance left no doubt why this quartet was asked to play the inaugural year of WayHome Festival, a performance I was lucky enough to catch and which had me extremely enthusiastic for the Plan b gig. As good as their 2015 EP, Not Now What We Were, is their live treatment of these tracks is nothing short of masterful. Perhaps the most striking part of the performance was the switching off of vocal duties amongst members. Something that is not a common occurrence and definitely kept the audience’s focus.

Covering most of the songs from the EP, with an exceptionally brilliant rendition of “Feel An Emotion”, they also included new material including a track called “My Days Are Numbered” which will hopefully make it to a recording in the near future. With a sound that is best described as eclectic the one thing that will stick with you after seeing Lost Cousins live is the haunting effect of Thomas Dashney’s keyboard work accompanied by Lloyd McArton’s saxophone playing. Throughout the set more than one person was overheard commenting on its effect.

The highlight of the show for many, including myself, was Lost Cousin’s epic cover of Supertramp’s “Logical Song”. Everything just came together on this song and it sealed the fact that this band is one that must be seen live to be properly experienced. With several shows in Ontario and Quebec throughout March you would be well advised to see for yourself. - Canadian Beats

Lost Cousins returns to the area hot on the heels of a new music video release, the first for the band.

The four musicians perform at a fundraiser for Burl’s Creek, this weekend, at The Hitch House.

Dylan Cantlon Hay, the band’s bass player, is the only Barrie member. The band formed at Queen’s University in 2014 and all graduated last spring. They are currently living in Toronto where each musician pursues either more education and/or work alongside their music

Thomas Dashney, keyboard, works for a software company; Lloyd McArton, guitar and saxophone has a couple of part-time jobs and plans to return to university for a masters in art in music education. Cam Duffin, drums, works at a music store in Toronto. Hay is continuing his schooling with masters in chemical engineering.

“We’re still being able to keep up the band - still get a lot of night practices in - we’re able to make it work, luckily,” said Hay, adding that the band played 80 shows last year.

The highlight of 2015 was performing at the WayHome Music and Art Festival at Burls Creek last summer. Last year marked their first international tour and the release of a five-song EP called Not Now What We Were. The music video for one of the songs ‘Feel An Emotion’ is a first for the band - see it on noisey.vice.com.

The Save Burl's Creek Fundraiser takes place on Saturday, March 19 at The Hitch House on Highway 11 in Oro-Medonte.

The event runs from 7-10 p.m., the show starts at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $50, available through www.supportoro.com. - Barrie Examiner

It’s never been clear why, exactly, Kingston has been able to consistently produce solid homegrown musical talent like The Tragically Hip, Sarah Harmer and Bedouin Soundclash. Maybe it’s the supportive arts scene. Maybe it’s the abundance of music venues. Maybe it’s the limestone in the water. Whatever the reason, it’s a trend that continues.

More recently, three of the bigger names carrying the K-Town torch and making waves across Canada and elsewhere are Sheesham and Lotus, PS I Love You, and Lost Cousins. Keep reading for the lowdown on each.

Lost Cousins

Backstory

Cam Duffin, Dylan Cantlon Hay, Thomas Dashney and Lloyd McArton formed Lost Cousins in the basement of a Kingston student house and played their first shows in the living room. They went on to reach the top 10 nationally in the CBC Searchlight competition.

Sound

This isn’t a band that easily fits into a category, but Cantlon Hay says that lately they’ve been using “psychedelic soul rock” to describe their sound. “While we formed as a rock band at heart, we’re largely influenced by R&B music, such as Motown and Stax.”

Live

“Every time we take the stage we aim to take the audience on a rollercoaster ride,” says Cantlon Hay. “With songs varying from high-energy rockers to groovy soul jams, we love keeping the audience on their toes throughout the set, unaware as to what may happen next.”

News

The band recently released their debut music video for “Feel an Emotion,” shot in Poland, Norway and Berlin, and now they’re working on their debut full-length album. This summer, they’ll play in cities that include Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston and Chicago. They’ll also be back in Kingston for the Skeleton Park Arts Festival on June 22. - Kingston Lobby

We were lucky enough to see Lost Cousins play at Rockwood Music Hall and catch up with them about how they started and playing their very first show in NYC.

Rockwood is best known for showcasing bands that you wish you had know about, but grateful for catching a new, favorite band. Playing songs from their album, Not Now What We Were, their stage presence is really fun and laid back. They kept it interesting with switching instruments, Lloyd would take bass and Dylan would take the guitar and also switch vocals, which reminded me of Grouplove where they literally place musical chairs onstage and switch instruments. Not only does this keep the performance fun, but it’s refreshing at the same time.

Lost Cousins was formed and based in Kingston, ON, Canada in 2014 by its members Lloyd, Dylan, Thomas, and Cam who went to university, graduated and all live together which makes the songwriting all the more special. You can tell that they love what they do and they enjoy being in a band together. They also caught the attention of Noisey earlier this year, with their exclusive premiere of the band’s debut music video ‘Feel An Emotion‘ where the band was able to film overseas with a Polish director in Norway, Poland, and Berlin, Germany as well. As described by the band, it’s a visual realm in true art form that’s pretty special for them.

We had the pleasure of talking to Lost Cousins before they rocked out onstage!

Is your songwriting collaborative?

Dylan: It’s a pretty big team effort, a lot of times Cam and I would start an idea, but we do all of our arranging on our own. Sometimes even the part of the song starts with won’t even like end up in the actual song. We really try to bring our own influences to the table when we’re arranging.

This is your first NYC show!! How do you feel?

Dylan: (with a lot of excitement) This IS our first NYC show! We’re absolutely ecstatic! Yeah we’re definitely pumped!

Cam: Feels like a finally sort of thing. We’ve been wanting to do this for so long. To be able to do it, feels amazing.

How did planning an NYC show come about?

Dylan: We wanted to start playing shows in the states because a lot of bands do cross Canada tours and we’re in Ontario and we can hit so many of these major cities especially like New York City and we’ve also hit Chicago on this tour. We really wanted to hit really big markets so we all got our working visas to cross into the states and started booking shows. We were able to get onto this bill and Rockwood was one of the first bills we were able to book, they do such a great job of getting small acts to play. So we actually booked the tour around Rockwood, there are some great cities in Canada that we’re focusing on, but they’re far apart so there’s not nearly as many venues on the border.

So band name, Lost Cousins, it seems like there’s an interesting story behind it. How did you guys come up with the name?

Cam: We all met in university so it was like a time in our life when we’re meeting many new people and also having to let go of people in our hometowns. We all came from towns in Ontario, that around the university that we went to. So basically we wrote a song called Lost Cousins a while ago – we don’t really play it anymore but it was a metaphor for friends come and gone and while we were at university the name just sort of made more sense for us.

Dylan: We also wanted a name that people could relate to as well. I think that many people have cousins who they’ve drifted apart from and things like that.

Favorite song to perform?

Cam and Dylan agreed on one of their newest songs “Mindmaker.”

Lloyd and Thomas also agreed on one of their newest songs called “Trails.”

Dylan: The stuff we’ve created most recently is typically what typically gets us stoked on stage. The new sounds and ideas we’re able to finally flesh and out and get to to perform for people are always the most exciting on our end.

Most surreal experience as a band?

Cam: We’ve played a music festival called the “Wayhome Festival” in Canada which put on by the same people from Bonaroo – that was definitely the biggest stage we’ve played. It was crazy.

Dylan: It’s referred to as the Bonaroo of Canada kind of thing, we got to play the inaugural year and it was a massive festival, definitely the biggest crowd we’ve ever played for and a ton of our friends were there too so it was like a big thing for us too.

Lloyd: We all went to school together and a bunch of people from our university probably more than a hundred went to the festival.

Dylan: We all met in Kingston, Ontario and a lot of the other cities where we started touring in, like Toronto and Ottawa – all of our fans from those cities, they were all going to Wayhome because it was such a big destination for anyone in Ontario. A lot of our fan bases were able to see us play at that show as well as a lot of new people. It was such an amazing stage to play on.

You guys have a new album in the works will it sound similar to “Not Now What We Were” or will you guys give it a different sound?

I think out of all the songs on ‘Not Now What We Were’- Feel An Emotion would be more in the direction that we’re going. I think it’ll definitely be quite different from the first album as a whole. With that we recorded a bunch of different influences we had and wanted to show our diversity and influences we wanted to incorporate where we want to include in it in the album and make it cohesive. It’ll be more refined. - Pancakes and Whiskey