Redcoat

“Burn Beside Me” is the sum total of everything that makes the Niagara region rock scene one of the loudest and grittiest in the country - Alan Cross

Redcoat is a three piece grunge band from Niagara, Ontario, formed Chris McKirdy (vocals and guitar player), Riley Sheehan (bass guitarist), and Corey Sheehan (drummer). If you like the bands; Nirvana, Foo Fighters, or Smashing Pumpkins, then Redcoat will be your new favorite grunge band.

I got the chance to interview Chris from the band, here's the interview!

First off, introduce yourselves and what your roles are in the band.
Chris: I'm Chris, I sing and play guitar in Redcoat. Corey Sheehan plays drums and Riley Sheehan plays bass.

What inspired your band name?
Chris: It basically just came from the concept of my parents being from the UK and the term 'Redcoat' was used in the US back in the day when they were just becoming a country like the redcoats were, British coming over, and they were fighting and stuff like that. So, it's just coming up with something that meant something to me but also just sounded cool, as a band name.

If you had the chance to work with any artists or band, dead or alive, who would it be?
Chris: That's tough, especially dead or alive because there's so many dead people that I'd love to work with; obviously, John Lennon, The Beatles, Nirvana would be great. Currently, it would be a dream come true to tour with a band like Foo Fighters or something like that. I mean I know that's a little far fetched, but at the same time; it would be pretty fun. As far as other bands too, like I know, speaking for myself and Riley; we're big Prince fans, we'd love to (if Prince was still around), jam with him or something like that.

How would you describe your live performances?
Chris: It's kind of changed over the years; I mean when you first start bands, you try to figure out things, especially live stuff and how you're moving or what you're doing. And I started off as a drummer, so moving into the category of being a guitar player, still trying to find my footing and that, because you don't want to look too awkward on stage. But I mean, as far as like our live sound; we try to overcompensate for the fact that there's only three of us, so we try to be as loud as we can and just have a good time, and just make loud noises on stage, that's pretty much it.

What comes first when writing songs; lyrics, melodies, or beats?
Chris: I guess can speak for this, because I write everything. I just kind of sit with a guitar at first, like I'll be watching TV or just hanging out with my girlfriend, or whatever, sitting down just playing stuff. If something kind of comes to mind, like I'll start humming something in my head and then I'll have to go into the other room and put it onto a voice memo, on my IPhone to record what I have. And then I'll bring it to the space and jam it out with with my electric guitar and amp, and everything like that, and then I'll voice memo that and save it onto my phone! Then I'll have a sort of skeleton of a song and I'll put it into my computer and record it.

Your last release was Sweater Weather, what can we expect next from you?
Chris: It's weird, because when I first started, I had this plan of just writing more fast and louder stuff. The way if kind of been; the last few songs, especially the ones we haven't released yet, they're still loud, but more radio friendly I guess - if that makes any sense. We're kind of in this limbo phase of writing, where there's still a couple fast and heavy ones that are in the works, but there's also some slow ones. They're all over the map right now.

Yes! That's awesome though. I feel like it's important that bands explore different genres and sounds.
Yeah, I've always said the same thing too, because when you look at like, one of my favorite bands of all time, Queen, every album was different and even then, there were different songs and different genres that were in each of them. The problem with music nowadays is that it's hard to do that, especially in a mainstream basis, because when you're releasing music to the masses, radios just want you to have the same song over and over again - which is kind of annoying. But I can understand, like when you hear a Justin Bieber record; every song sounds exactly the same. It is nice to sort of nice to explore your horizons.



Do you have any goals as a band that you'd like to accomplish in the new year?
Chris: Yes, I mean we've got a lot of stuff that we'd like to do! Every year is getting a bit better, like this year; 2018, was the first time we got to go out to Montreal, was the first time we went to Ottawa, we did 'Canadian Music Week' again. So, probably like trying to play more festivals, or try to get a tour going, a little bit longer than just a small 5-6 day tours that we've been doing. Try to expand what we've already been doing on live skills, this past year was probably the most we've ever played as a band, out and about, to shows. When I first started, the previous members that I had in Redcoat were in other bands at the time, so it was always hard for us to get out to play. But now that I've got Riley and Corey, we're all focused on this one band. That's sort of the general answer, also I know that we're going to be hopefully releasing an EP in the next couple of months, and probably going back into the studio. One of the biggest things we want to do is just to get on the radio; that would be the first thing, so the long and short answer is radio, more shows, and new music!

Your third EP, The Three Swords, came out a while ago, does the name of it signify anything?
Chris: Yes and no; when I name stuff or come up with song ideas, a lot of it is open to interpretation for the most part. The Three Swords, I wanted to have a series of three different and small EPs that were based of off Tarot Cards, and it didn't really come out the way that I wanted it to, so we only had just the one set of songs that got recorded with my old drummer Davis, and we just said it that day, that the one release was that. I mean, yeah I had this bigger idea that I wanted to end up happening. So, The Three Swords is just the name of the card, and it was the third EP.

Anything to say to your fans that may be reading this and people who may be interested in your music?
Chris: Shoutout to all of our friends, shoutout to our friends in Revive The Rose, Output, Heavy Hearts, everybody in Niagara that's been super nice to us and have been supporting our music, and everybody, like yourself, and everyone else in Montreal. We had a very good time there; hope to come back soon. Other than that, just look out for more music and more shows, and maybe a music video or two. I mean the only music video that we have is just my dumb face walking around in a parking lot, so I'm sure we'll probably come out with something - hopefully soon, the sooner the better. Problem is, that when you get into the more politics version of music, you're just kind of just stuck waiting for a lot of things, and waiting on when to do something. Hopefully we can just do as much as we can without answering to anybody. - The Music Enthusiast