How Telling Your Dog to Sit Down Could Kill Him – Charlottetown’s very own Stabbing Joy

By: Lorelei Kenny

From the left to right: Alex Casey (Lead guitar), Justice Jones (Vocals and rhythm), Luke Pound (Drums) and Isaiah Jabbour (Bass)

 

It’s been little over a year since Charlottetown-based band, Stabbing Joy formed. After the band’s hibernation this summer they are ready to get back into the swing of things. Justice, Luke, and Alex are all in their second year at Holland College’s School of Performing Art (SOPA).

The guys had only good things to say about the program.“Alan Dowling, his is the man! The program is his baby and he takes such good care of it,” said Alex.

Luke said that his teachers “make you self-reflect constantly, they help you discover yourself and teach you how to make it in the music scene.” 

“Yea, the instructors are all so masterful, they all know the business and art of music inside and out, and they are active musicians in the community.” added Justice.

SOPA was greatly influenced by Berklee College of Music, the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world located in Boston, Massachusetts. The SOPA program uses the official curriculum of Berklee College Music and gives students the opportunity to start at Holland College and finish at Berklee if they so desire. SOPA itself is a well- rounded program. Students study music theory, styles, history, arranging, marketing and also have private lessons, ensemble, and improv classes.  

Anyway, as the story goes, it all started last fall when Justice showed Luke some “God awful” demos (Justice’s words not mine). The two of them got to talking and then some other classmates got involved, they  chatted casually about jamming sometime and it wasn’t long before they did. All they needed was a bass player — so Luke called up Isaiah (also a second year Holland College student), his friend from high school and just like that the band was complete. In the beginning, there were more than four members, some other SOPA students were part of the band but do to a variety of reasons won’t be continuing with Stabbing Joy this year. Nevertheless, Justice, Alex, Luke and Isaiah are eager as ever to hit the stage and bring a fresh sound to the Canadian music scene.  

When I asked the band the origin of their name, Justice remarked,  “Ha! where it came from…do you wanna hear the real story or the nice story?”

“The real story!” I replied.

“Well” Justice continued, “One time in the 9th grade I left a pair of scissors between two cushions in the couch, I don’t know why, and anyway I totally forgot about them. The next day I was super stoked (in other words, joyful) about something, I can’t remember what, and I plopped down onto the couch literally right on the scissors and they impaled my ass, so ya…Stabbing Joy”.

When asked to describe their style and genre, all the members unanimously agreed that this question has always been hard for them to answer. “We don’t really know completely, it’s hard because we are kinda all over the place,” said Isaiah. After trading a bunch of musical lingo amongst themselves they came to the conclusion that for now, they will say Stabbing Joy is a  “guitar driven alternative power pop band influenced by rock”.  As of now the band has an hour’s worth of material.

The lead singer Justice writes all the lyrics. Alex said “Justice comes to rehearsal with all or at least most of the lyrics and the base of the song, so about 60-70% of the ground work is done. Justice jumped in, “Ya I might come in with a lead line in mind and the beginnings of a guitar riff or drum part. But hey, these guys (pointing at Alex, Luke, and Isaiah) know their instruments much better than I do, so I just give them an idea of what I’m thinking and then they develop and expand on the parts. They really make the parts their own!”   

 

The band says they have many goals they hope to accomplish this year. They want to hopefully record more of their songs and try to produce their first EP by the end of the year. Their biggest goal, however, is to get on the road. “Even if it’s only for two weeks!” exclaimed Justice. “You learn a lot on the road. I’ve been on the road for a good portion of the spring and summer and it was a fantastic learning experience and a lot of fun,” added Luke, who has been touring around with Dylan Menzie this past year. Justice jumped in, “Of course for all of us, pursuing music as a full-time career… it’s the dream. So we are going to give it our all!”  

 

As of right now, you can keep up to date with Stabbing Joy via their  facebook page!

 

Don’t forget to check out their song “Wicked Me” on Soundcloud! soundcloud.com/justice-jones

 

Although they only have this one awesome song available online, they will be playing in bars all over the Charlottetown as well as the Solid Rock Cafe and at Holland College showcases. So if you dig their sound, you can catch them at their upcoming show at Baba’s Lounge on October 27th at 10:30 pm. Alex also says they want to play in obscure places this year so look out for them at your laundromat, they just might be jamming on top of the washers. Another staple of Stabbing Joy’s shows is Jaboo Jokes delivered by the comedic Isaiah Jabbour. So to conclude this band feature here is a classic Jaboo Joke:

 

“I once had a dog who breathed through his ass, one day he sat down and died.”