Even though it took them six years to follow up their debut record, Moncton stoner-rock/metal heads Iron Giant wanted to ensure their ducks were in a row prior to releasing their sophomore record, Creator Of Scars.
Released in May 2008 via Halifax hard-rock/heavy-metal label Diminished Fifth Records, Iron Giant have been working hard at gradually building their success rather than looking for the American Idol quick road to fame.
Suggesting the Moncton group could be even remotely aligned with the famed television show is indeed an amusing thought. This isn’t exactly a group of church-going guys that are well-suited to mainstream success.
That being said, I believe you would be hard pressed to find a band more intent on having a good time than dreaming of stardom.
With a live show that hits you like a Mike Tyson uppercut, this is exactly how the group has built their reputation, winning fans over one at a time.
“Between December 2008 and June 2009, we managed to tour our way to Quebec and Ontario on three separate occasions,” Iron Giant bassist PJ Dunphy explains.
Although the group has yet to fully tour their way across the country, their focus on the Eastern regions of the country has begun to show signs of paying off:
The band’s song, Blind By Midnight, has been already been featured in the CBC program The Border and will also see airplay in two other major network shows in the near future.
Dunphy admits that making a video for the track has been talked about but the group has yet to get to working on the fine details.
“Josh (Diminished Fifth Records head) has really been pushing us to get a video done for Blind By Midnight but we’re still wading through the details,” he says.
Doing things at their own pace has in fact been the Iron Giant way of being in the past 10 years. And though they have worked (and continue to work) extremely hard, they have largely left things up to fate and good fortune. And frankly, it’s been working in their favour rather well.
This past September, the band received a relatively last-minute call from the promoters of Marilyn Manson’s Canadian tour asking if they would be able to open for Manson in their hometown of Moncton when the previously scheduled opener had to bail. Recommended to fill the vacant spot by Great Big Sea manager Louis Thomas, the group seemed a natural fit on the Moncton Coliseum stage.
The latter part of 2009 would also bring a very unique distinction to the group when they had a full-length article featured in Hustler Magazine. The seedy nature of the magazine fit well with the group’s persona and exposed them (no pun intended) to a whole new demographic. Though the band remained thankfully clothed for the piece, they were one of only four bands covered in the magazine by Toronto writer Keith Carman during the course of the year.
It is these small distinctions that continue to build the Iron Giant name both regionally and nationally. Even though the group just recently cracked the 1,000 units sold mark for Creator of Scars, the group is casually looking to the future but with no firm plans.
Actually scratch that, one thing that is for certain is that they intend to remain with Diminished Fifth Records for the foreseeable future.
“Josh Hogan is one of the hardest working men on the East Coast,” Dunphy proclaims. “He really knows what he is doing; we’re happy with him and he’s happy with us.
“Even if we were to entertain aligning ourselves with another label, there would be a whole heap of expectations that might come from the label side. Realistically speaking due to family, jobs and what not, we aren’t able to tour all that much. Josh understands where the group is at and what we’re looking to achieve. I think in that respect, we share many common goals with him.”
Iron Giant vocalist Chris Lewis is sure of another thing – it won’t take six years for the group to follow-up their sophomore record.
“We have been lying relatively low over the past couple of months with the hopes of getting a bunch of new songs written,” Lewis says.
Lewis says that in the more immediate future are plans to do a four-way split CD with like-minded bands Maximum RNR, Dutch Oven and Attack Of The Microphone, the release date for which is still up in the air.
“By getting the four of us to share costs, we will have a way for each of us to get a couple of new songs out to the public without them having to wait for full-length records from each of us,” Lewis says.
So although you might have to wait to hear new songs from Iron Giant, the band will play live on Saturday, Jan. 9 at the Lions Centre on St. George Street in Moncton. The show is all-ages with six other bands and a start time of 5:30 pm. You can visit Iron Giant online at www.myspace.com/irongiantecwt