Going from the darkness to the light

By: Curtis Sindrey –

A lot can happen to a band that is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. From being signed to Nickelback’s Chad Kreoger’s 604 Records and now touring with the band on their “Here and Now” tour, My Darkest Days has gone from small-town Ontario to arena rock favourites.

For all of their success, band members Matt Walst (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and  Reid Henry (keyboard, vocals, rhythm guitar), are still very humble about how their career has progressed.

“We’re very passionate about meeting everyone we can and being thankful to anyone who supported us in this business because it’s such a crazy business especially in this day and age so it’s important to remember that and be humble,” said Henry.

On this tour, My Darkest Days has fan engagement as their top priority, often holding merch signings and photo ops after each gig.

“Our goal for this tour is to expand our fanbase as much as we can and meet everyone we can at the merch signings we do everyday, try and sell as many records as possible, and try and get people into My Darkest Days,” said Henry.

Social media is important for any band, and it’s a critical component of the band’s engagement platform, using Facebook, Twitter and other tools to get involved with fans on a more personal level.

“Social media has been paramount to our success,” said Henry. “It’s the bridge that we have, that no one has ever had before, that took precedence and took hold of the way people live their lives.”

With a whirlwind string of opening shows for the likes of Papa Roach, Sick Puppies and of course Nickelback, My Darkest Days have been able to improve their live performance by taking notes from some of the most popular rock bands.

“Social media has been paramount to our success.”

“The more you play on stage, the better you get at it, and getting in front of different fans and different bands has been great for us like Three Days Grace or Hinder, different genres of rock,” said Walst.

“Not to mention watching all of these bands everyday and trying to learn as much as we can from watching their performances. We watched Shinedown the other day and they were amazing,” said Henry.

“We’ve learned about crowd control, how to address the audience and how to form a set, like which songs go well with each other and it will flow and how you can raise people up and get the dynamic going and than bring it down with a ballad and than bring it back up and close with your hit,” he said.

While performing abroad is still new to them, My Darkest Days received a positive response from audiences at both the Download Festival and Rock Am Ring last year.

“[The Download crowd] dug it and I remember that we were nervous because there were only six of us that flew over including only one crew member and no one of the local crew knew our set and nobody had really heard us so we were nervous about playing in front of thousands of people that had never heard of us before right after a metal band no less, but it went over really well and we definitely connected with a lot of people there,” said Henry.

In addition to playing regular s hows, they have also played a variety of high-profile festivals including Ottawa Bluesfest and it’s their approach to festival gigs that changed their perspective on playing.

“It’s a little bit more like the wild west because it’s a little less controlled and festival shows a lot of the time not everyone is seeing you whereas if it was our show they would be seeing us,” said Henry.

Walst, who is the brother of Brad Walst, the bassist for Three Days Grace, often felt an overpowering shadow in the wake of his brother’s international success.

“I was always known as ‘the brother of Three Days Grace,’” said Walst. “After a while just making a name for myself was the whole goal and just to get out of being Brad’s little brother. There was a shadow and I just wanted to get out of it.”

Many musicians experience touring differently, from joy and elation to isolation and loneliness, the spectrum of emotions can vary greatly. Walst admits that, “You can’t really have too much of a family because you don’t get to be home too often. I’ve been home for a month in the past three years,” he said.

“After a while just making a name for myself was the whole goal and just to get out of being Brad’s little brother. There was a shadow and I just wanted to get out of it.”

“Being on tour is both isolating and you’re constantly surrounded by the same people every day so it’s a strange environment that might not be a limitation but it’s definitely a lifestyle change,” said Henry.

Henry, who is the newest member of the band joining in 2010, has known Walst since 2007 after playing video games and couch surfing. The band held auditions for a fifth member and after some coaxing they chose him.

“I was basically teaching everybody the parts so eventually Matt, who was out west at the time, said ‘try out Reid,’ and I smoked everybody,” said Henry.

One of the more prominent qualities of not only their image, but also their music with song titles like “Casual Sex” and “Porn Star Dancing” wants to stand out. Walst elaborates that “We just wrote what we wanted to write and whatever came up, came up, like one day we were like ‘let’s write about strip clubs.”  Henry agrees that, “If you try to be original, it will come across as contrived just because if you try too hard at anything people will be able to tell you’re insincere.”

Piracy isn’t something neither Walst nor Henry worries about. Walst contests that “there’s nothing we can do about it,” but according to Henry, “as long as people are listening to the music you can’t be that mad. Obviously it has changed the game where now 10 million people won’t buy your record anymore but as long as that many people are listening to it I still have faith in music and I hope that one day it’ll even itself out and justice will be served eventually,” he explained.

 “If you try to be original, it will come across as contrived just because if you try too hard at anything people will be able to tell you’re insincere.”

My Darkest Days will be on tour with Nickelback until the end of July, and then will be doing some time touring with Buckcherry before doing some of their own shows in North America.

“I don’t know if we’d be here right now [if we weren’t signed by 604 Records]. We’d still be playing music somewhere but I doubt we’d be playing Molson Amphitheatre with Nickelback,” said Henry.