This Toronto indie group's latest single echoes the sound of your favourite 90s Riot grrrl bands.
Toronto locals Low Life Lolas are an indie-rock quartet- fronted by Renee Parr, with Jessie Taynton on bass, Alex MacLeod on guitar, and Melissa Chiasson on drums. Their latest single "GRIME", released on Friday May 8th, 2020, is about wanting to share your life with your partner, through both the clean, and dirty.
"I often daydream of the kind of life my partner and I are striving for," said Parr. "Dogs, adventures, and a couple filthy kids to drag along with us. Stating that ‘your grime is mine’, means I want this with you. I want the difficulties, the dirt, the good and the bad. I want the messiness, whatever it is, I want it with you."
Parr recorded "GRIME" at their partner's family cottage.
"I get a lot of inspiration there," said Parr. "I actually played it on a child sized classical guitar in the summertime. The central theme of the EP is relation. Relating with persons with mental health, the vulnerability and difficulties that comes with it. The ability to grow and change together and live with each other’s past and present traumas. You become ‘Anchors’ for each other."
Low Life Lolas hit more than a few roadblocks while recording their single.
"We recorded with Alex Gamble- he’s the best, period," said Parr. "We scheduled four full recording days, and ended up adding a fifth for touch ups and making up for lost time.
Day two recording, my partner’s father was hospitalized after having a severe left hemisphere
stroke, he was expected to die. The next scheduled session I was a total mess. On our lunch
break I actually wrote ‘Secret Song’, a gift to my partner and family. It’s about hers and hers
dad’s relationship. On day three recording, our bassist unexpectedly left the band. The last day, we called it off half way because we found a couple bedbugs in the studio we were
renting. Then… Covid. That put a halt to all live shows."
Parr hopes that their music can make a difference in the queer community.
""GRIME" is all of our existing fans' favourite song. For that reason alone, I hope it makes them all happy to be able to listen to it anytime they want," said Parr. "It would also be really nice to expand our presence in the Queer community. I would love to make a difference in queer youths’ lives through my music." COVID-19 has put the schedules of millions of artists globally on hold. "We had a series of shows lined up throughout the spring and into the summer to celebrate the completion of the Anchors EP, but unfortunately COVID-19 swept through and cleared our calendars of all of our live shows," said Parr. "We had a line up change before the pandemic and added Jessie Taynton as our bassist. Her first show with us was supposed to be mid-March, but it got cancelled because of the virus the day before it was supposed to happen."
Although the band are under quarantine, they're still working on releasing new music remotely.
"Currently we're sharing song ideas with each other and collaborating digitally, we layer our parts over the original idea that is brought forward and piece together each instrument’s part over it to create demos of new potential songs," said Parr. "We hope to have some new songs to work on, and possibly debut, when it is safe to get back together and practice as a full band.
COVID-19 has really affected our ability to perform live. This sucks especially because our brand new bassist Jessie is eager to hit the stage with us, as are we. We're looking forward to team bonding after this has all subsided."
Parr is looking forward to returning to life as normal.
"2020 has been a challenging year so far, but we are looking to break out of the other end of the pandemic stronger than ever," said Parr. "We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these crazy times and we are looking forward to reconnecting with our friends and fans in person."
Upcoming gigs:
(Postponed due to COVID-19.)