A Dire Setback faces a dire setback themselves

A Dire Setback, with their oddly prescient name given what is going on around the world with COVID-19, are facing an unexpected challenge with their planned album release event that was originally scheduled for Saturday, March 28.

“It looks like the worst has happened in Ontario with bars closing. [Our record release] at Loplops has been postponed,” says Matthew Quinn, bass player for A Dire Setback.

“We are going to go ahead and release the album online as planned and do a formal release party when it’s safe to do so. Our fans shouldn’t have to wait any longer so we decided to not make them wait.”

Their debut album, produced by Treble Charger’s Bill Priddle and recorded by Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Audio, has been a long time coming. 

The band self-describes as a punk rock band that is “heavy on the rock, punk on the punk.”

Made up of singer/songwriter Chris Nielsen, bassist Matt Quinn and drummer Nick Kainula, the roots of A Dire Setback have some history.

“Chris and I don’t just play in a band together … we’ve been friends for more than 20 years,” says Quinn.

“We’ve known each other for eons,” adds Nielsen.

Kainula has been playing with the band for three years, but the roots have grown deep. “I’ve been playing with them since 2016 and have been having fun ever since.”  

The band has some common shared experiences that bond them together.

Quinn and Nielsen run a small live production company called Live705, primarily working with punk bands and independent shows.

They all share a love of music.

They are all fathers and have families at home.

But it’s the thematic content of Nielsen’s songs that seems to bring out their strongest bond.

“What Chris writes about is a shared trauma. Friends of ours who died when we were younger,” says Quinn.

“They are not your happy, pop songs,” confirms Nielsen. “I have one song called Drop Dead that is about suicide. Kicking and Screaming, which is the single, is not a nice song, but it’s catchy. I don’t write about the positive stuff, I write about the negative stuff. My wife wants me to write the positive stuff but I just don’t.”

Quinn says the band is known for their “dark lyrics” countered by “catchy riffs.”

“It’s therapy really,” says Quinn. “That’s all that music is.”

“When you listen to Drop Dead you know exactly what it is about … It will hit some people in their heart, especially if they have gone through it and lost a friend to it,” says Nielsen.  

These shared experiences create a common bond for the band members.

Quinn says the song was based on a close friend who committed suicide when they were younger.

“We were out and having a good time … At the end of the night, we said ‘Hey man, have a great night' thinking we were going to do something else another day. He said something like, ‘You never know what I’m going to do next.’ That was one of the last things he said to me and he was gone in the morning. That sticks with you. It affects your relationships with other people. You think that if you get close to someone they might do the same thing.”

Quinn notes that in the music industry, these stories are far too common.

But rather than focus on the negative, Quinn says the song is meant as an anthem and a plea to people suffering from depression and considering suicide.

“This album for me, and the way that the band works, structurally is more of a catharsis. And not just for ourselves, but for other people … If someone messages us through Facebook randomly and says, ‘Hey I’m having a hard time,’ we will talk with them because we have been through it and dealt with it.”

Nielsen finished Quinn’s thought.

“There are no problems that can’t be resolved. That may seem really forward but that’s how we feel.”

A Dire Setback’s 9-track album was recorded by another friend, Dustin Goodall at Unsalted Sound studio and is produced by Bill Priddle from Treble Charger.

“Priddle helped a lot on the album and taught me a lot of things that I just never knew about the structure of songs,” says Nielsen.

“Nick did his drums in two days. Matt did his bass in two days. I did all of my guitar tracks within a year,” laughs Nielsen. “Then on top of that, we did the vocals as well.”

Although Nielsen is the band’s songwriter, the other members are given a lot of creative freedom.

“Even up to the day before entering the studio, we would say ‘What about this?’ and then completely restructure a song,” says Quinn, who describes his input as “the flavour.”

“We’ve been playing the songs on this album for about two years between the Sault, Timmins and Sudbury. Things would change. We would see what works, how people reacted to it, and where we would change something. Then we would bring all that in and Frankenstein this album. We threw everything at them… The artistic freedom Chris gave us was great,” says Quinn. “He makes the ideas into a baby and then we nurture it. Then either we keep it or give it up for adoption. He’s taking care of the kids,” laughs Quinn.  

“I have enough kids at home,” adds Nielsen dryly.

“Chris would ask, ‘What would you play to that song?’ And only ten per cent of the time he would say that sounds like shit. That was good because it prepared us for Bill, who at times would say, ‘Hey, that sounds like shit. Let’s try it this way. Priddle doesn’t pull any punches and that is the main reason for using him.”

The members of the band agree that Priddle’s input helped to make the songs better, rather than change the songs.

Working with the band, Priddle coined a phrase. He would describe things as “TMQ”.

“I’m classically trained in vocals, so I don’t really need a microphone,” says Quinn, who studied vocals at the Royal Conservatory of Music for seven year under Agnes McCarthy. “The TMQ was Too Much Quinn. I project like a motherfucker and I have a very high register. When I sing, people would look at me. I’m a back-up singer and it’s not supposed to be like that.”

Priddle “tamed” the bassist and encouraged him to not be as operatic and “just chill out and let Chris be the focal point.”

“I have been trying to push Chris out into the limelight to be the focal point. But the problem is I am a bass player who never shuts up,” Quinn laughs.

Nielsen self-admits to being naturally shy.

“I don’t want to be in the spotlight. But I am not shy when I’m singing on stage,” says Nielsen.

A Dire Setback’s album will be released on Saturday, March 28 and will be available on CD Baby and on the regular streaming sites like Spotify. They are planning for a short tour, some festival shows and more regular “weekend warrior” gigs in Toronto, once the current COVID-19 reality settles.

Find out more about A Dire Setback here.