Doomed Confessionary: Jacob Montgomery (Freeways)
Freeways are comprised of four old friends from the peripheral fringes of the greater Toronto area who decided to channel their shared love of dollar-bin Canadian hard rock records and poorly ripped recordings of NWOBHM they’ll never afford into a nearly decades-long pursuit of seeing how far they can play from home and how many drink tickets they can accumulate at a single gig. So far, that plan has produced a handful thrilling of short-lengths (on both tape and 7” format) and an absolutely stunning debut album »True Bearings« in 2020.
Their highly anticipated second album »Dark Sky Sanctuary« just dropped on April 26th, 2024 via Dying Victims Productions. The quartet’s fueled by a fire here that sees them both exploring their busier & more aggressive side as equally as their stripped-back & pensive one. It’s difficult to truly qualify the latter as “poppier”, but it’s not impossible to view the moodier side of turn-of-the-80s radio rock through Freeways’ unique, ever-engaging lens.
Somehow rougher and more polished, »Dark Sky Sanctuary« is a sonic safe haven for those who still hold hope for heavy rock as an authentically emotional artform.
Freeways are Jacob Montgomery (vocals, guitar), Domenic Innocente (guitar), Amarjot Amrith (bass) and Matt Avenins (drums).
Can you say a few words about your band?
Freeways is a hard rock band formed in Brampton, Ontario a decade ago by 4 buddies who’ve been friends since high school and share a mutual love for old time rock and roll and heavy metal.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Ouu, great question. It’s hard to pick one. I’d say the biggest challenge for us has been figuring everything out on the fly. How to tour, how to make a record, the logistics. Other then Cauldron giving us a couple tips early on, we never knew any bands that left the country and have just been doing our best guess as to how you do everything. “Yeah this is what bands do, right?”. I mean fuck, our first tour of Germany we didn’t even bring our guitars because we didn’t know you could bring them on a plane! Hahaha. How’s that for a challenge. Showing up in another continent empty handed.
The music is the easy part. All of the other shit is the hard part.
What can you be most proud of so far?
That in 10 years none of us have fucking killed each other, hahaha. Lord knows we’ve all come close a couple of times.
No but in all sincerity, I’m just proud we’re doing it. A half serious plan fetched on a road trip has turned into two albums, two ep’s, a few tours and the best times I’ve ever had in my life. I’m proud of all of it.
What was your biggest regret?
If I’m being honest, not doing a few extra takes and dialing in a better sound for the song »True Bearings«. I love that song and we still play it most shows, but I think I could have done a better job playing on that one when we were recording it.
But I don’t completely regret it. Every misstep is a lesson. You just try not to make the same mistake twice and so far we’ve been VERY successful at making new mistakes, hahaha.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Nothing will ever beat the feeling of stepping on stage at a festival in America (Legions of Metal) and Germany (Stormcrusher) for the first time. Those were the best, not with regards to our performance or attendance for our set, but the best mile stones/memories for sure.
What was actually best for the band? Definitely our tour last fall with Hällas. That was the most successful for us in the most traditional sense of the word and is definitely the most we’ve learned from just watching another band.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
I think the biggest surprise has been how well we’re received and accepted over seas and in the states. We are (for the most part) stylistically pretty different from the bands that we play with, but everyone outside of home really seems to ‘get it’ musically and we always seem to get along with all of the bands that we’ve played with as people too. It feels way more like were apart of what’s going on over there (especially Germany) then anything at home.
We’re constantly told how “Canadian” we sound and look (whatever the fuck that means) and it’s a surprise that everyone seems to think that’s a good thing everywhere but Canada.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
The new Flight record »Echoes Of Journeys Past«. Absolutely amazing stuff. Wishbone Ash – »Just Testing«, Black Rose (pre-Mercyful Fate) – »A Night of Rehearsals«, Wizz – Crazy Games« and Blaspheme – »Désir de Vampyr«.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
“Why are you playing your new stuff? You guys only have a handful of songs out that people would know, why wouldn’t you play all the songs people would know?” Sage advise we continue to ignore, hahaha.
What are your guilty pleasures?
They aren’t guilty at all. But I’m a big fan of blues, folk and country. John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Slim Harpo, Neil Young, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Willie Dunn, Waylon Jennings, Dick Curless, Del McCoury. That kind of stuff. Bonfire music.
Can you say something more about the music scene in Brampton, Ontario?
Our city doesn’t have any music scene. No venue, no record stores and I think there is only one other hardcore punk band in town, but that’s about it.
There isn’t anything going on in our province (Ontario) as far as hard rock goes either. There are a couple heavy metal bands left in Toronto and a couple of bands in Ottawa, but honestly there is no codified “scene” these days at all.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
We will be booking a release show in Toronto this summer once we physically have copies of the new record in our possession. We have Winnipeg booked for the fall and are trying to finally get out to Calgary. But other then that we are probably just going to stay in Canada this year and finish writing, rehearsing and recording our next record while we’re on a roll.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
We will be heading back to Europe in the spring of 2025 and are planning a tour around our performance at Keep it True in Germany.
Long tern? Just keep on going further and further from home and seeing how many new cities and countries we can play, keep writing songs and doing what we are doing.
How can people best support your band?
In all the conventional ways. Come out to a gig, buy a record or a shirt or just share a track with friends or family that you think would like it.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Thank you for listening and thank you to everyone who’s reached out and shared a kind word/their thoughts on the new record! We appreciate it.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well