Down With Webster
Canadian Clipper
Toronto’s Down With Webster defies categorization

By Emily Zemler

It’s hard to know how to categorize Toronto band Down With Webster. The seven-piece group, which released Time To Win, Vol. 1, the first of two seven-track albums, last October, combines hip-hop, rock, pop and numerous other genres. Look for “Volume 2” to hit shelves sometime this year. But maybe the band, with its pep rally style live shows and raucous fans, is just a bunch of guys who like to have fun. In a recent phone interview, bassist/keyboardist Tyler Armes discusses the band’s history, live show and just how many of those plastic red kegger cups they toss out into the crowd before playing their rollicking, super hooky song “Time To Win.”

How long have you been a band?
We started when we were in grade eight. We were all around 12 and 13.

So you’ve really been pushing to make this happen for a while.
This has been a journey. It has not been easy. A lot of ups and downs. But the last few years have been really really cool. The songwriting and live show have been coming together. There were times when it wasn’t looking good, but the mindset has always been that we have something special, it’s worth sacrificing everything and we’re going to make it happen.

Did you know what sort of music you wanted to make when it first started?
It’s changed and evolved, but it was always music first. We started as an instrumental band playing jazz and funk and R&B, and then we starting singing and rapping. But you couldn’t predict what it would sound like to have seven people in a band. It changed over time.

How many members did you have when it started?
At first it was just me and Pat [Gillet], the singer. Then it became us and Marty, the drummer. Bucky joined shortly after. We met the other guys at high school parties and hanging out in our neighborhood later.

Is it hard to have seven people involved in one thing?
It does get a bit difficult but we’ve been together for so long and everyone knows when a song sounds right. It’s a good filter system for a song. It has to get by seven people, which means it has to be a pretty good song. It’s why the music sounds like it does.

Is there ever a danger in having that many people onstage at once?
Oh yeah. We’ve had really bad wipeouts. There were shows where we can’t all be onstage. Our DJ is off stage in the dark. The club we’re at tonight has a stage built for a three-piece band. So that’s going to be a complete disaster but we’ll make it work. When the crowd’s going crazy, though, it doesn’t matter what happens.

What is a hype man and why do you have one?
I’m still not sure what one is, but we have one. Kap is a big personality. He used to be a child actor. He has amazing comedic timing. He gets the crowd into it, gets them excited, yells into a megaphone, sings back up vocals. He supports everything. He’s there to do everything the guys holding instruments can’t do.

How many red plastic cups do you go through at each show?
Like 500 a night? At the last concert my mom had to drive around to different grocery stores buying all their red cups. She showed up with like 5000 red cups in the backseat of her car. Such devotion.

Do you have fans that have been fans since you were in junior high?
Some of our friends have been fans since forever. And now they get mad because they come to the shows and have to stand in the back and get bombarded with people. There were also a few people who were not into us when there wasn’t any cool hype about us. So I called them out in our liner notes. No thanks to them. Although I don’t want everyone to think that if they make fun of our band they’re going to be in our CD cover.

If there are any haters out there ready to be in your liner notes, do you have anything to say to them?
Come to a show. If you really hate us, then you have to spend the worst $15 of your life and really hate us. A lot of people who hate us and see us live realized it’s different. I would encourage them to buy a ticket and if they still hate us I’ll put up a website to be some additional liner notes.

At least they’ll get a red cup.
Yeah they’ll go home with a red cup. Everyone likes a red cup.

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