For the past few years, Gabrielle La Rue and Sarah Dion have collaborated on their DIY music project, Easy Tiger. Gabrielle, a tech entrepreneur, trades her daytime duties for nighttime guitar shredding and vocals, while Sarah, known for her roles in bands like NOBRO and Les Shirley, takes charge of drums and bass.
Their journey isn’t one of glitz and glam but rather of perseverance and ingenuity. With just YouTube tutorials and patience, they’ve taught themselves the ins and outs of engineering, recording, and producing their music.
Now gearing up for the release of their second EP, “Baby, Tag Along,” Easy Tiger offers a genre-defying six-track exploration of themes ranging from partying to sobriety, all wrapped in an authentic DIY ethos.
They will also play a release show at La Sotterenea in Montreal on May 8th. TICKETS HERE
EASY TIGER – LAUNCH OF THE EP “BABY, TAG ALONG’ WITH THE BERTA BOYS
As the duo prepares to share their latest musical offering, they remain steadfast in their commitment to staying true to themselves and their creative vision. Montreal Rocks caught up with the band over Zoom to find out more.
The first EP was Breakfast in Bed. This new EP is not a breakfast-in-bed kind of EP. This is a Saturday Night rager kind of EP.
Gabrielle: Yeah, it’s a different vibe, but I think it’s still us in a sense. Some things are similar in terms of lyrics and I don’t know what’s similar and what’s different, but definitely it’s a broader spectrum of genres. And yeah, it’s something we wanted to do this way also. We didn’t want to have any style to the EP, we just wanted to do whatever the song wanted to be.
Sarah: So there’s two songs that maybe are more like the first EP. There’s I Don’t Mind and Baby, Tag Along, but the four other songs are very different.
I’ve heard the EP; I love it. But when you get to the end of the six songs, especially with this song, DripDripDrip, it’s like a full-on punk two-minute banger. It kind of leaves you wanting more. Did you ever think about making this into an LP or is it always going to be an EP?
Sarah: Honestly, I think it’s just because of the time that we have that they’re EPs, but there are many songs that are unrecorded.
Gabrielle: Yeah, we had a hard time picking for this one. We had even to the last minute, we hesitated between two songs. But I think we like to do EPs also, like just the process of it, since we do everything ourselves, it’s a lot of work. We like to just do these songs, keep it short and release them, and then do more because we like to write. So I think an LP wasn’t a plan, but we did have a lot of songs. Like at the beginning, it was like we had so many more country, like folkish songs that it was almost going to be, like we called it our country EP, like for a long time. And then we had all these tiny ideas and influences. And then at the end, we’re like, we’re going to just do a melting pot of random songs that we like.
It’s definitely a melted pot. There are country elements to some of the songs, but then it’s almost like full-on punk at the end. So it really shows the diversity in your sound. And the production is so good. But you’re not trained in production, right?
Gabrielle: I mean, the ears are trained, I think.
Sarah: Yeah, we’ve been playing on many albums. I’ve been playing on, I don’t know, at least 25 albums. And like just being in the process of sitting on the couch and looking and watching and hearing people work, you just learn, if you’re actually paying attention.
Gabrielle: Yeah, Sarah is way more like the engineer in the project. Like she takes over all the technical challenges, finding the right mics and mic placement and all of that. And yeah, she really took it over for Easy Tiger. It was kind of a challenge for Breakfast In Bed. I was like, you want to do this? And it was just because we didn’t have any money. Like, do you want to try? And she’s like, yeah. And then it ended up being our sound. I don’t think it would sound like that if we were to go in a professional studio. I think it wouldn’t sound like that, for sure.
I think there’s an evolution between Breakfast In Bed and Baby, Tag Along in terms of the sound and the arrangement. It’s another level, I think.
Baby, Tag Along. Where did that title come from in the first place?
Gabrielle: Well, it’s one of the songs. It’s the hook in the chorus. So I think it comes from these lyrics. I was listening to a lot of Boy Golden when I was writing Baby, Tag Along, the song. And I think he said in one of his songs like “Tag Along” or something like that. And I thought it was cool. And then when we were ready to pick the EP name, we were just looking at tons of ideas. And then, I don’t know. We just said “baby tag along”. I think it just felt good. It just felt right. It just doesn’t really mean anything, but it means everything in a sense.
Actually, you say that, but I think it’s the perfect title because it feels a night out, this record.
Gabrielle: It is a night out.
And if you’ve seen the video of a Circle K, your nights out look pretty fun.
Gabrielle: And it’s funny you say that because the EP is really about sobriety, even if it doesn’t really feel like that because there’s a lot of party teams, but it’s really about my transition into sobriety. And I think it was kind of a tribute to these days of partying and stuff like that. But now we’re in another place. And yeah, I think Baby, Tag Along was kind of me saying to myself, this is going to be a cool journey too, even if it’s not like the Breakfast In Bed world where it was like just, you know, party and stuff like that.
So this video for Circle K, am I right in saying it was filmed in Foufs?
G&S together: Yeah
I thought so. What was the show? It looks like a full-on hardcore show.
Gabrielle: Yeah it was Madhouse. I go often to that event.
Sarah: I’m really new to that scene.
Gabrielle: I used to play metal for years. But for us, she’s kind of new to that scene, and I brought her with me, and she’s like, what the hell is this? It’s incredible. And once again, the video, for me, is a tribute to all these years of going to Foufs and going to see hardcore and metal bands and just being part of that scene.
Sarah: We thought the contrast of the energy of the show at Foufs and the song is super pop with the saxophone solo, we thought it was really funny.
You have this release show in Montreal on May 8th. What can you tell me about what you’ve got planned for that?
Sarah: We’ve got our friends, The Berta Boys, who are going to do some kind of entertaining. So Easy Tiger is going to be set up on stage, obviously. But they are going to be on the dance floor, in the corner, playing some country songs for the beginning of the night and just talking to people. Line dancing.
Gabrielle: Like a good old barn dance, tailgate vibe, dive bar. There’s a pool table. We want to just like have time to talk to people and hang out..
Sarah: And then we’re going to play our set, and afterwards, they’re just going to do like a DJ set. We can talk to people, just hang out a bit. So we’re trying to make it more than just a show. It’s going to be like a party.
Gabrielle: Yeah, because we want to talk to people after also. There will be a lot of country music and a lot of line dancing. It’s fun, even if that’s not really what we do on stage. It’s the vibe that we like.
You’ve been working together for a while now. What do you think you’ve learned from each other during the process?
Gabrielle: A lot! I really learned to be more professional about the whole approach, I think. And it’s sometimes in the intangibles because, for me, it was always a hobby. I think it still is. But a more professional approach. And I think there’s less, not bullshit, but it’s really more to the point now, everything that we do and being conscious of time and just the whole process being more efficient, in all the aspects. Like, not just songwriting, but marketing and promoting and doing all that stuff in a good, professional way. I think I learned a lot of that from Sarah.
Sarah: I would love to say I learned a lot from you about time management and being organized. (laughs)
And also, this band, because I play in many different bands, and they’re all my career at this point, playing with Easy Tiger just reminded me how fun and light it can be, also. So for me, that was the whole point.
Gabrielle: It’s always a balance in Easy Tiger because we want to keep it fun. We want to keep it something that we do as a hobby. Even if, like I said, we do everything really seriously. But sometimes it’s hard to keep it like that. But I think as long as we have fun writing the songs and keeping that process, I think that process really works for us. By doing everything ourselves. When we have time, we plan it. And do it. But I think the thing we learned more is to respect boundaries and where Easy Tiger fits in our lives. Because I run companies, and she is a professional musician. And it’s just like, where do we fit Easy Tiger? So if it’s not fun, there is no point. There’s no point.
Watch the full interview below:
Baby, Tag Along is released on May 3rd.
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