The Satisfactory, A year in the life
Front seat to their debut double-single, “Backseat Driver/Top Of The Mountain”
Disclaimer: Max Moller has contributed content to The Link.
Only a little more than a year ago, Montreal’s own, The Satisfactory played their first show.
Contemporarily, on Oct. 5, they released their highly anticipated debut double-single, “Backseat Driver/Top Of The Mountain.” With 25 shows now under their belt, the trio—Salvador (Sal) Vaughan, Viva Anoush Egoyan-Rokeby and Max Moller—reflect on the impressive evolution of the band.
“At the start, we weren't very danceable but now people are really dancing,” said lead singer-songwriter and electric guitarist Vaughan. “We feel like they're really moving!”
“The shows now are really way more packed,” drummer Moller added. “We've learned how to keep the energy up and we only have one slow song now."
By the same token, bassist Egoyan-Rokeby added, “It's still crazy when people know the lyrics to some of the songs.”
As any artist’s debut work is a defining step in their career, why did The Satisfactory choose “Backseat Driver” and “Top Of The Mountain” for theirs?
“‘Backseat Driver’ was always one that people noticed, and it was one of the first ones we learned,” Vaughan explained. Furthermore, “Top Of The Mountain” was the first song that Egoyan-Rokeby and Moller had picked out together from Vaughan’s songbook.
“We played and learned both of those very early on and people took notice of both at shows,” Moller added. “That's what catches your eye and I really think that part of it is that they're the songs we most consistently play well, so they're easier to record since we’ve played them the most amount of times.”
A year ago, the band had yet to release any music, citing that as their primary goal. Now, with their first double-single out, they find themselves with new goals. According to Vaughan, The Satisfactory’s next step is to get back into the studio and record a succeeding double-single before eventually working on a debut album. Unfortunately for us all, this will have to wait until after Moller returns from England, with his replacement Vaughan Newey taking his place for the time being.
Previously, Vaughan was the creative spearhead of the band, being the sole writer of both lyrics and melodies. Previously, both Moller and Egoyan-Rokeby had acceded that this did not cause any friction within the trio. However, today they are in control of organizing their respective segments.
‘’It's less of Sal bringing songs to us and more of us creating songs together,” explained Egoyan-Rokeby.
When asked how the band maintains such a harmonious working relationship, Moller attributed it to a simple fact.
“We maintain a copacetic relationship because we like each other. I don't know, I think we all get along pretty well,” Moller explained. “We don't try to be involved in that much drama; we just show up and have a good time.’’
It is undeniable that the quality of any artistic work depends on its technical foundations, and in rock ’n’ roll, this all comes down to the artist’s instrumental skills. For The Satisfactory, the key is practice.
‘’It's also routine,” Moller said. “When you're working the same song over and over, you get it down, and once you have it down it's just easy.”
“You improve it over time, too,” Vaughan added. “We've gotten a lot better as a band over this past year.”
Moreover, the efforts of the group have been much more than satisfactory, as seen in their indisputable growth in popularity both offline and online. Despite this, they are in agreement that there are no cons to this, only pros with one exception.
“We do make less money,” Egoyan-Rokeby quipped.
“There's just a lot more dancing which is a lot more fun,” Moller added.
With the band's setlist having been transfigured over time, so have their favourite songs to perform. For Vaughan, it’s “Lydia,” while Egoyan-Rokeby prefers “Born Again.”
Finally, in regards to what the future may hold for The Satisfactory artistically, natural progression is the plan.
“We're gonna keep doing what we're doing and see what happens," Moller said, Egoyan-Rokeby nodding in agreement.
“It seems to work, so why change it?” Egoyan-Rokeby added.
“We might go full prog-rock Genesis style, you never know,” Sal quipped.
Whatever the future holds, The Satisfactory’s debut double-single, “Backseat Driver/Top Of The Mountain,” proves one thing: we’re more than satisfied to watch their journey from the front seat.
_600_375_90_s_c1.jpg)