“We’re just here to provide you with a dance party. A sad dance party, but a party!”
From the nooks and crannies of Montreal’s South shore, Joyless Bodies are not a band that can fit into one box. With music ranging from 2000s Alt Rock, to 90s Grunge influence, this band strives to provide their listeners with a smorgasbord of sound — a direct mirror of their own personal tastes.
“Our writing is really organic,” vocalist Richard says. “And it’s cool because us three, we don’t really have the same taste in music, and I like that fact because it makes us unique and it makes us have a different kind of chemistry. We end up using different sounds, ideas and stuff we never expected to use together, but they end up meshing well.”
The band includes Sammy Chouzenoux on the drums, Simon Tremblay on the bass and William Richard on vocals and guitar. The latter is also the lyricist.
They describe their writing sessions as a random coming together of ideas — ideas they, comically state, most likely will not remember a minute later.
“It’s usually in the heat of the moment,” bassist Tremblay explains. “Either me or Will [Richard] does something”
“And then I,” drummer Chouzenoux picks up, “start playing over them and we just kind of find our rhythm with the riffs and we make sure to hit record to not forget it.”
“Yeah, except that we basically record that demo and then forget about it for the next two years,” Tremblay jokes.
The camaraderie between the three is a refreshing sight to behold, as the trio know each other from high school.
But Joyless Bodies wasn’t always made up of the same members.
Formed at the start of 2020, Robert and Tremblay retained their positions as respectively, guitarist and bassist, but Chouzenoux didn’t join until a bit later.
“We tried a lot of drummers that either didn’t care about the music or didn’t practice enough,” Richard says. “And it just didn’t work out. But when Sammy [Chouzenoux] came around, it was just completely different and a really nice surprise.”
Robert and Chouzenoux were high school classmates, and as Robert found the band at an impasse when it came to finding a drummer, he asked Chouzenoux if he knew how to play, to which the latter replied with an affirmative.
Long-story short, thanks to System of a Down’s “Chop Suey,” the song Chouzenoux chose to play to show his skills, the trio we are now familiar with as Joyless Bodies was complete.
The band’s name came about during a dark time for the band members, more precisely, when Tremblay and Richard’s mental healths were not well.
“I was just looking for a name that would kind of represent that time in our lives,” says Tremblay. “And I was just on a dictionary page, looking up synonyms, and just the term ‘Joyless’ jumped out, and I was like ‘yeah, okay, we’re Joyless Bodies.”
“Yeah he didn’t really tell anyone,” Richard adds. “We had a group chat with another band member at the time, and Simon [Tremblay] just changed the name to “Joyless Bodies” and we just went with it.”
The band established themselves in early 2020, when they released their debut EP A Woeful Call, followed closely by a second EP titled Lost Gaze.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the presence of this much content proved to be quite useful for the band, as they weren’t sure whether or not they would continue.
“I really thought this was the end of it,” Tremblay states honestly. “We couldn’t see each other for like, what, four months?”
“We were extremely lucky though because two weeks before the pandemic hit, we had just finished recording our second EP [Lost Gaze] so we had content for like the whole year,” Richard says. “So it was just fine, even though there was a worldwide pandemic.”
“Yeah we even recorded a video clip, each of us individually,” Chouzenoux adds. “I played my part with the drums, Simon [Tremblay] played the bass and Will [Richard] on guitar. We didn’t even need this much space.”
The video in question was for their song, “Damage to Your Space” from the second EP.
Prior to venues shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Joyless Bodies only played high school shows — something they admit to being fun while it lasted, but restrictive in the long run.
“Playing at school shows was fun and all,” Richard says. “But at the end of the day, you can’t really go as crazy as you would normally do at a bar for example.”
“I feel that playing at a bar is more freeing, and definitely more fun,” Chouzenoux adds. “Because then you can just be as wild as you want, and you can also get the crowd to go wild with you. At school it was kind of boring, there wasn’t much interaction.”
They’ve recently played at the Blue Dog Motel on 7 May, alongside Ivy Chain and Legally Blind, two other local bands.
On 14 May, the band released their newest single titled “No Tomorrow.”
“This song focused more on general issues that affect everybody,” Richard says. “I tend to write a lot about personal issues but this time around was a special one because we were trying to get this song to be kind of sledgy, heavy and low but at the same time we wanted to get the activist feel of Rage Against the Machine.”
Indeed, the song kicks off with a fast beat, Chouzenoux leading the way with an intense drum solo, Tremblay’s bass-line backing the notes as the echo of a mic slithers its way to the song to introduce the guitar perfectly fitting with the quick play of notes. As the track progresses, the music slackens and Richard begins to sing.
“The lyrics are really just about the disgusting conditions we have to go through,” Richard continues. “Every day, clock in, clock out, work, come back home and have barely enough time to spend with your family and loved ones. And just the consequences of a massive system built on production and also mostly about wars. More specifically imperialistic wars.”
What’s more interesting about this track is that, while one would expect an artist to write from the point of view of the oppressed, Richard opted for the oppressor’s take.
“That’s why, in the chorus, it’s really talking about that there’s no tomorrow beyond your chains.”
On 8 July, they will playing a live show at Piranha Bar, alongside Braindown Death, Crimson Rivers, and Squeeze Mason.
Be sure to follow the band on all platforms to stay updated on all matters of shows, singles, and just an overall good time with the band.
Because contrary to their name, they are a joy to behold and listen to!
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