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JS: We came from a world where music was integral to who we became, so we understand how music can have an impact on a person’s life and I think once a person is shaped and finds some meaning in their life, that’s when they go out into the world and change it.

CB: But it’s not naiveté; we don’t think we wrote a song and tomorrow the world will be different.

JS: Right, it’s much more nuanced and complicated than that.

CB: I think that being a band with a social conscience and an agenda, that’s one of the first hypercriticisms to come to us, you know, ‘where’s the tangible victory?’ But it doesn’t really work that way, and we understand that.

JS: But we do understand that as young people bands like The Clash, The Dead Kennedys, influenced us. … Now we hear from people that they listened to us and went in a certain direction because of what they heard.

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Q: How did the band end up contributing to Fort McMurray fire relief?

CB: We set up a benefit show there, and the only way we were able to do that is because of these people who have invested themselves into this punk-rock community. We had a show scheduled there, which got cancelled because of the fire. We picked up the phone and looked around as to who could help us put together an event, and just like that, we quickly got it together and raised $10,000 that night. That wouldn’t have existed if this culture of giving a s—t about more than just ourselves didn’t exist.

The first thing we did was make it so that anyone who had a Fort Mac ID could come into our later Edmonton show for free. And sure, cool, we did a thing, but it’s like, we’re going to take a day off tomorrow and sit in a hotel, which is taking a bed away from someone fleeing from the fire and maybe lost their home, or has it even worse than that. The gears start turning, and you wonder, what can we do?