Parade is an experimental pop-rock trio based out of Toronto. Drummer and band leader, Stefan Hegerat, along with Laura Swankey supplying vocals, Chris Pruden on synthesizers and Patrick O’Reilly on guitar are jazz scholars who link complex arrangements with pop familiarity. Their debut album Lullabies After Storms and Floods was released in June of 2024. It is chock-full of beautiful vocals which twist and become effected, doubled, distorted, psychedelic synths that explode into tight passagework, and adaptive percussion that drives, marches, and binds each improvised piece. We were happy to connect with Stefan to discuss the record and the band.
How did you get started in music?
My story in music is kind of boring in my opinion. I took music in school and my mom was always very adamant that we had to at least try music to be exposed to it. So I played piano when I was a kid and as soon as I could I stopped doing that because I hated it. Definitely regret leaving that behind but I switched to drums as soon as I could, I think I was 12, like grade eight or something. I did jazz band and concert band at school and I'm originally from Calgary, so when I finished school it was kind of like, keep going with that or do any number of terrible things that was kind expected in that landscape. Especially when I was graduating high school, which was 2006, it was like all my friends were going into engineering and working in oil and gas. Yeah, I really dodged a bullet on that front because I chose to go into music. I studied at the University of Calgary for a couple years and then I transferred to University of Toronto to do a jazz degree. I've been in Toronto ever since.
How did studying jazz in Toronto shape you as a musician?
I think since I started post-secondary music education, it's been a long process of deprogramming my expectations for what a career in music would look like. Trying to deprogram some of what's taught or what's pervasive in institutions. Especially in the context of studying jazz somewhere like U of T, which historically has a predominantly white, wealthy student body in the jazz program. The context of jazz as it applies to race and social dynamics is not something that was ever really taught or focused on in that program. I think there has been a lot of learning and unlearning trying to figure out my relationship to that sort of music. Um, and then also realizing that maybe that's not exactly the path that I wanted to pursue. I've always liked jazz but I've always kind of had a broader interest in playing rock and pop music. More experimental, like purely improvised music. It took a while to figure out that I needed to actually pursue the things that excited me the most about music.
Did that lead you to playing in bands?
After I finished school, I did. I played in a handful of rock and indie bands. I played in this band called JJ and The Pillars for a few years after school, and they did quite well. But I had always wanted to kind of have a project that was my own or one that I had a larger artistic voice in. I love writing music, I like writing lyrics, and it took me a while to get to Parade as that project, but I think I always planned to do it eventually.
Is that when Parade formed?
Yeah, I think the first time we played together was in 2019. We played one show and we had something else booked in March of 2020, which did not happen [laughs]. I think the next time that we played together was maybe the fall of 2021? You know, we've been making music together as Parade for about five years, but I met both Laura and Chris when I was at the University of Toronto. Chris was in the same year as me in the jazz program and I think Laura did it just as we were leaving.
I'm really lucky because I write all the music and I write all the lyrics, but then my collaborators are improvisers and incredible musicians, so anything I bring into that space it's generally with the idea that we're gonna fuck with this and we're gonna try to be as open-minded as possible and just see where those things grow. It’s part of the approach to not try to over dictate, or overwrite things, to leave lots of space for improv or leave things vague. I try not to get too fixed on my preconceived notions of what this song might sound like or how we might approach it, and just being open to let them grow and change. I'm very blessed to be able to play with the people I do because for them, it's very easy. Laura and Chris are incredible improvisers.
The band has actually become four people. Recently, we've added our friend Patrick O'Reilly on guitar.
Tell us about Lullabies After Storms and Floods
This is our first record. Like I said, we were playing together in 2019 and I would say about half of this record comes from that period, and the rest of the album I wrote largely in 2022 so the songs feel very old to me now. We had played quite a few shows, actually we had just finished a tour in western Canada right before we went into the studio, so we had spent some time letting the songs evolve and letting those performances change them, so we were really set up to just go into the studio and let it happen.
What inspiration did you draw from when writing these songs?
In 2019 I was doing a lot of climate organizing. Right before the pandemic happened, there was a ton of energy for that. There was ShutDownCanada and a bunch of big climate strikes. And so a large part of the record is kind of inspired by climate grief and the energy of that movement. And then the second half is post-pandemic. I spent a good portion of the pandemic doing a bunch of outreach for the encampments in Toronto with the Encampment Support Network. I was also doing some racial justice organizing with Showing Up for Racial Justice and working on a Defund the Police campaign, and so a lot of the themes from the more recent compositions are kind of dwelling on that stuff - it’s not very light. I’ve tried to capture those themes, spend time in those dark places, and acknowledge these very real problems. But I also wanted to lean into joy and things that are beautiful because I have a tendency to go too dark [laughs] so I try to find balance.
How did the live improvisations on the songs translate in the studio?
We could have taken the approach of looking for the best take and living with that, but myself and Jean Martin, who's the recording engineer, the person who co-produced the record with me, we spent a lot of time cutting up different improv sections and overlaying and piecing things together. Especially with a lot of stuff that Chris did. There are a couple tracks he did like eight different passes on an organ, running it through a bunch of distortion and effects. And so there's a lot of chaos and we had a lot of fun picking good moments from that and trying to build. It's a very different experience from how we do things live. The joy of improvising is living with that spontaneity.
It was cool to be able to work in a different way in the studio. Not for all the tracks, but some of them we really did take some time to mess around with them. For our live performances Laura would use some effects, I would play acoustic drums and Chris would have one synth, but in the studio we had a much larger arsenal. There’s some rhodes on the record, some wurlitzer, there’s an organ, so we had a much broader palette, and, you know, we were doing stuff in post-production with Laura’s voice like adding some weird effects. I think the track “NOF” there is a whole robo effect added to her voice, in addition to what she was doing herself, which is pretty cool.
Tell us about the new single and how it marks the next step for Parade?
"We're Right Outside Your House Anthony" was inspired by the protest encampment (Kibbutz Blinken) that lasted for 183 days outside of Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken's home. As you can imagine, the first iteration of the song was REALLY dark and bleak, but the first time I brought it in we played it before I had explained the title or the thought process at all. Chris thought that it was about waiting outside of our friend Anthony’s house in the car (he was habitually late). I thought that was hilarious so I wrote the bridge section as if we WERE just waiting outside of Blinken’s house, expecting him to hop in the car and get with the program. As I deal with heavy subject matter in this project, and I can't think of much heavier than the ongoing genocide in Gaza, I’m always searching for some way to add a dash of lightness or brevity. This felt like the perfect opportunity and I think it makes what is otherwise a kind of depressing song a lot more fun. I’m excited about this single because it’s definitely the most specific and tangibly political song I’ve ever written and that’s definitely where I want to go. We’re selling it on Bandcamp with all proceeds going to fund aid for Gaza (eleelnaelak.com). Free Palestine.
How is this project different from other projects you've worked on?
The challenge is, I mean, on one hand I have total creative control, and it’s my message and I’m tackling the subject matter that I want to, but on the flip side, it also means that I'm constantly making all of the decisions - which I’m generally not very good at [laughs]. It’s finalizing artwork, tracklistings, song titles, plus all the administrative stuff like booking tours and writing grants. It’s a lot to have on your plate, but I guess that’s part of being an independent artist, right? It’s a lot of work, but I still play in a bunch of other bands, where that’s not the case. It’s nice, sometimes I treasure those moments when I just need to show up and play the drums!
Do you have any advice for someone just starting in music?
I’m still learning so much about how to navigate the “music industry” as we call it, which, you know, works for a certain few. But I’ve realized the necessity of doing what is expected of us to live in these spaces, trying to interface with industry professionals, booking agents, these kinds of people, while not losing sight of what makes Toronto so special - the scene and the community.
I think you just have to be such a sponge. I think you have to be always looking for information and knowledge about so many different facets and you really have to come to grips with the fact that if you're doing this as an independent artist, you need to have so many different diverse skill sets. Or, you need to get a team or hire the right people to help you with that stuff because a small portion of your time is going to be spent actually on stage or making music.
Thoughts on Toronto’s scene?
Toronto's amazing and I'm continuously blown away by how much talent and how many diverse musicians and different scenes there are and how many parts of the music scene there are that I'm just not a part of, it's pretty cool. There's no shortage of inspiration because there are so many people who are just crushing musicians, amazing songwriters, super creative with how they're advancing their careers. So it's really easy to just kind of look around and be inspired.
One of my favourite events in the city is run by my friend Raphael Roter, it’s called Coexisdance. Basically they pair up musicians with dancers and they do improvised sets and every night of the series I think there's seven or eight little mini-sets and you just never know what's going to happen. It's really cool to see that sort of cross-medium collaboration.
As musicians, thinking that we only need to collaborate with other musicians, play on bills with other bands, it's something I'm trying to really lean away from, to collaborate with other artforms. I did some shows with my friends who are part of Animacy Theatre Collective. They’re clowns and we collaborated together and made a music video together. I’ve been working with an animator for an upcoming music video, so yeah, it’s cool to see how many pockets of creatives are in the city.
What are your favourite venues in the city right now?
I have to give it all to the Tranzac because I think that's my favorite community space in the city. They're constantly on the brink of going bankrupt, but they always pull together. Just like any style, with lots of cool music series, and monthly events there. That's honestly kind of where I learned to play music. Like, as I was in school playing there and going to watch people I respect play too. But ya, I love all the stalwarts. I play in a punk band called Chinese Medicine and we play at a lot of the divier spots in town. I wish we had more spaces but at least we have a few good ones!
What’s next for Parade?
We have a couple of things on the horizon. November 29th we’re going to be playing a show at Annette Studios with Teething and Caleb & Yam and that’s in support of a new music video for “Do You Know Where Your Friends Are Right Now?”. All proceeds from that show will be going directly to Toronto Community Justice Fund to help support Palestinian Solidarity organizers.
I’m writing more music and we’re gearing up to release a second album and I think we’ll be broadening our palette a bit more with Patrick on guitar which fills out things so nicely. Hopefully we’ll be recording a follow-up album in early 2025 and then doing a bunch of touring in the spring!
Listen to "We're Right Outside Your House Anthony" and follow Parade for show updates and releases!
Comments