Getting to Know: Rock N’ Roll Love Child, Black Rhino Riot
In today’s Getting to Know, we meet Black Rhino Riot, a Guelph-based rock act that gets by with a vast sense of humour, amazing friendships, and a love for having fun with rock n’ roll. If you are in an up and coming band that would like to partake in a Getting to Know feature, contact editor@riffyou.com to receive the questionnaire and instructions. Thanks!
Band Name: Black Rhino Riot
Band Members: Jon Spero (lead vocals, guitar), Jamie Giardini (lead guitar, vocals), Clif Kotwa (bass, vocals), and Adam Briggs (drums, vocals).
Years Active: 3
City of Origin: Guelph, ON.
Who are you and what do you do?
“We are four adults making our juvenile selves proud and our parents disappointed. We work in zoos and study biology during the day, and at night we take the stage with guitars and PBRs (or other beers that don’t rhyme with guitars… and are supplied by the promoter).”
In 100 words or less, tell us how your band has gotten to this point.
“For some reason or another, music was a major part of each of our individual lives. Our shared interest in birds of prey brought us together during university, but it wasn’t long before the four of us started to jam. We had that ‘pivotal discussion’ one night, where we confessed how badly we wanted to pursue music, childhood dreams, etc., and we decided to shed any hindering inhibitions and go for it. Since then it’s been a lot of late nights jamming, drinking, gigging, drinking, marketing, promoting, brainstorming, recording, writing and practicing, all the while keeping each other motivated and laughing.”
What is your latest release and how would you best describe it to someone who hasn’t heard your band?
“We released an EP called Truth in 2012, and we’re about to release a new one this fall to kick off our east coast tour. As for our sound, if Weezer and the Strokes were in some freak accident, and became a chimera (AKA a badass hybrid), and if that chimera boned the Arctic Monkeys’ and Bloc Party’s love baby, and that baby were born in a dirty garage… we might pop out. Cause we’re indie pop garage deep rock.”
When making an album, which aspect of the process do you put the most time into and why?
“Drinking. But seriously, they’re all important. For our first EP, production was a huge part of the song writing process. Once we became more familiar with that, we were able to spend more time out of the studio writing and planning the production to cut studio time and costs. We rehearse as much as we can, because it’s basically an excuse to be idiots and rock out with the best friends (that anybody could have).”
What is the best part about your band and why?
“Jon’s eyebrows. Because they have super growth powers and might someday be valuable tools if one of the following situations plays out:
1. We need to scale a large cliff to escape death.
2. We need to hog-tie evil villains but have no rope.
3. We need to disguise ourselves to escape the government.
4. We have to make friends with/seduce caterpillars.
What makes your band unique from the rest?
“Aside from Jon’s eyebrows, and the fact that we all get along, we all have very, very short attention spans. This has resulted in a sound that is catchy and fast. Most of our songs are less than three minutes long, and sometimes less than two and a half minutes depending on how much caffeine Adam’s had.
“Although we definitely appreciate progressive and ambient musical styles, and musical/production nuance and subtlety, we have been tending toward writing simple, straight-forward, upbeat, light-hearted music that you can dance to. There are a lot of negative and horrible things happening in the world, and we discuss them frequently. But when we’re jamming and playing music, it’s our time to let that go, and ultimately that’s what our music captures. It’s the kind of music you can put on at a party or scream along to when you’re stuck in traffic, or to cheer you up when you think about sad things, like the Enbridge pipeline go ahead, or Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.”
How does your band survive the challenges of touring/gigging?
“Booze. Lots of booze. Also, we’re all pretty optimistic, flexible, and rational which is extremely helpful. We make jokes whenever somebody gets pissed off, and we make sure not to burn each other for gas money, or gear loading duty. Of course, remembering that we’re friends first and colleagues second is huge. We’re chasing our dream. It’s not supposed to be easy, but it should be fun and as long as we stay positive, we’re going to have an awesome ride, no matter where it winds up.”
Would you rather be critically-acclaimed; rich and famous; or an under-the-radar band with a dedicated fan base?
“It’s probably every aspiring musician’s dream to have a crowd singing along with their music. And that’s really what keeps us going. So we’d 
have to say ‘under-the-radar band with a dedicated fan base.’ If we happened to find a large sum of money that made us rich, that would be pretty sweet too. We also accept donations, food, drinks, stories, gas, company, friends, floor space, good times and any other form of wealth you can think of.”
If you’d have to compare your band to another one out there, living or dead, who would it be and why?
“After a brief and painless discussion, we decided that Blink-182 best captures the spirit of our band. We write simple, fun and catchy tunes that are relatable and energetic. We do a lot of stupid things, make funny videos for jokes, but also sometimes incorporate themes that matter to us (like evolution, society, and the human condition).”
Which band/musician would you like to share many drinks with? What would you talk about?
“We’re going with The Strokes. We’ve all drawn from different musical influences (jazz, prog metal, punk, pop, hip hop, etc.) but when we came together and started writing music as Black Rhino Riot, people began relating our sound to The Strokes. They’ve been considered one of the saviours of rock – which is a major accomplishment – and we could learn a lot from them. Plus they would probably party hard, which was a very important deciding factor in answering this question. Also, Jon has a man crush on Julian. We would probably discuss the state of contemporary music and get insights as to how they managed to navigate through different musical climates while maintaining the qualities that make them who they are. We would also invite Bill Murray so Jamie and Bill could drink Campari on the rocks served by underpaid biology interns.”
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