An Interview with Jesse Henderson and David Parry of LOVING

By Thomas Dunlap & Caroline Janes
Music Journalists

In October of 2019, fellow music journalist and on-air DJ Caroline Janes and I traveled to Dallas, Texas to watch the Canadian band Loving perform live at The Foundry.

Both Janes and I consider the band’s self-titled EP to be one of our favorite albums, so we were excited to finally hear these songs in person. 

Loving is comprised of brothers Jesse and Luke Henderson and their longtime friend David Parry. Originating from Victoria, British Columbia, the trio have made several musical excursions to the United States, touring with American bands such as BOYO, Vansire, and Crumb. 

The sound of Loving can be characterized by faint and low-energy vocals softly layered over calm and jangly instrumentals. The songs are despondent and dejected, carrying a certain “aw-shucks” vibe.

Their entire discography, which is made up by only one EP and a few singles, is relaxing and easy to listen to. 

We hung around the venue after their performance and were able to sit down with Jesse Henderson and David Parry and ask them a few questions. The following is a transcription of the interview conducted by Caroline Janes…

Caroline Janes: I understand y’all have an appreciation for recording on tape, what are some advantages and disadvantages to this creative process? Why did y’all decide on tape over digital recording? 

David Parry: I think it came from just having always done it that way. I started with a tape machine, it’s a lot more visceral. Everything is immediate, whereas if you do it digitally there is always latency. 

CJ: Is it more difficult to edit on tape? 

DP: Recording on tape just encourages full takes. It motivates us to record one whole take from start to finish, or at least try to. 

CJ: Do y’all loop? 

DP: No. Even if it might sound like it, it’s not the same verse every time. 

CJ: Your self-titled EP was the product of a long-distance recording project, how did y’all work around the issue of being separated by over 2,000 miles?

DP: We didn’t record long distance, but our relationship at the point of writing it was long distance. 

Jesse: It was recorded in one spot. It’s just that I was living in Toronto and they were living in Victoria. And the project really started from us just talking about doing something for a long time. We came up with a name and then we just talked about doing stuff. 

How did the name come about? 

David: We were hanging out with a good friend of ours and we were just discussing how its hard to find a good band name and we realized that the majority of band names are a noun and an adjective and we wondered why there was no verb band names. The name was going to be “Painting” for awhile. 

The self-titled EP was released in 2016— how has your creative process changed over the past few years? Or has it changed at all? 

Jesse Henderson: I guess there’s a lot more intention behind the album that we are about to release. The first one was more of an accident, we hadn’t really set out to make an album. I had come home for Christmas and I had a couple of songs. I recorded them on to David’s tape machine and then he kept adding things to them. 

CJ: So being a band and having a project wasn’t the intention at the beginning? 

DP: It was definitely for fun. I really love recording and we are all fond of music and we had our own little songs. When Jesse came home that winter we realized that between us all we had enough songs for an EP. So we just put them all together, and we already had the band name. 

CJ: When can people expect to hear new music? 

DP: Well we have received the test pressing for vinyl, we’re approving that. It’s going to hopefully come out in January 2020. 

CJ: The Loving vinyl was pressed with two previously unreleased songs, will these bonus tracks ever see the light of day on streaming services?

DP: Probably just reserved for the vinyl. Maybe one day, but I don’t know. 

JH: It had been such a long time between when we had digitally released it and when we did the pressing for the vinyl, so we thought we should add something to make it different.

DP: We were holding on to these tracks because we thought we might release them later on. But since they were recorded around the same time as the other ones we thought the EP is where they belonged. 

CJ: Could you please tell us about your experience at SXSW 2019?

JH: I think it was just generally overwhelming. There was a lot of people but also a lot of bands. 

DP: We were very in the moment and just kind of cruising around. There was a lot of bands playing at the same time and in different places so it was pretty hard to coordinate. 

CJ: How does this tour compare to your previous excursions to the United States?

DP: This one feels like way more of a long haul. We’re doing some of the same routes as we did before, except this one is just going to be a lot longer. But we’re a little bit more prepared. We built a little wooden structure in the back of the van so we can put gear in. 

CJ: The artwork for your self-titled EP was created by another Victoria-based artist, Dani Proteau. What is your relationship like with her and how did this piece come to fruition?

JH: Dani is Lucas’ partner. We just gave her the album to listen to and asked “can you make something?” A lot of the pictures used in it are from old National Geographic’s. 

CJ: Both your music videos for “Only She Knows” and “Nihilist Kite Flyer” we’re directed by a Ft. Langley. How did these collaborations come together and what is the process of filming a music video like? 

DP: The single “Nihilist Kite Flyer” was coming out and we decided we wanted to have a video for it. I knew one of the guys from Ft. Langley was shooting some stuff on film so I just asked him if he could compile any footage he had lying around. It turned out great. 

CJ: What was your first favorite album? 

DP: I remember my mom bought me Magical Mystery Tour when I was pretty young and I remember really digging it. 

JH: To be honest, I don’t really recall. 

Featured image made by Caroline Janes