When you’re a young rock ‘n’ roll band—courage is throwing yourself into your music fully and completely. It’s stepping onto a stage and just giving it all you’ve got.
It’s touring new places far from home, and opening up, scars and all, to your fans. Courage is saying what you really think. It’s being unafraid of change, of becoming who you really are.
Courage My Love – the band – is all of these things.
They perform at the International Beer Haus March 28.
The Kitchener-based band consists of twin sisters Mercedes Arn-Horn (vocals, guitar) and Phoenix Arn-Horn (drums. vocals) with their friend Brandon Lockwood (bass).
Call them a power trio, pop-punk, alternative metal. They grew up on it all. But don’t miss the message: they have no appetite for destruction. They do not seek to destroy. Courage My Love is here to uplift, inspire.
Becoming, the band’s new EP, produced by Chris Perry in Toronto, is eight tracks bled out of Courage My Love during a period of exciting changes.
“Our first EP For Now came out when we were 17,” explains Mercedes. “When you’re our age, a lot can happen in two years.”
And plenty did – like heavy rotation on MuchMusic/MusiquePlus, more than 3.8 million YouTube views and being on Alternative Press Magazine’s list of the Top 100 Bands to Know in 2012.
“Before we went on tour we’d never been away from home,” says the guitarist. “You meet all these new people, and you learn about yourselves. We’ve all grown a lot. That was the inspiration for Becoming.”
Opening track Skin and Bones captures the fear and longing of leaving something behind.
“We’re too old to die young,” they sing over thunderous beats, the heart of the matter. Hard-knocking first single You Don’t Know How cranks it up, intense and defiant.
By the time the EP closes with the haunting ballad Dark Wood, Dark Water, about finding the one thing that pulls you out of the darkness, Courage My Love’s mission is clear: rock out, be happy, stay true.
For this next generation of musicians, that means truly embracing social media.
With their popular DIY podcasts and viral videos, Courage My Love not only connects with fans, they reveal more of their true selves.
It’s all part of what they do best. “This whole band is about being yourself,” says Phoenix. “You don’t need to play by the book to be successful. Being a girl isn’t that big of a deal in music anymore. You don’t need to have a certain look. Break the rules, stand apart.”
-Weber
