Get To Know – Century Egg – For The Rabbits

We Say…

Based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Century Egg describe themselves as, “a band of escape artists”. Their new EP, Little Piece Of Hair, serving as an invitation to move, to dance, to free yourself of the traps of your own four-walls, both physically and metaphorically. Released through Forward Music Group, Little Piece of Hair is a blistering blend of DIY-pop, frenetic dance-punk, blistering guitar-noise and everything in between.

Little Piece Of Hair is the first record from Century Egg since they brought in their new rhythm section of bassist, Matty Grace and drummer, Meg Yoshida. The rhythmic pair seem to have brought new energy to Century Egg’s music, a streamlined blast of rhythmic joy that’s a perfect backdrop to their technicolour melodic pop. The solidity of the rhythm section seems to serve as a freeing influence on both bi-lingual Chinese vocalist Shane Keyu Song and free-wheeling guitar maverick, Robert Drisdelle. Throughout the record there’s a thrilling looseness to the vocals, flicking rapidly between English and Chinese and moving just as quickly between melodies and styles. Thematically, Little Piece Of Hair is a testament to finding yourself, as the band put it, “understanding your value in the present and celebrating the changes life delivers”. There’s no better reminder to celebrate your freedom than a record that sounds this excitingly free. Take a dip into Century Egg, and it might just blow your mind.

They Say…

FTR: For those who don’t know who are Century Egg?

Hello! We haven’t met before, so nice to meet you. You are very charming, we are blushing! We are Century Egg, who are four buds who play rock music in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

FTR: What can you remember about your first show?

This is a precious memory. The first time we got to share our music was at a Harry Potter-themed Halloween youth dance at a local library. The library staff who hired us were hoping that we could play covers and take requests, but we didn’t know how to play any songs except for six tunes of our own, but they were still down with that. Librarians are the coolest. So, we set up and played, the dazzlingly costumed youth stuck around and were making their own fun out of it, as they would. We were supposed to fill two hours and, after having played our set twice, had only reached the 35 minute mark, so then we asked the kids if any of them played music and wanted to jam with us. And they did! They amazed us with their talent and confidence. For some of them it was their first time playing music in front of other people.

We’ve since had a change in lineup, and so we eventually had a second first show. It was at a pub that would normally be sweaty and crammed, but in the pandemic times that couldn’t be so, that was actually nice. The audience had to be seated and not be too close to each other, but everyone could hear and see us, and we could see them and they were happy, and best of all, it started on time and we got home at a reasonable hour.

FTR: Why do you make music? Why not another art form?

We love playing music, and listening to music, and we don’t know why, other than it makes us feel good! Some of us also have other art practices, and that feels good too.

FTR: What can people expect from the Century Egg live show?

When we rehearse, it’s really nice, we don’t feel rushed, we talk about things we care about, and then we do some rocking. Our shows feature only the rocking, but the love and goodwill is also shared, somehow. Mysterious rock energy!

FTR: What’s next for Century Egg?

We’re really still in the “what’s next” part of the cycle at the moment, so we don’t know. We didn’t know what would come if we kept on after so much change. This new record still feels new to us, which is unusual because most times when a record is released, it was made a long time ago, and it’s old news to the people who made it, but for us, when we hear it again, we’re still discovering what it was we actually did. As we get better acquainted with ourselves over time, we will release a random single once in a while, and soon enough there will be a full length record that I hope we’re really proud of.

They Listen To…