ACTORS - Part Time Punks Session

After yesterday evenings post explaining my adverse reaction to a high hit rate on the page, I’m going to continue with the Part Time Punks Sessions, because they’re not very well known bands, that I’m loving and you should be also. ACTORS are from Vancouver in that Canada region of the frozen north beyond the wall. You know the one that most of my American readership isn’t allowed to cross?? Yeah…there you go! ACTORS released a string of popular singles, starting with “Post Traumatic Love” in 2012, building a dedicated fan base while eschewing a debut album release for the band’s first six years of existence. In 2018, the Jason Corbett-led foursome released its long-awaited debut, It Will Come to You. Songs like “L’appel du Vide,” “Slaves,” “Face Meets Glass,” and “Bury Me” are bangers that glisten via Corbett’s production job: infectious beats propel warm layers of synth (courtesy Shannon Hemmett), bass (Jahmeel Russell), and drums (Adam Fink). Corbett writes, produces, mixes, and masters all ACTORS music and names David Bowie as a fundamental influence; Bowie’s sense of confidence and creativity are in full effect on It Will Come to You. But much more than a retro act, this is music that stands all on its own, full of life and complete with unforgettable hooks. While ACTORS spent the next 18 months after the release of It Will Come to You touring the USA, Canada, and Europe the band gave sessions to LA’s Part Time Punks and Seattle’s KEXP. The four live in the studio tracks the band recorded highlight how tight the band had become where each track shines beyond the recorded originals.

ACTORS - It Will Come To You

Vancouver-based post-punk/darkwave outfit ACTORS have made waves on the independent scene in their native British Columbia as well as Canada and the U.S. throughout the late 2010s, and here they deliver their first full-length, It Will Come to You. They present 80s influenced Post-Punk-Pop with great melodies and varying vocals. Lyrically, the record traverses the familiar subject matter of acts such as Bauhaus and Joy Division; consistently gloomy yet romantic, with such feelings of despair and tragedy disguised with sleek, crystalline production and deceivingly benevolent melodies laced with an undercurrent of melancholy and lament.

The group's influences are stark and clear; there are many other bands that have done the same kind of thing, but it's sure to say that ACTORS aren't just a pale imitation of what inspires them so vividly, instead fully tipping their hat to such inspirations while firmly keeping their fingers on the sound of alternative music in the new millennium. Also owing a debt to the sound of other new wave-influenced acts such as Hurts and White Lies, It Will Come to You does not break new ground, but it's a great listen and does exactly what it says on the tin.