Modern Space
Formed in 2014, Modern Space have spent their brief existence becoming one of Canada’s most promising young bands on the rise. Catching their first break in 2016 by supporting Hamilton rockers Arkells across Canada, the Toronto quintet followed that up with the release of their spirited debut EP, Before Sunrise. The debut single from that WP was the irresistible “Pen To Paper,” which found plenty of love on modern-rock radio.

When it came time to re-enter the studio, the band had already spent time writing in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and of course, Toronto, before settling on Brooklyn, where they would work with Canadian legend-in-the-making, Gus van Go (Hollerado, Arkells, the Stills). “We had this wicked loft in Williamsburg,” says frontman Sean Watson Graham, “and we probably went out too many times, but we finished the record there.” As a band, they were more dynamic than they’d ever been. “Everyone got to add their personality to the songs and bring it to life.”

However, Graham was caught off-guard when he lost both his bassist and his two guitarists within weeks of each other. Unfazed, he and drummer Tay Ewart didn’t even question the band’s future. In no time they gathered some friends to rebuild the band and give birth to what Graham describes as “Modern Space’s second phase.”

Modern Space V2.0 have now returned with their sophomore album titled Flip For It. Graham is stoked to have this new band - Sammy Nyberg and Graham Queen on guitars – along for the ride. “We’ve got a new record, new guys, and this new style that I always wanted.”

Flip For It immediately marks a great leap forward from the tenderfoot songs they laid out on Before Sunrise. Channelling influences such as the Vaccines and the Strokes – whose song “The Modern Age” inspired the first half of the band’s name – Modern Space have returned with a new album that beams with a newfound assuredness. Each and every one of the cuts feels ready for heavy A-list rotation – from “A Small Pocket,” a song the Strokes will wish they’d written a decade ago, to the soon-to-be massive sing-along anthem that is “Just Quit,” to the sleek, Motown throwback of the title track, Flip For It is a case of all killer, no filler.

For Graham, however, this move forward has all been the result of him reaching a new level of maturity. “The biggest difference is that I’ve grown up in that time [between records],” he explains. “I got to travel, so a lot of it was written outside of Toronto. I was still young when we made Before Sunrise. I was only 21 when I wrote it. Now I’m 25. This record is more just about drinking, meeting people, being outrageous and having fun. It’s faster. It’s louder. It’s a bit more bad-ass.”