Doom Squad, a band composed of family team Allie, Trevor, and Jaclyn Blumas, did the unthinkable this December (with the help of whiskey, Canada’s creative rocket fuel). Instead of spending the month having happy holiday family fights, they used their time together to create a unique sound that combines Folk and Americana, but with a formula that will remind more than a few of Davis-era jazz. This took them a whole three days.

 Doom Squad's members are scattered over Canada’s three big cities (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal), but member Jaclyn Blumas was cool enough to talk to ocw about the band’s supersonic recording time, musical improv, and how you can play live before having any material to your name.

Q: Was the name Doom Squad a collaborative effort or did someone get a light bulb over their head and run with it?

A: We thought it was so funny because, essentially right now we’re a family folk band and Doom Squad just matched our personalities. We didn’t want to have a name like Sunshine you know?

Q: Nobody listens to sunshine.

A: Yeah no!

Q: What was the recording process like over the winter?

A: Super fun actually. We recorded over three days because that was the only time we had together over the holidays. It was set on our dining room table and we picked our best songs (those that would be quick and easy) for our MySpace – and we took a shot of whiskey for every take we did.

Q: Yeah, that seems like a better way to produce songs in three days. Was your dad already set up for this or involved in music before you all showed up?

A: He was totally not set up. It was literally a dining room table and all our animals were running around barking on the tracks. When Allie was playing the flute we had to put Denver, our dog, upstairs because he was howling during those parts. If you listen carefully to “Unicorn Jamboree,” you’ll hear Denver doing do a little solo.

Q: When you were all growing up, was the whole family into music at the same time or did it come for each of you at different points?

A: Our dad was a musician and music was always a big thing. We were taking piano lessons, voice lessons, and all that. We all went to art school at different ages. Our elementary school was an art school.

Q: Is there a real age difference between you guys?

A: We rack up with Allie being the youngest, then me, then Trevor. Allie’s four years younger than me and Trevor’s eighteen months older. Trevor, being the oldest, maybe has some leadership. Being the oldest and already having an indie rock band in Toronto helped. As far as taking charge of the band
and seeing how we set things out, for sure Trevor [led us] because he knew how to get us motivated and guide our jam sessions.

Q: I heard you actually booked the Café Monmarté before having anything written. How’d you swing that?

A: I knew that if we didn’t have a show, we just wouldn’t work hard. For most of the summer we were just sort of playing, but then we thought, “No, we seriously need to start doing shows.” At first we weren’t booking anything because there was nothing on our MySpace. They’d say “Who are you?” and we'd say, “We’re a family folk band,” and they'd say “Oh no...”

The café was the one place we could play because our friends had a comedy night there and we asked if we could go on after them. They took care of it and booked the gig for us and then we just put together ten or twelve of the best songs we had. Some of them were really rough, but it was good. A lot of friends came out to support us.

Q: I’ve been to Café Monmarté a few times and it seems like the perfect place to start performing because it always becomes this big community event and you kind of feel like everyone is contributing to the show. Did you feel that kind of connection while playing there?

A: Definitely. It made us feel like it was okay to get a bit crazier. With a band you want to have that perfect idea about all the songs and I think we do naturally, because it’s all who we are. We all feed off each other and if one person wants to do something crazy, I know the rest of us would be down. Being at Café Monmartré allowed us to be Doom Squad.

Q: One of the tracks, "Unicorn Jamboree," starts with this slow, smoldering sound. Then, in the middle, it completely turns around and becomes a total improvisation. When you guys play, do you already have a set idea of how it’s going to sound?  Or when you’re performing do you break whatever you were going to do in the set and go off?

A: With that song in particular, we had no ending. I had just written a few verses and I kind of wanted it to build up, but I needed my brother and sister’s help. There were a lot of mistakes in there, but it sounded really crazy and came out great.

We’ve been talking about making outlines for songs but never really writing them, but we’ll leave that for a live thing. [Improvisation] is like the magical essence of [creating music]. When it happens at our house when we’re practicing it’s cool, but then we have to recreate it. If we could just leave that for the stage, it’d be really awesome.

We have a lot of ideas and want to be us in the best way. What’s really successful about a band is when they’re really just them and they know how to use [their own] language better than anything. It’s like when you’re tuning a guitar and you’re between those two notes and you get to the right note – when you really are you. And so the more we experiment, the more we’re just trying to really push ourselves and feel like "This is us, and we’re going to get better and better at this."