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Photography and Interview by Sabrina Citta  I recently had the chance to spend some time with the amazing guys from Dammit Goldie at one of their band practices. You might be wondering, "Who is Dammit Goldie?" Well, you're in for a treat! This punk, grunge, and rock fusion band hails from Hamilton, Ontario, and has garnered a massive following in just under a year. The band's lead vocalist, Josh Smith, and guitarist, Evan Cannavicci, first met when Josh was holding auditions for a punk rock guitarist. They hit it off right away, and Dammit Goldie was born. Later, drummer Tommy Metcalfe moved to Hamilton and became roommates with Evan and Josh. It didn't take long for them to realize that Tommy would be a perfect fit as the band's drummer. Tommy brought along his classmate and friend, jazz bassist Cam Watson, as the final member, forming the current four-piece group we know as Dammit Goldie. This diverse group of musicians creates a well-rounded, communicative, and experimental band. Their image represents the essence of grunge punk, something that has been hard to find in recent years - A group of friends with unlimited creativity, living together and sharing their passion for music. 2022 was a super busy year for Dammit Goldie, playing a ton of shows across Ontario. They have been planning even more shows in 2023 across Canada, keep an eye out for a show near you. Hello Dammit Goldie! First off, let’s introduce you guys to our readers. Hello my name is Tommy Metcalfe and I play drums, I’m Josh Smith and I’m on vocals and also play guitar, my name is Evan Cannavicci and I play guitar, I’m Cam Watson and I play bass and we are DAMMIT GOLDIE!  If you could describe your band’s sound / genre in one word what would it be? Cam: heavy Evan: eclectic Josh: grunge/post hardcore/punk Tommy: If I had to pick one word it would be heavy but we definitely have a lot of elements in our music such as post hardcore, grunge, pop and punk.  What band/musician would you say is Dammit Goldie’s biggest influence and why? Tommy: We don’t really have one single band that we come together around, we don’t just have one influence, together we do overlap to some degree but we all kind of have music that we are into personally and because of that we get a lot of variety in our own music. What has been your biggest career highlight so far? (Insert Wade McNeil here) Josh: I think a big highlight would be working with Wade McNeil (Alexisonfire, Dooms Children, Black Lungs), Julius Butty (Owner of ARC Recording Studio and Canadian record producer who has worked with several artists such as Alexisonfire, City and Colour, Protest the Hero) Ted Jensen(American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' Hotel California, Green Day's American Idiot) and Tyler Smyth (mastering engineer who has worked with Falling In Reverse). All four of them are huge players in the music world and that's a pretty big thing for a band who started in 2020 to just jump to and do. We had the opportunity to record 4 of our songs (Something’s Missing, Moods, Medusa and The Road) at ARC Recording Studio with Wade and Julius and it was such an amazing experience. Also the fact that we released 2 music videos this year and 4 singles that came out this year, we have gained so many followers and expanded our fan base so much over this past year and as a band we are super proud of this accomplishment. You recently released 2 music videos for your latest singles “Something’s Missing” and “Moods”. Can you talk about how these songs came to be and the concepts behind these songs/videos. Josh: Something’s Missing came about when I was at an intense point in my life and it felt like I was going crazy and I thought writing a song about losing your mind and questioning everything. That's why the song goes from talking about conspiracy theories and different things and the lyrics “you should blossom somewhere else” because you’re losing your mind. Moods is more of a “save the planet” song but it didn’t start off that way. Originally it was this really moody song that kind of felt like “Blink182 Adam’s Song” and I thought I was going to write a song like that but then it ended up being more of climate awareness/ climate change song. That's what the songs are loosely about but I have always said this to the band that I like people taking the songs and making up their own meanings or interpreting it in their own way. that's why I don’t like getting too specific with song meanings, I rather our fans connect and make connections with our music in their own way. The music videos started as an idea that involved our own ideas as well as Tristan’s ideas (Tristan Nugent, videographer). Because we fell a bit short on time they became more of Tristan’s ideas but we were very happy with both final products and think they came out great. Any bands looking for dope music videos should definitely hit him up.
Watch the videos for “Something’s Missing” and “Moods” below, and find out more about their new single “Medusa” coming out January 13th, 2022.
What is your favourite song to perform live? And what can fans expect when they come to one of your shows? Cam: My favourite songs to perform live are House of Stone and Medusa. Fans can expect a f*ckin sick show! Josh - I have 2 favourites that I like to play live which are House of Stone & Loser. When people come to our show they are going to see a hell of a show and see a band that is super tight live. Evan: Mine are Moods & Joe Dick and our shows are always very high energy Tommy: My favourites to play live are Loser and House of Stone  You recently announced that your new single, Medusa, is coming out January 13th 2022, which is super exciting. Can you tell us about the creative process and the approach that the band took when writing this song. Evan: I wrote this song and its dope Tommy: Evan was the principal writer on it, and to be honest that song was pretty cooked when me and Cam got to it, there were subtle drum changes, subtle bass changes. Cam did write a whole bassline for one of the verses. Evan: I was thinking very cyberpunk when I wrote that song, like Neo-Tokyo (Akira, 1988) Tommy: The bridge came from Wade wanting to change it and that's how it came to be. Before it was like a Casio keyboard drum beat, very computer digital sounding. When can we expect the music video for that one ? A music video to follow, around February  I noticed you have some interesting merch that has been selling out at shows, so let's talk about the HOT SAUCE! Tommy: Our former manager Lisa surprised us with our own individual hot sauce flavours at a show and then it became a staple at our merch table. I design all our merch, including the labels on the hot sauce bottles, our tshirts, buttons, stickers and most of our show posters. I always dabbled in art growing up and I was excited that I was able to bring this talent back into the band. I have a great time coming up with concepts and designs. And hey if you need any merch or poster designs for your band, hit me up! What can Dammit Goldie fans look forward to in 2023? Tommy: More music, more shows, more locations (outside of Ontario). Any final parting thoughts? Band: This has been awesome, thanks so much for the interview! Go give us a listen, follow, like and come out to one of our shows, we guarantee you will have an awesome time! 
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