Eaten by Canadians

Based in Oceanside, Taken by Canadians features fiddler/keyboardist Anna Zinova, bassist Marco Savoia, drummer Tristan Faulk-Webster, and singer/guitarist Ben Ambrosini, who’s currently prepping Oceanside’s Silver Cloud Lounge for a grand re-opening.

“We Eat You Like a Person will be our second full-length release,” says Ambrosini of the band’s upcoming album, set to debut (vinyl, digital, and cassette) on June 2 at the Casbah via End of Impressed Records. “Our favorite dark lord, DJ Lexicon Devil, will deejay the entire evening, and we really plan on eating everyone like a person that night. We have some pretty twisted ideas. There might be a cover or two. A beautiful girl will sing 'Selena' in a red dress.”

Asked about the title, Ambrosini explains, “We used to rent a practice space in Oceanside that was a former insurance company. When we first walked into the building, it had a die-cut sticker on the front window that read ‘We treat you like a person, not a policy.’ Well, as time went on, the place became infested with cockroaches and, as our sweat penetrated the thin walls and reflective mirrored windows overlooking Wisconsin Avenue, we noticed that the sticker had peeled, revealing only the phrase ‘We eat you like a person.’ Kind of creepy, but then we realized that we are really creepy, so we embraced it.”

As for the new music, “The record features a more dynamic, electric sound. It’s the sound of us getting our rocks off and kind of freaking out a bit, saying fuck it and letting loose....”

Ambrosini looks forward to test-driving the tunes on the road, though perhaps not at this one place in Washington.

“We played a brewery on our last tour and went on at 7 p.m. to a packed dinner crowd. Let’s just say they didn’t much enjoy ‘Stay Home and Fuck’ as well as our other songs. They eventually told our drummer to turn everything down, but they weren’t aware that the dude always plays with an intensity of 11 and leaves everything on the stage, even if there’s no real stage and he’s just playing under a grain silo....

“To top it off, the two ladies in the group got on the same period cycle.”