Name: Party Hat
Origin: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre: Metal/punk/death/groove
Years Active: 2011-
Label(s): Chaos Records
Associated Acts: Acts of Hate, Mannheim, Blood of Wecz
Members: Chase St Pierre, Caleb Beauchene, Dylan Reynolds, Aiden Vincente, Gabriel Lavigne
Past Members: Daryl Lafayette
[Party Hat]Party Hat are a four-piece metal band hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band is made up of members; Vocalist Chase St Pierre, guitarist Caleb Beauchene, bassist Dylan Reynolds and drummer Aidian Vincente. To date the band have released two demo disks independently, with plans in the pipeline for a debut EP/album in the latter part of 2012 thanks to their signing of their first record deal with a major label, Chaos Records on October 22nd 2012. Party Hat draw influences from a wide range of genres and artists, including metal, punk, death metal, black metal and hardcore. Often compared in local press cuttings to the sort of metal bands that popularised the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal", Party Hat are well known for their chaotic live shows and their refusal to take themselves seriously, which adds to the general feeling of fun, honesty and genuine love for their music. The metal quartet sing songs about getting drunk, partying and getting laid, and also make many references to birthday parties they enjoyed as a child, which adds a light touch to their rather brutal brand of comical metal.
[History][Formation - 2011]Party Hat were formed in May 2011 by vocalist Chase St Pierre and guitarist Caleb Beauchene at Leaside High School in Toronto. The two had previously been members of punk band Final Warning, but wanted to bring together the sounds of a wider range of their favourite bands, which included such acts as The Black Dahlia Murder, Black Flag, Lamb of God, Every Time I Die, Polar and Protest the Hero, among others. The band's formation was completed when the founding members got talking to fellow Leaside High School students Dylan Reynolds and Daryl Lafayette, each of whom was in the year above St Pierre and Beauchene, at a party held by a mutual friend. Their love for a wide range of metal, hardcore and punk bands as a quartet is alleged to have started a heated debate at the party, with Lafayette and Reynolds quitting their fledgling doom metal band Templar as a result to join up with Beauchene and St Pierre.
The origins of the name of the band were explained by vocalist Chase St Pierre in an interview with local press in Ontario in late 2011. He claimed that they had decided as a group to use something which had related to a party, given that it was where they had met and formed. Having rejected the original suggestion of Tears of a Whore, the band would later practice extensively as a nameless outfit, before the name Party Hat was born. "It came to us naturally," St Pierre explained. "We started off rehearsing by playing this like crazy technical and serious metal stuff; within weeks though, it was like our focus shifted. We dropped the serious tones we had been meddling with, and I started coming up with these sort of comical yet still brutal lyrics. It was much more fun, and it's been how we've been ever since, so we wanted something that sounded fun and almost childish and immature. It's almost like a joke; like we sound like some happy go lucky outfit, and then bang, here's some brutality. The lyrics might have a comic aspect, but we don't hold back on making our music hit you hard...right in the fuckin' ear holes."
After a few practice sessions as a full band, Daryl Lafayette would leave Party Hat, to be replaced on drums by Aiden Vincente on drums, the last and only change in the Party Hat lineup since the foursome was born in mid 2011.
[Early Shows and Demo - 2011-2012]Party Hat began playing shows in their hometown of Toronto in Canada from the middle of June 2011. With all of the members being experienced musicians, it didn't take them long to gel as a unit, and within weeks they had booked up to play a variety o shows at local bars and clubs. Despite two of the four being too young to enter the venues, far less play, the band made a game of blagging their way through the door in the early days. The early days of Party Hat were a massive success on the local scene, and the band would quickly go on to earn a cult following in their local town. The band's high energy, fast paced sets, littered with stage dives, crowd interactions and vicious circle pits started to draw bigger and bigger crowds to the shows, until they reached a point where local venues were paying the band a fee to appear, as opposed to charging them for the pleasure. Party Hat concerts would then go on to become something of a tradition with its own customs around the city, including bringing water guns to soak the band and each other during the song "My mom said I'm not allowed to get wet!" which has become almost the anthem of Party Hat in their short time as a band.
Such was the success of Party Hat's early concerts, that the band's Facebook page was overrun with fans looking to know where they could get their hands on some of the music that they were playing. The demand got so high that in September of 2011, they decided to hit a studio, with all costs being met by themselves to produce a demo/EP that would allow their fans to own some of the songs that had seen a euphoric reaction at many of the concerts the band had performed in their first year. The demo contained three tracks, originals by Party Hat, and two covers by the band Cancer Bats. Tracklisting for the Party Heart Demo/EP was 1. My Mom Said I'm Not Allowed to Get Wet! 2. I Ate Too Much Ice Cream And Jello....You Need a Carpet Cleaner. 3. A Puppy is Just for Christmas, Not for Life. 4. Hail Destroyer (Cancer Bats cover) and 5. Sorceress (Cancer Bats cover). The demo was a huge success for the band, who sold it via their Bandcamp site, and at their next run of live shows. Each demo came with one pack of either ribbed condoms or standard party balloons, and one whoopee cushion to really push home the notion of loving life and having a party. In the local magazine Alternative Toronto, writer Aaron Townend wrote: "What Party Hat have brought to Canadian metal is a smile. They are brutal and they are technical, but they manage to both of those things,make it sound like real metal, and make me laugh at the same time. Their lyrics are funny and light hearted, and the energy they have is unmatched," as he rated the demo with 5 stars, the maximum award from the media source.
[Chaos Records 2012]On October 23rd 2012, it was announced that Chaos Records would be signing Party Hat, purely on the strength of attendance by Scott RH's second in demand, Neil P Stinson, at one particularly chaotic show at the favourite haunt of Party Hat. "We got the heads up that this guy was coming to see us from Chaos Records," Chase St Pierre said. "There was no way we were going to let him be disappointed or underwhelmed, so we fucking went wild. I was on the bar, on the stage, in the crowd, in the pit. The water guns were out, and we played the best show ever. I've never been so sweaty in my life. But that night was brutal, and straight after the show, the guy came up to us and he was like "Hey man, those kids went fucking wild for your band. We wanna sign you. I respected that. Dude took a fucking punt on us, and I signed it right there and then on his back."
The band have been signed on a developmental deal with Chaos Records that sees them on a one album rolling deal until such times as either label or band want to make sure that they desire a permanent deal.
On October 25th 2012, it was revealed via Chaos Records that Party Hat had added long-time collaborator and friend Gabriel Lavigne to their number to add vocals when touring only. Lavigne will not perform on recordings on the band's debut album.
[Recording]As of the start of November 2012, Party Hat are expected to travel to New York to work on a debut album with legendary metal vocalist and producer Scott RH, their record label owner. The album is expected to be released in early December 2012.
[Discography]Party Heart EP (2011)
TBC (2012)
[Band Members] Chase St Pierre - Vocals (2011 -)
Caleb Beauchene - Guitar (2011 -)
Dylan Reynolds - Bass (2011 -)
Aiden Vincente - Drums (2011 -)
Gabriel Lavigne - Vocals (live only) (2012 -)
Daryl Lafayette - Ex Drums (2011 - 2011)
[Tours]Chaos Records Trinity World Tour 2012/2013 w/Acts of Hate, Mannheim
