Interview and words by Erin Eddy
Canadian heavy rock band Twelve Years Today have their sights set on 2023 being a big year.
With a fresh new single, Reveal The Pain, already being well received, news at Camp TYT is that a full-length album is on the way.
This is no small feat for the duo, James and Jason, who have endured their share of challenges over the lifespan of the band.
Independent and self-produced, they began amassing a loyal fan base, helped largely by the fact that they are very interactive on Twitter, and have created an inclusive community that calls themselves the TYTArmy.
But in 2021 the band became victims of a false copyright claim against them, the result of nothing more than internet trolling, culminating in their music being pulled from Spotify without notification, losing their streaming numbers, and the boys were left feeling like their hard work was all for nothing.
“Quite frankly, it pisses me off to think about it,” Jason scowls. “One morning someone mentioned [our song] Unveiled, is blacked out on Spotify.”
He explains that after some digging, they were left pretty exasperated. “Someone basically made a false copyright claim on our music. There’s no arbitration, there’s no process to have that claim reviewed, it was as simple as [someone] reporting a song, and they removed it. What pissed us off is that we didn’t get any notification that there was any wrongdoing or alleged wrongdoing.”
With no support to reinstate their music, they had to admit defeat and move forward with what they could salvage, and with some time and the unending support of their fans, move forward is exactly what they did.
Last year saw the release of the EP Escape The Grey as well as the re-release of two of their most popular songs that were part of the false copyright take-down, Debt Of Sin and Say Goodbye. In early 2022, James and Jason went from living within driving distance to one other, to living in completely different parts of the country with a significant distance between them. Thus, the learning curve of creating music via distance with the aid of technology became another challenge to navigate.
“With regards to the difficulties or challenges of being so far away, so far it’s worked out pretty flawlessly,” says Jason, “James, luckily, is a quick learner, and we face timed the process to record his vocals and send me all of his stuff.”
It’s been a great experience, doing this new record with all these miles between us,” James adds. “We think it’s definitely worked out really well so far. You guys are hearing the result of it right now with our new song Reveal The Pain; I recorded my vocals exclusively here and that was the guinea pig. In my opinion it worked out really well.”
HEAVY spent time chatting with both Jason and James recently and got in-depth regarding the saga of the Great Spotify Take Down of 2021, which is an interesting story in and of itself. Have a listen to the interview to get the full details on that as well as a very cool story about how their song lyrics literally saved someone’s life, and learn about the past, present and future of Twelve Years Today.
You can stream their latest single, Reveal The Pain now – yes, it is on Spotify! – and be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more new music from Twelve Years Today later this year.
