The Imports, who have released their first album called Rhythm & Madness, vocalist Roydin Monteath answered a few questions from the Interrobang's James Maxwell.

The band, who will be appearing in London on October 14 for an acoustic show at Grooves at 12:30 p.m. as well as at the Embassy at 8 p.m. the same night, are currently gaining popularity in all corners of Ontario.

J.M.: Can you tell me a little about the history of the band: How did you guys meet and decide to play together?
R.M.: Well, half of us met before high school when we used to go to elementary school together. The other half was a result of us being split up in to two high schools. I moved to Brampton and met Nathan and Earl, and Heston and Liam met Arthur at their high school. Arthur started jamming with us one summer and fit right in; same influences and same style of playing, it was perfect. I then met Earl shortly after, and we all started jamming out covers and felt something good. That's when we officially became The Imports.

J.M.: What is the band up to right now? Are you guys looking forward to coming to London on October 14?
R.M.: Right now we are all working full-time trying to make some money back from the last tour, pay some bills and save up for the next tour, at the same time practicing as much as possible and playing locally until October. London is definitely one stop that always makes us nervous. But it has been better the last few times we played there.

J .M.: What should someone attending one of your live shows expect?
Our live shows can be very energy driven at times, but we are also very focused on how we sound. A lot of times you go to shows and the sound is horrible, hence not being able to get in to what the bands doing, which is entertaining you. We try to make it an enjoyable night for you by playing some songs that move you, now with that said, we obviously don't have mosh pits left right and centre, our music caters more towards the listener that is in it for the music.

J.M.: I read that your band's name is indicative of your ethic diversity; so what backgrounds do all you guys come from?
R.M.: Everything in our band works in pairs. There are six of us, yet somehow we can all be put in to matching pairs. The majority of us were born elsewhere then Canada, leaving only two being born here.

J.M.: I found your instrumental “Intro” to be a really cool psychedelic beginning reminiscent of Pink Floyd--Do you plan on writing more instrumentally driven songs?
R.M.: The intro for our CD was written in the studio for the most part. We wanted a very weird, eerie kind of intro that resembled the Rhythm & Madness that people would hear throughout the record. We don't ever try and write instrumental songs because we like to have lots of things going on, and don't like leaving the singer bored.

J.M.: It's clear that one of the strengths of your band is its musicianship, which is very refreshing in today's music industry. Is that something you guys spend a lot of time working on?
R.M.: I think independently we all work on our instrumentation as much as we can. It's a part of how you write and how creative you can be. I think that's what music should be about; you should always grow and find different ideas to incorporate in your song writing. It's just like any other job, if you eventually don't grow and try to improve upon your career, you're going to get terribly bored.

J.M.: What is the number one thing you want to achieve as a band?
R.M.: For the most part I think any band would love to play music professionally for as long as they possibly can. For us, it's the same. We all enjoy making music and playing music live, and sharing that music with new people in different places away from home is a thrill as well. If we can in the future play music full-time and not worry about taking up second jobs to support us financially then we have achieved the best possible outcome.

The Import's first album, Rhythm & Madness, is instrumentally well done with good energy, interesting lyrics, and the tracks are diverse enough to keep the listening fresh. My only disagreement with the album was that the singing did not contain a lot of melody - however, the singing is fairly strong in its own unique style.