The Suits XL Add Some Pop To 604
Friday May 19, 2006 @ 06:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

The Suits XL

Quebec City pop band The Suits XL have signed a deal with Vancouver's 604 Records, which will release their Quarter-Life Crisis debut in August.

The group are the first pop signing to the rock-oriented 604, which was launched in 2001 by entertainment lawyer Jonathan Simkin and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. The Suits XL join the likes of Theory Of A Deadman, Thornley and Tommy Lee on the roster of the Universal-distributed label.

"Chad and I love all kinds of music and are more into great songwriting than particular genres," says Simkin of their new addition. "For us, it is not shocking that we have signed a pop band.

"What impressed me about the band was that their music was very literate, intelligent and quirky, yet was also filled with insanely hooky riffs and melody lines."

The Suits XL's debut single, "Play," has been soaring up the charts at top 40 and hot adult contemporary radio stations across Canada, enabling them to reach the national top 10 in both formats.

"'Play' represents the much poppier sound of the band, but I think people will be struck also by the beauty of the ballads, and the sophisticated intricacy of the songs and the production," says Simkin.

The quintet are comprised of Sam Loubier-Demers (lead vocals, guitar), Yohann Gosselin (vocals, guitar), Patrick Paquet (drums), Felix-Antoine Berube (keyboards) and Olivier Roy De Belleval (lyrics). They formed in 2000 and chose their name as a way to poke fun at their frustration with the business side of the music business.

"We thought it made sense to make fun of the industry by pretending that the choices we make are dictated by flowcharts and shareholder interests," says Berube on the band's MySpace site.

The group's music has been likened to everyone from Sky to The Cure to The Cars. They unabashedly claim that they're here for fun, not to save the world. "We're proud of what we've accomplished so far," says Roy De Belleval.

"We've had some airplay in Quebec and English Canada. We've played New York City. But there's such a world of difference between who we were and what we've become. I mean, we used to be called Sunny Side Up and lean towards punk rock."

Five of the songs on Quarter-Life Crisis were produced by Grammy Award-winning duo the Berman Brothers, who've previously had a hand in the success of Cher, Hanson and the Baha Men. The band produced the rest of the record themselves along with engineer Rob Heaney, who was nominated for a Juno Award for his work on the Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria album.

—Scott Bryson