Emerging band Desire Path easily lives up to their name, blazing new trails and eroding any preconceived notions of what their sound should be. I sat down with the mastermind behind the project, Patrick Lewis, to discuss their debut EP, recording process, and general lore. Bold and confident in both their branding and their music, Desire Path is full of a tenacity that is normally only found in older bands. Meticulous in all forms and beyond captivating from the first note, this band is certainly one to look out for. 

Despite being new to the scene, there’s a cohesion between Desire Path’s music and aesthetics that sets them apart from the rest. Their logo, a prominent flower icon, is a prime example of this. Not only is it tattooed on Lewis’ arm, but it’s easily replicated and instantly recognizable. The emblem was on him permanently before it was even associated with the band. He says, “I was in Kensington Market just hanging around, and I wanted to get a tattoo. I already had the flower saved to a Pinterest board. It’s not a perfect flower, it’s a little bit off, has a bit of character to it.” When he was starting to curate the image for the band, around the same time he created the group’s Instagram page, the icon jumped out at him again. “I saw the flower in my camera roll from that time and [thought it was very striking]. I knew that people could go on the Internet and look up “flower emoticon” and copy and paste it, and I thought that idea was very hip. I wouldn’t have to type up my band name, I could just paste the flower logo and people would know what I’m talking about.” It’s easy to underestimate the power of an image until you see it plastered in bold on a drumhead. While the use of their icon has yet to become common across the internet, I have no doubt that it will become burnt into people’s minds like it has into mine. 

While they’re well on their way to becoming a scene staple these days, Lewis describes a certain hesitation that halted Desire Path’s genesis originally.  “I’ve been wanting to do music for so long, but I couldn’t tie my influences down, couldn’t narrow in on a sound. In my late teens and early 20’s, I just couldn’t focus and hone my craft,” he says. “I had some riffs and songs, but I didn’t have a band name or [an image of what I wanted from the project].” Despite their identity and influences being completely concrete these days, Lewis mentions the tendency for Desire Path to get lumped into the emo category because of the band’s proximity to Arm’s Length. “I want people to know that we’re more than one thing. [I’m only] emo by proxy.” The name Desire Path itself connects back to both the band’s individuality and Lewis’ own urge to create. To form a desire path means to stray from what was laid out, and to forge something entirely original. He says, “It’s such a human concept, [these paths are] the way that actual people want to go. You could go so many ways with [the name], it’s just so evocative.” Clear imagery is part of what makes this band so special, especially because that same attention to detail is present throughout everything they do, including their debut EP. 

The recent EP, Blue Summer, is 12 minutes of distorted, nostalgic shoegaze that perfectly captures the perpetually fleeting nature of youth. He points to a specific memory that spurred the EP’s creation, both sonically and aesthetically. “[Sometime  around 2017], me and Allen [Steinberg] and a handful of friends were driving to the beach, something we had done a million times before. It was a summer evening, the sky was blue, and I could just feel the youthful energy surrounding us. "The Dead Are Dumb" by Nothing came on and it just hit perfectly, it was everything I wanted to hear in that moment,” he says. As for the title’s inspiration, Lewis explains,  “[Summer] has always resonated with me so much, and I’ve cared about it, and it’s provided feelings of all sorts. I’m ecstatic when it’s summer, I’m more of a human being.” The idea of coming alive when the sun shines isn’t foreign in this part of the world. This warm-weather imagery isn’t hidden, either. Lewis deliberately chose to include an ambient opening track in order to instantly convey his vision, though the samples used aren’t really his own. He admits, “I honestly just looked up royalty-free wave sounds, and I scoured that thing. There’s two sounds you’re hearing, one is a washy waves sound bite and the other one is a beach [ambience] thing. You can hear the kid laughing in that one.” I don’t think the release would be complete without that piece, however short. It creates an environment that allows the three songs to thrive. The EP offers a glimpse into that inspirational summer and offers a version of the season that isn’t as ephemeral. This short but sweet collection of songs is nothing less than transcendent.

Though the outcome is something to behold, the process behind recording Blue Summer came with a unique set of challenges. Finances were a key factor in the process, and dictated the length of the project. “If I didn’t get that tax return in the fall, we wouldn’t have recorded this EP,” Lewis jokes. After reaching out to several producers and studios, they eventually landed on Davis Maxwell at School House Studios after a recommendation from Toronto locals Bliss Fields, “I knew it was meant to be because Davis had [responded to my email] within a day. He gave me a good quote and guided me through everything.” Recording was set to take place over the course of a week, but on day two of the process the producer unfortunately got into a car accident. Lewis recounts the event, “his car got crushed by a semi truck because someone cut the truck off which subsequently cut him off. After getting his things sorted, [Maxwell] pulls up to the studio later [on the same day of the accident] and we spend [the rest of the day] messing around with guitar tones and stuff. He’s completely okay, that guy is a trooper.” On the funnier side of things, the band camped out in the studio while recording, alongside some new friends. “There were skunks or something living alongside the outer wall of the studio at the time, and the building is heated by this furnace so it smelt like hot skunk while we were sleeping. We got used to it on day three though,” he says, laughing. Lewis emphasized that School House no longer smells like hot skunk, and encouraged people to record there. Despite the release being short and budget constrained, Lewis still wanted to include pieces like the aforementioned intro. “You don’t get to release music very much. I don’t care if it’s an EP, I want to play it like it’s my debut record. I wanted to explore the things that I like about music and albums, so I knew I wanted a dramatic intro to set the tone of the project,” he says. Regardless of length, the care that went into the EP is apparent. While near-death experiences and pungent odours aren’t ideal circumstances by any means, they certainly didn’t stop Desire Path from recording something meaningful. 

Bad luck during recording aside, the outcome is noteworthy. Blue Summer is an evocative and easy-to-love release that deserves attention from critics far and wide. Desire Path as a whole have hit the ground running with their instantly recognizable sound and eye-catching aesthetic. Their future is blindingly bright, just like the warm season they so aptly describe.