In “Pavlova’s Dog,” the band showcases the playful side of defiant punk

By Amna Saeed

The Meringues, a punk band hailing out of Kingston, Ont., released their second album, Pavlova’s Dog this fall and it’s just as frenetic and playful as their self-titled debut album. The band is comprised of vocalists Amanda Pants and Ted Evans, who also juggles the guitar, drummer Alistair Morrison and bassist Jackson Baird. The Meringues pack a big punch, hitting the listener right when they’re dancing to the high-spirited beats found in their songs.

The band’s lead vocalists, Evans and Pants, were the first two to initiate The Meringues, meeting through their involvement in Kingston’s punk music scene. Both were previously in other bands in the local scene, which led to their first encounter.

“One night, our bands played a show together and that’s when we really started talking for the first time,” said Pants.

However, it took six years of friendship before they started playing together, opting instead to get acquainted with each other’s musical personalities. “It was a lot of just checking out music in the scene together, talking about music, doing local things together before we even made a band,” said Pants.

The Meringues, a placeholder-turned-permanent name, hints at the playfulness entrenched in the band’s work. The band’s inspiration stems from a rise of punk resonance in Evans’ sounds, courtesy of Pants introducing him to such sounds, as well as Pants’ desire to be a punk frontwoman of a band.

“Society had taught me to ignore women in music, growing up, and I hadn’t really explored that. So going into making The Meringues was one of the first times I was exploring, discovering all sorts of different female musicians who were maybe punk or not punk,” said Pants.

Both Evans’ and Pants’ motivations for starting The Meringues are clear in their work, with punk styles shining through their vocals and the tracks that showcase witty verbal volleys between the pair.

While Evans’ personal influences range from Franz Ferdinand to Mando Diao, both Evans and Pants agree that July Talk, a Canadian rock band, has been a major inspiration.

“There’s definitely bits and pieces of them that are punk, especially their live shows… they can have this very punk rock energy, so [we’re] kind of exploring that as well with The Meringues,” said Pants.

These influences unfold tangibly in Pavlova’s Dog as Ian Docherty, the guitarist from July Talk, mixed tracks for the album. This collaboration is all thanks to a bold move on Pants’ part, who suggested simply asking whomever they wanted to mix the tracks — a method that clearly worked out.

“We always say it never would have happened if we didn’t just reach out and ask,” says Evans

Pavlova’s Dog was the jumping point to many things for the band, the collaboration with Ian Docherty being one of them. Among the album’s notable achievements, “Royalty” was played on SiriusXM.

“Royalty” is an experimental song in a largely punk setting with innovative soft shimmers in the background which dilute, but don’t diminish, the style of the song. The making of the song was an experiment itself, Evans says. 

“Amanda and I were sitting here, literally just flipping through effects and hitting a note and being like ‘Does that fit? No, does this fit? Now, does that fit?’ We finally came up to one, which was that one. We both looked at each other and had that feeling too, that it was kind of odd. There was this clash to it, but it still sat right, somehow.” 

The making of this album also marked the initiation of the band’s bassist and drummer. Alistair Morrison, the new drummer for The Meringues, was a fan before joining the band and over the years, fate worked to pull them together. Morrison suffered from health problems and had to stop playing at times, but Evans and Pants wholeheartedly supported him throughout his treatment and recovery.

“They have insisted that I never stopped being a part of the group, despite needing multiple years to receive treatment and then recover,” said Morrison. “So it was a very exciting time period when we started practicing and playing shows together again!”

Jackson Baird, the bassist, was also a new addition to the band. Also joining after having been a fan for years, Baird’s official debut with the band can be noted by the release of Pavlova’s Dog.

Most of Pavlova’s Dog yields an experimental sound in a poised and cohesive manner. While some songs, such as “Shambles” or “Time to Breathe,” read as teenage exclamations, others talk about deeper subjects through subliminal messages conveyed through their lyricism. Innuendos reside in bits and parts of the album. Pants mentions the song “Medusa” was written with “a little nod to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in there… it’s like a ‘friend of Dorothy’ sort of clue. So if you know, you know.”

Pants was also able to toy with different compositional methods on this album with synthesizers – a tool she had never used before. “That’s the first time I ever played synth and they kept it on there and I was like, ‘yay!’” said Pants. Evans immediately followed with a supportive comment of his own. “I mean, it wasn’t a question of whether we were gonna keep it or not. I thought it was great immediately.”

The band’s approach to stage dynamics displays a thorough understanding of the intricacies of stage presence that often go hand-in-hand with punk music. While it is meant to be loud and uncomfortable, there are certain forms of discomfort that they avoid — forms that are the antithesis of punk.

“We like to push boundaries but we don’t want to make anyone, either in the band or in the audience, uncomfortable,” said Evans.

It’s unassailable beliefs like these that have likely contributed to their favourite performances, such as their album release party for Pavlova’s Dog, or during their first performance in Montreal, where the antics of the crowd elicited smiles from the band.

“They were literally climbing walls in the venues which is something I’d never seen before and it was just a really exciting show,” said Pants.

However, the safe spaces they have been able to foster don’t forego the element of surprise or fun for the band, “I would say we always try to keep a level of uncertainty… even surprising each other,” says Evans.

This uncertainty can also be found in the labelling of Evans’ and Pants’ relationship. Tight-lipped as they are about the exact nature of their relationship, it’s clear observing their interactions that they have respect and admiration for each other, translating into a magnetic dynamic. Of course, their relationship is pivotal to their music, but it extends past the ambiguity of romance and settles into a deep, thoughtful and mutually considerate connection.

“I think sometimes when we say relationship, immediately people think — maybe just because we’re male and female — of that male and female relationship dynamic… I’m always like ‘There’s so many relationships’; it could be a friend relationship or, like you mentioned, a relationship with your boss or your job… relationships are something we all have,” says Pants.

This ambiguity lends itself to the subjective nature of their songs, which truly is the basis for all music.

“Our last album had a song where Ted literally wrote about a dead spider on a windowsill. Everyone’s like ‘That’s a breakup song,’” said Pants. The band seems to take these interpretations with stride since the vagueness they want to convey in their work has extended past their first album and into Pavlova’s Dog. However, they have grown and developed, personally and professionally, during the gap between albums and their making. Apart from the two new members inducted into the band, The Meringues also made other changes, such as in their confidence levels.

“Our confidence level of what The Meringues are and what we’re trying to do… [although] I think we had a real sense of that on the first album… it’s just deeper,” said Evans.

Networking and forming relationships with other musicians also contributed to these developments. “We like to try to learn from the other musicians around us,” said Pants. She brings an admirable attitude to The Meringues’ artistry, one which is not commonly found in today’s landscape of prioritizing quantity over quality work. As Evans says, for the band, it doesn’t matter if there are five people or 5000 people, it’ll always be the same show.

Most remarkably, the Meringues don’t sacrifice their playful sides for their art because the band understands how to balance the two. “There’s always that piece of playfulness, so I’d say it was maybe a bit of that – having a few playful moments when doing the album,” Pants said.

Toeing the line between seasoned artists and music lovers with a passion for the fulfillment found in the medium, The Meringues are, in Evans’ words, at “the crossroads of fun and dysfunction.” Who knows which road they’ll choose next?