The Naked and Famous

All Red is Winter Gloves’ sophomore release on Paper Bag Records, a collection of ten songs that the band had been tinkering with on and off-stage during their past year on the road, and brought back to their Montreal studio to record over the past winter. In a return to the roots of the original EP that first introduced Winter Gloves’ poppy mix of gritty bass and synths sound, All Red was produced by the band’s Charles F (lead singer, guitar, synths). The foursome is rounded out with Patrick Sayers on drums, Vincent Chalifour on bass and synths, and Nico Ormiston on guitar and bringing back the glockenspiel that was a well-mentioned highlight on their debut about a girl album. Born out of the band’s curiosity with what happens in the spaces of jarring transitions between country and urban sprawl explored on their debut album, All Red is a step into the transition from the lightness of youth to the realities of growing up; the hiding places that we will find in corners or on dancefloors in those awkward moments. With the whimsy of “Gym Class” and tales of classic childhood characters you meet and carry with you in “Tooth Fairy”, alongside the reality of how often you might lose those friends along the way (“Trap The Mouse”), and hit the pitfalls and often disillusionment of growing up (“Plastic Slides”, “Strange Love”), All Red is a celebration of all those sometimes reluctant steps and spaces along the way that we’ll occupy, embrace, dance and hide out in. After some local demos of Charles F started making their way into the hands of folks’ outside his apartment in 2008, namely through the free CDs that were thrown offstage at their live shows, reactions beyond the city for Winter Gloves came quickly from the likes of Paper Bag Records and touring partners like Tokyo Police Club. Winter Gloves was properly introduced with the help of producer Jon Drew (F*cked Up, Arkells, Tokyo Police Club) on about a girl, released in the fall of 2008. Winter Gloves’ live sets often find Charles standing on his piano stool, a testament to the energy that takes over the stage as much as the crowds that they play for. The band’s relentless touring schedule over the past year included major tours across North America alongside You Say Party and Thunderheist, hitting the festival circuits with stops at Osheaga, Virgin Festival, Hillside and the Toronto International Film Festival’s Music Café, and still left enough time to tour in the California sun during the winter months to keep four Montreal guys happy. Live reviews consistently echo the sentiments of an early review of a Toronto show from Canada’s MuchMusic, who declared “Winter Gloves steal the show,” and NME who highlighted the band at a Montreal festival: “Winter Gloves harness what we've been recognizing as a 'Montreal sound,' low slung New Wave propelled on by some filthy beats in fine style. But they do it with more charisma and better songs than anyone else so far.”