It’d be tough to pin down indie-rock duo called Meguro. Vocalist and guitarist Bob MacKendrick is originally from Summerside, Prince Edward Island, drummer Ian Borak hails from Calgary, Alberta, they currently find themselves based in Toronto with a band named for one of 23 special wards in Tokyo. Unsurprisingly, their debut single, “Forgotten” is about what it’s like to be separated from their friends.
As is the natural evolution of such things, Ian and Bob met at a mutual friend’s birthday party and shortly after found themselves in a band together. That band didn’t work out. They started another band. It’s the circle of life.
“Ian and I had been playing together in a previous band for a little while and when that group broke up I still had a handful of songs that I really liked but I wasn’t sure what to do with,” explains MacKendrick.
And so Meguro was born—at least, the concept of it, along with the bits and pieces of things that one would assume might form songs. To nail down their sound they reached out to another friend who just happens to be former Hollerado guitarist, Nixon Boyd.
“I reached out to Nixon Boyd, who is a good friend and a great producer, and we headed into his studio, Banquet Sound,” says MacKendrick.
“Around this time I was starting to get back into a lot of the punk music I had listened to when I was younger, bands like Against Me and Social Distortion, and I really wanted to make music that had that kind of energy and urgency. The kind of songs that make you want to explode, but in a good way.
“Nixon helped us streamline the arrangement and channel those influences into the song, along with our other influences like Matt Mays and Jesse Malin.”
And they nail it with action-packed guitar riffs, a beat built for a younger man, and a nostalgia for “punk rock poetry.” “Forgotten Song” is a ballad for our misspent youths.
“It’s a song about friendship, and how even though you may be apart for long periods of time sometimes something will spark your memory and all of the sudden it’s like you’re right back there with your best bud by your side,” says MacKendrick. “These memories can make you wonder whether things would still be the same if you were together again. But in my experience, even though it can sometimes feel like friendships are fading away when you’re separated for some time, when you reconnect everything just falls back into place and it’s as if no time has passed at all.”
To wrap it all up, MacKendrick tapped his two best friends from Prince Edward Island that have provided the main inspiration for the lyrics, to sing gang vocals on the song. So, he called another friend in Charlottetown to make it happen.
“We wanted to beef up the original gang vocal tracks we had recorded at Nixon’s studio but were unable to get a group together here in Toronto due to covid restrictions last year,” says MacKendrick. “I arranged for them to go to Don’t Wake Baby Studio in Charlottetown where Greg Alsop (Tokyo Police Club) tracked some more vocals and joined in on them as well.”
Really, if you haven’t seen your friends in a while, there’s really no better way to make it up to them than by having them sing on a track recorded and produced by members of Hollerado and Tokyo Police Club. That’s a memento that’ll last you through at least a few missed birthdays.