There’s a story behind why The Galacticas hate driving at night.
“It was like 3 a.m. and we were driving back from Medicine Hat,” says the band’s guitarist and singer Anthony Janicki. “We hit a deer while going 100 km an hour and destroyed my car.
“We had gotten into a bad habit of deciding to drive home for three hours in the middle of the night after a gig, thinking that we could tough it out.”
Dangerous as it may be, driving home in the dead of night — riding the high of performing — is a necessary evil for the trio. On top regularly touring and performing, all three members of The Galacticas have day jobs.
A welder, a teacher and a writer may sound like the beginning of a bad joke – but it’s the daytime reality of all three members of this Calgary punk band.
“I did not care about sleep in my twenties,” Janicki said. “I would play Tuesday nights and stay out till one in the morning on a Wednesday just to be in the scene.”
“I don’t do that as much anymore. I’m getting older, and my job is what lets me do all of this.”
By day, Janicki is a journeyman structural welder with TIW Western. He has worked in the field for more than a decade.
At night, Janicki cut his teeth in Calgary’s music scene. He played in groups such as Conniving Cadavers, Deluge and Black Earth before forming The Galacticas in 2016.
“I had never gotten to front a band like I always wanted to,” said Janicki. “So, I collected a couple of guys.”
One of those guys is Will Cowan, a drummer who previously met Janicki while writing about the band Deluge for a university assignment.
Two weeks later, Janicki sent Cowan a text.
“Hey, you said you weren’t in a band,” Janicki wrote. “Do you want try out for this new project that I’m doing?”
Cowan replied in the affirmative.
“We went from there,” Cowan said. “And it developed it into what we’ve got now.”
Cowan has served as The Galacticas drummer since day one. Several years later, Mark Ferguson rounded out the lineup on the bass guitar.
Ferguson works as a music teacher at Airdrie Music Lessons. Cowan, meanwhile, balances his rockstar nightlife with a day job as a content writer for POD Marketing.
These three rockers are not unique. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated job prospects for musicians and singers at 1 per cent in North America.
A recent article from Exclaim, meanwhile, highlighted successful touring musicians who work in a variety of second careers, from management to healthcare.
Like most musicians, The Galacticas handle their existence with stubbornness – and humour.
“It’s the dumbest band in the world,” laughs Cowan.
The Galacticas describe themselves as, ‘Just 3 nerds from Calgary who love punk rock and awkward high fives.’
Their irreverent blend of distortion, melody and earnest lyrics has landed the band spots on various pop-punk and emo playlists on Spotify.
Since 2016, the group has released four albums. The most recent, Planned Obsolescence, came on Feb. 3.
Several weeks after celebrating the album’s release with a hometown show at Dickens Pub, The Galacticas headed back out on the road, going west to Canmore to play at the Canmore Hotel.
“I think we are a little more strategic about how we approach tours and shows,” Cowan said. “We do the weekend warrior thing.
“We go to a town and play all night long, go to another town and play all night long, and then we come home on Sunday.”
Janicki echoes the sentiment.
“After touring through my twenties, I realized that nobody wants to see you on a Tuesday night in a small town,” he said.
Fueled by ‘McDonald’s and diet soda,’ the band has played all over the province, from Edmonton to Lethbridge.
They’ve even made further excursions out west to mountainous towns like Fernie and Revelstoke.
How do these full-time employees balance work, life and rock and roll?
“Routine is my secret weapon,” Cowan said. “And ADHD medication.”
For Cowan, most days start at 5:30 a.m. Whether he is creating copy for work, editing podcasts or unwinding with his fiancé, every hour is carefully scheduled.
Janicki has a similar approach.
“I compartmentalize it,” he said. “I have pretty strict boundaries about when I can and can’t jam.
“Fortunately for us, The Galacticas is a pretty well-oiled machine.”
This machine is fuelled primarily by Janicki himself.
“I’ve taken a backseat in terms of the creative output of The Galacticas,” says Cowan.
Janicki is often the one in the driver’s seat on tour. He schedules most shows, handles social media and has created animation for the band’s music videos. On top of all that, he writes all the lyrics.
“I wanted to start a band where I was completely in control, where it could be my life project,” said Janicki.
“Tony’s words take universal emotions and make them accessible,” says local musician Harvey Hinton.
“The Galacticas are important. They are the curators of an island of misfit punk toys.”
Hinton, who works during the day as a porter at Rockyview Hospital, plays bass in local bands Glitter Glue and Go Away Fast.
For Hinton, the motivation is entirely personal.
“I do it for the love of the game,” he said. “It’s who I am.
“Harvey Hinton has to play music.”
It’s the kind of inner strength that every performing artist must find within themselves.
“I have always been a creator,” says Cowan. “The process is the really rewarding part, and that’s why I keep coming back to it.”
What keeps Janicki going?
“So that if I was to die tomorrow, my obituary would have something cool to say about me,” he said. “Because otherwise, I would just be a welder.
“It’s about having a purpose in life.”
