Review Fix Exclusive: One Minute Shy’s Craig Laffin Talks Debut Album ‘Deception,’ Goals And More

Review Fix chats with One Minute Shy’s Craig Laffin, who discusses the creative process behind their debut album, “Deception” and more.

Review Fix: How did the guys get together?

Craig Laffin: My brother Scott and I created an instrumental project band called “One Minute Shy” to show our original music to the world as we wrote and recorded it.  We filmed themselves and put together videos of these songs to upload to YouTube.  This was a lot of fun and we were starting to get some great feedback and exposure so we wanted to take it to the next level.  We never wanted to strictly be an instrumental band though and always had our eye out for the perfect vocalist and frontman.

In May of 2016 fate came knocking at our door when I was working out at the gym one day.  I remember walking to put my weights back on the rack when I hear “Hey man, you play guitar?”.  I have a tattoo of my guitar on my arm and this guy saw it and started up a conversation with me.  He introduced himself as Leo Flint and this conversation quickly revealed that I had a band who were looking for a vocalist and he was a vocalist looking for a band.  From the very first meeting and jam together, we knew that Leo was exactly who we were looking for.  We spent the next year and a half writing and recording and we knew we eventually wanted to get out and play some live shows.  In order to do this, we needed more musicians so we brought on board our old friend and former bandmate named Dwayne Benoit to play rhythm guitar.  Dwayne originally played bass for us in the early days of high school and college but then switched to guitar over the years.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Laffin: Basically what we do to write songs is Scott and I will just start jamming on whatever sounds cool and gets us going. When both of us really like a riff or melody that I write, we will see if it could possibly fit in with some other riffs we have come up with in the past. Scott is fantastic at arranging and often has really cool ideas on how to structure songs and put riffs together. We will collaborate on the riffs and arrangements until we get a basic song structure down.  Once this is done, we record a very rough demo version and send it off to Leo. Leo will listen to the song and if he gets a really good feel for it he will come up with lyrics and vocal melodies very quickly, often within a day or two.  Leo will then come over to work on the song and lay down some rough vocals. We will sit with this for a bit and decide if anything needs to be changed or added.  Once the final version of the song is written and everyone agrees to the arrangement, Scott and I will record the master tracks and Leo will come in on another day to record the master vocal track.  So that’s basically how we write and record our songs.

Review Fix: What do you think makes this band special?

Laffin: We are all just regular guys who love to play music. Scott and I have been playing music together since a very young age and we have always gotten along really well. This bond through music really shows in our writing process as we pretty much know what the other is going to do before it happens. It’s almost like a psychic link.  Dwayne has been with us since the early days too and I’ve known him since I was three years old so he is basically a brother as well.  From the time I met Leo, there has been an instant connection like I’ve known him forever and he has also become like a brother.  So I think what makes this band special is the connection, bond, and friendship we have with each other.  We all work extremely well together and love to laugh and have fun.  We are all down to earth dudes who love to rock out and I think this shows in our music.

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?

Laffin: I would describe our music as a heavy metal throwback to classic styles with a modern twist.  We love to write energetic and catchy songs mixed with a lot of melodies but we also have our thrash out moments.  We love anything that makes you want to throw your fist in the air and bang your head.  On the flipside to that I also love writing melodic cleans with a lot of emotion behind it and this really gives Leo a lot of room to exercise his vocal abilities.  You can tell our influences by listening to this album.  You will hear elements of many of the greats like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Anthrax, and Testament.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?

Laffin: Our goal when we first met Leo was to write a bunch of great songs together and record an album.  We didn’t really know what would come of it or where it would lead to and we are basically just going with the flow of everything.  We wanted to unleash our music on the world and get as many people to listen to it as possible.  So far in the first few weeks of releasing it, it has reached many people all over the world and they are digging it.  It has turned out way better than any of us ever imagined.  We are all very thankful and even more driven now to get One Minute Shy and our debut album exposed to as many people as possible.

Review Fix: What’s the standout song?  Is there a story behind it?

Laffin: I’d say our standout song is the album’s opening track Deception.  This is the song that has gained the most attention and every single person who has listened to our album says Deception is their favourite so that is really awesome!  It’s full of energetic and catchy riffs and the tempo makes you want to rock out and bang your head.  It’s a great song to drive or workout too!  I just love how the song starts with Leo’s vocal scream and my guitar solo blaring in behind him.  Deception was originally an instrumental song we had written called The Last Attack.  When Leo heard it, he came up with words and a vocal melody very quickly.  Leo loves to write about things that he knows and life experiences and things that people can relate to.  I think all of us at some time or another have been lied to or deceived in some way and this is the basis of the meaning behind the song.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Laffin: Well we have big plans for the future and we’re just getting started.  We want to get out playing shows as soon as possible and we are currently in full rehearsal mode and getting ready for that.  We would love to do a tour and play shows all over the world someday.  We also plan on getting back into the studio in the near future to record more albums.  Right now we have enough material for another two albums and we are continually writing so there’s going to be tons more coming.  We have a lot of cool stuff written that we can’t wait to get out there for all of you to listen to!