Mercedes Arn-Horn was shocked when she learned that her pop-punk band, Courage My Love, was nominated for a Juno Award.
“We didn’t expect it all,” lead singer Arn-Horn said. “I was with my boyfriend and we were up at the ski lodge and I got this tweet that said something like congratulations to Courage My Love for the Juno nomination.”
After some quick e-mailing Arn-Horn learned that it was all true. Courage My Love had, in fact, been nominated for Breakthrough Group of the Year at the 2014 Juno Awards, held in Winnipeg later this month.
“I am just really proud and it is just an honour to be nominated. Even if we don’t win, I’ll just be proud that we got nominated,” Arn-Horn said.
On March 31, Courage My Love will be opening for Fefe Dobson at the Port Theatre in support of her Firebird tour.
“I just can’t wait to go on tour with someone like that and get inspired,” Arn-Horn said. “She’s got a really cool mix of the rock sound as well as the pop sound so it’s cool to see her experiment with that and go out of the box. It’s kind of an inspiration in that sense.”
Courage My Love was formed back in 2009 by Arn-Horn and her twin sister Phoenix Arn-Horn. In 2012 bass guitarist Brandon Lockwood joined the band following the departure of original bassist David Blake-Dickson.
“It started with her and I just jamming and writing,” Arn-Horn said. “Then we wanted to start playing, so we started playing shows locally.”
Courage My Love, who are signed to Warner Music Canada, have released three albums, For Now, For Now Acoustic and Becoming. Prior to being signed to the label they took the unorthodox step of creating their own label, Homeskool Prom Records.
“We really wanted to protect our creative control of our music,” Arn-Horn said.
Their albums For Now and Becoming were also released to Japanese label Grizz-Rhythm Records and Warner Music Japan. In 2012 they traveled to Tokyo and where they performed alongside PS I Love You, The Barr Brothers and Hunter Valentine.
“It was awesome,” Arn-Horn said about the trip. “It was an amazing experience and an amazing opportunity.”
From the moment Courage My Love arrived in Japan, they were greeted with an overwhelming amount of support from their fans.
“We’re from Canada and we have fans here but no one who would literally follow you down the street or wait hours outside of the venue for you to arrive,” Arn-Horn said. “We tweeted that we were going shopping and when we came out of the store we saw people waiting for us with their CDs and stuff to sign.”
The band also received plenty of unique gifts while they were in Japan.
“We got some awesome candles from a shrine that were shaped like wolves and we got wicked totems,” Arn-Horn said. “One girl actually made her own clothing line and made a bunch of Courage My Love shirts herself and that was really cool to see.”This summer Courage My Love will realize a career goal when they perform throughout North America as part of the Vans Warped Tour.
“Every band, especially at our stage dreams of playing Warped Tour. We’ve been waiting for a while and I can’t wait to see what comes of it,” Arn-Horn said.
So far Courage My Love is the only Canadian band on the The Warped Tour roster.
“We’ve toured the States before but only in the northern States, so it will be cool see some of our fans on the West Coast and to meet new people and have fun and build our chops,” Arn-Horn said.
The trio previously played the Toronto date of the Warped Tour. Arn-Horn said she believes that her band improves with every performance and tour.
“You know after every tour I always feel like the band just gets stronger and my voice gets better and little things come together.”
