Timing has proven to be everything for Jason Corbett, lead singer and guitarist of Vancouver post-punk band Actors. Before founding the band in 2012, “I worked in the restaurant industry for just about 20 years,” he tells the Weekly. “It all seems like a lifetime ago.”

Since then, Actors, also featuring Shannon Hemmett (keys), Kendall Wooding (bass) and Adam Fink (drums), has assembled a loyal following enamored by the four-piece’s icy, shimmering synths and driving drum machine beats that recall the leather-clad era of the ’80s.

Your last Vegas show was pre-pandemic with Boy Harsher. What did you think of the city? I loved it. It was a great crowd. There were a lot of fans we knew from that general area. I also toured and played at a couple of dive bars in the late ’90s, so it was interesting to not be there for a long time and then return to play at a better venue (laughs).

Do you remember which bars you played? I don’t. The only thing I remember is ... one of the shows fell through and we ended up going to the Crazy Horse Too. Is that place still there?

I think we’re on Crazy Horse Three now. Oh, really? Well, we showed up and we’re in like, leather pants, eyeliner. I gave a credit card behind the bar, and I guess they thought we were rock stars or something for real. And they just took me to the cleaners. I think they put like $2,000 on my credit card in Jaegermeister and tequila shots. I got so drunk, it was literally like a movie. A bouncer grabbed me by my belt and my neck and threw me out a back door. It was crazy.

That’s a good introduction to our city. (Laughs) Yeah, it was great. The next day we were playing in Costa Mesa and I was so hungover I was dry-heaving into a change bucket from the casino the whole drive.

You certainly have the bad boy rocker archetype down. The whole band’s pretty stylish too, especially Shannon and Kendall. I showed someone a picture of Actors, and we agreed you were “serving Depeche Mode.” Oh, that’s cool. We love Depeche Mode. There’s that whole kind of ’80s thing that I really love and we all are fans of. We touch into that stuff, but we do it our way.

Both Shannon and Kendall are also seriously talented, as we’ve seen with Shannon doing her [electro-pop] project Leathers, and Kendall can play guitar. She plays circles around me, and I’ve been playing my whole life. They’re the real deal and really, it’s about the male and female energies that mingle in the band. And that’s how the music wants to be presented. It’s very honest.

Before Actors you played in 10 other bands, but only a handful actually recorded albums. What made this time different? I think I just wasn’t ready for it [before]. When you’re younger, sometimes you chase the idea that you have to attain success, or try to achieve success in a certain way that doesn’t align with your artistic goals or how you want to present yourself. Actors started at a time when I had started producing other artists ... and I really just said, I give up on chasing that stuff. I just want to make music that I really want to make and listen to.

I started producing my music myself, so I didn’t have someone’s sonic fingerprint on the music anymore, and I could just fumble my way through. I had no intention of getting a record deal. I didn’t ever want to tour again. But somehow, that honest approach to creating music connected with an audience very organically and even drew the label to us—Artoffact Records.

The first record feels like it exploded into existence around the world. Then all of a sudden, we’re being asked to play in all these different countries. It keeps growing very organically. I feel really lucky.

In interviews, you’ve said it took you 25 years to get to where you are now. It’s encouraging to hear you can still make it in music years down the line. It almost feels more acceptable to be older in a rock band anyway. Yeah, I get that. Sometimes I’ll see an artist that’s doing similar music and they’re really young, and I think, “Well, what life experience are you going through that I can relate to?” Hearing a breakup album to me now, even though I’ve done those, it almost feels passé.

To add to what you say about the age thing, when I was about 20 or 21, I was at this food market, and there was a palm reader. I was super broke, but I really wanted to talk to this palm reader because she flagged me down. Right away, she said, “You’re somehow connected to the entertainment industry. I have good news and bad news for you. Good news is that you’re gonna have some success with this. But the bad news is that it’s gonna happen much later in your life.” I always think back to that.

The term rock star doesn’t apply. I don’t think we’re famous. I just think we’re expressing ourselves, and we’re eking out a bit of a career for ourselves. We’re getting to connect with our fans, be creative and live by our own rules in some ways. That, to me, is success.

Can we expect a new Actors album soon? Early in the new year we’re going to start releasing Actors singles sporadically throughout the year. We should expect the full length with tour dates by the end of 2024. I’m working on about 30 new songs right now. The whole post-pandemic, it was a little bit rough getting our footing back with tour. I got COVID on the road. Then we came home, we went over to Europe, we had this crazy schedule, and I ended up getting pneumonia. I got too run down. Even with this tour coming up, the album [Acts of Worship] came out in 2021 and we’re still touring it. It’s been a juggling act working on material and touring. But it’s all been worth it. It continues to grow and feel really good.

What do you have in store for your show at Triple B? We’re gonna be playing all the hits, all the bangers. We play for about an hour, and we’re 110% every show. I always joke that we never have a bad show. We’re so stoked to see everyone. We just play our asses off, and we always have a good time.

Actors

November 5, 8 p.m., $20, Backstage Bar & Billiards, backstagebarlv.com

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