We Are the City

We Are The City
We Are the City at Immergut Festival in Germany 2016
Background information
Origin	Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Progressive rock, Experimental pop
Years active	2008–present
Labels	Hidden Pony Records, Tooth & Nail Records, Sinnbus
Website	wearethecity.ca
Members	Cayne McKenzie Andrew Huculiak David Menzel
Past members	Blake Enemark

We Are The City is a Canadian progressive rock band based in Vancouver, British Columbia and formed in 2008 in Kelowna, British Columbia. The current band members include singer-keyboardist Cayne McKenzie, drummer Andrew Huculiak, and guitarist David Menzel. Their musical style is often referred to as prog rock. The name "We Are The City" is inspired by Matthew 5:14 from the Bible, "“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.”" Georgia Straight, a British Columbia newspaper, described the group not necessarily as a Christian band, but as a band composed of Christians.

The band composed the score for the critically acclaimed film Violent, which was based on their album of the same name.

Their debut album, In a Quiet World, was released in 2009. It was produced by Tom Dobrzanski of The Zolas. Many of the tracks were written in high school, as the band's previous incarnations. "Astronomers" was written when Cayne was in the 8th grade, and they posted an early demo of it on their Tumblr page. "The album is about family, and about our journey in and out and all around spirituality," said band member Cayne McKenzie, “Dare I say it, the newer songs we’re writing now are even more progressive than the ones on the album,” McKenzie says. “So hopefully we don’t spin completely out of control.”

High School was an EP released in the first half of 2011, after their original guitarist, David Menzel, quit the band for personal reasons. The album name comes from the alter-ego band name they used while performing as a small, aptly named band "High School" by tying T-shirts over their heads during shows. Eventually, they were unwittingly ratted out by other local bands who recognized them, which made them decide to release the songs as an EP under the We Are The City name.

Their third album,Violent, was also produced by Dobrzanski.Violent was released on June 4, 2013 and marks the return of David Menzel to the band. The band also has a 7" single out, "Morning Song/Mourning Song". In conjunction with the album's release, We Are The City, along with Amazing Factory Production, a Vancouver-based film company, began development on a feature film sharing the album's Violent title. Violent was showcased in 2014 at the Cannes Film Festival. Coming out of the Canadian premiere of the film in the band's hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia at the Vancouver International Film Festival, the film was met with critical acclaim, with Marina Antunes of Quiet Earth saying, "Violent is unlike any other coming of age story I've seen and its unlikely I'll ever see another one quite this profound, a movie that works as both a story of self discovery and of self reflection at the same time. A fantastic achievement that is not to be missed."