Emily Haines - Interview

by Tina Whelski

The term “solo record” can be a bit of a misnomer. And singer Emily Haines is quick to make that point as she discusses Knives Don’t Have Your Back, her first album outside of her band Metric.

“I don’t really identify with the term ‘solo,’” says Emily Haines. “I have to call it that, but for me it was more that I make this a soundtrack-kind-of-record. That I work with other musicians and explore that. It was really less about me and more about the song.”

A departure from the bold synth-based danceable sounds and sassy persona that Haines is associated with as the frontwoman of Toronto 4-piece Metric, Knives Don’t Have Your Back offers a stripped-down sound with stirring vocals backed by piano and wisps of strings and horns. To form that sound Haines enlisted collaborators Scott Minor (Sparklehorse), Jimmy Shaw (Broken Social Scene/Metric), Stars’ Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman and Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff, among others.

“It was great because previously I was only able to define what I wanted the record to sound like by what I didn’t want it to sound like,” says Haines. “It’s really tricky, especially when it comes to atmospheric sounds. It can just easily turn into music for latte drinking and that’s not a good thing. It was really a fascinating process for me finding where that fine line is. So much of my favorite music is just songs. Like the Neil Young records, John Lennon solo records, Brian Eno and Robert Wyatt, Elliot Smith. Like all these people that I fucking love. I wanted to translate that same spirit into the record I was trying to make. Instead of it sounding like Jewel or something.”

Lyrically, Haines found her muse in change.

“I think in my own life I have been so preoccupied with travel and moving around and really being afraid of staying in one spot for too long,” says Haines. “I feel like this record signifies me being interested in stopping. And really the record came out of a time of intense turmoil for everyone that I knew. I guess it’s like a mid-twenties thing where the whole world that you have socially and with your family and everything that you think is so stable and solid, for this particular group of people, it all fell apart. Everyone was going from being musicians to spending all their time working in little home studios and spending all their time in generic bands, driving the highways of America. Major life changes for everyone. And definitely ‘Our Hell’ addresses that change. At the same time I really feel like the meaning of that song for me is just like, ‘Can you suck it up? I know it’s rough, and you don’t know what the hell’s going on, but your version of a big problem is still a luxury problem.’ So that song definitely hit the mood. And then I just wanted to have music to accompany me in the quieter times. I realized that everyone that I know also needs that. You come home from the rock concert and you need something to listen to in the morning when you’re in the bath tub or being sick or whatever.”

Haines’ solo effort hasn’t put Metric on hold. She’s currently crafting their new album after an intense touring schedule—over 260 shows this past year.

“It’s just really preliminary writing, but we ended up coming up with stuff that we really love and it’s been a really nice retreat back into making music,” says Haines. “That’s the thing that I’ve gotten most about putting my own record out, is realizing all those categories, people are like, ‘O.K. so now are you doing this? So now you’re a solo artist?' It’s really quite simple. I’m a musician and I really love to write songs and to record them and to play concerts.”

Emily Haines performs with backing band, The Soft Skeletons, at the Hiro Ballroom on January 9.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (12/27/06).

Video for "Dr. Blind."

Aimee Mann - Interview

For its “spooky beauty” and “mystery” Christmas becomes Aimee Mann’s muse on One More Drifter In The Snow (Super Ego Records), her latest album. Featuring holiday classics like "Whatever Happened to Christmas," "Christmastime" "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “White Christmas” and a Mann original, “Calling On Mary,” the record harkens back to classic albums of the 40’s & 50’s for their beautiful, thoughtful qualities. But the storyteller’s heartfelt imprint is left in the careful collection and interpretation of songs reflecting “the range of emotions that people have around Christmas."

With producer Paul Bryan’s assist, the duo used the Peanuts Christmas special as one jumping-off point, with both the jazz-inflected Vince Guaraldi Trio soundtrack and comic melancholy of Charlie Brown as influences. Another major inspiration was the Johnny Mathis Christmas album, a record Mann heard as a kid in her house every holiday.

“When I first was thinking about doing a Christmas record I didn’t really know if I wanted to do a whole album and then I started talking to my producer, Paul Bryan…We just started talking about Christmas music that we like and there are really just a lot of Christmas songs that I just like as songs, that I appreciate musically,” says Mann. “When I listen to a Christmas record I hate that whole modern approach where it’s like, the ‘electronica Christmas’ or ‘rocking up Christmas.’ It really does bug me. Christmas songs to me are mostly the Christmas standards. ‘Chestnuts Roasting’ and ‘White Christmas’ and those kinds of songs. With Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, classic vocalists. That’s what I think of…So we thought we’d start in that direction.”

“And the other thing that we were talking about is how you felt as a kid and the things that we remembered as kids and it was always the cartoons,” continues Mann. “The Peanuts cartoon with the Vince Guaraldi jazz trio and the Grinch. That is such a great song, ‘You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.’ So the more we talked about it, the more we were excited that there was a lot of great stuff out there. And it started to become a much more fun and interesting project. I think that Peanuts cartoon does sort of sum it up because you know when Linus talks about the meaning of Christmas; it does get kind of spooky. And when you’re a little kid and you’re waiting for Santa to come, it is a little mysterious…That’s kind of where I was going with it.”

Mann’s original tune, “Calling On Mary,” co-written with Bryan fits seamlessly aside the rest of the tracks.

“I think our idea was almost like a classic Christmas as salvation story,” says Mann. “This guy’s walking around town and he’s all depressed and he kind of has his moment of Christmas spirit where he sees the Christmas tree being lit up and he has that comfort and joy moment. It’s fun because writing a Christmas song gives you liberty to be super corny and Capra-esque [as in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”]. You want the guy who sees the tree being lit up in the town square and suddenly feels the love and joy of the holiday.”

So anyone who actually creates a Christmas album has to have a favorite Christmas memory, right?

“Not necessarily,” says Mann. “I think I have the generalized, being a kid and waking up in the middle of the night and looking outside and seeing if you see Santa Claus and being excited…And then I have all of the bad Christmas memories that everyone has, like the Christmas where you just broke up with your boyfriend and when my parents were getting divorced. When they were fighting over who would have us for Christmas. So I’m no stranger to the crappy Christmases. But I think the nice thing is when I got into the studio and started playing these songs, I instantly had the Christmas spirit of all the nice stuff…It’s really nice that music puts you in a different kind of mood.”

Aimee Mann performs at Town Hall on December 12 and 14.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (11/29/06).

Tokyo Police Club- David Monks Interview

by Tina Whelski

“Wide-eyed post-punk with a tendency to get over-excited so much so that someone has to come and tell it to settle down,” is how Tokyo Police Club’s David Monks has described the band. But no one’s asking the Toronto, Ontario quartet for quiet these days. In fact, crowds want more from Josh Hook (Guitar), Graham Wright (Keyboards), Greg Alsop (Drums) and Monks (Vocals, Bass) ever since they released their debut EP, A Lesson In Crime in Canada. And as Tokyo Police Club wrap up their first U.S. tour and the new EP becomes available stateside this week there’s every chance you will too. It’s all pretty fast-paced for a young band just out of high school, but they love every moment.

“Myself, Graham and Josh all finished school in June of ’05,” says Monks. “We’re all 19 and Greg is 21…It’s so weird because we started this band without any aspirations. We were just playing because we were bored in our hometown in the summers. And now we’re touring and have a CD. I guess things really started happening in September 2005 and ever since then it’s just been picking up speed. I’ve never had so much fun in my life.”

Songwriting for the Paper Bag Records EP was a discovery process with some songs taking two weeks, others two months.

“I always tend to write a song not knowing what it means, not having much of an attachment to it,” says Monks. “Then later more and more I’ll find it pertains to this episode or this event and then I’ll link them to things in my head.”

One of the best songs on the album, “Citizen’s of Tomorrow,” did have a definite course, however, sparked by a challenge Graham set to Monks.

“I was living in Montreal from September to December of last year and was all alone in my room there and Graham had set me up with this songwriting challenge,” says Monks. He challenged me to write a song about the future as it was seen in the 1950s. (You know those nostalgic retro comics that you see?) Then he wrote this keyboard part we called ‘scary keyboard riff.’ He emailed it to me in Montreal…So that was ‘scary keyboard riff,’ which turned into ‘Citizen’s of Tomorrow.’

Tokyo Police Club plays Warsaw in Brooklyn October 18.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (10/4/06).

Tokyo Police Club "Citizen's of Tomorrow" video.

Say Anything's Max Bemis - Interview

When Say Anything vocalist Max Bemis started writing the band’s debut CD, Is A Real Boy, he questioned himself. Was he doomed to remain yet another earnest, upper-middle class bred whine-rocker? The hidden notion that he could create something incredibly different haunted him.

“In this day and age there’s a lot of crap being played and a lot of pretentious music being made that’s inaccessible,” says Bemis. “I didn’t want to do that, so it was a struggle to make something that was relevant, but at the same time original.”

Bemis used his obsession, the thought that every creative person has this sick ambition to affect some sort of change in society with his art. At first, that meant writing an over-the-top musical. For inspiration he had only to look to himself. The plot centered on a neurotic collegiate punk rocker. He becomes the unwilling superhero of all things rock. However, Bemis’ own humanity caught up with him. Playing all of the instruments except for drums and singing all day became a draining process. So he parted ways with the “plot” portion of the record, and focused instead on the songs, which ultimately told the story better.

One of the first tracks Coby Linder (drums), Alex Kent (bass), Jake Turner (guitar, vocals), Jeff Turner (guitar, vocals), Parker Case (keyboards, guitar, vocals) and he were pleased with was “Woe.”

“I just wanted to take it a step up,” says Bemis about “Woe.” “Musically I had been listening to more Queen and The Beatles. More advanced guitar stuff than like hardcore or punk rock stuff or power chords or variations of that. I started with just the music and it had this kind of goofy sound…In terms of the meaning of the song, I wanted to express what it’s like to feel like you can’t be cool enough or you can’t fit in with what’s hip and everyone around you seems to be doing so well with it.”

Bevis hoped songs, like “Admit it!!!” would speak to anyone who feels alienated or awkward.

“‘Admit it!!!’ is sort of the conclusion of this journey that the characters go through in terms of finding themselves,” says Bevis. “They go through depression and alienation and they end up with this sublime state of anger. The song’s about how even though you’re angry with these people, you’re one of them. But as long as you know that, you’ll never really be one of them. There’s always a line that separates people who can admit their own faults from those who are completely full of shame…If you realize that you’re a tool. Everyone is a tool to a certain extent. You’re not more than human. Then you’re a step ahead of everyone and in my opinion that was the conclusion that I came to and I really grew up.”

Self-deprecating humor consistently translates Bemis’ message throughout Is A Real Boy. But Say Anything’s next album will be differently toned.

“It will be a lot more earnest and a little bit less ironic,” says Bemis. “There’s humor in every song, but there’s a little bit more feeling. It’s more about personal relations rather than beating yourself up and criticizing yourself. I didn’t want to just come from this gimmick band that does the same album over and over again.”

Say Anything performs on October 11 at Irving Plaza.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (9/27/06_.

Bemis performing "Woe."

Tally Hall - Joe Hawley Interview

by Tina Whelski

Tally Hall’s trademark neckties—Rob Cantor - yellow tie (vocals/guitar), Zubin Sedghi -blue (vocals/bass), Ross Federman - silver (percussion), Joe Hawley - red (vocals/guitar), and Andrew Horowitz - green (vocals/keys) draw attention at first glance, but once the band starts to play, the rainbow visuals against stark white shirts fade from focus.

“Some people may interpret them as hokey,” says Joe Hawley about Tally Hall’s colorful ties, “But I guess we just didn’t want to look like an era. If you wear street clothes on stage I think it’s generally less respectful. I like the idea that we all agreed to come up with something a little more interesting…It promotes unity and individuality all at the same time. To some the uniforms are similar, but at the same time, each color shows that we’re a little different as well, which is how I think our group functions. It’s kind of like five chiefs and no Indians and that can be frustrating at times, but it’s also pretty productive.”

Tally Hall’s cooperative approach has worked so far. The band started generating buzz early on with Hawley’s surreal music video for the calypso-tinged “Banana Man,” which has been downloaded over two million times. Then they captured attention with Horowitz’s song “Good Day,” which was not only featured on Fox’s series The O.C., but won him the BMI/John Lennon Songwriting Scholarship. The band’s new album, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, where the song appears, pushes people’s curiosity further.

“I think ‘Good Day’ serves as a microcosm toward the stylistic changes evident within the album,” says Hawley. “Basically we saw Marvin’s as a place of extremist eccentricism, if that’s a word?”

Located 25 miles northwest of Detroit, Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum houses an impressive array of collectible curiosities and mechanical antiques that tickled Tally Hall’s creativity. From the coin-operated fortunetelling machines of the 1920s to the latest high-tech video games; from model airplanes to P.T. Barnum’s legendary Cardiff Giant, the band found music.

“…There were so many different kinds of antique machines,” says Hawley. “It’s just a mish mosh of all of these ideas and artistic achievements and we thought that would be kind of interesting corollary to what we were doing.”

The Michigan-based five-piece band, which includes three songwriters and four vocalists, originally came together at the University of Michigan. There they shared the idea that a song should be pictured in its own universe.

“We had been working on songs at U of M for a couple of years and we had compiled about fourteen or fifteen that we liked and we decided to turn it into an album,” says Hawley. “We carefully planned out each song and made arrangements and thought of each song as its own little world. I hope that comes across in the album.”

Tally Hall performs at the Knitting Factory on August 11.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (8/9/06).

Tally Hall video for "Bananaman."

The Frames - Glen Hansard Interview

by Tina Whelski

“If you trust in the moment, if you’re willing to be the fool and make the mistake and get it wrong, then you’ve great potential to get it absolutely right,” says The Frames’ Glen Hansard (vocals/guitar). And for the record, The Frames “get it absolutely right.”

Dublin’s acclaimed rock quintet Colm MacConlomaire (violin/keyboards/vocals), Joseph Doyle (bass/vocals), Robert Bochnik (guitar), Johnny Boyle (drums), and front man Hansard use that risky philosophy to create brilliant albums, like Burn The Maps released via Anti- Records early last year and when it comes to live shows, that’s “a completely different animal.” The band hits a place with audiences that can only exist when everyone throws caution to the wind.

“When it really breaks down to it, people generally go to a concert, not necessarily to hear the album or because they like the sound or whatever, but I suppose to be touched by something that is some kind of energy,” says Glen Hansard. “When a band is in the right headspace and you’re present and you’re living the sound, then there’s an alchemy that can take place sometimes. Something can transcend for both the audience and the band. I think that magic can only happen at any concert, in any situation, if both sides are completely willing to allow the moment to be the leader, or the guide if you like. So at a gig for instance, if we’re standing there playing our music and the audience is there, it’s almost like all I need to do is be absolutely present, then whatever’s going to happen, will happen. If I’m not present, we go through the motions, nobody experiences anything great. Everybody leaves saying, ‘Yeah I heard the songs. I recognize the songs that I know. The band was ok.’ Nobody leaves that situation feeling in any way uplifted or that they’ve experienced anything new…Where the real magic is in any gig is in the audience’s experience. If the audience is experiencing it in a really good way then the atmosphere can only build and whatever energy is in that room can only grow.”

The Frames find commonality with their audiences by understanding that music is more conversation than show.

“It’s a discourse rather than a performance,” says Hansard. “The whole idea of ‘entertainer’ sort of denotes this trickery, this idea that there are certain things that you’ll do. If I do ‘x’ and ‘y’ it will result in action ‘a’ and ‘b.’ Often that can be a thing that people can fall back on, but for me the most interesting gigs are those where no one in the audience knows your band and there isn’t any expectation. Somehow we all catch each other in a moment…I love playing for strangers because that’s where I started, playing music on the street for people who walk by, so there’s definitely an excitement about playing in front of a few thousand people who don’t know who you are.”

Don’t miss The Frames perform August 3 at Central Park Summer Stage.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (8/2/06).

The Frames performing "Star Star."

People In Planes - Gareth Jones Interview

by Tina Whelski

People In Planes turned a fascination with flying into a new band name with their debut album, As Far As The Eye Can See (Windup Records).

The former Tetra Splendour members, Gareth Jones (vocals), Peter Roberts (guitar), Kris Blight (bass), John Maloney (drums), and Ian Russell (keyboard), decided “People In Planes” made a much better signature and mused about the imagery of people floating around in “tin cans,” not quite ever being where they came from, but never really where they were going. The alternative/progressive five-piece rock unit from Cardiff, Wales reigned in their musical aspirations to match the evolution and the transformation was complete.

“We had a previous incarnation of the band, so I think on this record we try to make a more concise collection of music,” says Gareth Jones. “We really try to get to the point and the bones of the songs, whereas before, we always had been guilty of meandering too much and not really getting to the heart of things. With this record we spent some time in pre-production with our producer, which we’d never really done before. We’d never really had someone come in and work with us through the structures of the songs. It was a totally new way of making music for us.”

And it wasn’t just any producer. It was Sam Williams, who produced I Should Coco for Supergrass, the band that inspired young Peter and Gareth at ages 13 and 14 respectively to form their own. Williams taught People In Planes how to avoid self-indulgence and look at things from a listener’s point of view. The resulting record offers several standout tracks, including “If You Talked Too Much (My Head Will Explode).”

“‘If You Talked Too Much (My Head Will Explode)’ was a take on failed relationships,” says Jones. “The record as a whole actually was an exploration of rejection. We were signed to a record label before with the old band. We got dropped and went through the mill with the music industry and felt so frustrated. I think the album was always going to be about that, how dreams get broken up and get dashed by people who don’t necessarily give a shit about you.”

Other catchy tracks include “For Miles Around,” about having the vision to see beyond where you are and Jones’ favorite, “Light For the Deadvine.”

“It’s the most emotional song,” says Jones. “It’s different listening on the record, but live it just blows my mind. The song really is about having your heart ripped out. It’s dramatic vocally.”

Songs like “Light For the Deadvine” stir Jones as a performer, but he finds collaborating with Roberts helps him work harder as a vocalist.

“My vocal range is a totally different voice than the way Pete sings,” says Jones. “When he’s writing stuff he writes in falsetto, sort of humming, mumbling and producing what it will take to make the thing work. When it translates to me, I really have to fricken stretch my voice. Whenever Pete writes it’s always way too high. It takes a lot of adapting, but I guess it’s great because it’s actually pushing me to levels that I could never reach before.”

Whether soaring vocally or passing through an atmosphere of sound, People In Planes take you for a journey.

People In Planes perform at Bowery Ballroom on May 11.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (5/2/06).

Martha Wainwright - Interview

Martha Wainwright’s family trade is music and with the release of her self-titled debut album, the singer-songwriter follows father Loudon Wainwright III, brother Rufus, and her mother and aunt, Kate & Anna McGarrigle to make it hers.

With a lineage of such distinction, the pressure to produce was intimidating, but songs like “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole,” introduce a songwriter who’s ready to soar. And when you grow up in a family who communicates openly and intimately about their lives through song, it becomes the most natural form of expression.

“I guess I’m just not a very embarrassed person,” says Wainwright about her vulnerable songwriting. “I probably should be more (laughs). I probably paid the price in many ways. But there was something that was explained to me early on by my aunt who’s a songwriter…She said ‘as long as it’s connected to a truth inside of you.’ I guess I just went with that. What interested me, especially at the beginning of writing songs, was my life—the people in it, including my family members, and love and how I truly felt about things—so I always sought out that kind of open thing…Being a little child of divorce it was really nice for me to know that my parents had a relationship by listening to their music. It made me feel better about everything I think. It allowed me to experience the time that they were together. Some of its pretty harsh, but some of it is not harsh at all and I think that explained a lot to me about what happened…I appreciated these details. I’m really into these kinds of details now, at least emotional ones…I think it’s also made me probably think too much about myself (laughs). The record is sort of navel-gazing and self-absorbed for that reason. But I think that’s also really common for people in their twenties. These songs that I wrote were a real reflection of a girl in her twenties and that’s my excuse!”

With parents who were respected wordsmiths, the bar was set pretty high for Wainwright.

“I think Rufus and I have always been aware of that fact,” says Wainwright. “I’ve heard him say this, and I think that it totally makes sense, ‘Every kid has the belief that they can usurp their parents in some way.’ Whether you do it or not it doesn’t really matter. The point is to feel that you’re not totally crushed by their success or whatever, which I think is one of the reasons I think Rufus and I have been able to make music. Our parents were not overly famous. We didn’t have to live completely in this huge shadow and we could strive for bigger, better things if we wanted to…I knew that I was going to be majorly judged. The whole thing’s been intimidating, but it’s great to have finally made a record.”

One of Wainwright’s favorite songs to perform live is “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole.”

“I think it’s really fun to sing because it’s no longer about me,” says Wainwright. I think it’s really become anthemic for people…It’s my sing-a-long song. It makes me feel like a twisted version of Pete Seeger.”

Martha Wainwright performs at Webster Hall on April 6 and 7.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (3/29/06).

Martha performs "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" on Jools Holland.

The Magic Numbers - Michele Stodart Interview

Beginner’s luck? A slew of award nominations and a prime opening slot for U2 later, two sets of brothers and sisters totaling The Magic Numbers enjoy their charmed debut as they embark on a spring tour and ready to follow up their successful self-titled album.

The Magic Numbers enjoys platinum status in the UK where the band, Romeo (vocals/guitar) and Michele Stodart (vocals/bass/keyboards) and Angela (vocals/Melodica) and Sean Gannon (drums), first formed in 2004. Nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, Mojo (winner of best new band 2005), NME Awards and the Brits, it’s safe to bet this sibling reverie will continue to add up to more than chance.

Romeo and Michele moved to New York from native Trinidad during their teens and later made England their home. Destiny introduced the Gannons.

“The first time we started making music together we never really pictured ourselves as a band,” says Michele Stodart. “It kind of fell together accidentally. Eventually we couldn’t stop fighting anymore and we realized we had to be in a band with our brothers and that was it (laughs)…It works out well. Being on the road is hard at times so traveling with family and friends you’ve known all your lives relieves that.”

The band’s formula sparks with chemistry, but at the end of the day, it’s the music’s spell that lingers. Even members can’t help but become fans.

“His writing just makes me cry sometimes, to be honest,” says Michele about Romeo’s songwriting. “It really moves me and sends me somewhere that I like to feel. It can make me happy and it can bring me down. There are songs I can’t listen to. ‘This Love,’ on the record, is particularly a hard one for me to hear because of the words. It’s one of my favorite songs of his and one of the best written songs, I wouldn’t say ever, but definitely close to. To be related to someone like that and to be in a band with someone like that, it’s pretty special and it’s an amazing feeling to do this thing together.”

There’s brilliance in songwriting that kicks around life’s darker emotions whilst leaving you uplifted, a sense many absorb from The Magic Numbers’ harmonies. Michele feels it too.
“I think when the four of us come together, we bring a new element to the songs, and to the band in general,” says Michele. “There is a sense of hope and a sense of happiness and the music adds to it. When you put the two saddest emotions in the world, ‘sadness’ and ‘happiness’ together, you’re left not really knowing how to feel or what to draw from. But it’s something that everyone goes through and I think that’s why the record is so honest. I think that’s why it’s very personal to us.”

The road’s been faithful to The Magic Numbers and they reciprocate. The members “spend most of their days in the nighttime” lately, according to Michele, and even when they’re on their last legs, they’ll take another gig.

“I think we’ve been through a pretty mad ride so far,” says Michele. “We forget somehow all the craziness that’s happened to us over the years and we’ve made certain dreams come true that we weren’t cheeky enough to even imagine.”

The Magic Numbers perform March 28 at Webster Hall.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly (3/22/06).

The Magic Numbers perform "Love Me Like You."

Kathleen Edwards - Interview

It’s been one year since Kathleen Edwards released Back To Me following Failer, the debut album that launched her to critical darling-dom in 2003. Since then she's performed with The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Bob Dylan, seen rock royalty like Roger Daltrey attend her shows, and had another hero, keyboardist Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), lend his hands to her songs. No wonder Edwards is more confident than ever as she wraps tour support for Back To Me and begins her next record.

The Ontario-born singer/songwriter has discovered a circular path in music-making that starts with people and ends with people, no matter what happens in between.

“It’s funny because I think I’ve always known it’s the people you meet in the end, but I think it can take a back seat sometimes,” says Kathleen Edwards. “You realize that so much of playing music is being part of a community and not necessarily like a community in one place, but just having friends who share the same kind of experiences that you’re having as well. I found with my first record it was hard to digest a lot of stuff…I didn’t have time to really connect with anyone and have relationships with anyone other than my band. And this time I met people like John Joe and Jim James from My Morning Jacket and the rest of those guys. I realized that it’s really nice to connect with people and have these personal relationships to carry you through what can be a roller coaster-type of experience in the music business.”

Industry unpredictability makes Edwards particularly appreciative of the “here and now” and mental re-tooling keeps her head level.

“You keep your expectations very low and then everything else will be fantastic,” says Edwards with a laugh.

Edwards tries to free herself from routine practices during the creative process. It's downtime that consistently drives her to her guitar.

“A dry spell really helps,” says Edwards about inspiration. “I’m certainly no Ryan Adams. I don’t sit around and write ten songs…I can’t write on the road so I have to be home and I definitely need a few days or at least a week to decompress from the rhythm of moving constantly…It’s hard for me to talk about my process because I don’t really feel like I have one…I feel like I’m just starting out, so I’m trying not to look at how I’ve written a song every time or think, ‘How do I recreate that experience?’ I don’t want to put pressure on myself to think that it has to be the same kind of experience every time…I find on Back To Me, the one song that I’m really proud of, because I took that mentality and thought, ‘I don’t want to write ten more fucking relationship songs’…is ‘Pink Emerson Radio,’ which is a song about objects and memories associated with personal possessions and the potential loss of all those memories. I was really happy that I was able to write a song that I love as much as a song like, ‘Copied Keys,’ which is a song, for me, that’s really a relationship song about geography and moving ahead in your life and reminiscing. I found it really rewarding to know that I could write a song that wasn’t always about boy, girl, sex, stars, drink, country, road, highway, driving, all that.”

Kathleen Edwards performs at Joe’s Pub on March 23 & 24.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 3/15/06.

Ola Salo of The Ark - Interview

The son of a preacher man, The Ark’s flamboyant frontman, Ola Salo, was raised in an environment where things like ascensions, apocalypses and magic legends were as natural a part of everyday Rottne Sweden life as the music of outrageous performers like David Bowie, Queen, Kiss, Roxy Music and Sly and the Family Stone. Salo’s epiphany came when he realized that his father’s Sunday pulpit was a stage and he formed the belief that every great performer needs to serve his audience to deserve his time in the limelight. Together with bandmates Sylvester Schlegel (drums), Martin Axèn (guitar), Jepson (guitar) and Leari (bass), Salo found his calling with The Ark, reaching for nothing less than a miracle each night through charismatic performances. As the band finishes up a tour with The Darkness to support its third album, State Of The Ark, its glam rock is beckoning new legions of listeners with messages of love and lust trussed up with a sarcastic sense of realism and showmanship.

“I think I partially got it from my father who’s a preacher man,” says Ola Salo about his performance instincts. “Being a preacher man is very much about having a sense of theatricality. It’s very important to really reach out to people…If people invest their time in looking at you, they deserve to get something back in the form of some ecstasy or euphoria…You’ve got to give them some kind of magic…Otherwise they have wasted their time on you and that’s the only sin of a performer.”

The artists who always appealed to Salo were those who pushed borders. He never really understood “down-to-earth performers.”

“The pulpit or stage is not a normal place,” says Salo. “It’s not a place for being down-to-earth because it is a pedestal. The thing that happens on that pedestal should be something apart from everyday life. I always thought there was something very phony about performers who try to act out an image that they are on stage the same way as they are in everyday life because of course they are not. In everyday life they don’t stand with a spotlight on them and have all the focus in the room on them.”

Salo’s religious upbringing also directed his mindset that he was destined to do special things.

“When you call your band ‘The Ark,’ your ambition can be no less than changing the world or saving it in some way,” says Salo. “But I think there’s another aspect of the symbol of The Ark, that it’s a vessel…Growing up in a dull, small, industrial town in rural Sweden I think that as much as we wanted to save the world, we wanted to just get away from that place…It was the idea of going around the world with your friends in a vessel which could take aboard all of the other people you wanted to hang out with…If we create this kind of collective where we’re more open-minded and tolerant and loving then the rest of society then perhaps we already have sort of made the world better in a partial way. Maybe that’s enough?”

While The Ark has mistakenly been simplified by some as an “Oh why can’t everyone just be friends and hug one another” kind of band, according to Salo, that’s only a partial picture.
“I have, shall we say, a belligerent side, sort of a side that not at all wants to be friends with everyone,” says Salo. “[The album’s] also about realizing that to find real love and friendship you have to sacrifice fake and phony love and friendship.”

The Ark performs at Bowery Ballroom on March 23.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 3/8/06.

The Ark perform "One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young."

Brandi Carlile - Interview

by Tina Whelski

Brandi Carlile invokes the wisdom of the mountains on her self-titled debut album. Alone in her cabin outside of Seattle with her dog, cat, horse and acoustic guitar, Carlile found isolation and natural beauty a breeding ground for inspiration and let nature run its course. Her honeyed vocals warble with heartache and yearning throughout the introspective collection of folk-rock arrangements.

While Carlile’s roots are firmly country, it’s actually pop that incited her early as a lyricist.

“I ‘loved’ Elton John and Bernie Taupin,” says Carlile. “I thought that they were just the two most talented people on the face of the Earth. Bernie Taupin’s the reason I started writing lyrics. See, the Northwest Grand Ol’ Opry where I was singing [as a child through her teenage years] was really my only exposure to music cause I lived out in the woods. So it was always country music. One day they let this guy come on and sing Elton John songs. He sang ‘Skyline Pigeon’ and ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.’ That just freaked me out. It was my first exposure to pop music. I went and I got Yellow Brick Road, the first album I ever owned. I just fell in love with the stories and the music and the harmonies and the singing…I cut the pictures out of the record sleeves and hung them all over my wall. So yeah, I had Bernie Taupin on my wall from the time I was about twelve years old.”

Like her heroes, Carlile enjoys collaboration, and often shared songwriting on Brandi Carlile with her band “the Twins” (Tim and Phil Hanseroth) as she calls them. Though she says you can always tell which tracks she initiated.

“It’s kind of funny,” says Carlile. “You can tell the songs on the record that are my songs lyrically because I tend to write from a place of discontentment. I write about things I’m puzzled about or I’m worried about or the things that upset me because that’s how I communicate with myself. That’s how I get those feelings out. I don’t tend to write really happy songs or love songs... ‘In My Own Eyes’ is a song about being self-conscious and wondering how other people see me. ‘Happy’ is about a childhood friendship that I moved on past, which I never thought that I would. It’s your best friend when you’re a kid and you think you’re always going to be best friends and you’d be maid of honor at each others’ weddings, you know what I mean? But then you go your separate ways…‘Closer To You’ is about our first tour. I had been playing music for a long time and working hard, but one thing I didn’t get to see very much of was the rest of the country. I kind of wrote that song looking out the windows of the van—the rows of hay that last for 800 yards…‘Tragedy’ is my song. (laughs) All my songs are, I don’t know? I suppose they’re not super positive are they?”

Brandi Carlile performs at Mercury Lounge Feb 13.

Adapted from an article originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 2/8/06.

Brandi Carlile performing "Fall Apart Again."

Sigur Rós - Kjartan Sveinsson Interview

by Tina Whelski

Sigur Rós’ latest album, Takk, (EMI) sounds like the Reykjavik, Iceland quartet wrote it while watching the Northern Lights streak across the night sky. The 11 linked arrangements seemingly break the snowy hush with flaring crescendos and bursting luminosity, for a meticulous mix of music, magic and atmosphere.

Written, performed and produced by band members Jonsi Birgisson (singer/guitar), Kjartan Sveinsson (keyboards), Georg Holm (bass) and Orri Pall Dyrason (drums), along with co-producer Ken Thomas, this fourth album offers fans who will see the band’s upcoming US tour something different from their previous record, ''( )” released in 2002. For one, Birgisson sings lyrics in Icelandic rather than Sigur Rós’ invented language "Hopelandic." Songs also seem closer to “proper songs” than anything the band has done previously, which Kjartan Sveinsson addresses with good humor. He speculates that perhaps what people are hearing is that the band has just become better at writing songs since it is what they do for a living.

Sigur Rós first captured the imagination of the masses in 1999 when their second album, Ágcetis Byrjun broke outside Iceland to become a word-of-mouth hit. The Aquarian Weekly talks with Kjartan Sveinsson.

AW: ''Takk'' means ''thank you.” What made that title perfect for your fourth album and did you discover a new meaning in “thank you” once the album was finished?

Kjartan Sveinsson: We were very grateful actually with finishing it (laughs). Takk was something that had been around us for quite a while and usually our titles come about out of that. We’re very grateful for where we are at the moment with our lives. We thought it was a perfect title.

AW: How does Sigur Rós collaborate on writing? Georg Holm has been quoted saying that you all “sort of just muck around.” You plug in your instruments and start playing and songs come quite easily. Do you agree?

Sveinsson: That’s how the basis of the songs are written, just jamming really. Yeah, “muck about,” that’s a good way to say it. Then of course we start recording, then we go into the production and the songs might change then. Of course the most important part is the basis of the songs.

AW: You were in the studio quite a long time on this last album?

Sveinsson: Eighteen months I think it was. Perhaps that’s the time we need. I don’t think it’s that much actually.

AW: Arranging that material must then become a daunting task?

Sveinsson: Not just arranging for instruments, but arranging the whole thing. For instance, we add a lot of different things, loads of keyboards and percussion and that’s what takes time really. Recording the pages of songs is not hard actually. But when we start working on them, to make a good song, there’s loads of structures that you need to think about and that’s what takes the most time for us and then producing it.

AW: Many reports have said that tracks on Takk are as close as Sigur Rós has ever gotten to ‘proper’ songs—meaning the music’s more accessible to more kinds of listeners? Do you think that?

Sveinsson: I can see why people would say that, yeah. Basically I think we’ve become better at writing songs, you know? Just with time and practice. Which is natural isn’t it? When you do it for a living (laughs). I think the songs are more to the point, not like in the old days where it always took time to get to a certain place.

AW: As keyboardist, how do you personally approach this music?

Sveinsson: It’s hard to explain how…It’s more like intuition. Things happen the way they’re supposed to in a certain way. Sometimes it’s hard to find the right mood. For me when I record and then I create, I have to be there totally. I can’t be thinking about anything else. There has to be some blood in it.

AW: Can you talk about one of the songs from Takk?

Sveinsson: The song “Hoppipolla” was kind of fun because I didn’t play anything on it until the last minute. We started working differently maybe than we used to. We’re more in the control room and arranging and doing rock, instead of just being a band and playing all the time…I think I play more guitar on this record than Jonsi does. Everything’s mixed up.

AW: What do you miss about Iceland when you tour?

Sveinsson: The thing that I really miss is “home,” the root. When you’re touring you never stay more than two days in one place and there are no roots and that’s really hard actually. You’re always a visitor and always an observer. You can’t get to know a place or feel at home there. It doesn’t happen. That’s what I miss the most definitely.

AW: How about something native to Iceland that you miss when you’re on tour?

Sveinsson: I think it’s the space we have here in Iceland. Not just nature, but space in general with people and what we do here. It’s very good.

AW: What was one of your earliest experiences with music?

Sveinsson: There was always loads of music in my house that my older brothers and sisters played. So it was very natural for me to do rock. Experiences? I think when my sister played me David Bowie when I was five-years-old.

AW: Do you remember it being a specific Bowie song or album?

Sveinsson: No. It was just more that the mood of it was so nice. I remember also playing Beethoven’s 9th on the piano. I was so clever, I thought. It was kind of a mission when I was seven or something. I don’t remember. It was a long time ago (laughs).

AW: Do you want to talk about what any of the songs mean lyrically?

Sveinsson: I think it’s very important not to have a definite feeling about the songs or just songs in general. I think it’s important to let them airy and give the song a break. You know how people always connect songs with a certain era of their lives or romance or heartbreak or something. I think it’s just so important to let the songs live on their own and they can make you feel a certain way at a certain time, but not pin it down. I always kind of want the songs to be independent and not have a certain story or meaning.

Sigur Rós perform at the Theater at Madison Square Garden on February 9.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 2/8/06.

Sigur Rós performing "Hoppipolla."

Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning - Interview

The beauty of Montreal-based Broken Social Scene is how easily its many conspicuous personalities lose themselves in one another to feed the whole of what they’re creating.

While Broken Social Scene as a collective has been garnering critical and fan attention since the band’s 2003 American debut You Forgot It In People through to the current self-titled album, the individual projects of group members have simultaneously taken off.

Possibly the biggest achievement is Feist (Leslie Feist) whose solo release Let It Die was awarded 2005 Juno Awards for both Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album. (In 2003 Broken Social Scene also was awarded the Juno for Best Alternative Album). Social Scene members Amy Millan, Evan Cranley and Torquil Campbell have had success with their outfit Stars as has Emily Haines and James Shaw in Metric, Andrew Whiteman with Apostle of Hustle and member Jason Collett. But each artist returns to feed the larger community, a beautiful mess of order or confusion called Broken Social Scene.

At the heart of Broken Social Scene is the label Arts & Crafts, created by Broken Social Scenes’ Kevin Drew with music business veterans Jeffrey Remedios and Daniel Culter. The goal has always been to produce art and within that members constantly inspire and challenge one another. Broken Social Scene’s usual round of suspects on any day currently includes Justin Peroff, Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Feist, Jason Collett, Evan Cranley, Emily Haines, James Shaw, Amy Millan, Dave Newfeld, John Crossingham, Ohad Benchitrit, Julie Penner, and Lisa Lobsinger. The Aquarian Weekly talks to BSS’s Brendan Canning.

AW: How do you feel about the recent success of Broken Social Scene and the rise of many of its individual members, like Feist and Metric?

Brendan Canning: Well it’s pretty exciting times, especially right now. The next couple months are sort of fast action. We have our homecoming shows, two shows in Toronto Friday and Saturday, playing a 2,300 seat venue for two nights and the next day we go to Sundance because we have a film at the Sundance Film Festival called Half Nelson, an independent film made by this Brooklyn director and producer. The most famous guy in it is Ryan Gosling. It’s a really good film. They had sort of used the music from Feel Good Lost and You Forgot It In People and Beehives [all Arts & Crafts albums] as well to score their film. We have New York after that and then an appearance on Conan O’Brien and then off to the U.K. for a whack of sold-out dates, and then an Australian tour to follow. Meanwhile, we have Leslie Feist in Montreal playing a sold-out show for 2000 people. We have Metric opening up for The Rolling Stones. We have Jason Collett in Europe. Andrew Whiteman’s working on a solo record. Charles Spearin just had a baby, which is probably the biggest news of all, second child as a matter of fact. And John Crossingham’s band, Raising the Fawn, is releasing a record. Julie Penner continues to produce the show Vinyl Café on radio up here, so the list goes on.

AW: It’s sort of a revolving door membership?

Canning: Yeah, we’ll have different members for New York than we will for Toronto, like Emily and James from Metric won’t be in Toronto, but they will be in New York. Leslie Feist, Amy Milan and Evan won’t be with us in New York, but they will be in Toronto. Charles won’t be with us for Sundance, but he will be in Toronto and New York.

AW: So it takes real organization to lock up your live set list I’d imagine.

Canning: The whole thing with everyone’s careers coming to such great fruition has made it more difficult to orchestrate Broken Social Scene as a touring entity and a traveling sideshow.

AW: Despite individual careers, everyone seems to be returning. It’s a statement about the music and the genuine importance of collaborating with people you enjoy.

Canning: The fact is it was all based upon friendship. There were no ads and papers. The only person we’ve reached outside the circle was our latest singer Lisa Lobsinger, mainly due to the fact that between Amy, Emily and Leslie Feist, we had no one to maintain the vocal duties and Lisa was a singer from a group I heard in Calgary. She was very close in range to Amy and Emily so that is why she got the call. Other than that everything has been within the family so to speak.

AW: What’s the process of writing a Broken Social Scene album like?

Canning: It’s very similar to the touring aspect. Some days you have certain members. Other days you have certain other members and a lot of it comes down to timing and how inspired an individual is towards a certain tune. There’s a core of us like myself, Justin Peroff, and Kevin Drew. We don’t have other bands. Obviously something needs to steer Broken Social Scene on a consistent basis because it is arguably the hardest beast to contain. And Andrew Whiteman, beyond Apostle of Hustle, he’s very much part of the Broken Social Scene sound as is Charles Spearin, as is everyone. But I mean at the core, that’s a good five that need to be involved on a fairly regular basis. As far as horn sections, they come when they come. As far as Feist or Emily or Amy, they are there when they’re there and we gladly welcome them when they show cause we need them.

AW: Do you write with a particular member in mind as far as singing or playing or just figure it out later?

Canning: I don’t think there’s any great pre-meditation. At least myself, I don’t really think that way. The opening track on this record, I actually did a vocal for and it got scrapped and then Amy was maybe going to do a vocal and she wasn’t quite inspired for it and Feist came in and nailed it.

AW: Everyone brings things to life a different way then?

Canning: Yeah, like “Stars and Sons” on You Forgot It In People, Kevin originally want in to try a couple vocal passes and there was me sort of saying, ‘Let me try something.’ Some days it can be very easy. Some days it can be very difficult.

AW: What’s next?

Canning: We have a whack of material recorded…I think we will release something before the end of the year—because we should…It’s interesting to see how the band mutates and develops.

Broken Social Scene performs at Webster Hall January 26, 27, 28.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 1/25/06.

Here's "Almost Crimes" live with really bad audio quality, but you can tell they're having fun.


Broken Social Scene video for "Fire Eye'd Boy."

Cyndi Lauper - Interview

by Tina Whelski

When Cyndi Lauper hit early MTV rotation in 1984 she knocked music charts into next week becoming the first artist of the rock era to have four Top 10 singles off a debut album, beginning with her female empowerment anthem “Girls Just Wanna Fun.” As the aptly named record, She’s So Unusual released subsequent hits “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” and “All Through The Night,” it shouted a message to celebrate the unconventional and stand tall in who you are.

From rainbow-colored thrift store clothes to cocktail dresses, Lauper has continued to re-invent her image to match her maturing music. And with a career now spanning 25 years, Lauper transforms again with The Body Acoustic (Daylight/Epic) where she strips her classics to their bare souls and invites guest artists to join her for footstompin’ “back porch” renditions of those as well as new songs.

Lauper is joined by Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday for a twangy, earthy version of “Money Changes Everything,” while "Time After Time" features the angelic voice of Sarah McLachlan and "All Through The Night" is given funky treatment by reggae/pop superstar Shaggy. Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi joins on "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," and Ani DiFranco and Vivian Green revel with Lauper on "Sisters of Avalon.”

Lauper applies her own interpretative prowess to re-workings of "Shine," "Fearless," "She Bop,” and "True Colors," while introducing two brand new songs, "Above The Clouds" featuring guitar legend Jeff Beck and "I'll Be Your River" with Green. Longtime pals Rick Chertoff (She's So Unusual) and William Wittman (At Last) joined Lauper to produce.

STARPOLISH: Why did you decide to go acoustic on this album?

LAUPER: I had been playing little outings with acoustic instruments and before I knew it I had an acoustic set of the songs that people would want to hear at benefits and songs that they might not know, but that lived well in this “dulcimer world.” After a while some guys at the record company said, “Gee, why don’t you go with that?” …I get to play dulcimer on every single song, so I was very thrilled. I felt kind of like, “William Shatner sings. Cyndi plays dulcimer.” (laughs).

STARPOLISH: You wanted to evoke a “back porch” vibe on this album, a feeling of people coming together, like after a big dinner, to sing and play?

I basically started out as a folk singer so it was very interesting to bring this back into folk. Well, I wouldn’t exactly call my approach folk, because they don’t exactly play the dulcimer the way I think you’re supposed to play it. But I don’t really care. Well, I don’t care and I do care. It’s more important to take that sound and bring it to a new place.

STARPOLISH: What was it like hearing so many different impressions of your songs?

LAUPER: It was interesting having other peoples’ takes. Sometimes you don’t say anything and you let them go and then you kind of tell them, “Well what about this rhythm?” You direct a little bit without directing too much…I had a fantastic time with Vivian [Green]. It was so fantastic in the studio on “I’ll Be Your River.” Shaggy was an over the phone kind of thing. He’s fantastic and I spoke to him about this folky, funky, rock kind of thing for “All Through The Night” and he got it. I mean he did call me up very cute and he says, “Cyn, this is a love song, right?” And Ani was fantastic on “Sisters of Avalon.” She’s so funny because I said, “You know, you gotta just conjure up this spirit.” She wrote back and said, “I had the spirit of The Supremes come to me—in the glitter dresses.” (laughs). Me, I’m singing “Sisters of Avalon” and I think I was just standing in front of a cauldron—I don’t know what I was conjuring up. Vivian sang on that too. It was great to have all of us from different kinds of music all meet together on a song about women and women’s sense of loss of history, reclaiming history or “herstory” as I had once put it.

STARPOLISH: Ani’s great. I recently featured her on my site WomanRock.com.

LAUPER: She’s a great artist and a hero. You can have people who have been at it longer than you inspire you or people who just come in inspire you. She’s just very inspiring. I find most artists inspiring.

STARPOLISH: In selecting tracks for this album you picked songs that you loved but do any mean more to you than the others?

LAUPER: “Waters Edge” surprised me because I didn’t actually think I would play dulcimer on it but I kept hearing it and I wanted to…Sometimes you go with a song one way and you bring it back the other way because it’s not right. You keep trying to find its soul, where it lives in that world. All of a sudden you find it. I was wrestling with that when I played it for Sarah. When she sang it was very Celtic and very kind of siren-like, but almost a call to the wild side of yourself. I think the whole song is about the underworld of a woman…When she started singing like that I played the dulcimer and the sound of that connected me to it. “Waters Edge” wasn’t just a song. I think most songs, if they’re part of your bone structure, they become a magical place that you walk through for three minutes, and that to me is the most enveloping, engaging kind of ballad or story or song you can sing. Another one is “Shine” because when it came time to do the solo I’d remembered that when Declyan was a little baby I used to play recorded tin whistles for him and I played “Sally’s Garden” all the time. We took a piece of that and put it in the solo and had the violin player play it. It was great because of what the song said: “Gonna pull you up by your love.” You’re making somebody stand and telling them they can shine and its okay, but you’ve got to pull them up through love, through their love for you and your love for them. That to me was the most powerful thing…I still believe that love does heal and you can use that to pull someone up.

STARPOLISH: I’ve interviewed some artists who have opened shows for you in the last few years, namely Jennifer Marks and Nellie McKay, and it was interesting to me how they both pointed out how supportive you were of their careers. You even went as far as to fix Mark’s makeup for her. Why is it so important to you to encourage emerging artists?

LAUPER: Ahh. I love them! For Jenn I thought her songs were good and the stage is just larger than life. When the Native Americans went to war, they put their war paint on. When a diva or somebody gets up there, you’ve got to make a bonfire right there. Baby, you’ve gotta dress for the occasion…So we’d pull stuff out and see what she was comfortable with and it was fun. With Nellie I had a riot. I wrote with her and she talked me into playing trombone on her record. That wasn’t hard to talk me into because you know, I love that trombone (laughs)…See, I came from touring with Cher. She used to say to me, “Cyn, I don’t like when you wear your makeup like that cause we can’t see into your eyes” and “I’m going to have them put more light on you.” Basically she was directing the lights and the cameras on me. She told them what she wanted. She had an amazing sense of professionalism and she taught me how to get my butt on stage on time. I have an enormous respect for her and she was really supportive.

STARPOLISH: So you pass that along…

LAUPER: Well you have to so that next time they’ll be good to somebody else and you just hand that tradition down. You embrace female musicians because you want more of us.

Originally posted on Starpolish.com 1/19/06.

Cyndi Lauper performing "Money Changes Everything" with Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday.

Tegan and Sara - Interview

Tegan's childhood dreams included being a clown, working as a veterinarian with polar bears in the Arctic and being a rock star, of course. Sara wanted to be a lawyer and live in Boston. Thankfully the combat boots (for kicking around at punk gigs) the twins received from their mom back in Junior High put them closer in step with Tegan’s musical aspirations.

Since then the Calgary, Alberta, Canada-born duo have toured with many bands and performers, including The Killers, Hot Hot Heat, Ryan Adams, Rufus Wainwright, Neil Young, and Ben Folds. Tegan and Sara are currently touring with Cake supporting So Jealous (Vapor/Sanctuary). But none of this would be possible without mom.

“My mom was way cooler than Tegan and I,” says Sara. “She went back to University when we were in elementary school, so when we were going to Junior High and we’d be going back-to-school shopping she’d be like, ‘Do you want to get you noses pierced?’ We’d go to all these crazy stores where all her friends who were in their twenties would shop. She tried to get us combat boots and tried to get us to dress cool, but we didn’t want to. We dressed the way we wanted the first six months and then we ended up being geeky. That’s when we started letting her pick things. It’s normal now. We’re cooler than our mom, I think?”

Sara’s parents also decorated their house with sounds of the 70’s, leaving a lasting impression on the girls until they made their own discoveries, like the Smashing Pumpkins.

“There was so much music in our lives,” says Sara. “There was a transition period where what my parents were listening to became what I wanted to listen to…David Bowie and Led Zeppelin and The Police and that sort of stuff…I remember being thirteen and going to school and hearing The Smashing Pumpkins. I remember hearing “Siamese Dream.” Much Music in Canada was really playing that video with the ice cream truck…I had never heard music like that before and I remember that moment, for sure. That’s when it transitioned for me. I started seeking out what was in the city, what was local. We would go to punk gigs and indie rock gigs. Because of the Internet, I think it’s really genre-fied everything now, but at the time I knew there was music that your parents listened to on the radio and then there was the music that didn’t get played on the radio.”

Growing up as a fan, Sara still treats music with religious respect and acknowledges that Tegan and she are fortunate to be performers.

“We grew up very average, normal kids,” says Sara. “It wasn’t like we were piano virtuosos or something when we were six-years-old…We really literally were obsessed with music all the time. When I figured out that we could do it when we were fifteen or so, we just started writing songs. I guess we’re accidental artists…It’s an incredible job because there are so many jobs where you don’t get that kind of validation on a daily basis.”

Tegan and Sara perform at Hammerstein Ballroom on January 20.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 1/18/08.

Tegan and Sara performing "So Jealous."

Dr. Dog's Scott McMicken - Interview

Dr. Dog’s been running stray under the radar for nearly four years now, but with bands like My Morning Jacket and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah choosing them to open tours in the last year, it’s only a matter of time before fans outside their Philadelphia hometown start wagging their tails to the sounds of Easy Beat, the band’s first proper release on National Parking Records.

Captured with eight-track honesty, Toby Leaman (bass/vocals), Scott McMicken (woof+mud distortion solo guitar/vocals), Andrew Jones (guitar), Juston Stens (trapset/ harmonies), and Zach Miller (keyboards) deliver kicking rhythms, grinning lyrics and mesmerizing harmonies all tinted with dreamy, dark undertones.

“Dr. Dog tries to operate with as little thought as possible,” says McMicken laughing. “We have been fortunate, Toby and me, to have known each other for so long that we can work from each other without thinking too hard or with very little pretense. That’s one of the things that I’m most consistently thankful for in this band, just the ease with which things work. We have a lot of catch phrases in Dr. Dog and they all pertain to just working with immediacy, like ‘just nail it,’ which means just go at it, hit it in once and it’s done…In Dr. Dog if it’s not working immediately then it’s just abandoned.”

Live, Dr. Dog’s pack demonstrates its musical instinct best, tuning in for those convincing bits of time where everyone is having fun. Wearing oversized sunglasses, perhaps to shade the band’s warm tones hallucinating around him, McMicken ultimately is so stricken with song he lands on the floor scratching around his guitar. In “Wake Up,” Dr. Dog sing, “We are only part of a dream” and it’s a delightful trance they create.

“It’s been a couple of years for us and the fun just keeps compounding,” says McMicken. “We really hadn’t done any touring prior to a couple years ago and while we would have wanted to, the opportunity just didn’t present itself and we’re not the type of dudes to have that kind of labored discipline. If My Morning Jacket wouldn’t have asked us to go on tour, chances are we’d probably still be in a basement. Getting in front of people really helped us get better live and helped us appreciate how much you can do with a live show.”

Lyrically imaginative lines like, “I was born at the scene of a crime/every witness, he was deaf and dumb and blind” (from “Wake Up”) fuel the delirium the band patches together.

“Toby’s one of my favorite lyricists on the planet and I have really no idea where he’s coming from a lot of times,” says McMicken. “…He admires my ability to be so direct… but I’ve always wished I could write more from the imagination like he does…That kid can come up with a song on a dime. He must write like ten songs a day off the top of his head…A permeating theme in Dr. Dog the last two years has been ideas about dreaming. For the next album there’s a lot of that…So many of the songs are about the difference between dreaming and being awake and those lingering emotions you have while you’re asleep that when you wake up you can’t quite pinpoint, how it affects your day. This comes back to Toby’s lyric-writing…One aspect of Toby that I’ve always noticed is that he’s severely dark and twisted is his dreaming world. That’s got to have a lot to do with his aesthetic sensibility as a lyricist.”

Dr. Dog is nearly finished with its follow up album, but the main challenge has been that things just sound “too good.”

“We’re working with a lot better equipment now,” says McMicken. “Easy Beat was made with eight tracks only and we have 24 tracks now, so a lot more is possible… A lot of people think it [Easy Beat] doesn’t sound that good or they call it lo-fi or something like that, but to me that’s what I wish all music sounded like. It has a bit of a smoke screen in front of it. It does kind of put it in this context. I think that’s why some people who like it appreciate that it appeals to your being sort of removed.”

Dr. Dog performs at Mercury Lounge January 27.

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 1/11/06.

Dr. Dog video for "Fool's Life."

Emily Haines of Metric - Interview

Metric made the map with their 2003 debut, , Old World Underground Where Are You Now and over the course of 2004-05 they traveled it. Emily Haines (vocals/synths), Jimmy Shaw (guitar), Josh Winstead (bass) and Joules Scott-Key (drums) were everywhere, from MTV and commercial rock radio to French art-house cinemas (the band made a show-stopping cameo in Oliver Assayas’ 2004 junkie drama Clean); depending on the night, you could find Emily playing sombre solo piano shows in churches, or diving off the stage at Toronto’s Mod Club Theatre, where Metric played an unprecedented four sold-out nights in a row in January ’05. And the band’s about to mark another milestone this month performing music from their latest album, Live It Out, (Last Gang Records) as they open for The Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden January 18 and 20.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” says Haines. “The way we found out was the best too. We were in France. We just finished a three month tour, and we were so tired. It was our last night and there were a lot of filmmakers there and they threw this party for us on a boat on a set, which was already really cool. It was like an apartment on water. While we were there we got the call that we had gotten the Stones show and we’re like, ‘Well, where? Madison Square Garden! Great!’”

Described as a “band comfortable making music for both the misfits and the masses,” the Toronto four-piece with hometowns scattered throughout the world (Montreal, London, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles), demonstrate that as concerned citizens, the personal and political are interchangeable.

“I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence that each of us realize that whatever’s happening in the larger context of the world always seems to have a big impact where we’re each at personally,” says Haines. “Decisions relating to where to live, what move to make next, who to work with and what not to do is pretty affected by the larger state of things…We went back to Canada the day Bush got re-elected. It sounds like a most poetic act of civil disobedience, but it was in fact the biggest coincidence…I was like, ‘Wow, my life is on this storyline and I don’t know who is writing it.’”

Why not shut the world out? Why is responsibility important?

“I think about that.” said Haines. “I’m kind of envious of people who don’t feel that responsibility. Is it just the way I was raised? And it just happens that the three other people I’m most excited to work on music with were raised the same way? I don’t know. I’m sure if I sat down with a therapist they could help me figure it out (laughs)…By going to Canada and surrounding myself with friends, it’s the closest thing I could do to just shutting the world out and hibernating with my friends and making a record, but it’s still completely present (laughs).
While in Toronto, surrounded by childhood pals from Broken Social Scene and Stars, Metric found additional inspiration, particularly for Haines’ favorite track, “Empty.”

“So much changed with all my friends,” says Haines. “It was just a crazy bunch of years between what happened in the New York scene and the loft that we lived in and obviously Nick Zinger and Karen O [both of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs] got so huge. Then with Broken Social Scene and Stars and all those inter-relationships, everybody’s lives just sort of fell apart. Nobody really knew how it was going to keep going. That summer James and I got together over at Kevin Drew’s place [from Broken Social Scene] and that song was the first sign to me that we were going to be able to make another record. I really like the song because we definitely exhausted a certain approach to trying to make improvements in our lives and what we perceive the world to be and we definitely had to take another tact.”

Haines leaves her songs open to interpretation, however, and often finds other peoples’ takes quite amusing.

“It’s funny,” says Haines. “I don’t really read press, but I read a couple of things and they were the most hilarious interpretations of the songs—written as though they had gotten first-hand, sworn testimony from me that that was what the song was about. It makes me happy in a way that it’s so open to interpretation, but in this case they found war imagery everywhere. Like ‘Glass Ceiling’ was like the tale of a soldier who’s general won’t let him speak out, I mean wow! Obviously anyone can get whatever they want.”

Originally published in The Aquarian Weekly 1/4/06.