Recently, we caught Kevin Drew and members of Toronto indie rock collective Broken Social Scene in concert at Cornell University. Earlier in the afternoon, we met up with guitarist/vocalist/bassist Brendan Canning right after they finished their sound check at the venue, Barton Hall. He was easygoing and really nice, and we did the interview right there on the hard gym bleachers. Afterwards, we realized we were all pretty hungry — Brendan was craving eggs — so we went into Collegetown to grab some food and continue our conversation, this time with touring guitarist Mitch Bowden and merch rep Rachel in tow. After Brendan changed out of his “tour bus pants,” we headed to Stella’s for late brunch and hot coffee. The following, however, is the conversation that took place at Barton Hall. The brunch was really an extended conversation extolling the virtues of tiramisu, pesto and beautiful Sunday afternoons. After brunch, we sent them on their way, and pointed out a few gorges for them to explore. We hope they saw something beautiful. For a full review of that night’s concert, read our article here.
Popcorn Youth: So, the last time you guys came here was a show for the Fanclub Collective. This was October 2003, and I think there were about 50 people there. But it was a fantastic show.
Brendan Canning: I remember that show! I think that day we had played an afternoon gig at CMJ at 12:30 in the afternoon, then we drove up. Yeah, I think that’s how it went.
Popcorn Youth: So Kevin has his solo album out under this title of “Broken Social Scene Presents…” We hear you have one coming out, too.
Brendan Canning: Yes, around April [next year].
Popcorn Youth: How far along is that?
Brendan Canning: The work I’ve done? Yes, I spent all year working on it. I think it’s pretty close. I hope so, it’s hard to tell right now.
Popcorn Youth: Did you take a similar approach as Kevin, in terms of conception?
Brendan Canning: Yes, I suppose to a large degree, yeah. Without me, there wouldn’t be much of a record, I guess. (Laughs
Popcorn Youth: And you’ll be singing?
Brendan Canning: Yes, I sing a lot of the tunes. With a couple, I’m still trying to figure those out. There’s this one song that I want to use, but I tried singing it, and I haven’t had that much luck, so I want to get someone else to sing it. I’m still trying to figure out who that person is going to be — it’s a little out of my range. But yeah, there might be a couple of different vocalists. We’ll see when all is said and done.
Popcorn Youth: And it’ll feature a lot of the BSS people?
Brendan Canning: Yeah, or not. I don’t know what “BSS people” means anymore. I mean, we have a guitar player playing with us who is replacing the guitar player who is replacing another guitar player who has broken his collarbone. So, whatever BSS means is… (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: I’ve heard it called a “collective” before. Does the definition of that word, then, encompass a wider spectrum of people that have been involved with various BSS incarnations?
Brendan Canning: I guess it’s just open-ended. I wouldn’t want to put any sort of limitations on it, because then we would sort of be left out to dry. But the one guy we’re missing a lot is Andrew Whiteman our main lead guitar player.
Popcorn Youth: He’s busy with Apostle of Hustle?
Brendan Canning: Yeah. And Charles Spearin, too. He’s with Do Make Say Think. Those are a couple of guys where this will be the first year where we haven’t done any shows at all with them.
Popcorn Youth: But they’re both featured on Spirit If…?
Brendan Canning: Right. Charles and Ohad Benchetrit recorded and produced it.
Popcorn Youth: What was Kevin’s thinking behind having Charles and Ohad produce it as opposed to the previous work Broken Social Scene has done with Dave Newfeld?
Brendan Canning: Well, going to Ohad’s to record, and going to Dave’s to record, are two very different experiences. And I think with Ohad’s, it’s a very cozy place to record — it’s his house, his wife and kid and mother-in-law all live there, so we’ll take breaks and Khrista, his mother-in-law, whips you up a meal, that kind of thing. (Laughs) Recording at Dave’s is a totally different experience. And now he’s moved out of Toronto and moved into the country, and he’s working on Los Campesinos! And Super Furry Animals as well. So he’s busy with that.
Popcorn Youth: Where out in the country did Dave move to?
Brendan Canning: It’s actually near a naval base in Trenton, Ontario. It’s actually a nice part of the country, a bit of a backwoods kind of town, but it’s out of the city at least. He was kind of in a dodgy neighborhood where we recorded the two big records.
Popcorn Youth: Did you feel like recording in Ohad’s house ultimately ended up effecting the sound of Kevin’s record?
Brendan Canning: Yes, of course. Your environment is always going to influence you, dictate how you feel, what moods your in, how creative you can be.
Popcorn Youth: Tell me a bit about Kevin’s current tour. How many shows are you guys doing? How far along are you now?
Brendan Canning: We’re more than halfway through because we started the tour in Europe — (pauses) — actually we started the tour in Toronto. We went from Toronto to Halifax, to Europe, to the UK, home for a couple days, and then to the west coast. So I consider the tour all of six weeks, and we still have one more week. We end on the 17th or the 18th [of November]. So it’s a long haul. (Laughs) And then we’ll come back home and do a handful of more shows, and then fly out west and do a couple of more shows. And then I think that’ll be it for the year.
Popcorn Youth: How long has it been since you’ve been doing this level of show vs. carrying your own amps, playing in little clubs?
Brendan Canning: Well, you know, we still do a bit of both. There’s aren’t twenty student loaders waiting in line in Munich, you know? (Laughs) We get there, and it’s like and playing to 500 people, and you’re all on our own. We still do anywhere from 400 to 2,000 people in any given place. London [crowds] will be bigger than Manchester [crowds], and Berlin will be bigger than Hamburg maybe. Dublin will be bigger than other places. But it varies. We do well in the big cities — I feel like we’re a cosmopolitan band.
Popcorn Youth: Is there one country or city that you that you enjoy especially?
Brendan Canning: I really enjoy going to Dublin — we just played there.
Popcorn Youth: Do you have some Irish heritage in you then?
Brendan Canning: Yep. I’m half Irish, and Kevin is maybe a third Irish, so we seem to be really up for it. (Laughs) It’s nice. And Vienna has always been great for us in Europe, Berlin as well. We’ve had a good run, for sure, lots of different great European places.
Popcorn Youth: Have you been talking at all about the next Broken Social Scene album?
Brendan Canning: We’re talked a little bit about it, yes. I think I have a certain idea, and Kevin has a certain idea. And even though we spend a lot of time together, there’s so much business at hand, it’s tough to say what exactly it’ll be like. And we haven’t really talked to Andrew [Whitehead] that much about it — well, we talked to Andrew a little bit when Bill broke his collarbone. We called him from Glasgow asked if he wanted to come [play], but he already signed on to the Do Make Say Think tour. But ideally I see us rehearsing at Charles’ place, because he built on an addition to his home, and he’s got a big rehearsal space in the back. And maybe Andrew would be in on that, with Kevin and Justin and I. Maybe as a five-piece. That’s sort of what I’m putting out there, and we’ll see if it all falls into place.
Popcorn Youth: You’ve mentioned other BSS-related acts like Apostle of Hustle and Do Make Say Think. Since you’ve been living in Toronto, have you noticed if and how the local music scene has changed in any way, if it’s become more or less interesting?
Brendan Canning: I haven’t been out to see too many bands. But this one young band we just by accident saw them, and there were nine of them and we were like, “Hey, they sound a little bit like our band!”
Popcorn Youth: A mini Broken Social Scene!
Brendan Canning: (Laughs) Yeah. I sort of have taken them under my wing a little bit, at least with their bass player. They’re called Foxfire Forest. But they need some nurturing.
Popcorn Youth: When you first started out as a musician, what was the climate like for local musician?
Brendan Canning: Back in 1991? (Laughs) Yeah.
Popcorn Youth: I remember your old band hHead, by the way.
Brendan Canning: Oh yeah? (Laughs) That was definitely my “early 90s band.” Someone shouted out an [hHead] song in Buffalo — we got radio play on the Toronto radio station, and they got it in Buffalo too, because it was so close, and we did okay in Buffalo, but scarce few other American cities. (Laughs) I don’t know, though, Toronto just as a city has changed because the industry of marketing and advertising has become such a strong presence. There are just so many more people living in condos now than in 1991, where I live. I live right smack in the center of the city, so I’ve just noticed that change more.
Popcorn Youth: What year would say you first started to notice these kind of changes?
Brendan Canning: I guess maybe the early 2000s. You just notice the presence of marketing and advertising, and more money floating around the city. You’re in the entertainment business, so you’re going to hear about things and opportunities — it’ll come back to you. It’s changed a lot. I don’t really go out to after hours parties anymore, but there seemed to be a cooler after hours scene when I was younger. But that just might be nostalgia. (Laughs) It’s just funny seeing such an 80s revivial, now. I mean I lived through it! It’s not as funny and ironic to me, it’s kind of annoying. (Laughs) They’ll try to convince you like, “Yeah, isn’t this great?” and it’s like, “No, it’s not great!” (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: We love “You Forgot it in People” so much. It was the fabric that defined the summer of 2003, for us. When you were making that record, did you ever think: “Okay, this could really, really go somewhere,” or were you more just, “This is a good record.”
Brendan Canning: I think I was pretty focused on trying to make a really good record from top to bottom, and I think there was a good focus throughout the recording of it, maybe that we haven’t quite captured since. Every record has been so different, though, but that period was … (pauses) about four or five months straight on, and it sort of captured the birth of the band and the different versions of the band. There were lots of people involved in songwriting, too, so it’s going to keep changing, and that’s who we are.
Popcorn Youth: And that’s part of the goal, too, with the sound of Broken Social Scene.
Brendan Canning: Yeah, and I can’t really predict with any real certainty what the next record will sound like compared with “You Forgot It In People” or the self-titled record.
Popcorn Youth: I mean, lots of bands make record that they’re excited about, but not all bands make classic records; not that the others weren’t classics, of course —
Brendan Canning: (Laughs) No I get it, I get it.
Popcorn Youth: — It’s just so diverse and rich, so I always wondered when you were making the record if you knew “This might be really, really badass” or “Okay, good job, let’s see where it goes.”
Brendan Canning: I would like to work with Dave [Newfeld] again, personally. If it works out, we’ll see. But he’s such a talented producer and he definitely wrangled that record and took songs that weren’t going to be what they were —
Popcorn Youth: Through editing and arrangements and making suggestions?
Brendan Canning: Oh yes, both, both. I think “Almost Crimes” definitely came a long way before it became what it was on the record; “Shampoo Suicide,” too.
Popcorn Youth: For this tour, are you playing Broken Social Scene songs?
Brendan Canning: Yes. We’re trying to push Kevin’s record,too, but still not ignoring the back catalog. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: What was the process for assembling the live band for this current tour? Did they have to learn all of the BSS catalog?
Brendan Canning: Oh yeah, yes. It was basically Kevin, Justin [Petroff] and myself. Kevin’s picks were Bill, [Andrew] Kenny from American Analog Set, and my pick was Sam [of Uncut], who’s on guitar and bass. He and Dave worked on this record called “Hawaii.” There are some trippy tunes on there — he’s a pretty talented guy. So that’s kind of how we assembled the band. We’re a six-piece band together.
Popcorn Youth: So basically, you were like, “Learn all our stuff.”
Brendan Canning: (Laughs) Yeah. I mean, our songs aren’t that hard to play, to be honest. It’s just more of an approach, just getting the aesthetic or approach to the music, rather than getting the technical virtuosity of the music. Unless, of course, you’re Andrew on the guitar. (Laughs) Or the horn players, because they’re all really good horn players too.
Popcorn Youth: Would you say that improvisation figures into a live concert setting?
Brendan Canning: Oh, I don’t know. For me, yes, because I definitely go off on guitar tangents. Yes, certain songs lend themselves to a little more freedom.
Popcorn Youth: Do you improvise with form or just soloing?
Brendan Canning: Not so much with form — we’re still a pop band, after all.
Popcorn Youth: Of course. What about yourself personally? In your own history, do you think of yourself as a singer or guitarist first?
Brendan Canning: Definitely a guitar player or bass player first, but I’m working on the singing. (Laughs) I’m singing a lot on the new record coming up, it’s more singing than I’ve ever done. So it’s all gradual steps, I guess. I hadn’t sung a single song before “You Forgot it in People.”
Popcorn Youth: Not in other projects, either?
Brendan Canning: No.
Popcorn Youth: So does Toronto have a good electronic or noise or jungle? Or do you find that you are just too busy to tune in to any of that?
Brendan Canning: For a long time, I was really into house music. There was a really good house scene in the mid to late 90s. And still I know both of the guys that I worked with on my record, they were really big drum and bass guys.
Popcorn Youth: Are they d’n’b producers?
Brendan Canning: Yeah, they sort of recorded for those guys, they worked on a track with Donald Glaude, he’s a big house guy, and other this other different drum and bass guys that I don’t know, but I’m not that into drum and bass. I don’t go out as much for noise scenes, but there’s a bar, the Transcac Club, that’s a pretty good space for alternative sort of listening.
Popcorn Youth: So those two guys are working with you for your solo record?
Brendan Canning: Yes, mainly with production.
Popcorn Youth: Is there electronic stuff on it? Like drum pads, samples, things like that?
Brendan Canning: Yeah, there might be more when all is said and done, too. There’s a little bit now, but not tons.
Popcorn Youth: Kevin Drew got a lot of guests on the record — Tom Cochran, J Mascis. That must have been such a trip.
Brendan Canning: (Laughs) Yes. With J, well we had done a show with [Dinosaur Jr.], as his backing band, for this benefit for Alma, a hugging guru, you can look her up. And then we do our annual show on Toronto island and did a show for that as well, and he became a band buddy of sorts. (Laughs) So he came for Kevin’s record to rip some guitar solos… (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: This was recorded in western Mass?
Brendan Canning: Yeah, yeah in Amherst. As far as Tom Cochran — I don’t know. Kevin really wanted Tom Cochran. (Laughs) He came up and played with us for our first Toronto show. He’s classic. He’s a really funny character. We’re all funny characters. And Scott from, Pavement, too, everyone — Kev’s got his Pavement and Dino Jr, two of his idols.
Popcorn Youth: All you need now is Sonic Youth as a guest.
Brendan Canning: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah I know, I know!
Popcorn Youth: When your record comes out in April, will you be out touring like this?
Brendan Canning: I think we might just go out as Broken Social Scene to avoid any more confusion.
Popcorn Youth: Has there been a lot?
Brendan Canning: A little. It’s just like, “You know what, here we are, we’re Broken Social Scene, and this band is gonna play some of these songs,” and I think that’ll be it.
Popcorn Youth: So are you a big Yo La Tengo fan?
Brendan Canning: Yeah, I’m not a massive fan, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing them play again.
Popcorn Youth: Have you shared a bill with them before?
Brendan Canning: Yes, we played in Scotland with them before this last year.