Sneaky Dees, Toronto ONT
Monday, July 28th 2003
Interview by Angelo Colussi

The Constantines may have sprung from Canada’s “Royal City,” Guelph, Ontario, sharing a name with a famous Greek King and a Roman Emperor, but these gritty rock paupers couldn’t be farther from pampered princes. Their intensity on stages in their native Canada is well documented; their chaotic sets in Seattle and SXSW are legendary.

The Cons’ self-titled debut in 1999 on Canadian independent Three Gut Records provided critics with plenty of ammo for their year-end polls, and most importantly, landed the band in the hands of the venerable Sub Pop Records.

Bry Webb (vocals, guitar), Steve Lambke (vocals, guitar), Dallas Wehrle (bass guitar), Will Kidman (keyboards) and Doug MacGregor (drums) are now ready to bring their volatile mix of rock and soul, Springsteen and Strummer, Fuck You and Fugazi to the masses with the arrival of their Sub Pop debut Shine A Light, an album rife with blood and sweat and passion and poison.

I met with Steve Lambke in the band’s adopted home Toronto in hopes of getting to the essence of rock and roll the only way we figured it could be done – over beers and the din of a dark and dirty bar room.

You’re about to release your first Sub Pop record, you’re on the eve of endless touring and the promotion and press that go along with that. Despite the fact that the Constantines have been together for over 4 years, does this feel like the beginning, or just another part of the process?
It’s a bit of both I think. It’s part of the process. It’s the beginning. It’s all those things. It’s different in that when we did the first record [The Constantines] everyone was in school. It is from a purely personal standpoint, the start of the next phase of us. Actually being a band more full-time than we were before.

So you’ve turned professional?
Yeah, we’re very professional (laughs).

But, seriously, does it legitimize it in a way?
Well, it is in the process of being made legitimate I guess.

As much as you can use the term legitimate with any rock band, I guess?
Yeah (laughs). It’s cool. It’s new stuff. It seems different from the outside, obviously, because if you only know a band from their records then you only know these distinct points on a timeline: when records come out. But when you’re in a band, that’s not how it is obviously. It’s the same with your life if you look at it from the outside. They say when you were born and when you were married and when you graduated high school – those sorts of points.

But there are things that happen between those things that are probably more important?
There’s other things that happen that aren’t so poetic. I don’t really know what I’m going on about anymore, but I think it’s a bit of both. I am excited about the record coming out. I’m excited that we’re going to have new music that people might hear. So that’s pretty good.

And probably a lot more people can get their hands on it at this point.
Yeah. The first record never really came out in the States. We did the 3-song single on Suicide Squeeze [The Modern Sinner Nervous Man EP] which is kinda the only thing that’s ever came out in the States. It is sort of a first record for Americans. In Canada, people know us to some extent; so, it’s our second record.

Tell me about the Sub Pop experience. How you guys got signed. How you guys got hooked up with them.
They’re always looking for new bands. They heard about us and got a copy of the first record somehow and were really excited about it I guess. It seems awesome. They’re cool people for sure.

They seem pretty enthusiastic about you guys and Shine A Light.
Yeah. I totally think they’re behind it which is really exciting. And they’re putting out good records now. We played their anniversary party in Seattle and the poster for the event read “1988 to 2003: 10 years of great records.” (laughs) So, they wouldn’t say what the five years of bad records were but I’d like to think that this [Shine A Light] might be one of the good ones.

It’s good to see that they have a sense of humor.
Yeah, totally. They’re all just old punk rock dudes and stuff and they’re just having fun I think, so it’s cool.

Give me your take on what you guys sound like. Because I hear a lot of things: Fugazi, Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, soul and punk rock. But I don’t know that any of them have really done you justice. What do you tell people when they ask you?
Well, that’s sorta what we say cause that’s what other people say. But I think there are lots of different little things and you hope that it ends up being your own thing at the end of it all. So, I usually just tell people we’re a rock band and leave it as open as I can. You don’t want to box yourself in.

But you don’t mind those comparisons?
No, of course not. I love that music. I can hear it in our music too – I’m not denying any of those things at all. It doesn’t bother me.

Your live shows are fairly notorious. Sub Pop makes a big deal about it whenever they mention you guys. Everyone always talks about it – even people who’ve never seen you always mention how great your performances are. Why is that?
I don’t know. We usually have fun while we play. We get excited when we play and I think maybe other people get excited.

Is it your experience? Is it the volume? Is it any of those things?
We’ve been playing almost four years I think. That helps for sure. I mean, the more you play, the better you get. I don’t know. It’s fun. We all get excited when we play. I’m glad that it translates. I’m glad people like it; I don’t have an explanation.

Do you ever feel like you’re pressured to live up to that reputation on some nights?
I mean, I hope people aren’t arriving with too many expectations you know? We have played quiet shows. And you hope that that’s enjoyable in its own way too, as much as the running around, falling down, stuff breaking kind of shows. I don’t know what people expect. The whole thing with the live show is anything can happen. Like, things could break, or someone could heckle, or someone could throw something. There’s like a million variables that could happen. The idea is like: you want the show that’s happening that night to be the right show for that night. You want it to be of that moment, so sometimes the right thing to do is to be kind of nice, and sometimes it’s to be really loud.

That’s very Zen.
I’m a Zen kinda guy (laughs). I don’t want it to be this really rehearsed thing. If people are expecting something, it limits it a bit.

Is that part of the excitement for you about being on stage?
Yeah! That’s why it is exciting. We don’t do a lot of ‘jamming’ on stage, but there are parts where things can open up a little bit. Or sometimes they don’t you know? Sometimes we kinda play the songs. It’s just kinda whatever it feels like, so I think that’s fun for us.

Do you find you surprise and shock people? Here are some pleasant, fairly quiet Canadian boys, and they’re on stage tearing the roof off.
Oh probably. But we are nice, shy, polite Canadian boys – that’s the thing. But we also can get rowdy too. It’s just like anybody I think. Neither one is more accurate. They’re both the reality. There’s just a time and a place. For everything there is a season (laughs).

Your new record Shine A Light is much more visceral, and more of representation of your live sound than your past recordings.
I think the songs are better for the most part. I think part of it is the songwriting and I think there is one more member in the band [keyboard player Will Kidman] than there was on the first record. There are more instruments.

That being said, there also seems to be a lot more space on this record. Did you approach this record in any particular way?
Most of it is recorded live in the studio with all five of us playing together. It was really a fun and creative time in the studio and everyone contributed. It was pretty awesome going through the process of making it. I think that was what we were going for – to come out with something at the end that was good and also to have fun doing it. I think we just wanted to make a record that you could listen to all the way through, that we were happy with all the way through. We try different things. We go for different sounds.

Talk about that diversity a little. I hear a little Stones in “Tiger & Crane.” There’s kind of a Spoon feel to “On To You.”
I don’t think if any of those specifics would have necessarily occurred to me. But I’m not denying them either.

Talk about “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel,” the Talking Heads cover on the first single from the album, Nighttime/Anytime.
We played the Hillside Festival in Guelph last year and when you play there, they sometimes schedule a workshop. If you’re a singer/songwriter they’ll just put you on stage with a few other songwriters and a lot of times you take turns playing songs. Or they’ll just throw a bunch of musicians on stage, maybe a bunch of blues musicians that all play together. It’s just a fun folk festival kinda thing to do. We were scheduled to do a workshop with [Toronto rock outfit] By Divine Right. The idea is it’s not rehearsed. We thought of a few cover songs that we could maybe do. We all love the Talking Heads and it was just a pretty straightforward song that anyone could play on the first time through. So, we learned that, and we learned a Hawkwind song (laughs).

Are you guys going all prog on the next EP?
No, but that workshop was mostly space rock kinda jams (laughs). By Divine Right has four guitar players so it was easy enough to show them that day how the song went. So we recorded it when we were in the studio during Shine A Light.

Do you guys do other covers?
We recorded a Nina Simone cover that might come out some time: “See-Line Woman.” That’s the only other one we recorded when we did Shine A Light. We’ve done covers before: “Police On My Back” by the Clash, and “I’m On Fire” by Springsteen.

Gotta have the Springsteen in there.
(laughs) Yeah, exactly. We don’t really do a lot of covers normally, but we’ve been talking about starting a Neil Young cover band.

So when are the Constantines hitting the road?
In September we’re going out west in Canada, out to Victoria actually then we’re heading down into the states through Seattle and Portland and down through California and across through Phoenix and Austin and ending in Chicago. There’s a few dates waiting to be confirmed but it’s all happening. And then October we’ll do some of the CD release shows around Ontario and play CMJ and play Philadelphia and Boston and Pittsburgh and those sorts of places. That’s the plan and we don’t know really what’s going to happen after that.

Anything you want to say to the people of America? When does this come out?
September or October maybe? What would be the proper holiday greeting?

How about Happy Halloween?
(laughs) Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. How about that? Welcome back to school.