BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE ///
PUBLIC SCHOOL PLAYGROUND, NYC ///
MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2003 ///
INTERVIEW BY ARYE DWORKEN ///
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ARTS & CRAFTS ///

God bless Canada. Yes, it's true. Nowadays, our northern neighborhood is a great place to be alive. Where else can your gay friends get both married and high, all in accordance to the law? Where else can a cranky politician stick up his middle finger during a Parliament meeting? Everything abooot this country reeks of progressiveness.

But most excitingly, Canada has also given our ears a raison d'?™tre (they speak French too!). The music scene, which has burst out of nowhere like a midtown Manhattan flasher, is inspiring and celebratory. Bands like the Hidden Cameras, the Dears, the New Pornographers, and the Constantines have revitalized and justified the country that also brought to you Rush and Celine Dion. But at the forefront of this whole enlightening movement is the Broken Social Scene.

The BSS, a large collective of 15-plus musicians from out of nowhere...or Montreal, Canada, took a break from their respective "pretentious" projects, like Do Make Say Think, Stars, Metric and By Divine Right, and decided to rediscover indie rock, Chris Columbus style.

Their latest release, You Forget It In People, lies somewhere in-between an accessible album and a difficult masterpiece, feeling like something completely innovative while simultaneously reminding you of all the great rock albums you've cherished in the past. One minute you hear Yo La Tengo, the next, Jeff Buckley, then you make out some Pixies or Dinasour Jr. Soon thereafter there are jam-like allusions to Built to Spill. There are so many musical ingredients all smooshed together, it's practically an indie rock smoothie.

The most enjoyable aspect of this project, though, is that it is truly a labor of love. All the members of this revolving door of a band are there because they're friends playing music with friends-a concept Axl Rose would know nothing about. In fact, this band's social scene is anything but broken; its in fine form and needs absolutely no fixin'.

Led by Kevin Drew (the one who usually wears a trucker hat with "death cock" written on it) and Brendan Canning, the group is completely embracing as I found out after spending almost a full day in their company at their insistence. I can only assume that they are still in such awe over the excitement and praise You Forget It In People has garnered that they feel compelled to warmly treat each journalist, like one would do for an old friend. I mean, it's not every day that I go shopping for contact lens' with a lead guitarist.

After sitting down with Brendan in the playground of an empty public school, I became acutely aware of another difference between his nationality and ours. Besides the accents, Brendan possessed an unadulterated anticipation of the coming days of proliferation while everyone in New York seems to possess a been-there-done-that cynicism. I envied that. It's also a positive vibe, he told me, that everyone in the Canadian music scene feels. It's a mutual respect that's practically contagious. Which then finally brought me to the one downside of Canada that I could come up with: SARS.

I hate to bring this up but let's talk about the surreal aspect of all this press coverage on you guys.
Well, I find it strange when we show up to Philadelphia and there are 150 people in this small little club. It's so great.

Was the intention behind You Forgot It In People to make music for people or was it a necessary expression?
For me, this was absolutely an expression. It's a way I have never gone about music making before. It's a real openness of ideas, a communication, a true open dialogue. Most, if not all bands, don't have that luxury.

Where you at any point discouraged by music making? You have been in a few bands before this, right?
Oh yah, I hung up the skates back in '97. That's Canadian for giving up. But the bottom line is we go on. In my blood, I love making albums.

You guys won the Juno Award for best alternative album [the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy]. Did you meet Avril there?
I saw her but didn't meet her. I do know Sum 41 though because they're from the same town. I have an insight into that world. I was in Len, believe it or not. I played in "Steal My Sunshine."

Ha ha. That's an interesting piece of Brendan trivia. Was the award an embarrassment or an honor?
We were more sheepish than anything. A lot of people in the industry were genuinely proud of us. Sometimes a record squeaks through for the right reasons. Awards can be dodgy in general but the way people talk about our records, there's no reason why we wouldn't accept this award graciously.

When you recorded the album, was the intention to experiment and do something fun?
We did at times question our entire existence during the recording. It was over seven months and I truly believe everyone lived and died over the process. There were times when last minute the drums didn't sound right and people freaked out. It was absolutely intense but, yah, also very fun.

The whole excitement of this record is that it sounds like a product of people enjoying themselves. So that comes through. But do you feel, getting back to the press, that there is a pressure to keep things up with the expectations so high?
We will do things the same way. With the same enthusiasm and excitement. We're confident with the way we're functioning. Not too confident, where we can sit back and rest on our laurels but still looking forward.

Do you feel validated now because of the critical acclaim?
Well, I'll put it this way. If we didn't then we would have been a little disappointed because we went into the studio to create an album of very high caliber. We wanted to make something that every one of us was proud to be a part of. We have serious hopes for this project. We would love to be at the Roseland in a few years and I don't think that that would be impossible if we'd focus on it.

You signed with Mercury in Europe?
We want people to actually hear this album. My previous band, By Divine Right, never got an American distribution deal so no one heard it. We want to ensure that it's different now.

Are you excited about all the great music coming out of Canada, proud to be a part of it?
Yeah, I mean we were outside of London and Royal City and Manitoba were playing. It's a movement which splits into separate scenes, into different neighborhoods. We have our Halifax scene, the Montreal scene, but we're all sort of buddies. It's actually quite lovely.

Someone like me can see this camaraderie amongst your band, which is very noble.
Well, if we had closed our doors and been exclusive and snobby, we would never be here now.

Lyrically, are you also a cooperative?
If you sing it, it's your lyrics. It's pretty spontaneous. For example, "Stars & Sons" was my first take and whatever came to my mind. But "Anthem..." was pre-written by Emily [Haines of Metric]. Some of it was so on-the-spot. I guess we were always feeling like we had something on our mind. We always felt inspired. ///