Tis the season for giving- well at least it almost is and in the world of music, that is no exception. Fucked Up are one such band who are doing their part this holiday season by raising awareness for a group that often go unnoticed in the media. Following their Polaris Music Prize win, the band, which consists of Damian Abraham (vocals), Jonah Falco (drums), Mike Haliechuk (lead guitar), Sandy Miranda (bass guitar), Josh Zucker (rhythm guitar) and Ben Cook (backing vocals), have decided to put together a benefit single to help support the Aboriginal community out west. iheartthemusic spoke with Damian before their Polaris win where he explained what we can expect from what will definitely be in our stockings this Christmas.

iheartthemusic: First off I have to say that I love your shoes!

Damian: Well thank you, I designed them myself!

iheartthemusic: No way! Well I can see that you really dressed for the occasion! [laughs]

Damian: I was like what is the dress code? And they were like “casual” and I guess we all have different definitions of casual. But yeah, I designed these myself and they even say “drug free” on the side! [shows me the letters spelling out "drug free"]

iheartthemusic: Well at least the kids out there will get the message! So I believe a double congratulations is in order-one for tonight and one for the baby!

Damian: Well thank you, he’s here actually! The baby is downstairs right now. I brought him for the “sympathy” vote! I am going to go by the jury room and hold up my son and be like he’s hungry, you have to pick me!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] So where were you guys when you found out you had made the shortlist?

Damian: We were in Croatia actually. It was a great experience. It’s crazy because that’s why we missed the press conference, because we were literally crossing the border into Croatia. It was really bizarre because we were all like celebrating and all the Croatian people were like “what’s a Polaris?” and we were like “it’s a Canadian award, you wouldn’t understand”! [laughs]

iheartthemusic: What does it mean to you as musicians to make the shortlist?

Damian: I think it is validation of a record that you made. I’m not saying that I agree with all the choices. I think that there are great records that weren’t on there, but it seems that everyone that has won so far, have been real artistic achievements in Canadian music and I think being among that elite group is really flattering.

iheartthemusic: Absolutely. I mean you guys are kind of considered the “rebels” amongst all the nominees.

Damian: Yeah, we are the only band to get frisked coming in and out of here. 

iheartthemusic: Well I can somewhat understand where they are coming from based on what you did last time you were here! [at the Masonic Temple]

Damian: I know! I don’t blame them and I’m not trying to be like “poor us” because you reap what you sew but at the same time it is funny to see other bands walk by while you just stand there and get patted down. I made sure they didn’t frisk the baby![laughs] All I could get were some cigarettes in.

iheartthemusic: Where is the rest of the group?

Damian: We don’t really talk! [laughs] I’m the chatter box, everyone else in the band is downstairs or probably eating dinner somewhere. I am the one who has to…

iheartthemusic: You are the face!

Damian: I’ve got the look!

iheartthemusic: You mentioned earlier that you were surprised that a few albums didn’t make it into the list. What albums would you have included?

Damian: I thought that Japandroids Post Nothing was going to make it in there and Bison B.C. could have been in there. Also Women, I was surprised they didn’t make it.  Even more than that there are a lot of  hardcore bands, punk bands and metal bands that have never made it in years past. All these great bands that are kind of underrecognized and its funny because you go over to Europe and there are kids wearing these band’s shirts coming to your show and you are like ” that’s so weird because noone in Canada knows about them”. It’s always been like that in Canada so if anything our nomination, I hope that means that more records like ours are going to make it. I mean we are on an indie label, we are indie dressers, maybe we will open the door for a little more of an aggressive look and sound.

iheartthemusic: What will you do with the prize money?

Damian: I would love to take everyone out for dinner that made this album possible. Like all of the people that guested on it and came on, that we thanked obviously, but we never had a formal celebration for what they had done. I’d love to do that. We are putting on a benefit single for Christmas time and we are going to donate all the money to an Aboriginal Youth Charity in Canada. So we are getting all these guests to go on it and so I think we are going to pay for that. Right now, I don’t think you have heard about the Highway of Tears, but there are tons of Aboriginal women who go missing every year in Canada that are not reported and are just totally ignored by the media. The Pickton case is really interesting because when they reported that in the press, they never really talked about the fact that a lot of those women were Aboriginal women. They are marginalized in these situations, so there is a racial issue to this violence and I think that is so important. If anything else we have a lot of people on this record that are going to surprise people that hopefully can raise more awareness.

photography provided by Sara Collaton