I Heart the Music: Your Online Source for Live Music Reviews and Interviews in Toronto!

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

Metric have garnered much attention with the release of their most recent album Fantasies. The success of this album is due in part to each member going their own way for a short while and eventually coming back together to record and produce an album that is as loved on the mainstream as it is amongst the underground music community. Following the success of their 2005 album Live it Out, Fantasies is an album that is deeply personal to the members of the band and it is this undeniable connection that has enabled Metric to be recognized both within North America and abroad. During their recent stop in Toronto for both the Polaris Music Prize and the Verge Music Awards (to which they were nominated for both) we sat down and chatted with James Shaw and Emily Haines about what this success has meant to them and what it has been like going the independent route this time around.

iheartthemusic: First off, congratulations on your nomination for the Polaris Music Prize and at the Verge Music Awards!

James: Thank you!

iheartthemusic: One thing that I read about you that I found really interesting was the fact that your previous album [Live It Out] took you something like ten weeks to record and Fantasies took significantly shorter. Why did you decide to take your time with this album?

James: I think it was just mostly that we didn’t feel like we were under any sort of time frame. We didn’t want to let something out that we weren’t happy with, so we literally just kept working on it and working on it until it was the record that we wanted and that took a lot more than ten weeks. It was really gratifying while making the record because it gave us time to explore and do things musically that were different than our previous album. For instance, one song alone could take a few weeks just simply because we were trying out different versions and feeling out which one felt really good to us and which one felt like it was crossing a weird line musically. It’s hard to develop and figure out who are, what you are doing and what you like.

ihearttthemusic: Would that be a strategy that you would repeat with the next album?

James: I can’t really see us going back to making records in as short a period of time as possible, but I also couldn’t see us taking that long. It will probably be somewhere in between.

iheartthemusic: I watched an interview you did where you mentioned that this album felt like it was “right for the time” and what is going on in the world right now. It seems to me like there are a lot of bands that try to build up this political message and incorporate it into their music. Is that something that you have in the back of your mind when you are writing?

James: I feel like what we were probably talking about was the way that we were releasing the album; the fact that we spent a lot of time getting all of our rights back and really focusing on building our own record label and ultimately releasing the record ourselves all over the world. I feel like that is a really timely thing to do because,  right now, everyone in the music industry is standing waiting for the wind to change direction. I mean they don’t really know which way it is going to go and so they are holding all their chops waiting to see what is going to happen. I feel like there is a lot of stagnant people in the industry and we are trying to bravely move forward wherever we can and I feel like it’s an interesting time to do that. There aren’t that many people making bold moves right now and you get noticed for doing it because there isn’t a lot of movement in that direction. It feels really good. It feels like it was not only timely but it’s working for us.

iheartthemusic: Yeah, I was going to ask you if you were in fact seeing results through self-releasing the album?

James: It’s going great! Our album is doing up to ten times better than the ones in the past were which was over a four year period and it’s only been four months with this one! It feels really empowering for us to sort of like make all of our own decisions and feel like when we make mistakes it is our mistakes and there is no one to blame but ourselves and when we make good decisions, we can congratulate ourselves and do it rightfully so.

iheartthemusic: Do you feel more pressure to succeed then?

James: Yeah, definitely.

iheartthemusic: Back-to-back nominations with the Polaris Music Prize and then the Verge Award is impressive, especially because both awards are very different. I was wondering whether one fairs better for you as an artist since the Polaris Music Prize is chosen by music “experts” and the Verge Awards are chosen by fans?

James: Both realms exist: there are blogs and there is Rolling Stone Magazine and there are fans. As long as everyone has a vague understanding of what each one is and what the actual award is and what it means, then it is all kind of cool.

iheartthemusic: Where would the extra cash go if you [had] won the awards?

Emily: Financially, it would go into our neighbourhood studio where a lot of local musicians work. We co-own it with Sebastian Grainger and so many great artists have worked there. It is really a community based thing so if we win it will go straight back into that.

Metric play a double header with The Stills at Massey Hall on October 20th and 21st.

photography provided by Sara Collaton

To write about K’naan involves delving into a life story of violence, corruption and racism, all the while trying to find one’s identity. Much of his music involves sharing the story of his life growing up in war torn Somalia, moving to America and finding a home in Canada. Regarded as much a political artist as a progressive one, K’naan has been able to transcend borders and boundaries and deliver to his audience music that is both universally appealing and yet pushes the boundaries of what’s happening in the world right now. It came as no surprise when he was recently not only nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, but was the only hip hop artist to make the shortlist . iheartthemusic were able to briefly speak with him before the award ceremony about his latest release Troubadour.

iheartthemusic: Troubadour is such a complex album and I know that you were actually able to record it in Kingston, Jamaica at Bob Marley’s home studio. Can you tell us what that was like?

K’naan: I still can’t find good words for that. It was amazing. I mean we had very much; we got a distinct priviledge that wasn’t given to anyone else. The family actually gave me a key to the house and we spent three/four months there recording it. It ‘s just everything that  you would think it would be.

iheartthemusic: And how did that affect your recording process?

K’naan: I can never really tell because you don’t know what it would be like otherwise. It would be like being asked what if your name was something else; you just don’t know the options. I just think it must have done something. It was amazing.

iheartthemusic: This is your second time being nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, what is it like the second time around?

K’naan: You are used to losing! [laughs]

iheartthemusic: That may change tonight!

K’naan: Cool, you never know! It’s not like a losing thing because its they go through so many albums, you become the top no matter what.

iheartthemusic: What has the response been like overseas with this album?

K’naan: A lot of cool things have been happening. We recently did a performance in South Africa which was pretty remarkable. We played sold out shows in Paris as well. The album wasn’t even out and we recently had sold out shows in Europe with everyone singing the words. It is kind of cool in that way.

photography provided by Sara Collaton

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