Immaculate Machine

0:00Okay Yeah Well, I don't think any band has ever played that It'd be amazing and survived learn it and the next to me has come through a little allowed in it just beauty in the beast Oh You what can you see our vest everybody loud enough well, I'm gonna be loud cuz I'm like directly into the microphone But I'm the most important member of the band anyway You guys agree with that? Thanks for coming in guys

0:52Yeah, I appreciate it appreciate you guys coming through Calgary to not many bands No, no bands do because it's I guess a hassle if you don't want to tour Canada I guess you guys have to because you're Canadian. Yeah, it's kind of you must do it It will get from the prime minister if we don't So what's next for you guys where you guys off to after the show this is it this is The band is bringing up golf Take up quilting nice nice and relaxing Seriously though In the past And then we have a week off or so and then we're going to the States we're gonna do a west coast tour nice drive down

1:45Highway one if you guys done that before yeah, we have the actual coastal For something when you're on tour, you don't really have no you know the time you got to take cash with That one the five cash wins with all the slaughterhouses Yeah, it's like down in down through out northern California Yeah, I remember I wait I didn't know and so we were driving through and I looked over and I was like what the hell is this It's like just cows as far as the idea Maybe almost want to be vegetarian Need my burgers what are you guys vegetarian zany? Yeah vegetarian The black

2:34Not really but that's not a vegan thing. I just don't really like Boney gums is made from like horses or something like that What is That's awesome would meet you that's okay Good a small room Never know if we get locked So let's talk about the record fables Fables makes me think of like legends and mythology and all that stuff is every song like Like jar hand for example that could be a fable almost

3:19Yeah It's more the more stories the more stories without the the moral side to it like we're not we're not you know Because fables are usually a sob fables and they have the they have the fox eating the chicken and then the I don't even know But there's some kind of moral there's some kind of moral with the fox eating the chicken. I'm sure there is I don't know, but we don't buy into that kind of stuff Yeah, so we just write the songs and and we came up with a name just because it sounded good And we saved the word fables in one song And their stories yeah, it's a little bit of stories from kind of like little on Like metaphorical stories about what like life on the road and stuff like that mostly Is that more this record or the first record to more of this record

4:05I would say do you write along the road do all of you guys write or how does that work for you guys? Yeah, we are right and I can't write on the road. I cannot do it. I need my privacy I was like one or two things we can do on the road and it's like sweat and I've like a pretty good memory for creating things in my head So it's a lot a lot it's like a drawing board inside my head to get some ideas up then you need to To have time and space to sit down with a guitar or the piano to really kind of suss it out that you too you play guitar Yeah, yeah, okay cool. Yeah, so Those are the songwriting tools that we all need so yeah, I guess you're really writing the drums We could it'd be different though. I don't like writing on the piano. No really really. Yeah, I play a little bit hard

4:51I don't play guitar well, but I write on guitar. Yeah, every time I write a song on the piano I think it sounds like Sarah McLach literary aim It's and I just can't get past it It's like you need something neutral more the little bit more neutral sounding than a piano And then you add the piano in later and then it sounds good or the keyboards or the roads or whatever But actual writing on the piano doesn't work Tell me what the songs you guys just played let's start with start with confessor That one come about That's sort of like the only song that we didn't write in a panic actually. Oh really? Yeah What usually happens is we're like, okay? We got our go recording the month and we have one song or two songs It was like that on their previous album as well and so dear confessor was kind of like Like the one song where like okay, well at least we'll have a one song album

5:37Put it a single Yeah, let's go. What about your hand? That one Brooke Brooke had the words to jar hand and I thought they were amazing and hilarious But they always won't we don't understand when hand in the jar and a jar on your hand and that is the best line You have to use it and I'm not even sure I don't even think I liked the melody really all that much when he first brought it when he had it in another song And then it went through he tried it a bunch of different songs and then eventually we came up He came up with that particular melody and then I was like you have to keep it We have to play the song and then we played it every day because I'm demanding like that When I like songs we tend to play them all the time Crazy free iTunes sing all the week that must have been that's cool. Yeah It was a cool promotion they have and it was it was a worldwide thing which is really big. Oh wait not just here. Yeah, that's

6:29We got just played England right Stuff to shoot over there. Yeah, really well We got a lot of good press out of there and little week long tour of London There's a lot of just van definitely no that the London trip was the absolute best because we had like five shows in eight days or something Oh, so that's great. So and there's no travel time either It's not like you know win a peg to Saskatoon takes up your entire day and you do nothing but look at the wall of the van Yeah, so we did all kinds of stuff. We've walked up this monument and that monument and I Know drink a lot of beer That never changes We had to pay for it when we were playing It's more expensive there

7:18It's ridiculous double you don't really want to try and do all the calculations The same price for things except the pound is worth double Yeah, so more than double so everything is just double so you get a crappy cheese sandwich with you know Process cheese and limpy lettuce and white bread and it's four pounds, which is like nine dollars You just cry you just sit and cry Sorry Really savor that crying limpy lettuce So it wasn't gross or crying Because like it's really world-class city or there's just like so much going on

8:04So many free museums and you're standing around and you're turning your head constantly in awe because it's just They had the best vegetarian bangers and mash Restaurant ever so good. I got off the plane and I was feeling all woozy and I went and had mashed potatoes and veggie sausages It's the best best cure for woozy No limpy lettuce none in that dinner note. Yeah, so we'll see how the Yeah Yeah we kind of look for like a number of elements in a cover like something that's kind of like a little bit challenging and pretty hilarious and

8:51Well, that's mainly it like something that that we can sort of Yeah, something we can work out with three vocals and have a lot like just some fun with really We did the Beach Boys as well good vibrations. Yeah doing that one so So I mean, it's really not easy to choose a cover actually but I found a lot of bands 260 songs Yeah, why is that you think? Because it's they're like far enough removed from it that there's no like You don't get there's no like direct association with it or whatever like if you choose If you covered like a flock of seagulls song or whatever you would be immediately categorized in like 80s retro bands, I think I find people do older songs or brand new songs like Beyonce or Destiny's Child

9:45You can do the pop songs. I like the man's do that me too because sometimes like really good songs And you just don't want to have to think about Kelly Clarkson though when you listen to it, you know Ted Leo did that cut. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I was trying to figure out who it was. Yeah He's coming to town too soon. I don't think it's your job. Never seen it. You guys know he's off Yeah, he's amazing. He's got a great voice and he's amazing guitar player You play any festivals with him this summer. I know he was on the festival circuit for a while now You guys played hillside? Yeah, that's my favorite festival in Canada. It was really really fun. It's yeah something else I Have questions ask everybody five questions when they come through You guys can all answer just one word answers real quick stuff iPod or CDs iPod this time iPod We finally graduated to the air in the future. I do both okay. I do both

10:36What do you mean like on the road? Oh, do you prefer to listen to depends where I am? Because I have more That I do my iPod on the desert island But CDs are hassle because you have to have a player so on the road iPod at home CDs, okay Letting her McCartney Yeah, he died He hasn't made any crappy Starbucks albums McCartney record really sound I haven't actually even heard it. Oh, you're judging free. Yeah, yeah It should it should copy it for you under fam here. It's pretty good. It's better than anything he's done in the last like 20 years or so The whole wings thing no, I love band on the run. That's a good record. Yeah other than that that we've really got nothing

11:27Yeah, anyway alcohol or marijuana Frequency is Alcohol wins by a long shot alcohol Because it's pretty much every night. I mean we play and we work in bars basically. Yeah, that's true and I can't smoke like because of my Beautiful singing voice your vocal cords are insured for $10 million. Yeah, I'm sure them for $10 million Obviously automatically they'd have a boy So you've written your most proud of come on see likes Happy birthday It's your birthday. Yeah, so speaking of what thank you. Thank you for

12:15I Okay, Roman statues, okay, I'm 26 Like the small talk Especially with the string arrangements that we had gotten down there by Owen. Oh in palette. Yeah, he was a year ago Yeah, he's Luke pedal stuff is amazing. Oh, yeah, everything home. Oh my wood. I know so impressed Yeah, and he pulls it off like yeah Flawless you talking about how you have to do one of those, you know those little workshops You have to do it over at the festivals I hate doing them because it's really not his thing Yeah, cuz it's just him in a violin loop pedals and playing with other people doesn't really work too well. Yeah

13:02How do you guys feel workshops? I'm sure you play one of Hillside or two. Yeah, I love them Yeah, we did one that was like super awesome and super easy because we had like four drummers and like three guitar players and the string section and Everybody was just like really not trying to step on each other's toes and it just like blended so well It sounded like a indie rock symphony. They terrify me. They terrify me. No, it was awesome But I didn't play the workshop so oh I'll shoot you off. Yeah I hate to sing you out, but we should love people know new pornographers come because you come to town. Yeah How long have you been in that band a couple years now? Oh really? Yeah, cool. Are you on the new record to on the new record? Fun that comes out Tuesday. Yeah So what happens with this band when you go to them you guys take a hiatus or you guys play another band's do

13:52We have a side project, but it's not really serious. Maybe you heard a rugged uncle What's a rugged uncle? That's our other band Do you know no the whole bunch of our friends we play for free beer basically? In honor of rugged uncles from coast to coast all of the land. They usually have mustaches and there You know dashing That's awesome. Thanks guys. Thank you That's been great. Yeah, thanks. Thank you very much. Oh the French record. That's what I wanted to talk about why I Turnal question It sounds cool. That's how I did that's what I did in university. I studied French literature and okay

14:40Yeah, and did a bunch of translation and stuff as well, and so we Well really the reason is we get impatient and we had to wait so long between albums and That was a way of doing an album for pretty cheap Like being able to release something that was fun and new that Mint would actually mint records would actually pay for it Well, cuz all it's weird all it was is we doing the vocals, right? Oh, yeah, I guess you already have the backing tracks Yeah, so it's not like we had to go through the whole process of making a real album or anything like that It's just and we just think you know, this is so long between records that you know and Rather than put out another whole record Just figured we would do something in French is for something different and we can do it live too. We can put French in our songs

15:31Like a lot of addition we played a show in Paris and we got to like sing like five songs in French and we got to like You know do the stage banter in French and they totally like oh, yeah They probably thought you guys were Americans and then everything just switched over Yeah Well got out our bagettes and Play wine together the how can we say there's so much time between records? Can't you choose like or they say here's what we're gonna put you in the studio? Well, you can't it just just doesn't always make sense to put out an album every year. You just we just did one It's expensive. Yeah, you have to have a lot of time to write and we're all pretty busy and Touring and so by the time you get You get home you have to write the songs and then you have to go into the studio and then you have to you know

16:19Like just takes that long. I did a radio show at you vacant French actually too and so I was I became a bit of a French music aficionado and are the good French bands Yeah, yeah, yeah from France for sure. No, come back. We don't know the vaccines. Well there It's sort of a different style. It depends what you're into Quebec's got good things in its own Jowress, but nothing that really compared. I don't think to what was the band that we played with Montreal the second band blank I Don't know. I mean, I think that stupid names that band Malajou from Montreal Really though they were like they were up for the Polaris prize last year Oh, that stuff and they're they did really well in English Canada because they're like the only band

17:08like the only Quebec band that actually sounds like The bands that are hip in the English scene, you know I mean like so they otherwise yeah, I've heard potential. Yeah, otherwise like it just feels like Some Quebec music's like either way in the future Just like we have a couple decades in the past or some things wrong with it. It's not lining up chronologically with what's cool Yeah, so I don't know thanks guys