Canadian anti-pop collective Broken Social Scene's New Zealand shows are likely to be as messy and mysterious as their music. Edward Helimore reports.
It's close to midnight and Kevin Drew, co-founder of Broken Social Scene, is sleeping on the floor of a New York recording studio, headphones clamped to his head, hands clasped in the attitude of prayer. He'd been leading the members of the Toronto collective through A Maid of Amsterdam, a sea shanty scheduled for the second of Hal Wilner's Rogue's Gallery compilations. "Maybe we should do it balls out. Louder, freakier and crazy," he offered right before lights out.
Broken Social Scene have no shortage of members. Nine squeezed on to David Letterman's stage earlier in the day to play Forced to Love, a single from Forgiveness Rock Record, their first new album in five years. It was a "sausage situation", notes Lisa Lobsinger, a member the band picked up in Calgary several years ago - though not as tight as it can be. Sometimes the number of members rises to 17.
So Drew's inebriation is not much of a problem: the rest, led by the other founder-member Brendan Canning, jam on regardless, crafting the loose anti-pop sound that's sustained them for a decade. For reasons of temperament - and perhaps geography and climate - Canada seems to specialise in large, sprawling groups of musicians. Montreal has Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire; the Wainwright-McGarrigle's folk family set; and Toronto, the Scene itself around which other bands like Do Make Say Think and singers, among them Leslie Feist and Emily Haines, orbit.
In kind with Canada itself, the Scene's identity is defined by their inability to define one; and individual will is expressed through community. Canning calls the band an "easy rock Wu-Tang Clan"; others have likened them to late-60s poetry-rock collective the Liverpool Scene, or even Fleetwood Mac in view both of their mixed-gender make-up and elastic romantic arrangements.
It's not that every member has slept with every other, Canning explains, just some. "These are the trials you have to live through as a band. It's just propinquity. Men and women living in close quarters ... things happen. We used to be together, now you're married and now you are not. Things get messy."
The mess and mystery extends to the music. The band are densely orchestral; occasionally, music tends to be defined by emotional feeling, its lyrics full of profound, meaningful nonsense. "Sometimes I don't really know what the lyrics are about," confirms Canning. Songs tend to sprawl, they build and dwindle. On Forgiveness Rock Record, the band continue with established themes. Some groove or rock; some run to ambient, some to disco, some are anthemic, and some, like Sweetest Kill and Highway Slipper Jam, are in the same vein as the earlier Lover's Spit and Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl.
In creating a communal, mixed-sex, post-rock idyll for themselves they were surprised to find a spacious niche in the marketplace.
"It's not just a band, it's a family-run operation and we're intertwined in so many ways," says Canning.
Not even original members Drew, Canning and guitarist Charles Spearin are certain how the band functions.
"There was never the moment when we said, 'okay guys, this is the band. You've all got to quit yours'. That would be somewhat of a dictatorship."
Members and associates drift in and out, they play on each others' solo projects, and come back together when the feeling rises. Their concerts are epic affairs that can last up to three hours.
"They have a slight church-like tone, like coming to confess sins of some sort," Canning explains. "But there's also a comedy element. We embody a lot of what an entertainment show should be - inclusive, emotional with highs and lows. Kevin's the frontman but he's got so much support for that role - we all take our positions at various times."
Continues Spearin: "You don't know what he's gonna do - not in a dramatic rock 'n' roll thing, but as a master of ceremonies. He's gonna take the audience on a journey. But is he going to be your drunk Uncle Ricky at someone's wedding or go on an Anthony Robbins self-empowerment trip? Right now, the funny self-help attitude is cresting a bit."
Or at least it was until the guru-in-the-making felt the need to rest mid-sea shanty. Canning, on piano, steps in for the fallen brother. Broken Social Scene are used to a certain element of chaos. In fact, they thrive on it. They simply close ranks and the music plays on.
LOWDOWN
What: Broken Social Scene, (another) Canadian art-rock collective
Where and when: Friday August 6, Kings Arms Auckland; Saturday August 7 San Francisco Bath House, Wellington
Trivia: Broken Social Scene wrote some of the songs for one of the bands featuring in the film Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
COMMUNITY SPIRIT: Broken Social Scene have no shortage of members, with bandmates dropping in and out of the Canadian collective.
- INDEPENDENT
- TimeOut
