All Photographs by Vanessa Heins
When last we spoke to the Rural Alberta Advantage, Canada’s premier suppliers of hard-driving indie folk and small-town nostalgia, they were a friendly, fresh-faced band with the glow of recently signing with Saddle Creek for their debut album. Recently at South by Southwest, they were a friendly, fresh-faced band with the glow of recently dropping their outstanding sophomore album. They look good in glow. Ca Va Cool’s Josh Penslar joined forces with Mathew Katz of Colorado’s KDNK Radio in an alley behind Home Slice Pizza in Austin, Texas to talk with the trio about their SXSW experiences, being Canadian in the States, the proper relation between Texas and Alberta, and what covers the band is secretly prepared to play if you ask nicely.
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Eye of the Tiger
Ca Va Cool: How’s the festival been so far? Exhausting at all?
Amy Cole: I dunno, we’ve been good. Yesterday we played our shows and we went back to the house we’re staying in and went to bed at an extremely reasonable hour. I think it was 11 PM. [Laughs] We’re really boring. But it was good for us, because now we’re energized for the rest of the fest. We had a long drive the previous day, so now I think we’re ready to really experience things.
CVC: Where were you guys coming from?
Amy: Atlanta.
CVC: That’s a big one. So I hear you’ve played South By before. How does this year compare?
Paul Banwatt: I mean, we’re veterans, you know? We’ve been around the block. For example, we call it ‘South By’. We don’t feel like we have to…
Amy: I just say South.
Paul: Sometimes we’re just like S-X.
Amy: You know what I mean.
Paul: Every year is fun here. Our first year was definitely special cause we came down and got signed. So every year after that is a bit of a disappointment because we can never top that experience. But it’s still really fun and everyone keeps coming out to our shows. We’re playing like six shows, so the fact that there’s people there at every single one, that’s crazy.
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Photograph by Max Weiland
A lot has changed for the Radio Dept. since we interviewed them in 2009. Last year, they delivered their long-awaited third album Clinging to a Scheme, which managed to surpass even absurd expectations, eventually becoming one of our favourite albums of 2010. This January, they released the career-spanning singles compilation Passive Aggressive, which illustrates the Swedish band creating some of the most accomplished pop music of the past decade, all while never compromising their seemingly impossible to realize musical principles, or as Labrador Records head Johan Angergård puts it, remaining “indie as fuck.”
I caught up with the trio during their stay in Toronto near the start of their first North American tour to discuss their sprawling obsession with pop, passive aggressive tendencies when dealing with press, and their insistence on having complete control of all releases. At the height of their popularity, I found the Radio Dept. constantly looking forward, restless to record, and tirelessly designing ways to piss off any expectations with their next, as yet untitled, album.
The Radio Dept. – We Made the Team
The Radio Dept. – The New Improved Hypocrisy
The Radio Dept. – Never Follow Suit
Daniel: Where does the band record?
Johan Duncanson: At home. At my apartment, Martin’s apartment, or we borrow a rehearsal space sometimes. We’re very mobile; it’s just a PC really. We have this small guitar amp that I also use live as a pre-amp that we plug everything into. We were interviewed by a Swedish magazine a couple of years ago called Studio, which is a magazine for sound engineers and people like that. They wanted to look at our studio. We warned them that they’re not going to be impressed, but they wanted to come anyways.
Martin Larsson: To our “studio” [Laughs].
Johan: When they walked into that room in my apartment they were taken aback that there wasn’t anything there. It was just a guitar, an amp, and a toy keyboard. He was asking a lot about the vocals. We actually told them all the way to the apartment that there was nothing, that we don’t have anything. They said “no, we’ve seen small studios, it’s cool,” then they were like…
Martin: …”what?” [Laughs]
Johan: It’s just a matter of taste nowadays, because if you know where you want to go with your music, you can get there because it’s becoming easier and easier to record at home.
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All Photographs by Jon Bergmann
Back in November, I caught up with José Gonzalez before his band Junip’s show at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. Coming in from Montreal that day, we sat down to chat while the band took a break from sound-checking and rehearsals to grab burritos in the Annex. During our conversation, we discussed working with Junip compared to solo work, the progressive politics of Sweden and their impact on the arts, how good the band is at air guitar, and a bevy of other topics.
The delicate and comfortable sensation of his music transferred to their live show, which I caught following our interview and featured an all-Junip setlist encompassing their Fields album as well as an assortment of unreleased material.
Junip – Always
Junip – Rope and Summit
Sal: Where are you coming into town from?
José Gonzalez: We just came from Montreal, started in Philadelphia and went up north. It was a smaller venue. We had troubles at the border, so we arrived late. But it all turned out alright.
Sal: Swedish bands are usually at the top of our suspicion list at borders. How long have you been on the road now with Junip?
José: We did a tour for a month in Europe and just started this 25-day Canada/US tour.
Sal: Have you been touring North America much in the past few years?
José: Solo, yes. I’ve been here many times. Since 2008 we’ve mostly been working on this new Junip album. I’ve been doing very few shows. I did have some shows lined up in Canada that we had to cancel.
Sal: What was the process like working on this record given that you’ve known Tobias and Elias for so long, and started playing together 11 years ago? I hear some of the material has been in the works for a while.
José: Well, it’s more like the band has been around for about 12 years, but the music is all new. We started setting up recording gear in a rehearsal place and recorded hours and hours of jamming.
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All Photographs by Marc Rimmer
Braids make sticky, tangled, and impossibly charming indie pop. Much like shampooing with maple syrup, the Calgary quartet shows a penchant for experimentation outside of defined boundaries – be they social or musical. Their debut album, Native Speaker, out this week on Flemish Eye in Canada and Kanine Records in the States, combines tribal delirium with living soundscapes. Like mixing stimulants and depressants, Braids are your morning cup of coffee spiked with codeine. Infused with an undeniable sense of life, Native Speaker trickles from your headphones and burrows into the abyss of your eardrums.
Ca Va Cool recently had an opportunity to speak with Austin Tufts and Raphaelle Standell-Preston of Braids where we discussed high school friendships, climbing trees in the Rockies, and the healing power of grouphugs.
Braids – Lemonade
Braids – Plath Heart
Jan: Another band I really enjoy is from Calgary as well – The Rural Alberta Advantage. But Nils, the lone Calgarian in the trio moved to Toronto to continue with the band there, much like Braids has moved to Montreal. Why do you feel these bands are making the move from Calgary?
Austin Tufts: Well, I’d say it’s 50-50. Some of the larger acts from Calgary do stay – like Women up until recently. Chad VanGaalen is very much rooted in Calgary. It really depends on what you want to get out of music. Living in Calgary can totally achieve a different thing than moving away. I think living in Calgary you get to maintain a sense of community – everyone here knows each other, you’re constantly going to shows with the same people. It’s really comfortable. I think bands that make it to the point where they’re able to travel all the time, like Women and Woodpigeon, it doesn’t really matter that they’re living in Calgary because when they’re at home they’re with their family and their friends which is inspiring to them. Then there are other bands like us and the Rural Alberta Advantage that feel they need to get out and explore things and realize that Calgary isn’t the be-all-end-all of cities for a music scene. Every band has their own reason for moving, a big one of ours was for university.
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Named after the frontman’s initials and a tongue-in-cheek nod from friends, PS I Love You are bringing blistering rock back into Canadian music. With shredding solos in searing anthems, Paul Saulnier modestly forges his way through his garage-inspired tunes. Benjamin Nelson – a former bandmate of Saulnier’s from Magic Jordan – joined as the drummer in 2008, and the two have been tearing through live sets together since.
Locals and university students of Kingston, ON may remember Paul Saulnier from the Sleepless Goat, a local favourite café, also a worker’s co-operative and overall cool joint. Saulnier is no longer a member of the co-op, owing to a busy schedule: the duo are embarking on their first cross-Canada tour in support of their upcoming debut LP, Meet Me at the Muster Station, set for release by Paperbag Records on October 5.
Ca Va Cool sat down with Sarnier in front of the Horseshoe Tavern before an electrifying show with The Mystery Jets, to discuss gear, glam rock, and gun-wielding bank robbers.
PS I Love You – 2012
PS I Love You – Facelove (7” Version)
Sabrina: Everything kicked into high gear since the 7″ with Diamond Rings. How did you start working with him?
Paul Saulnier: I met John O’Regan when he was playing with The D’Urbervilles. We opened for them at a show at the Grad Club once. We became friends instantly, and wanted to put out some material together.
Sabrina: Then Pitchfork picked up on it a little while later.
Paul: Yeah, they picked up on his video right away. It took them a few months to flip the record, then they reviewed us. It worked out really well.
Sabrina: They gave you a pretty glowing review. It’s funny the time that lapsed between flipping the record, though.
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