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Last Updated:
Feb 2nd, 2010 - 13:42:13 |
Breaking Away From the Scene
Kevin Drew
Broken Social Scene really isn’t a band. They’re more like a rare and precious collection of musically inclined people. You could call them a supergroup, but they really deserve a better term than that.
Over the years you may have noticed that several members of Broken Social Scene are involved in other musical projects and have released albums. Stars, Feist, Apostle of Hustle, Metric ... sound familiar anyone? Well, now it's scruffy frontman Kevin Drew’s turn at bat and he’s swinging hard. It’s about time. There’s a lot of talent he needs to put on display. Canada has become a breeding ground for infectious indie-rock and Drew proves this statement.
Drew’s first solo endeavor, Spirit If..., was released on Arts & Crafts, which is the label he co-founded. Spirit If... is over an hour of organized chaos with Kevin Drew at the helm. His imagery is often painful, but in the most beautiful way possible. The record offers upbeat songs with lots of lo-fi undertones that you almost want to cry to. Some of the tracks have a tendency to sound like Broken Social Scene B-sides, but I’ve always enjoyed B-sides. All songs were recorded over a two-year period and feature most members of Broken Social Scene scattered over bits and pieces of the album. Altogether, Spirit If... features over 20 guests leaving their prints.
Drew’s solo is the first of the Broken Social Scene Presents: series. It is said that fellow Social Scener Brendan Canning’s album is due for release in 2008.
Kevin Drew took time off from being sick to talk to me. He wasn’t super interested in discussing his new album. Instead he enjoyed grilling me about my relationship with my parents and telling me how much he hates Zach Braff’s smirk. I’m not going to lie; it was a really weird conversation. He’s lucky I like talking about myself ... and cute scruffy guys.
Hey, Kevin, how are you?
Don’t ask me any questions about Broken Social Scene first. Save that until the end. People keep asking me about it. I’m sick and that will make me feel worse. So we’ll just talk about that later. Just so you know, I talk a lot. I’ll probably answer all your questions in one big run-on sentence.
Ok, I’ll save it for the end. So I read that you wrote all the songs for Spirit If... by yourself. Is that true?
Not true. I worked with two guys from Do Make Say Think: Charles Spearin and Ohad Benchetrit. In Broken Social Scene, I would write songs on my guitar and then I would take them to the band and someone would write a bass line, and someone would write a drum part and so on. Everyone would write his or her parts. It would become a better song. With this record I would come to the table and play a song and Ohad and Charles would add their parts. I could tell you that I wrote some of the songs by myself. Ohad was incredible to write with. I’ve been told recently that I have a bad attitude.
That’s rude. By who?
Fucking Australians. I was being nice and did the interview on their time and then they kept asking me about how I got involved with Broken Social Scene. Read a bio. It’s like just go ahead and rape me.
On Spirit If… some of the songs sound like they could be Broken Social Scene songs if they wanted to and you got, like, 15 more people to play on them.
They were written for the moment and specifically to be written. Like “Big Love” was written by Charles. We weren’t making a record, Andrea. We were just recording. I just wanted to feel the process of making songs again and recording. Just at the end we decided to make it a record. It was an amazing thing. With Broken Social Scene it was like we’d make a record, we’d promote it, we’d tour and everything was go, go, go! We’re about to go on tour and in, like, every city there’s, like, three other great bands playing on the same night we are. It’s crazy.
What made you want to do a solo project?
My solo project enabled me to embrace things more. I didn’t want it to be associated with other bands, so when I would read about it I wouldn’t have to read about all the other bands that it was being associated with. I forgot your question. It’s gone … done. Do you live with your parents?
Yes.
Where’s your mom? You should get your mom on the phone. When we come to Ann Arbor you can bring your mom to the show. I can get her some backstage passes and she can come hang out and we can get sushi. I had really good sushi in Ann Arbor once. No, really. Do you have any issues you need to work out with your mom? I’m really good at stuff like that.
No, that’s ok.
Will you put my record on at dinner? I think your parents might like it. It might provoke them to tell you stories you’ve never heard. They probably grew up in the '70s and early '80s. That was a crazy time.
I think we’re talking more about me than we are about you.
Well, this is important stuff. You need to know more about your family. We can talk about me anytime. | RDW
Broken Social Scene • 11/6 • Michigan Theater
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