Wolf Parade
Apologies to the Old School
Amid the wash of wolf-named bands that seem to have sprouted mycologically in the North American indie rock scene in the past year or so, there are actually a few that look likely to survive long enough for the fad to wane. Wolf Parade hails from Montreal, as do several of the band’s wolfish compatriots. A veritable hotbed of rock action right now, Montreal is the new Seattle or something, if you ask your average A&R guy. And speaking of A&R guys, Wolf Parade are signed to SubPop, the penultimate crawdaddy senior of indie record labels, thanks to an old connection who happened to be one.
That connection was none other than Isaac Brock, who was very interested in signing Wolf Parade’s songwriter and guitarist, Dan Boeckner, back when he was in Atlas Strategic, who was opening for both of Brock’s personae, Modest Mouse and Ugly Casanova. Alas, Atlas shrugged, but Dan moved on to help form Wolf Parade with Spencer Krug on keys, Arlen Thompson on drums, Hadji Bakara also on keys and lately Dante Decaro (ex-Hot Hot Heat) also on guitar.
“When Isaac found out that Dan had another project going a few years later,” says Arlen languidly, belying the band’s onstage energy, “he was interested and we sent him two of our EPs and he was really into it and he ended up getting us signed up and doing our record. He’s got a lot of experience. He’s been making great records for years. He just brought all his knowledge. It wasn’t too much influence like hands on in the actual songwriting, but he definitely had a hand in how a lot of things got ‘shaped’ sonically. It was our first time being in a real studio. We had recorded two EPs before that, but it was all just done by ourselves with our own crappy equipment.”
The break of success over the back of an indie band is sort of like those theoretical reactions between matter and anti-matter where a total energy release occurs. “Look at Arcade Fire, they have such huge success. I remember seeing them play in an art gallery to 15 people, and now they can’t play a show under 2000 people. There’s definitely a feeling that when you first started playing, there’s this group of people who really have their ear to the ground at all times finding out new bands. And when you start playing, they pick up on you and the bigger you get, the more you start slipping away from them, people start feeling that you’re no longer where you were at.”
The title of the band’s first full length album, Apologies to the Queen Mary, reflects one aspect of that kind of swollen growth, albeit indirectly. The band was invited to play the Long Beach leg of the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, which is split between LA and the UK. “The festival is on the same property as this luxury liner, the Queen Mary. It’s from the 30s and now it is just a floating hotel. We stayed the night there but we ended up playing at like two in the afternoon, so basically by the end of the evening we were quite soused I guess. We just ended up getting up to no good and trying to have a séance…and I think we might have angered some spirits, including Sir Winston Churchill, who was the main spirit we were trying to conjure. I think it might have cursed us a little bit. Through drunken stupidity I think we stirred up some movement in the spirit world, like Churchill and Queen Mary, who probably have some sway in the realm of the afterlife.”
The guys have a good attitude, though, when it comes to how they approach their live shows, and the whole gamut of this music thing. “We try to play all of our shows like we were playing in some kid’s basement, no matter how big it is. We just try to make it feel like that, just get out there and let it all hang loose. For me that’s my favourite kind of show is when you’re playing in some sweaty basement with 50 kids cramped into it and everyone is hanging off the ceiling and it’s a big riot. We try to bring that kind of energy and insanity to the stage.”
- Blunt Magazine
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