Street: How has the tour been going? Charles Spearin: Good. It seems like a never ending tour. We really started in May, in the beginning of May, when the record came out. But we had some time off in August, so this is officially a new tour, the fall tour, with The Sea and Cake and Wooden Birds. And this is our fourth show. But it’s been great, so far it’s been really great, at all the shows the audience has been, uh, super.
Street: I saw you play at the Pitchfork Festival [in Chicago] this summer (link to Un-fork-ettable article), with a lot of young bands that were probably influenced by you. Did you see anyone that you hadn’t seen before? CS: You know, I didn’t get to stick around that festival at all, really. We were pretty much in and out. So unfortunately, no, I didn’t get… I’m trying to think of who I did see, I saw Robyn. She was playing at pretty much the same time as us or right before us. Street: I heard she was incredible. I didn’t see her, though. CS: She was fun. Yeah, no, but we just went swimming in the pool [behind the festival grounds] and then took off [laughs].
Street: You guys have a constantly changing lineup. How do you choose the band lineup for the albums and the tour? Do you select a group [based on the kind of sound you want], or is it whoever can make it at the time, or … CS: It’s a little bit of both. It’s whoever can make it, but, uh, I don’t know, it kind of happened very naturally, it’s not like we have a selection process. We know that James [Shaw] and Emily [Haines] are going to be busy with [their band] Metric, pretty much forever, so they are going to play with us occasionally, like one-off gigs from time to time. And it’s always great, but they’re not going to tour with us. Same with Feist, she’s obviously super famous, and she’s got her own thing going, so it’s unlikely that she’ll ever do a full tour with us, but she definitely plays shows. Same thing with Stars, like Amy Millan and Evan Cranley, who are both part of Broken Social Scene. They, I believe, will be touring with us for a couple weeks in the fall, and maybe in December, even, in Canada. So that’ll be good. But, uh, it’s kind of, like, who’s available. [My other band] Do Make Say Think isn’t touring right now, so that’s why I’m available to do it. I try to make room for both bands. We’ve been juggling schedules for more than ten years, so we’ve got used to it now. I don’t even know how to describe it, but we have our way.
Street: So you’re in Philly for two days in order to play two shows at the TLA. Do you have any fun plans in Philadelphia? Anything you guys like to do while you’re here? CS: Well, we don’t have a night off, which is too bad. We’re here for two nights, but we’re playing both nights, so we don’t really get to do much. But, um, no, is there anything happening? [laughs.]
Street: There are probably some parties at my college… CS: [laughs.] Well, I bought a bike when I was in Asheville, so I’ve been riding around everywhere I go. I just got back now.
Street: Oh, nice. CS: Philly is a cool town to, just, ride around in, and look at people… I really like it. There’s a lot of great, musicians and stuff here, too. So I always feel welcome here.
Street: Do you plan to have similar set lists the two nights? Or do you plan to go deeper into your catalogue because you’re playing two shows? CS: We’ll probably mix it up a little bit. I think we’ll, uh… you know, we kind of have a bunch of songs that we play pretty much every night. Kind of, the hits, if we have hits. I don’t think we’ve ever had a hit, per se, but, you know, we have the songs we always play that people want to hear. So if anybody wants to come to one show and not both then they’re not going to really miss anything, they’ll both be good shows, but there’ll be a few songs different, night by night. Plus, there’s always a certain element of chaos in the band and you never really know what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s a very smooth show and sometimes we think it’s going one way and then we change direction completely halfway through.
Street: So your new album is titled Forgiveness Rock Record (link to FRR review from last semester). How did you come to base your album around this theme? Did the theme seem to rise organically out of the music, or was it a conscious choice to make an album based on “forgiveness”? CS: The forgiveness part kind of came as the record developed. We had such a great time making all the music [and] there was, uh, there was a bit of a theme of, you know, maybe I’m projecting on to it too much, but there was a sense of… rebuilding bridges. But the band, like you said, is a revolving cast. It’s built so fundamentally on relationships that we kind of have to be very aware of how to respect each other’s opinions and ideas and that kind of thing. So there’s a constant effort involved in working with a collective like this… We’re not trying to preach forgiveness but we’re talking about the practicality of it and the healthiness of it personally and globally. If you look at politics, everybody is pointing fingers and there’s hardly any middle ground and there’s a lot of blame for everything that’s happening in the world right now. There should be some way to drop the blame and just get on with fixing some of the shit that needs to get fixed in the world, you know? Like moving on, there’s a sense of fresh start and I think that’s what appealed to us about the word ‘forgiveness'… It’s not so much about the past as it is about beginning again.
Street: Your new album sounds more anthemic than your old records. What do you think can explain this shift? CS: I don’t know, we had such a great time making this record. Working with John McEntire, who was a hero of ours for such a long time, was really exciting. It was great to be in Chicago. We did a lot of the recording in Chicago. And it was just good to… be away from everything that’s distracting and focus on the music. That was really healthy for us. And we weren’t all there at the same time, of course, that would have been chaos. But, uh, it was really good to focus on the music and I think there was, naturally, some sense of celebration musically although I think some of the lyrics are a little bit darker. You know, [there’s] a little bit more social commentary in the lyrics. But musically there is a sense of celebration to it, so I think that’s where your anthemic qualities come in.
Street: So you were talking about John McEntire, [who produced the latest album], and he is also in The Sea and Cake, who are opening for you. Is it weird to have the person who produced your latest album coming on the tour as an opening act? CS: Yeah, it’s kind of weird to have The Sea and Cake open for us because we were huge fans of theirs a long time ago and it’s kind of bullshit that they’re not more popular than they are. I think they’re one of the greatest bands in America now. Like, I think they’re just a fucking fantastic band and have such a good sound that it’s a real honor to have them on tour with us. We asked them and we didn’t think it would really happen. Yesterday was the first show [with The Sea and Cake] and it was good and I think as the tour progresses we’ll start to play with them a little bit and they’ll start to play with us a bit. You know, we’re all traveling together and we’re all becoming friends. John [McEntire] is already and [vocalist/guitarist] Sam Prekop sang one song on our record. So, hopefully it will be a little bit more incestuous by the time the tour is done [laughs].
Street: How does lyric writing work in Broken Social Scene? Is it a collaborative effort, or is it mostly [lead singer/guitarist] Kevin Drew? CS: The lyrics are mostly Kevin. The Brendan songs are written by [multi-instrumentalist] Brendan Canning. Kevin writes all his songs. I think he wrote the lyrics to “All to All” as well, which is a Lisa [Lobsinger] song. But the lyrics are somewhat spontaneous. The music is usually written first and as we write the music we leave space for each other, so we really never know where the song is going when we start it which is exciting. And then, once the music sort of reaches a certain place, then Kevin will go in and say ‘I’m going to sing,’ and then he makes up the words as he goes along. And he’ll refine it a little bit. But generally, like, it’s the same with Brendan, too. There’s not too much in the way of laboring over a piece of paper with a pen, trying to come up with a perfect poem to sing on [a] song. It’s more, like, what the music, sort of, brings out.
Street: On songs led by female vocalists, do they write their own lyrics, usually? Like, you said “All to All” was written by Kevin, but like “Sentimental Xs”… CS: Oh yeah, “Sentimental Xs” was written by Emily. That was one where we had all the music done. It was going to be an instrumental song. We were really happy with it. We loved it as an instrumental song. And then we sent it to Emily [Haines]. She didn’t come into the studio, but we sent it to her and said, ‘If you feel something for this, if you have an idea, then please, we would love to have you sing on it.’ And then she sent it back and it was this beautiful love letter for the band, basically. It was a very sweet gesture. So we asked Feist and Amy Millan to sing on it as well. So it’s kind of like, the three main ladies all singing on one song. So that was really kind of special.
