Events

Canadian indie rock band, Broken Social Scene will perform on Saturday, July 28 at one of Buffalo’s most anticipated summer music festivals, Cobblestone Live, which will be held in downtown Buffalo’s Cobblestone District. The two day festival will also feature performances by an eclectic line up of bands including the Sheepdogs, Turkuaz, Aqueous, Chicano Batman, Golf Clap, and many more across three stages. In anticipation of the festival, we spoke with Brendan Canning one of the founding members of Canadian indie rock collective, Broken Social Scene. Canning, who will also DJ a set at an unofficial after party at Mohawk Place on Saturday night, talked to us about summer in his hometown of Toronto, his memories of Buffalo in the 1990s, and why he’s never going into politics.

What do you like to do in Toronto in the summer?
I just got away for a few days, which was nice, but when I’m back in Toronto I lead a pretty simple life. I walk my dog, I ride my bike, I hang out in the park. We have to live through winter and you get this gift of nice days, and when it’s not humid it’s like a blessing. We have like 23 good days a year up here. I’m just kidding, it’s more than that, but you know what I mean.

Being from Toronto did you have much experience visiting Buffalo growing up?
My Buffalo experience started with my first band, called hHead. The first time a couple of promoters in Buffalo, Marcel and Artie, brought my band down to open up for the Goo Goo Dolls because they heard us on CFNY. Then we’d do gigs with Lowest of the Low and we’d do gigs on our own too. Shit, I remember some band we played with down there called Girl Pope as well. Buffalo was a good spot for us for a couple years there—from 92 to 95 I did a lot of gigs in Buffalo and had a lot of good times. Then it wasn’t until Broken Social Scene started up that I really started going down there again, although the last time I was in Buffalo I was out as a DJ opening for the Tragically Hip.

Do you like doing the DJ thing?
It’s a nice side hustle. I get to kind of live out my DJ fantasy—taking control of the stereo and telling people what’s cool. That’s kinda what you want as a musician often. I’m a vinyl guy so I just pack a few bags of records and some 45s and generally make sure to have enough big jams and deep cuts to keep the audience happy.

So Broken Social Scene: Obviously your latest is Hug of Thunder, but before that it was seven years between records and there was a hiatus in there. What was that like for you?
Um, it was just a lot of random things. At that time I managed to squeak out a couple of solo efforts. I did some film scoring. I executive produced a film. I DJed my way through some of those years. I think everyone in the group had a chance to do their own things at that point. Kevin was working with the Tragically Hip or working with Gord on his solo stuff. Charles was doing Do Make Say Think stuff. Justin manages an artist up here called Harrison so he’s building his management repertoire. Everyone kinda has enough that they like to do, and I think it’s just important for the continuation of Broken Social Scene that you can flex outside of this group of individuals that are often very opinionated—because that’s what people who make music are; they’re opinionated. That’s what makes this band the way it is.

You’ve been making music with Kevin Drew for about 20 years or so. What is that relationship like?
It ebbs and flows. We’ve had our honeymoon years, we’ve had our struggling years, we’ve had our “ok, we’re taking time off from each other years,” and I think we’re still able to pull great things out of each other. It continues to evolve—it’s like “oh, you’re crazy,” but then, “oh so am I.” We’re still grooving.

You mentioned Charles as a member of Do Make Say Think, but you’ve had some other members with very popular bands—of course Feist, but there’s also John McEntire who is in Tortoise and who has played with Broken Social Scene and produced some of your records.
God, with Feist, her and I go back way before Broken Social Scene. For that one in particular it’s like yeah, we’re still friends and we both make music. John came out to our gig last time we played in Toronto and if Tortoise or Sea and Cake are playing in Toronto we’ll probably be out at that gig. It’s a continual nurturing of these relationships. Your friend is in time, you go out and support them.

You’ve been playing a lot of shows in Canada and the U.S. but there’s tension between the leaders of both countries right now, somehow, which is mind boggling.
That shit is just so dumb. We’ve spent the better part of our career traveling throughout the U.S. because that’s where our biggest audience is, that’s where we’ve made our living. We just want to, once again, nurture that and pay some respect to that, and hopefully people want to come out and see the band. You don’t want to go out and get on a big soap box every night, but sometimes it’s just like “my god, Canada and the U.S. are still fine, just FYI.” It’s like “oh fuck, what’s going on with Canada? Oh, Broken Social Scene are from there, it can’t be all bad.” But what a bizarre sequence of events that continues to happen. What can you do other than to try and live your life in a positive fashion or run for congress? Which would be like a death wish.

So you’ve never thought about getting into the political game?
I just don’t have the dedication to run for political office, or the desire to hang out with a bunch of politicians. Or just the frustration that would ultimately come with it. It’s kind of grim when you look at it. At the same time, you don’t want the world that you know and love to be swiped out from under your feet. Our focus is to just be a band and play music that makes people feel good.

Do you get excited to play at an outdoor festival like Cobblestone Live? Is it different than playing a club gig?
Yeah. It’s summertime, you’re outdoors. There’s a certain freedom to it. I also just think music sounds good outside. So much of our lives are spent, especially up here, as we discussed, indoors. It’s like, yeah you’re outdoors at a concert. Like fuck, let’s just have some fun for a minute and not think about immigrant families getting separated or all the other bullshit that you have to read about and hear about. At the very core of it, you just want to communicate an idea and the idea is that music is supposed to be a freeing thing. That’s our role.