Interview: The Lovely Feathers
The Lovely Feathers have had quite a history as a band. From their first years in which they were catapulted into the spotlight when they toured with Metric, to changes in the band’s lineup to label trouble, these guys have been through a lot. But they still have big smiles on their faces and are still putting out some incredible music. Their latest album, which was recorded in a bedroom, has some of their best material yet. And don’t even get us started about their live show. So we were more than excited to have a chat with them before their latest show in Montreal.
Meet You At The Show: So you guys have been on the road for the last few days correct?
Mark Kupfert: Yeah
Ted Suss: Yeah
MYATS: Hows it been going so far?
MK: Good
TS: Good!
MYATS: Happy to be back home?
MK: Yeah….yeah yeah yeah
TS: It’s always nice to be home.
MYATS: What do you guys miss most about Montreal when you are on the road?
MK: We know where to eat here. That’s a big thing. We’ve been eating a lot of Subway and bullshit fast food so…
TS: We eat more…like…We stop losing weight and we begin to (gain).
MYATS: Do you miss the bagels?
MK: Yeah. (laughs)
TS: Yeah.
MK: I think we miss overall health.
TS: We eat too much sodium and not enough calories on tour.
MYATS: So why did you guys choose the Green Room for tonight’s show?
MK: We didn’t choose it actually. This tour was all very last minute and we wanted something intimate. We weren’t sure how this was being promoted, if there was any promotion. Here if ten people come it’s great, if a hundred people come it’s great, if 200 people come it’s horrible, but hopefully it’ll be about 100.
MYATS: So what is your favourite venue to play in Montreal?
MK: I still think Sala Rossa is my favourite.
TS: It’s got the best sound.
MK: It’s the rare combination of intimate venue, good sight lines and decent sound system.
MYATS: So let’s talk about the new album, Fantasy of the Lot. How long have you guys been working on it?
MK: Well after our last album, Hind Hind Legs, we were dropped by our label…well our label (Equator) kind of imploded. So they stopped existing. So then it was kind of like “oh shit, okay…” and we were kind of in limbo and we were just relaxed cause we had a busy year and then we just slowly recorded. It was pretty organic. No one gave us any money so we didn’t have real studio time so it was really a bedroom record, in the sense that it was done…in the bedroom, literally. I think you can hear that. I think it’s good and bad. On the one hand it’s intimate and a little less escapist. On the other hand, it’s a little more reserved. But we’re now working on new material, to get a proper recorded record again.
MYATS: What do you guys enjoy more…playing shows or recording albums?
MK: I think they both have their benefits. Playing shows it’s an immediate reaction. So you play and an hour later you have a reaction. Whereas recording and making songs you work on it for so long and then you put it out and obviously you want some type of reaffirmation.
TS: I think what we really enjoy about the writing process is the conception of songs, which usually come about through jamming. And we just love jamming. We could go for two hours without a stop in the noise and just be lost in it.
MYATS: So when you guys write it’s a completely organic experience with ideas coming from all sides of the room?
MK: It depends…
TS: Our new material, which we will be playing some tonight…we basically had all these long jams that we really liked. And we basically said “Ok so how do we make this into an album?” So we tried to take what we had and format it into three minute pop songs. We love them the way they are but if you want to be alive in this world as an artist you have to fit that format. So you’ll hear them and picture them being like an hour long. Honestly, sometimes we’d stay on like one chorus for an hour and it was just like meditation.
MYATS: What’s your favourite song to play live from the new material?
MK: From the last album, “Family That Doesn’t Know The Game” and “Finders Fee”. It’s actually one of the cases where the recorded versions don’t do the songs justice and every time I hear them I get upset because the songs are actually better than how they sound of the CD and live they kind of come into their own.
MYATS: Are you guys going to be playing any of your older material?
MK, TS: Yeah.
MYATS: Like Fudgicle?
MK: (laughs) Oh that old? You mean from My Best Friend Daniel? Yeah we’ll play “Photo Corners” we’ll play “Wrong Choice”.
TS: Where was it? Oh in Toronto someone was like “Forest Fire!” and we were like “we haven’t played this in like three years”.
MK: If I’m drunk enough and people recommend a song that we haven’t practiced in three years we might just play it.
TS: It was quite interesting. It was an interesting reincarnation.
MYATS: What differences have you noticed between playing shows in Montreal and playing shows elsewhere?
MK: Well the thing with Montreal is that people know us from the “Fudgicle” days so that’s a huge difference. We go on the road and no one knows that song. But our families live here, our friends live here, everyone’s seen us from like…we’ve gone through many stages and this is a new incarnation that we’re a four piece now instead of a five piece, which is a big change and we’re not even sure if we’re going to keep the same name. Right now it’s working, the change seems to be kind of organic but we’ll see how the new material goes. If for the next record we’ll keep the same moniker, we’re not sure.
MYATS: Did you guys pick a name for the next record yet?
MK: Um…I have a name for the band.
ST: It’s a working name.
MYATS: What’s the name?
MK: Bialystoker…Home for the aged.
ST: Home for the aged.
MYATS: Where did that come from?
MK: I was staying on East Broadway in New York. It’s an old immigrant neighborhood and there’s this building and it just has this wonderful font and it says “Bialystoker – Home For The Aged”.
MYATS: The first time I saw you guys play was in 2005, opening for Metric. Do you guys consider that the highlight of your career as The Lovely Feathers?
MK: The thing was that it was almost the first experience so it was more of just like “what the fuck? This is what it’s about?” So it was a good experience, I mean not a good experience but a fucked up experience cause it was our first one. But I think my favourite tour was…Well the thing is we kind of had this rapid trajectory and then we came down and then we are kind of slowly building and these last tours, we did a cross-country tour across Canada and we just did a tour with The Rural Alberta Advantage. I think we’re just a bit more mature, we’re not as jaded and disillusioned and we don’t have false senses of grandeur. We’re just humble dudes playing music now, whereas in the beginning it was like “You’re touring with Metric, holy shit!”
TS: “Party on the tour bus!”
MK: I’m way happier playing this type of thing. Low key, five buck shows. I think he (Ted) would like to be playing with Metric right now. He had a crush on Emily Haines.
MYATS: Who doesn’t? Hold on…did you guys share a tour bus with Emily Haines?
TS: No but every day they had plenty of beer and wine on their bus so…
MYATS: Didn’t Metric’s Jimmy Shaw produce your record?
MK: Yeah we’re still close with him.
TS: And their sound guy that tour engineered our record.
MK: When we go to Toronto he’ll come out. We asked them if we could tour again and they were like “Ah I dunno boys”. (laughs)
MYATS: Alright well thanks guys.
MK: Yeah thanks.
ST: Thanks.
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We would just like to thank The Lovely Feathers for taking some time to chat with us. Stay tuned for a review of the show, which will be posted later today.
