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The Vault In The Vault, you'll find a collection of old feature pieces from our back issues. Beta started in June 1999, so you'll find a veritable history here.
The Besnard Lakes are loud, very loud T aking their moniker from a lake in northern Saskatchewan, Montreal band The Besnard Lakes are wowing music critics with their new album, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar). They play orchestral indie rock, but somewhere inside what could potentially be a bloated genre, they find a taut fingernail-meets-chalkboard eeriness, and this is what rescues the music from lapsing into preciousness. Plus, they bring more to the table: Beach Boys-type vocal harmonies, Pink Floyd solos, and Spiritualized-space rock. SPIN magazine says: "Rarely has dispiritedness sounded so uplifting. But Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, the married couple who lead the band, aren't depressives, as Beta's Lee Chung Horn finds out. How did you get signed to Jagjaguwar? Jace: We got signed to Jagjaguwar by two strokes of coinciding luck. The person that runs the Jagjaguwar myspace page found us, and recommended the band to the label. At about the same time, I had sent a CD to Jagjaguwar and they listened to the record on a road trip. Everyone in the car apparently really liked it. I understand you were on Static Caravan and Earworm before. What other records or singles have you previously released? We released a full length in 2003 called Volume I on Earworm.
Earworm is now out of
business. We released a seven inch in 2004 called Life Rarely Begins With
Tungsten Film #2 which was limited to 100 copies and is completely sold
out. Then we released a ten inch on Static Caravan called Would Anybody
Come To Visit Me? We're preparing to enter a general state of darkness and mystery. We are spending a lot of time drinking cheap wine and listening to Prince. We are excited about coming over to the old world. We have no money for shopping, so, no shopping, unless it's cheap wine. Tell us about the studio you own, Breakglass. Is it in the Mile End district? What equipment do you have inside? Breakglass is just outside the Mile End area. It's a mostly analog studio with an emphasis on the old days. We have two echo chambers and a 1500 square foot live room with lots of plants. Big old console, two inch tape (Studer A80 Mk II), Ampex ATR-102 quarter inch machine for mixdown, shitloads of amps, keyboards, guitars and drums. Jace, you previously worked with Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade on their albums. How is working on other people's albums different from working on your own? I have a lot of fun. I get inspired from recording other people. I just get frustrated when writing our records. Tell us how Stars, The Dears and Godspeed/Silver Mt. Zion contributed to "Are the Dark Horse". Chris Seligman from Stars played French horn and Sophie from Mt. Zion played violin. All their parts were written by Nicole. George from the Dears played one of the three drums tracks on "Devastation". All Music Guide says of the new album: "It's like a Beach Boys album when it's calm and a Queen album when it's crunchy." Are Beach Boys and Queen influences? Growing up what records were you listening to? Olga: I listened to my older brother and sister's records when I was growing up. I do remember really getting into Queen when "The Game" came out and there was definitely some Beach Boys in those collections too, along with Journey, Fleetwood Mac, The Carpenters, Iron Maiden. You can probably tell which records came from my brother's collection and which one's came from my sister's collection! I pretty much liked all sorts of music. I started to develop my own taste in music when I was about fourteen years old and by time I was nineteen I was listening to bands like The Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana. Those were the really great years for me - that's when I started to play in bands. Jace and Olga, how long have you been married? Do they feel any kind of affinity to other married couples in bands---Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, Mates of State, The Rosebuds, Paul and Linda McCartney? Do you think being husband and wife makes things easier or harder? Olga: We've been married for seven years. I don't really know what other married couples experience while playing music together, but I would say that overall it makes things easier for us. But I don't know if it's necessarily easier for everyone in the band! I just see it as something super cool - Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, etc all have great music careers. They probably had a lot of ups and downs. It's not easy, but to create with someone you love is a pretty awesome thing. You said on the internet you were looking forward to see Iggy and the Stooges at SXSW. Did you, and how was the gig? Olga: Oh no - we didn't get to see the show. We weren't in Austin for that
long. Too bad, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. Olga: Our gig was great. We played outside and the weather was agreeable,
that's a good start! We played for the Jagjaguwar showcase night and I
liked the other bands that I saw play - like Richard Swift, Okkervil River,
Dirty Projectors. I was also pretty busy at the same time because I was
writing blogs for the Montreal Gazette; so I'd be inside somewhere trying to
find some wireless internet hotspots so I could write. This was our second
time in Austin. Olga: Ultimately, I think that it's only as good as what you believe it to be. On the one hand, yes, there are days where I think that these sites are a bit of a hassle. But, people are curious and they now have the power to find out a little something about your band at their fingertips. There isn't as much left to one's privacy anymore, and to a certain degree that depresses me. But you also have to take what you see on the internet with a grain of salt - you can't take it too seriously. How long did you take you to put together the album and what was your process like? Olga: Overall it took about 8 or 9 months, I think. It's hard to say
exactly. Jace had to move his studio and get the new one started and that
sort of interrupted the recording process. The songs would get done in
small bursts mostly - some songs were almost entirely written and recorded
by Jace by himself. Others were a little more equally divided between Jace
and I, while others were recorded with the whole band, like "And You Lied To
Me". There are songs for which Nicky wrote string, French horn and flute parts, namely on "Disaster", "Rides the Rails", and "Because Tonight". I
suppose "Devastation" was one that was a bit different from the other songs
in that Jace didn't play on the recording at all, but he did "play"
engineer. "Devastation" had nine players (3 drummers, 3 bass players, and 3
guitarists) playing the song live off the floor and then a five person choir
sang three-part harmonies which were overdubbed - it was intense! Olga: Live we're a six-piece band with drums, bass, three guitars, keys,
lots of vocals. We like to think we're a psychedelic rock band, both live
and on record. But live we're a little bit louder and more... rock! Olga: Yes, I think it is. Musical genres and boundaries are being blurred
all the time, and I think that sort of cross-pollination makes for some very
interesting styles of music. Olga: A lot of what comes from Jace's studio somehow makes it into my brain
these days. Jace is recording this band right now called "The Sunday
Sinners" who describe what they're making as a modern psychedelic record
and it's really really good - I'd actually describe it as a psychedelic soul
record. Final question: You call yourselves the dark horse. A dark horse is a person who does not tell other people about their ideas or skills and who surprises people by doing something that they do not expect. Alternately, he's a person who wins a race or competition although no one expected them to. Which are you? Olga: I'd like to say both! Ha ha ha... Send your comments to info@betamusic.com.sg
© Beta Music 2008
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How are you preparing for your upcoming Europe tour? Are you excited about
playing Paris, all around UK, and Brussels? Will you get a chance to do some
shopping and sightseeing?
How are your live shows different from the album?