These are pics from The Casbah in San Diego. Check back in a couple days for pics from El Rey and a review of both shows from Ice Cream Man.
It took me about 10 tries to get a hold of somebody from Wolf Parade on the phone. I would call, they would answer sound confused, or was it sleepy? And then hang up and not answer again. Thankfully, Hadji Bakara answered my eleventh call and he took some time out to shoot the bull with me while the band was on the road. Being from the LBC, my primary objective was to find out exactly why their new record is called Apologies to the Queen Mary. Along the way, I found out even more information about the origins of the title and the band than I had originally imagined I would.
Hadji: Hello
Alex: Hey this is Alex. I know you are way busy but Ive called about ten times because I was supposed to have an interview with you. (I love Sub Pop! But, the scheduling of this interview was very painful because I was told my interview was set for Wednesday. The band, however, was told I would be calling the Friday before.)
HB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, thats cool.
Alex: Cool, Since Im from Long Beach, Im totally curious, so Im going to get right to it — whats with the title of your record?
HB: Oh, hell no the LBC? Well, The Queen Mary was basically the nexus and the sleeping quarters for everyone who was playing All Tomorrows Parties (see ICM ATP Review) and the bar closed really early. I mean it was literally a boatload of musicians and the bar shut down at like midnight or something. Our friends from Frog Eyes were also in town, so they came down. Whenever closing time was, I dont really remember, but at some point we eventually got kicked out of the bar. Security on the Queen Mary was nice enough, though, to unlock a door that got us onto this area of the boat that was usually restricted and told us that we could make as much noise as we wanted because we wouldnt disturb anyone.
AR: Right
HB: We just cruised back there and we came across this door that said Winston Churchill Honorary Ballroom and we were like What the f^ck is this? The door was locked, but Michael, or someone from Frog Eyes just kicked the door in, and we came upon this opulent, sprawling, bedazzled ballroom that was deep inside the bowels of the Queen Mary. Basically we were so, so stoked to come across this monumental room, so we started to just party in there. And then because theres this whole thing about the Queen Mary being haunted, I decided that we needed to do a seance and manifest this era of Winston Churchill, because obviously he was actually on this boat at one time. We came across this old oak table inside the room that somehow got turned into a Ouija board, which included a buck knife and kicking the legs off.
(Laughter)
Then some crazy ornament that got taken off of the wall got turned into the Ouija and we manifested some spirits. The spirits turned out to be pretty immature, unfortunately, and started doing stupid stuff like drinking too much and breaking stuff, basically just being pretty rowdy. So the spirits just ended up fucking shit up and we couldnt control them at all because they were spirits. (Laughter) You know they did some illegal stuff too, like throwing stuff overboard and shit like that. Long story short, we ended up getting kicked off of the boat.
(Laughter)
HB: We tried to explain to the management that it was just the spirits, but they didnt see them so they couldnt really understand what we were talking about.
AR: So what did they tell you when they kicked you off?
HB: It was actually just Arlen and I by that time negotiating with the manager and she was like, weve had Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols and Guns N Roses all on this boat, but no band has ever been kicked off of the Queen Mary. Right now, Im kicking you off of the Queen Mary. And all I could think at the time was Oh my god did anybody here that? Please tell me somebody got that sh_t on tape. Do you hear the company were in? But only Arlen and me have that gem imbedded in our memory.
AR: Thats awesome
HB: Yeah, its pretty sweet.
AR: So did you guys have a good time at ATP and in Long Beach besides that?
HB: It was totally great! I mean we got tons of slack about the whole situation, but by the end of the whole thing we had been forgiven on all fronts. Then these random rumors started up like that we had actually got the boat on fire and shit like that.
At this point I console Hadji and explain that kind of stuff happens on the Queen Mary all the time. I have seen the spirits make people do crazy things on that boat, like throw rolls at seagulls during Sunday brunch or fall down steps for no reason at all. Yet I digress.
AR: (In my best Rick James imitation) Alcohol is a terrible drug.
HB: Yeah, we actually will not play for free booze anymore; its in our contract. (Note: They did not play ATP for free booze, but apparently devoured it in mass quantities) Whenever Rob, our booking agent, books a show it says in our contract Do Not Give Them Unlimited Booze. Weve had to curb ourselves. In fact, we played a show for free booze once and I actually passed out in the middle of our set and lost consciousness for awhile until I crawled out from underneath my keyboard, through the crowd and out to the front where I just puked my guts out.
(Laughter)
AR: So besides public drunkenness, how are things going for you guys right now? You guys about ready to take over the world?
HB: Not really. Right now were filthy and dirty and angry and coated in gum, so I dont think were ready to take over the world.
AR: From what I read about you guys, you seem happy to be part of such a big label like Sub Pop, but maybe feel like you have sold yourselves out a little.
HB: Not really, no. Its definitely a lot of overwhelming attention thats kind of over saturated with positivity I guess. In other words were still just waiting for the backlash. But, whatever, as long as people give us a chance then the situation is good.
AR: Did you find it beneficial to work with Isaac Brock on this record?
HB: Definitely, he was great. He opened us up to a lot of ideas regarding the process of recording and just good ideas in general; hes a real talkative person in that sense. But in the end, I dont think that it has much to do with Isaac as it does with us working with producers and thinking that the whole concept of a producer is just so ambiguous. What a producer actually does we just cant get our heads around. When it comes down to it, were all recording nerds and we have really strong ideas about what we want to sound like, so the less heads conflicting the better. And to us, the producer is just another head. So were going to try to keep the heads down to a minimum in the future.
AR: So you think its best to just produce your own stuff because you know what you want?
HB: Yeah, exactly. Its only natural right? Maybe something is lost with such an activity, but I think that something is gained as well. Its a give and a take. I mean the thought of a producer as an objective ear is totally erroneous. Its just another subjective ear. Rather or not they are in our out of the band, they still have their own preconceived notions of what they want us to sound like. So were just going to use our own dirty set of ears from now on.
