Leading the ‘soft revolution’
Broken Social Scene is at the head of a new wave of Canadian music
John Kendle


It’s been three years since Broken Social Scene’s groundbreaking second album, You Forgot It in People, blew up the stereos of Canadian indie music fans.

With its multi-instrumental, pop-based sound — whereby band and players are almost compelled to explode a song — propelling it to a higher plane, the Toronto-based band became a rallying point for fans of intelligent, exuberant pop.

Still, the loose BSS collective was rather surprised to hear that its record actually won the best alternative album Juno in 2003. That win brought even more attention to the group, which is more a loose amalgam of players situated around the founding partnership of guitarist/frontman Kevin Drew and bassist /guitarist/keyboardist Brendan Canning.

National acclaim and international touring followed on rather quickly, and through 2003 and 2004 BSS became hailed as the locus of Canada’s ‘soft revolution’ — a phrase that has come to encompass the work of kindred spirits (and frequent collaborators) such as Feist, Stars, The Dears, Metric, Raising the Fawn and others.

In the years since You Forgot It… was released, almost all these artists have recorded and won acclaim in their own right, yet almost every story about them has included references to BSS.

So when the band’s new, self-titled third album was finally released by the Arts & Crafts label last month, it was almost a relief to critics and fans who could talk about Broken Social Scene again and not just bands or performers related to the collective.

Even for the band members, getting back on the road to support the new album has been a relief after a year or more of recording and waiting.

“It really feels like a band again, finally,” says multi-instrumentalist Charles Spearin over the phone from San Francisco.

“While you’re in the studio you’re not all in at the same time and there’s discussions that take place that you miss. Or you come in and play 10 parts and then go away and come back again and find out which one got picked,” he explains. “It’s a lot of fun just to be out and performing now.”

A guitarist, trumpeter and bassist, Spearin has been in the BSS camp from the group’s beginnings. He and Kevin Drew were partners in kc accidental, an experimental pop duo in the late ’90s, and he’s also been part of Do Make Say Think with several other BSS players. In addition to performing on the last two Social Scene albums, he and current BSS bandmember Ohad Benchetrit mixed Feel Good Lost.

“To me, Broken Social Scene is pretty much the same idea as kc accidental,” Spearin says. “That was very much an introduction to the kinds of things that we do, and everything that has happened since has been a natural progression — it’s a balance between celebration and trying not to get poked in the eye.

“Which is kind of what the live show is, actually,” he says.

Indeed. The Social Scene’s live gigs are certainly spectacles. In Toronto, the number of people onstage can reach the ’teens.

The group’s current tour features a core of nine players — Drew, Canning, Spearin, Benchetrit, guitarist Andrew Whiteman, drummer Justin Peroff, guitarist John Crossingham, Winnipeg-born viola ace Julie Penner and trumpeter Adam Murray. Holding everything together as soundman is another former Winnipegger, Marty Kinack (who promises to jump up and play on Saturday night).

Singers have been dropping in and out of the tour as schedules permit, as well, and onstage guests are frequent.

For Spearin, the performance experience of Broken Social Scene is the ultimate catharsis, but he says he has to keep his eyes open at all times.

“There’s violin bows going, you can step on people’s pedals, you sometimes have to be on the other side of the stage…” he says.

“There’s definitely chaos involved, but the crowds have been pretty fucking amazing, too. In Los Angeles it was pretty overwhelming, and there have been some really, really excited fans on this tour.”

Though the band has just released 21 songs via its new album and a bonus EP called You and Me, tour setlists are comprised of tunes from all eras of the group’s existence. And they’re done on the fly, so no two shows are the same.

“Usually while the opening act is on we sit down and write the setlist down on a napkin, and it gets copied for everyone so it’s not complete chaos out there — but it is a challenge.”

Being on the road is also a different vibe for the group, as well. In the studio, producer Dave Newfeld and Drew were the inseparable pair that oversaw all aspects of recording, but everyone in the band got their two cents worth. Once the creative work is done, however, the real heavy, heady conversations are generally put aside, Spearin says.

“On the road it’s mostly about how the gig went the night before. All the thinking and the talking and the discussion goes on in the studio.”

It’s just the explosion that takes place onstage.

For more info see our What’s Up entertainment listings.