How’s it goin’, eh?
Winnipeg’s favourite sons interview themselves about touring, elections… and how that new album’s coming along

When a hometown band is as popular as The Weakerthans, it’s difficult to figure out an ‘angle’ for every new interview — we write about these guys so often.

So, when the time came for our annual Weakerthans cover story — in advance of the band’s show at the Burton Cummings Theatre on Sept. 16 — we thought we’d just turn the whole process on its ear and ask the guys in the band to interview themselves.

Singer/songwriter John K. Samson and guitarist Stephen Carroll — who call themselves the ‘Winnipeg faction’ of the band (as bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason Tait live in Toronto) — gamely agreed to take up the challenge.

Earlier this week they sat down to pick each other’s brains, and here’s the unexpurgated version of their chat:

John K. Samson: Greetings. We are the Winnipeg faction of The Weakerthans, John and Stephen, interviewing each other for Uptown. We rarely talk about the band when we are together, so this seems a bit odd. Stephen, what have you been doing when we are not touring or writing or rehearsing? Aside from doing all the thankless Weakerthans management work...

Stephen Carroll: What do you mean aside from thankless management? That is all I have time for! OK, besides travelling the world outside of the band, pursuing sporty hobbies, trying to learn to play guitar and drinking in your back yard, recently me and Greg and Jason got hired to play with Greg Graffin of Bad Religion, so I have spent a bit of time this summer working on that project as well, which was fun as I don’t often work on music projects outside the band. How about you?

JKS: I don’t know what the hell I do with my time, but I always feel busy. Last year you and I were on a curling team skipped by your father, Neil Carroll. That was only once a week, but I became pretty obsessed by it, and I can feel that coming on again as curling season approaches, though I don’t know if we’ll have time to be on a team this year. Lately I've been riding my bike around a lot. I just got it this summer. I don’t know why I never had one before.

SC: You are pretty involved with several creative projects outside the band. Movie scores, contemporary-dance scores and publishing, etc. Do you think working on those projects influences your work with us guys?

JKS: Yeah, I think it does. Curiously, I often get more writing done when I am busy with other things, and whatever it is I am working on colours everything else. I complain about it, but I actually feel best when I have too much to do.

SC: So it’s nice to be home again, eh!

JKS: It was a pretty blistering string of tours. We did a lot of the U.S. and big pieces of Europe in the last four months. It is nice to be back home. It always takes me a few weeks to remember how to live here, not play a show every day. I look forward to a Winnipeg winter. Bring on the snow.

SC: It was nice to spend 2005 just playing in Canada. We had never done that before.

JKS: Yeah, it is simpler to travel here. Easier on the brain.

SC: Did you like opening for The Tragically Hip in Ontario this summer? We both knew that it could be a mixed blessing to get to play before them. Was it better or worse than you expected?

JKS: It was really quite great, actually. The only worry I had was being accepted by the Tragically Hip fans, and they were almost entirely kind and attentive. Playing the University of British Columbia in April with New Pornographers was way harder. Fans threw shoes at me there. I am still uncomfortable with big shows, but it was fun to try. The most interesting thing about the Hip shows was discovering what an excellent band The Hip are. I mean, I am a fan of theirs, so I was obviously excited, and everyone generally acknowledges they are good, but seeing them night after night really revealed how musical and interesting they are live. It is always inspiring to see a really great live band. It reminded me of the first time we played with the Rheostatics, like eight years ago, and thinking, “Oh, live music can be a really incredible experience.” I forget sometimes.

SC: We had some of our most successful shows on this last tour. Playing Webster Hall in NYC, having over 800 folks at our London show and strangely selling out our Vienna show — like, 750 people were there. But it was also a bit of a grind, eh? We drove nine hours to Vienna, played the show, then drove overnight to Lucerne, another weirdly long drive.

JKS: Yeah, there were some wonderful evenings, and less wonderful ones, too. Playing an ice-cream stand on a beach in Spain for a dozen slightly interested people after travelling an absurd distance to get there was just hard. But now it is my favourite show of that tour. Weird. I guess the sangria made up for a lot. This Winnipeg show should be fun, though. Winnipeg shows are the only ones I get really nervous about, for some reason. Hey, tell us about RAY, the organization we are donating some of the door money to.

SC: Yeah, Resource Assistance for Youth. They are getting two bucks a ticket from us and 25 cents per ticket sold from Ticketmaster. I think they are a really terrific organization and am excited to be helping them out. A friend who works with them brought them to my attention. I dropped by their offices last winter and was very impressed. They are a DIY-style support network for transient youth. They are simply there to help in any way possible, from drug rehab to finding them apartments, all provided in a non-judgmental way. We are also selling a Weakerthans T-shirt worldwide from which all proceeds will go to RAY. It will be for sale at the show. I just received the T-shirts — they look awesome. Even I might wear one, though it might be weird to be seen around town wearing a shirt with our own band name on it, I am, of course, a bit weird, so it might work out… uh… Hey, we’re going to be around for the election this time. We are always away for these things. I know the answer to this one, but who should everybody elect for mayor and why?

JKS: I believe that Kaj (Hasselriis) is the best candidate, the candidate that has a real concern for the actual issues that face our city. I am really looking forward to being here for the civic election, even though it seems the press and citizenry seem pretty apathetic about it. I don’t understand why Sam (Katz) is running again. It kinda surprises me. It seems to me he just ran the first time to prove he could do it, to prove that people like him. They do, of course. But that doesn’t mean he should be mayor. His record pretty plainly states that he should not be mayor.

SC: I agree. Go Kaj, go! I want to be able to ride a subway to the pet store! So, on another controversial subject: How is the new album coming? Ha!

JKS: You bastard. Write some damn guitar parts already. I’ll go work on it now. After a bike ride.

SC: Whatever.