Eardrum NYC contributor Gary Canino caught up with Alexei Perry of Montreal's Handsome Furs back in the spring to talk about the duo's new album, Sound Kapital, and more. Check out the interview below. Handsome Furs play this Thursday at Bowery Ballroom with Thee Satisfaction.
Gary Canino: In between Plague Park and Face Control, I felt as if there was a big leap in Arlen [Thompson, producer and former drummer of Wolf Parade]'s production, and everything sounded fuller. Can we expect the same thing between Face Control and Sound Kapital?
Alexei Perry: Yeah, as musicians we're always trying to get things to sound better and better. With this one, we actually worked with new people, these Finnish geniuses that mixed our record. To me, it's a lot different. It's still got our weird stamp of fucked-up guitars and fucked-up beats, but this one is definitely louder and heavier. We just want to make kids jump around.
On this tour, Dan [Boeckner of Handsome Furs, formerly of Wolf Parade] is not playing as much guitar as he has in the past. How has this influenced the sound of the new record?
He's still playing a lot of guitar, but he's been doing a lot more writing on synths. We just got a few new synths as well. It's made writing things much easier on the road, just because we can do it on tour, as opposed to guitars. We can't really set up an amp in the car. So with Sound Kapital, we just wanted to add some instrumentation to our drum machine / guitar / synth sound. So this record definitely sounds fuller. I also think it's fun for [Dan], because it changes the way he approaches songwriting. It's a new challenge for him.
Handsome Furs are now well known for playing in different places across the globe. Are you hitting any new places for the first time on this upcoming tour?
Yeah. We're going to Montenegro, Kosovo, and some places in the Balkans that we've never been to. We're always going to try and play as many new places as possible. That's a huge mandate in this band. We just played in Brazil a little while ago, and also made some good connections to people in Chile and Argentina. So hopefully we could do a South American tour, which would be fuckin' awesome.
You must have a good relationship with your booking agent.
[Laughing] We have really good relationships with our booking agents. We have a few, actually. Robin Taylor, who is out of New York, does all the North American stuff, and then we have these two guys who are out of Sweden who do all of our European stuff, and then we have these two dudes in China that help with all of our Asian stuff. But basically we've been really fortunate to work with people that become really close friends because I don't think most booking agents would be stoked trying to get a band playing in Poznan, Poland. But anyone that contacts me anywhere in the world, if it's feasible, we will make it happen, and we're really fortunate to have booking agents help us do this even if it's not financially sound and they're supportive of all of the dumb choices we choose to make in our lives [Laughing].
Are you and Dan still living in Montreal?
We are. We've had a good amount of time here while we were recording, which was nice just to be home and cook, read the books we have, look at the things we got on our last tour, etc. We also live in a nice area and have a good little place, but I never miss it when we're gone. I feel fortunate that when we're on tour I get to take home on tour with me, because I get to tour with Dan. So that's a pretty great feeling. And I love Montreal; it's a great scene. I was born here.
Have you watched the music scene in Montreal change over the last few years?
Yeah. I think it's funny, because people always try to look at the Canadian music scene in general and assume all these bands are related to each other. A lot of them aren't really; you have all of these West Coast bands that have no relationship to other Canadian bands. It's kind of trying to make connections between France and Poland or something.
There's some truth to it, though. We're friends with Arcade Fire and other bands, which has been helpful with people getting their starts in Montreal specifically. Also, Montreal has the great history of having bands like Godspeed! You! Black Emperor open venues here and help other people get their foot in the door. There's also new bands like Suuns and Grimes that are doing pretty cool things here, and their stuff is way different than what Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade were doing years ago.
What does the Wolf Parade indefinite hiatus means for the Furs? Will you have more attention for it?
Well, I think the hiatus would be happening regardless of the Furs. With that band, they put out an album and toured it like usual, and then always took a break to pursue their other interests. For me, it doesn't change very much, because I knew beforehand that we were going to be recording and touring our asses off this year regardless of that break. But who knows what will happen in the future, I don't really know! [Laughing]
