Nameless Friends

INTRODUCTION:

Number 1:

We are a band that loves to play live, which is apparently somewhat rare these days, and we think that's sad. So we play a lot of live shows. On tour, because we are somewhat demented individuals, we say all sorts of out of context, unhinged things to each other. And we keep a list of the greatest hits. It's called the tour quotes list. We've needed somewhere to put those over the years, because there's some really fantastic stuff there, but they're often too long for songs. So we, I'm actually really excited about this, we produced our new album, The Quiet Part Loudly, ourselves, and Substack allows you to do an e-mail list and get more in-depth with people about our creative endeavors than the usual short-form content.

So it's running as an e-mail list right now. It's totally free. You can sign up, get all the posts. Most of them are just talking about like how we made the new album and like the stories and the politics and stuff behind it all. There's a good bunch of production nerdy stuff in there. But it wouldn't be us if we weren't being irreverent. So the title of every post is a choice quote from the tour quotes list. I think our first post was a quote from #5, “only good things happen on January 6th.” And our latest one is from me, which is, that the title of our next album, Prognancy Scare. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF RECORDING TQPL

Number 5:

For me, it was the fact that we were at the bathhouse because, or the Tragically Hip's recording studio, because I've had a weird relationship with the Hip in that I didn't think I was into the Tragically Hip, but then realized that one of their albums was like my teenage angst album. (Between Evolutions.) 

I walked into the studio and it didn't really hit me that we were like at the Tragically Hip's studio until at the end of the first day and I had a few drinks. Then I was like standing in the studio looking at like the original artwork for the album and it was like, oh my God. Yeah I'm playing the hip's drum kit. I have, shit on the same toilet as Gord Downey. I started to freak out.

Number 1: 

I feel, I feel I need to interject that this first night I was upstairs. I'm not just the band leader, I'm producing this album. So I'm responsible on so many layered ways. I'm upstairs at the bathhouse and I know that Blue's going to go take a wander. 

He's been drumming all day, hasn't really seen the studio, and I leave him on his own for five goddamn minutes, and I hear a bang from downstairs. And I'm like, amazing, we've just destroyed Canadian history. Great, let me go see what he destroyed. 

I go downstairs and find him in the studio, looking like he's seen a ghost, like, staring at this sculpture that he's clearly dropped hard on a table. And he looks at me and starts off very soft and goes, "I was just kind of wandering around and looking at the studio and it's just really cool and there's all this original artwork and I saw this cool sculpture and I was like, wow, you know, I'm just going to look at the cool sculpture. And I picked it up and it's one of GORD DOWNIES JUNOS." 

Number 5:

They were just there in the open and I didn't realize that they just did that. We're just going to keep this in the open? I thought they would keep that in a vault somewhere, but no. I don't know what you do with awards.