CMW 2007: Two Hours Traffic

Hometown: Charlottetown, PEI
Official Website: www.twohourstraffic.com
Members:
Liam Corcoran (singer/acoustic/synth)
Derek Ellis (drums)
Andrew MacDonald (bass)
Alec O'Hanley (guitar)

So, you're about to play the big industry event that is Canadian Music Week. What's the most shameless thing you've ever done to promote your band?
Alec O'Hanley: We were on life-sized cardboard cutouts in the Confederation Court Mall in Charlottetown during the ECMAs last year. You could see our handsome mugs all down Grafton Street. We're not ashamed.

What's the hardest part about being an up-and-coming band?
Though hardwood floors look nice, they make for poor sleeping conditions. Extremely poor. Especially when mice are involved.

Describe your best and worst gigs ever.
The best? We played a show in Kingston with Wayne Petti (Cuff The Duke) and Andy Magoffin (Two-Minute Miracles). We love Cuff The Duke. We also love the Two-Minute Miracles, so we covered "Rayon Queen In A Nylon Dream" to show our appreciation. Andy was quite impressed and said he was going to "call his mother to let her know that he's not just wasting his time" due to a P.E.I. band playing his song. Our Andy (MacDonald) is playing bass with Two-Minute Miracles during CMW. I think Jim Guthrie is playing guitar too. We love him, being Jim, not Andy.

Worst? Peterborough. The sound sucked arse. We made $5 at the door. After the show, we spent the $5 on four cans of pop.

How important is it for your band members to "circulate and flirt" with the audience before or after the show?
Flirting is extremely important for our band. We get the ladies riled up and then blow them away with our good looks and music.

In a previous interview the band note Joel Plaskett as a best friend/producer. How was working with the lanky Dartmouth man of song?
Working with Joel was as good as ever. The recording session itself, however, wasn't the smoothest. My grandfather passed away just as we were starting recording and then we got hit hard by the Norwalk virus, thus making our schedule quite crammed. We had to pull a few all-nighters, but things worked out in the end. I think.

Have you ever stolen from someone else's rider? If so, who was it and what did you take?
Yes, from Joel. Constantly. It's kind of accepted now. Mostly nacho chips and Jameson's Irish Whisky, but especially beer.

Have you ever been graded before according to ChartAttack.com's Rock 'n' Roll Report Cards?
Yes.

How did the grade make you feel?
Good and bad. I recall it was "Music: good, Stage presence: bad, Shoes: OK."

Have you done anything new or interesting this week?
We just played a really fun show in Quebec City to a crowd of nice people who had no idea who we were. We played a CBC Radio 3 session in Toronto that's going to be on the TV.

What are you currently working on?
We're finishing our record at Ian McGettigan's house in Toronto. We're touring Ontario a bit. We're about to go to sleep dans la belle province. Au revoir!

Two Hours Traffic play the Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, March 10 @ 10 p.m. as part of the annual Chart/Horseshoe/Canadian Music Week showcase.