The Besnard Lakes: Best Of 2007

If you read interviews with Jace Lasek at the beginning of the year, you probably noticed the prevailing theme was that he was just happy The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse was being released by Jagjaguwar and Outside.

After the group's most successful year to date, he's just as humble about the whole affair and, after years of playing in small clubs to handfuls of fans, a
little mystified about the how the whole experience came about.

"I know [Dark Horse] is a bit more accessible, just coming from a pop
standpoint," he says. "The vocals are a lot louder than the first record is. The first record is a little more experimental than this one, of course. On a really boring level, I think it's just because it's accessible.

"Volume 1 probably never would have been close to as popular this record. But now at least it's actually available for people to buy. Volume 1 was originally put out by us and Scratch was distributing it and a small label in the U.K. picked it up like a year or two later, so it was basically unheard of. A lot of people thought Dark Horse was our first record for a long time. And that's fine. [laughs]"

Dark Horse's success has afforded the group plenty of opportunities, but the unusual thing about the disc is that it serves as a showcase for Lasek's day job, which is producing at his and Dave Smith's Breakglass studio in Montreal.

In fact, it was a banner year for Breakglass. In addition to the Besnard LP, they saw their work on Patrick Watson's Close To Paradise win the Polaris Music Prize. They also produced Sunset Rubdown's acclaimed Random Spirit Lover. Let's just say, if you want to book time in Breakglass next year, you'd better call ahead.

"I always say that it was just nice to put something out," Lasek says. "It took a long time to make Dark Horse just because the studio was so busy all the time. And it's also afforded me — people can listen to the album and say, 'OK, I want to come in to Breakglass and I want that sound,' so it's kind of helped me that way, too. It's given me an opportunity to show people what I'd like to do in the studio."

The studio gig also took the sting out of losing the Polaris to Watson and company. Though Dark Horse was a favourite to win the award, it's hard to be mad when a band you produced take home the prize instead.

"That bastard Patrick! I'm gonna kill him!" Lasek says and then promptly cracks up. "No, I think it's awesome for Patrick. You know, it would have been nice to have $20,000. But, you know, they crashed a van and their insurance didn't seem to cover it, so I think if anybody deserves to have some money thrown at them, it'd be those bastards."

The Besnard Lakes will take most of next year off to write new material and give Lasek time to pare down the lineup forming outside Breakglass' front door.

Jace Lasek of The Besnard Lakes' album of the year:
David Vandervelde The Moonstation House Band

George Stroumboulopoulos says:
"Pretty music. Really fucking talented, but the thing about Besnard Lakes to me, and this is a compliment to them, I think all of them in the band — much like Broken Social Scene — are all able to go and do different things. I like the record, but I think that that band is going to be a good launching board for the musicians in there."

The following feature is taken from the December 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.