The Besnard Lakes Are Spying On World Through Radio

The Besnard Lakes' frontman Jace Lasek believes "the truth is out there," just like X-Files character Fox Mulder. He's also convinced it's accessible by what many of us would consider archaic means: shortwave radio.

For several decades, intelligence organizations around the world have been making use of shortwave transmissions to communicate with their spies abroad, on a platform known as number stations.

On these radio stations — either at the top of every hour, or on the half-hour mark — a person (most often a woman) reads off and repeats a series of seemingly random numbers or words. These sequences, it's supposed, are recorded on paper or computer by an undercover agent that has previously received instruction to tune in and listen for them. The spy then employs a one-time-use key to translate the code into readable text — their orders.

This is not the fodder of a convoluted conspiracy theory; these number stations still broadcast today. Several online databases track their frequencies, assign them names and speculate on their location and purpose. While no government has claimed ownership of such transmissions outright, there seems to be no other logical explanation for their existence.

A spokesperson for the British Department Of Trade And Industry once said of them: "These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn't be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption."

It would seem the fine art of espionage is alive and well.

"If you think about it logically, it's really the easiest way of sending a coded message to someone anywhere in the world," says Lasek. "If they have a shortwave radio and they're sitting in a park in Geneva, they can turn on the radio and someone thinks they're listening to the football game, but they're writing down numbers. And it's impossible to decode the numbers unless you have the cipher.

"If you're in espionage and you need a message, and you can't use a cell phone because it's going to get traced, you can just listen to the radio, and every hour, the message is being broadcast to you. It's kind of a foolproof method.

"I actually bought a shortwave radio. You can tune in and find them; there's a number station database on the web. You can tune in at the top of the hour and you'll find one, probably within the first three days of owning a shortwave radio. It's pretty weird."

These number station transmissions — primarily those from a recorded, four-disc collection of broadcasts called The Conet Project — played a crucial role in the creation of The Besnard Lakes' 2007 disc, The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse. They planned on using number station recordings as a backdrop for the record, but ran into a minor legal snag.

"When we did Dark Horse, I had that stuff all over the record," Lasek says. "I actually had to take it all out because we heard that [The Conet Project] were trying to sue Wilco for the use of a sample that they'd put in Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The title of that album is from The Conet Project; it's one of the call numbers that they say.

"At the last minute, we were like, 'Shit, we better take all this stuff out.' But at the same time, we were thinking it was kind of weird because nobody claims to have ownership to these stations, so when people record it, it's a real grey area. Who owns this stuff? We ended up just recreating the number stations ourselves and it went really well."

Lasek's fascination with spies doesn't end there. Themes of espionage have played a prominent role in the lyrics of all The Besnard Lakes' discs — especially their latest crashing, shoegaze epic, The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night. The night is roaring, the band says, because "the city is burning."

The album tells the tale of two spies who receive shortwave transmissions and spread destruction while embroiled in a war that may not really exist. By the end of the record's first track, even the band's instruments have morphed into what sounds like warped radio transmissions.

"[The spy narrative] has always been a storyline that has allowed me to find lyrics to write," says Lasek. "It's sort of stream of consciousness... I find that what works best for me, when I'm writing lyrics, is if I'm drawing from this story, because it gives me ideas to take the characters further.

"The story is continuing [with] a spy and someone that he's spying on, and it jumps between the '50s, and the Wars, and the present day, and there's this sort of fantasy sense — whether it's all happening; whether this person ever even was a spy.

"When I was a kid, I was always freaked out and fascinated by old radio programs and radio transmissions from World War II and World War I, and how scratchy and grainy they are. There's a mystery to them, but there's also a really pleasing quality for the ears — hearing the crackling and the warbling of the tape. I think I've always wanted to find a way to incorporate that into music."