Bonus Juno Gossip From Alexisonfire: Dallas Tried To Download A Nelly Furtado Song

02/08/07 7:00pm

by Caitlin Hotchkiss (CHARTattack)

For many avid screamo fans, 2006 was the year of Alexisonfire. After releasing their newest (and darkest) effort, Crisis, they've been touring endlessly, shooting stylish videos, making an unlikely sex symbol out of guitarist Dallas Green and, now, they're busy flipping off the supposed best new group Juno Award (which they nabbed in 2005) curse after being nominated for two more prizes on Tuesday. That's not too shabby for a band named after a contorting stripper.

ChartAttack chatted with the band's Wade MacNeil and Chris Steele at Tuesday's Juno nominees' media conference in Toronto:

ChartAttack: We're sick of the whole Canadian modesty thing — can you give us some blatant self-promotion to justify your nomination?
Wade MacNeil: George [Pettit, vocals] has been saying "We rule" at the beginning of our sets and, after a while, we kind of just start yelling "We rule!" a lot. So I think George is modest enough for everybody.

If you win, where will you keep your Juno?
Chris Steele: Well, since I've moved out of my parents' house, my mom has switched my old bedroom with my sister's and turned it into an Alexisonfire shrine of everything we've ever done from all the way back to 2002. So we've already got a Juno up on the shelf, and if we do happen to get another one, it'll go right beside it.

WM: I've got mine on a bookshelf, and all around it is gas station memorabilia from when we were on tour. Like, if you get into weird parts of the southern U.S., they've got all these skull figurines. The first one I found was a skull with a pompadour, like an Elvis skull. So yeah, the next Juno will go with the skulls.

If you win, what are you gonna do to celebrate?
CS: Probably eat a salad. Seriously, I've been saying this on all the interviews — I'm on a huge salad kick. I've eaten like 14 in three days. So I'm going to eat a salad and slam a big bottle of water.

WM: Aquafina!

CS: Then maybe I'll go for a few laps around the hotel.

WM: Steele's pushing a new rock star stereotype.

Who's the first person you'd call if you won?
WM: I'll probably call Chris.

CS: I'll probably call you back.

WM: When we went to the Junos last year, we ended up going out so late on the night prior to the ceremony that we didn't even end up going. We watched the Junos from our hotel room in Halifax.

CS: And the hotel was like half a kilometre away from the awards venue. So we just watched them on TV and then went out again afterwards.

WM: What a bunch of assholes.

Nelly Furtado is hosting. Do you think she's actually evil enough to eat a man if she had the opportunity?
CS: Yes. I know she's got that new single, some song that Dallas tried to download and got a really shoddy quality version of it, but it's got a pretty awesome beat and it's a really tough song. So yeah, I think she could eat a man.

Do you watch the Junos when you're not nominated?
CS: Yeah, definitely.

WM: But it was dumb when it was Pamela Anderson last year talking about clubbing seals and using it as a platform for her to talk about PETA. That was brutal.

You mean you guys weren't just looking at her tits like everyone else?
WM: Well, see, that night Steele and I were in separate beds in the hotel room watching it...

CS: Just eating our room service.

If you win, is there someone in your life who will stop nagging you about your career choice?
CS: I don't know. I think everyone's pretty happy with our career choice and how well the band's been doing. I can't think of anyone.

WM: If anything, I'd like people to stop being positive about my career choice. I'd like my mom to stop suggesting that "maybe over Christmas we can have a kiosk in the local mall." People are just talking it up a little too much.