Razorlight: A Villainous Singer And Lucky Rhythm Section

TORONTO — It figures. The day of the most apocalyptic winter storm of 2007 is the one that Razorlight chooses to stagger into Toronto.

The British rock quartet are far away — in both distance and weather — from their hometown of London, but drummer Andy Burrows and bassist Carl Dalemo are surviving the freezing rain with tired humility. At a downtown hotel bar, they both look disheveled and most likely hung over, but probably nothing compared to the aftermath of the last time Razorlight hit Toronto in January 2004.

"Oh yeah, I remember that was one of my properly drunk nights," Dalemo reminisces with a laugh. "I ended up throwing my bass through the drum set just because I was so drunk. And then when we were in New York the next day, our guitar tech said that I'd broken the neck off it."

That spontaneous act of gear destruction may have ended up jinxing Razorlight in Toronto for good, though, as not only would they back out of their Mod Club gig later that evening (citing illness in the band, although this claim has been highly refuted among skeptical fans), but they were forced to cancel their appearance at the Virgin Festival last September as well. What happened?

"Well, we came to New York, and then we did Letterman, and then we found out [about the cancellation] while we were still in America," Burrows explains hesitantly.

"When we left, we thought we were gonna be away for a month, but we ended up being away for a few days. We were going to do the festival in Toronto, and we had all these dates in Los Angeles, but we had to cancel them."

Razorlight have been the darlings of British music rags for the last few years, mostly due to the brashly outspoken nature of their infamous frontman, Johnny Borrell. In fact, Burrows prefaced this interview with a sheepish grin and a "You're stuck with us, then" — an obvious sign that he and Dalemo aren't often the first choice in the Razorlight camp for preferred interview subjects.

Razorlight aren't exactly on the best side of the media at the moment, unless you can call the NME Shockwave Awards recently nominating Borrell for best villain something positive. They were also up for the worst band and worst album titles, which probably dampened any humour they may have had over the villain nomination.

"It's the most predictable thing I'd ever heard," snaps Burrows in regards to the dubious honour. "I think the other nominees were people like George Bush, Tony Blair, Pete Doherty and some others I can't remember.

"But it's ridiculous. For one thing, if you're lumped in with George Bush and Tony Blair, then there's no competition at all. It's all part of the NME backlash. Someone there just decided that they were going to go against us."

"I think they're going to have a good laugh at our expense," adds Dalemo, while rolling his eyes.

When asked if these same publications have a tendency to promulgate feuds between certain rock bands, Burrows answers with a very quick, "Of course they do.

"With bands, at the end of the day, we're all doing the same job. We're all having a great time, and we're all incredibly lucky. And I know it sounds more exciting that we'll go off and call someone a wanker, but the truth is that nobody really knows each other anyway. We're all on tour at all times. We'll see each other at festivals, get drunk together and have an amazing time. I know it's boring to say, but I think we're all just really lucky."