Land Of Talk Don't Really Hate Canada

"Busy" doesn't even really begin to describe the year that Elizabeth Powell — the lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Montreal synth-rockers Land Of Talk — has had.

Her fledgling band saw a fundamental shift in membership, recorded the raw tracks for the follow-up to last year's Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss, and then signed a distribution deal with One Little Indian (which will release Applause, along with three extra tracks not on the North American version, in mid-October) for the U.K. and Europe. They also landed a tour with The Decemberists.

Powell seems at peace with all the upheaval while on vacation somewhere in Nevada and offers some thoughts on Land Of Talk's newer material written since drummer Bucky Wheaton's departure from the band.

"Bucky had a lot more say in the aesthetic of the songs and the arrangement, and maybe they were more bashy, more balls to it," she says. "I think now I'm writing songs in the same vein as I was listening to them, whereas maybe Land Of Talk wasn't necessarily the music that I would listen to.

"But, I mean, maybe no one will even notice. Maybe to everyone else it'll seem very subtle, but it seems very big to me. It won't be too different. We're still a three-piece-like power trio and we still love playing the old stuff."

While Powell's a bit cagy when it comes to how she feels about Wheaton's departure, which is attributed to the wear and tear of heavy touring, it's not all bad. It gave Powell the chance to really come into her own and steer the proverbial ship.

"I think that everything has shifted to more my decision," she explains. "Land Of Talk was a three-way partnership, and I've since dissolved that.

"I'm the sole proprietor. It's more my band. I didn't want that in the beginning, I really didn't, but I think Bucky leaving scared the shit out of me and gave me a fear within."

Ironically, that fear seems to have translated into a lack thereof. The forthright Powell sent Colin Meloy of The Decemberists a short thank you note for his support in the press and, after a successful gig opening for the band at New York's Summerstage, Land Of Talk were approached to open for Meloy's band on their fall tour in Europe.

Then, this past July in an interview with webzine QRO Magazine, Powell concluded by saying, "As of now, I identify as being an American band. No joke." When I ask Powell about the rather inflammatory statement, she offers that it wasn't so much a dig at Canada and that, in fact, she "loves Canada." But she was recognizing the support the band found south of the 49th parallel.

"I do identify, not in terms of being real Americans, but in terms of being an American-supported band," she says.

Prior to the European dates, Land Of Talk will play a string of shows in their passport-designated native land before more world touring. Powell couldn't be happier.

"I like to be a little detached," she says. "I like being uprooted and, the way my life is now, I might as well get a P.O. Box. I don't know why I'm even paying rent."

Here are Land Of Talk's Canadian dates:

Sept. 1 Rouyn-Noranda, QC @ Festival De Musique Emergente
Sept. 4 Toronto, ON @ El Mocambo
Sept. 5 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa