Brendan Canning Documentary Coming

For most musicians, being part of a successful band would be enough, but "supergroup cog" is just one of the many hats that Brendan Canning wears these days.

The Broken Social Scene bassist recently stumbled into an active film life after cozying up to Hard Core Logo director Bruce McDonald. It began with the soundtrack for the 2007 film The Tracey Fragments, which featured significant contributions from Canning and some friends.

"We got a copy of that film on the last Broken fall tour," Canning recalls. "Kevin [Drew] was concentrating on working on his record at that point.

"Charles Spearin was really into it. Ohad [Benchetrit] ended up being involved in it, and also Bernard Mesa, a partner who I write music with. It was the four of us… We spent late November of 2006 and December and January 2007 finishing it. A couple of guests came in to help — the usual Broken Social Scene recording process."

The Canning/McDonald relationship was enough of a success that it didn't end there.

"He was working on this show called Raw Side," Canning explains. "He wanted to do a Broken Social Scene documentary for it, but I just felt like there was no way we were going to wrangle that one."

McDonald opted for the next best thing and started plans for a soon-to-be-released documentary about Canning. The film follows the musician through the creation of his debut solo disc, Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning Something For All Of Us...

"Bruce was really into it and it just kind of came together," Canning says. "They came and followed me around for my daily activities for a little while, came to a photo shoot, came to one day in the studio.

"I don't think I'll have a full camera crew come into the studio again. As much as they were excited about seeing the creative process at work, it makes you feel a little self-conscious, like, maybe we'd get more work done if there wasn't a camera crew here today. Maybe all of these people wouldn't have shown up as well. Ten people just happened to show up on that day the camera crew was there."

In spite of the interruptions, Something For All Of Us... was eventually finished. It's already available digitally and the CD hits stores on July 22 via Arts & Crafts. Its songs will be worked into future Broken Social Scene shows, which you can catch here:

July 20 Whistler, BC @ Base II's Tube Park (Whistler Music Festival)
July 27 Guelph, ON @ Hillside Festival
Aug. 4 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean Drapeau (Osheaga Music And Arts Festival)
Aug. 5 Regina, SK @ Victoria Park (Regina Folk Festival)
Aug. 10 Edmonton, AB @ Gallagher Park (Edmonton Folk Music Festival)
Aug. 15 Ottawa, ON @ Britannia Park (Ottawa Folk Festival)