Polaris: Plants And Animals

Patrick Watson, who won last year's Polaris Music Prize, joked on Monday morning that he had used his $20,000 award to open "a used car sales lot" and recently bought a gold-plated bathtub with his success. Watson really used the money to pay for a van he and his band totalled while on tour. But Plants And Animals bassist/guitarist Nic Basque says if his band's Parc Avenue takes this year's prize, the group will use the money to do what Watson only jokes about.

"[We'll use it] to cover some debt or maybe live a few weeks above the poverty line," Basque says. "But maybe we'll be able to pay ourselves if we win and buy a pool for the studio where we work, or buy a hot tub — maybe make it in gold."

Joking aside, Basque says he was surprised to discover Parc Avenue had made the Polaris short list along with nine other records. Plants And Animals' label, Montreal's Secret City Records, also released Watson's Close To Paradise and had another 2007 nominee in Miracle Fortress' Five. Ironically, Basque says the label's Polaris history and the hype which surrounded Parc Avenue's release made him put the award entirely out of his mind.

"I remember when our record came out, we had a few articles and blogs [talking] about the Polaris thing and Secret City, our label, had their records nominated. I was like, to me this is too much now. Too much Polaris stuff around Secret City. It kind of went through and we didn't really think about it. Because of all that, we hadn't thought about it. Even if we had all that talk, it still seems pretty surprising, because you always think that the win will go the other way around and you never know where it will go."

The words "Polaris Music Prize" and "Plants And Animals" were being uttered in the same sentences even before Parc Avenue's February release. Basque says although he thinks Parc Avenue is a strong disc with a pleasing sound, he still doesn't know what to make of all the attention it's received.

"We really started recording that record without having a record deal. We were pretty lucky and got a lot of press and reviews, and now this. So this is all new for us, and it's been a few months since the record's been out, so it all feels pretty new and exciting. But at the same time, you never really know how to judge that and how far it will take you and everything. We're just trying to get as much as we can while we're doing it."

The inaugural Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds in 2006. The annual award is determined by a jury of about 180 Canadian music journalists, bloggers and broadcasters who pick what they think is the best Canadian album based on artistic merit, not sales. This year's winner will be announced on Sept. 29 at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre.

Here's where you can see Plants And Animals perform tracks from Parc Avenue:

• July 10 Ottawa, ON @ Lebreton Flats (Ottawa Bluesfest)
• July 16 Sherbrooke, QC @ La Telephone Rouge
• July 18-20 Yellowknife, NT @ Folk On The Rocks Festival
• July 25-26 Guelph, ON @ Hillside Music Festival
• Aug. 3 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean Drapeau (Osheaga Music And Arts Festival)
• Aug. 9 Marysville, ON @ Wolfe Island Music Fest
• Aug. 13 Whistler, BC @ Whistler Village Mainstage
• Aug. 17 Salmon Arm, BC @ Salmon Arm Roots And Blues Festival
• Aug. 29 Quebec City, QC @ Espace 400 — La Grande Scene
• Aug. 30 Abitibi, QC @ Festival De Musique Emergente