Hexes & Ohs Share Pants

I'm sitting at a picnic table in Toronto's Eglinton Park on a sunny Monday morning. A 12-year-old boy, a day camp stray, is trying to catch a butterfly in his cap. He runs off before Edmund Lam and Heidi Donnelly of Hexes & Ohs can turn around to see him. This quaint midtown setting is far from the downtown bars and falafel joints where I usually interview bands, but it feels like the perfect way to meet the sweet-voiced Montreal electro-popsters.

Bedroom Madness, Hexes & Ohs' follow-up to their Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover debut album, was released by Noise Factory Records on Tuesday. The new record is a more pop-oriented effort than the debut, which Lam says was influenced by the post-rock sensibility of their previous band, A Vertical Mosaic. New songs like the semi-autobiographical "H-H-Highschool" take the pair back to the Beatle-esque pop of the band that brought them together, Jolly Bean.

The high school sweethearts met when Lam was in grade 10 and Donnelly was, scandalously, in grade eight.

"People weren't happy," says Donnelly. "Ed was best friends with my brother at the time, so I was the younger sister hanging out with my older brother."

Many close friends can barely resist tearing each others' heads off after more than a decade of playing in bands together, so keeping the romance alive might seem like an incredible challenge. Lam believes it works the opposite way, and that being a couple makes it easier to stay a band.

"We've been in bands with other people, and it's easier to stay mad at people. It's easier not to resolve things. With us, I think it forces us to work things out. We work well as a team."

"We always said we'd do really well on The Amazing Race," adds Donnelly.

That teamwork will come in handy when Hexes & Ohs embark on their first cross-Canada tour in September. Because of Lam's work obligations, they only have two weeks to go from Montreal to Vancouver and back.

Like an old married couple, Lam and Donnelly often contradict each other without seeming to notice, like when I cheekily ask them who wears the pants in the band.

"I think Heidi wears the pants in logistics," says Lam. "I do more of the creative stuff. On stage, in terms of setting up and getting things worked out, we're pretty even."

"Well, I still set up things a bit more," Donnelly interjects. "We share the pants."

Here are Hexes & Ohs' tour dates:

Sept. 5 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox w/Politique and Nightwood
Sept. 9 Winnipeg, MB @ Lo Pub & Gallery w/Chords Of Canada
Sept. 10 Regina, SK @ The Exchange
Sept. 11 Calgary, AB @ Broken City w/Jain Vain & The Dark Matter
Sept. 12 Edmonton, AB @ Jaisel Apparel w/Diedrichs
Sept. 13 Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret w/Telefuzz
Sept. 16 Edmonton, AB @ The Wunderbar Hofbrauhaus w/The Hues
Sept. 18 Winnipeg, MB @ Lo Pub & Gallery w/The Golden Dogs
Sept. 19 Thunder Bay, ON @ The Apollo
Sept. 20 Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Arcadia House
Sept. 27 Montreal, QC @ Club Lambi w/The World Provider and Camaromance
Oct. 1 Montreal, QC @ Les Minots w/Camaromance, Mia Verko and The Postage Stamps (Pop Montreal)
Oct. 18 Toronto, ON @ TBA