Polaris 2008: The Weakerthans

09/23/08 5:11pm

by Alyssa Noel (CHARTattack)

Weakerthans fans waited four long years for a follow-up to the band's 2003 album, Reconstruction Site. By 2007, patience was wearing thin. Expectations were exceptionally high. Everyone wanted to know what the hell was taking so long. But when Reunion Tour hit shelves last September, it all made sense: it takes time to make a complex album, racked with gut-wrenching lyrics and achingly beautiful melodies.

ChartAttack talked to Weakerthans drummer Jason Tait about how the anticipated album went from nearly not being completed at all to earning a place on the Polaris Music Prize short list.

ChartAttack: So first of all, what are your thoughts on being nominated for the Polaris Music Prize?
Jason Tait: I don't know. It's nice to be recognized, I guess, but we don't put a lot of faith in music criticism or awards. It's not what we're about as a band. The $20,000 is cool, though.

There were four years between Reunion Tour and your last album, Reconstruction Site. What took so long?
Generally, it takes John [K. Samson, singer/guitarist] specifically quite a while to finish the lyrics. He just went through a time — he quit smoking and he didn't know if he could finish the record at all. A lot of the songs have been with us since the Reconstruction era, but John hadn't finished the lyrics. We decided to just get everyone in the studio and record what we had. It was a very strange record because John spent five years with the lyrics and we spent two weeks recording the songs. I wish we spent more time in the studio. We felt a lot of restrictions, pressure to get that record out at a certain time.

There are wildly different characters in the songs on this album — from the "medical oddity" to Virtute the cat, who makes a return. Is it difficult to tell other people's stories — fictional or not — in a convincing way?
Certainly some of it's real. I can't really speak for John [who writes the lyrics]. Real life always creeps into what you're doing. I like the lyrics for "Hymn Of The Medical Oddity" a lot. It's a very neat story and specific to Winnipeg, and we all remember when it happened. Originally, John wrote that for another project. Then we shaped it into a pop song.

Which character is your favourite?
I like the character in "Relative Surplus Value." That's a good example of our lives and John using experiences in our lives and a fictional character around that. The first line is "Find the airport at 7 a.m., my heart pumping pure mini-bar." In fact, we were in Hamburg and we were coming back from a bar we'd been drinking at all night. John's hat was down and someone actually threw change in it. That was a real life experience.

Why did Virtute the cat get a second appearance?
I think John wanted some closure for what happens between this weirdo, shut-in guy and the feral cat. I doubt there will be another song about that cat. John was so doubtful about the lyrics he said, "People are going to tease me about this song." But we've had emails from people saying, "I can't make it through the song without crying."

My mom is also a big Weakerthans fan, and when I asked her what she, as a fan, would want to know about this album, her question was, "Where did the inspiration for the 'curling song' ['Tournament Of Hearts'] come from? Do they curl?" I suspect it's more the "Canadiana" element that's prevalent in a lot of your music. Do you guys see yourself as a quintessential Canadian band?
I wouldn't say we're a quintessential Canadian band. There have always been bands writing about where they're from. The Rheostatics are a big one. There's Joni Mitchell and The Tragically Hip. As far as curling, Steve [Carroll, guitarist] and John actually do curl. They're in a curling league. In Winnipeg, that's a big thing.

The name of that song is "Tournament Of Hearts." That's also the name of a Constantines album. You guys toured with them in recent years. Who claimed that as a title first?
The Tournament Of Hearts is a women's curling tournament. The Cons got it from that. John wrote the song and said, "I want to call it 'Tournament Of Hearts,'" and I said, "Our friends, the Constantines, have that title." He said, "I don't care. We're taking it back."

The song "Utilities" is an older recording. Why was it included on this album?
That's a good example of how a lot of songs will be around for a while. We were approached by the War Child organization to donate a song to a charity CD, and that was the only song we had written at the time. So we gave them that song. We did a slightly different arrangement for the record.

"Night Windows" is one of my absolute favourite songs. Tell me about making it.
John had the incredibly ambitious idea to write an album almost entirely about Edward Hopper paintings. That was one of them and "Sun In An Empty Room" was another. That was one of his songs and we worked on the arrangement as a band.

What has been the best experience that's come out of this record so far?
Actually, finishing it was quite a surprise. That was very surprising to all of us. There was quite a lull between the last bunch of songs we did. It was really great to get back out playing in front of people. Every record you put out, every artist thinks, "We're washed up, that's done." And you're riddled with self-doubt. Going out and playing to an audience, they were really receptive. Because it took so long, I imagine people's expectations were so high. If you're not even meeting your own expectations, it's scary.