Bad Flirt Dish On The Olsens

Quite a bit has happened to the Montreal power-pop group Bad Flirt during the interminable wait for the release of their Virgin Talk full-length debut, which finally hit stores on Oct. 14. In that time, the group's riffs got crunchier, the keyboards more explosive, they played hundreds of shows, including this summer's Virgin Fest in Toronto, and they briefly flirted with being celebrity starlets Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's favourite group.

"They endorsed us, and made a whole bunch of empty promises," says frontwoman/guitarist Jasamine White Gluz. "As you do when you're rich, beautiful and young, you get bored of things really fast and you move on. They got pretty bored of us early on."

Bad Flirt won the twins' online battle of the bands contest in 2007.

"We did gain new fans in the eight-to-nine age group with access to the internet, but I'd say we're doing fine without the Olsens."

The group had established a reputation in their hometown as being an animated live band long before the celeb nods, but White Gluz says even the most dedicated of Bad Flirt fans will be completely shocked by the quintet's development and growth. The band began as just White Gluz and session musicians, but developed into a proper band after releasing the debut EP Six Ways To Break Your Heart in 2005.

"People from Montreal who know us don't know what they're in for," she says. "We've been touring elsewhere and not Montreal, so they really haven't had the chance to see what Bad Flirt has become. We're excited about that because people anticipating our return will be blown away."

Virgin Talk signifies a more aggressive turn for the traditionally poppy group, and it can be heard on the Metric-sounding first single/music video "Hiroshima, Mon Frere," filmed this past summer in Mont-Tremblant, Que.

As with all the other tracks on the record, each song is titled after an episode of late '80s/early '90s television show The Wonder Years. Perhaps it only makes sense a group named Bad Flirt would be inspired by The Wonder Years and the exploits of lovelorn Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage), famously known for his inability to court next door crush Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar).

"We wanted to do somewhat of a concept record based on central themes of childhood, growing up, getting old and losing innocence," says White Gluz.

Hopefully Bad Flirt will be successful courting Canadian music fans when they head out on tour:

Oct. 21 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa w/Whiskey Trench and Victory Chimes
Oct. 25 Halifax, NS @ Hell's Kitchen (Halifax Pop Explosion)
Oct. 26 Charlottetown, PEI @ Lyons House