Hundreds And Thousands Leave Starling Behind

Singer/guitarist Ian LeFeuvre readily admits he has an unmistakable voice; it's the same one that fronted Ottawa’s Starling before they called it quits in 2003.

"We never really stopped [playing], but we stopped flogging Starling as a band," says LeFeuvre. "We made a second record and I was pretty happy with it.

"Actually, I have a few problems with it, looking back now. But we basically hung that up."

LeFeuvre's new outfit, The Hundreds And Thousands, have a few things in common with his old band. The group include two other former Starling players (drummer Peter Von Althen and bassist Maury LaFoy), their music is built on the same power pop foundations that made Starling's Sustainer debut an indie success, and it's punctuated with LeFeuvre’s familiar voice.

The trio have plenty of shared history, but they agreed it was best to leave the past in the past when they decided to start playing together again.

"I didn't really feel like going back to all those songs, or the name, or any of it," LeFeuvre explains. "So there are really no rules to this.

"We just decided to start from scratch again and just be like a baby band. I wrote a whole slew of new stuff and we just figured it was worthy of a different name because it doesn’t sound or feel the same as it used to.

"It's a little less poppy. I don't want to say that Starling was saccharine but, relatively speaking, it kind of was. This stuff... it's very much about a specific thing and a certain state of mind. I guess it's more stripped. There's less of a wall of guitar going on. It's more about the bass and drums. It's a little more aggressive and a little darker, I guess."

The Hundreds And Thousands' debut full-length hits stores on May 26 via Nettwerk. They have no concrete touring plans yet, but for now you can catch them at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. as part of the annual CHARTattack/Horseshoe/Canadian Music Week showcase.