Elliott Brood Talk Polaris 2009 Nomination

07/07/09 2:29pm

by Aaron Brophy (CHARTattack)

Elliott Brood have just made the 2009 Polaris Music Prize Short List for their album Mountain Meadows. They've now got a one in 10 chance of having their album declared the most artistically awesome record made in Canada in the last year.

The winner of the Polaris Music Prize will be decided by a grand jury at a Sept. 21 gala at the Concert Hall in Toronto's Masonic Temple.

We spoke to the Brood's Mark Sasso earlier today about what this all means.

CHARTattack: So how do you feel right now?
Mark Sasso: It feels pretty good. I mean, you get to do something with your band, and you put it out, and somebody acknowledges that you've done, y'know, an album that's deserving of being nominated in the Polaris Music Prize top 10. It's pretty great.

Not just "somebody," we're talking 180 of the nerdiest, liner note-reading music obsessive geeks from across the country. That's a good group to have say, "Yo, we really like the record you just made."
Yeah, it's one of those things. You never know how people are going to take your music. When you're creating music, it's pretty selfish; you've got to create it for yourself. You're not doing it for anybody else.

It's just nice to know that once you put it out there, they love it enough to nominate it next to our friends, like the Great Lake Swimmers, or Malajube, or Metric or anyone.

What was the thing about making Mountain Meadows that was most exciting, most fulfilling for you?
There are a few things. But ultimately, one of the things that we did with this record that we didn't have enough time to do on the last one was actually play around and let mistakes happen and, like, keep those mistakes on the record.

Sometimes you can make a mistake and it turns out better than you'd have thought and better than you'd have planned. It's nice to let those moments happen, and those get on the record, and then those become your favourite moments.

Is there a specific moment that comes to mind?
There's a song called "T-Bill" where we didn't actually expect to put lap steel on, but Casey [Laforet] had played it a different way, at the wrong time, at a wrong moment... and it made the song that much better. Now it's an amazing song.

If you can't win, who amongst the other 10 nominees would you like to see win the Polaris Music Prize?
I would love to see Tony [Dekker of Great Lake Swimmers] win. He's totally deserving of it. This is his fourth record, and I think he puts out an amazing record every time. And he's a great dude. They're my friends, so that's who I want to win.

Time to not be modest. Why are you guys so awesome?
I'm not modest. I think it's about the way we approach our writing. We sort of take ego out of it and the way we look at it is the songs are the most important thing.

Even more important than that is "the album." We kind of look at it like, when we're making an album it's a whole piece as opposed to singles. Everything has to fit together like a book and it has to unfold like a novel. I think we do that really well.

What are you going to do with that big $20,000 cheque if you win?
I was going to buy some instruments for some poor musicians — that being us. Actually, I'd like to throw a party for Six Shooter Records for helping us and getting our records out. A lot of the people who don't get their name mentioned should be rewarded. Maybe save some money for charity, too.