Exclusive: Weakerthans Not Doing Anything Anytime Soon

09/23/09 2:56pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Don't expect a follow-up to The Weakerthans' 2008 Polaris Music Prize short listed Reunion Tour in stores any time soon — the band haven't even started writing it yet. At all.

The Winnipeg-based alt.rock band were in Toronto to play a set at the XM Verge Music Awards, where Alexisonfire and Dan Mangan took home the album of the year and artist of the year prizes. Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson told CHARTattack he plans to spend the winter doing... whatever he wants.

"I'm just gonna see what happens, really," he said. "It's just going to be a winter of a lot of time spent at home and I'm just sort of looking forward to that. There's no fixed things set to happen, which is exciting."

That's kind of ironic for a man who once wrote a song with the lyrics "I hate Winnipeg."

The Weakerthans spent most of 2009 on tour and Samson says while he thinks the band will start writing songs for the follow-up to Reunion Tour once their current tour ends, but nothing's for sure yet and it may take a while before they get around to it.

"We haven't really started, but I'm assuming we'll start one of these days," he said. "We've all been doing other stuff and we've still been touring a lot, playing a lot.

"We haven't really had time to start [writing], so I do hope we will one of these days. It always takes us a while. It might take even longer this time, but we'll see."

In the meantime, Samson will have time to spend with his cat and will work on his upcoming series of seven-inch singles about "roads, highways, [and] streets in Manitoba." The first, City Route 85, will contain three songs about Winnipeg's Portage Avenue. Samson says he's starting to think about the location of the second installment in the series.

"It's going to be either a place northeast of Winnipeg or southwest, right below Brandon," he says.

Truthfully, Samson won't spend ALL of this winter in Winnipeg. He'll get a brief break from what's sure to be yet another way-beyond-frigid winter in the city when The Weakerthans head to Australia to play the Soundwave Festival in February and March.

Here are The Weakerthans' upcoming tour dates:

Sept. 23 Pittsburgh, PA @ The Rex Theatre
Sept. 24 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
Sept. 25 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
Sept. 26 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
Sept. 27 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Feb. 20 Brisbane, Australia @ RNA Showgrounds (Soundwave Festival)
Feb. 21 Sydney, Australia @ Eastern Creek Raceway (Soundwave Festival)
Feb. 26 Melbourne, Australia @ Melbourne Showgrounds (Soundwave Festival)
Feb. 27 Adelaide, Australia @ Bonython Park (Soundwave Festival)
March 1 Perth, Australia @ Steel Blue Oval (Soundwave Festival)