The Sadies Talk Polaris Music Prize 2010 Nomination

One of the moderate (but happy) surprises from today's Polaris Music Prize short list announcement was the nomination of veteran country rock purveyors The Sadies for their ninth-ish album, the wonderfully gloomy Darker Circles.

The band now have a one in 10 chance of having their album declared the most artistically awesome record made in Canada in the last year.

We spoke to singer/guitarist Dallas Good in the sweltering heat of the The Drake Hotel Sky Yard to discuss what this all means.

CHARTattack: So how do you feel right now?
Dallas Good: Right now it is hot as hell, but it's very flattering. I am really, really surprised. It's a great opportunity for us, and look, we might win 20 grand. It's exciting. I'm excited.

What was most exciting, most fulfilling thing for you in making Darker Circles?
It was the fact that we walked out of the door after mixing it completely unified that we still got along great, and that we just made a record where everyone collaborated on and there was no part where we were going, "Fuck, I can't believe he brought that song to the table. What the hell are we going to do?"

Not to say that that's happened in the past, but we were certainly more unified this time around. So, really, in that way, reviews didn't come into play and still don't because we've been at this for so long and we truly have worked from a very groundfloor level up, and we're very proud of that and there was nothing early that launched us to the forefront of Canadian pop culture.

So the fact that people have embraced the record that we were very happy to make, that's as good as you can do.

I don't think there's anybody else on the list that comes close to having the recording history of you guys, except maybe the Broken Social Scene guys in their various bands.
Maybe there's something to that. This record, we certainly made a point of not stopping until we had all the sounds that we really wanted on the album.

The studio process is something that, when we began as a band, was completely foreign to us and we didn't really want to know it, which is why we worked with Steve [Albini] so much, because he just recorded us as a live band, no tricks, three days, done mixed, everything.

I don't like making records like that anymore, so the fact that after 12 years or whatever, that people like what we're doing now (that shouldn't be happening). Let's break all the rules. It's Murphy's Law that we should be fucked by now.

If you can't win, who amongst the other nominees would you like to see win the Polaris Music Prize?
Instinctively, I'd say The Besnard Lakes, but I haven't heard the new record, so that wouldn't be fair at all. Nothing by Fucked Up this year... Shad's a really nice guy!

You know what, I'll be completely honest with you, I haven't heard a single record on this list. I can tell you right now that every review I've read on Besnard Lakes, Broken Social Scene, Caribou, Owen Pallett and Shad have always been 5 out of 5 reviews.

Time to not be modest. Why are you so awesome?
[Thirty second pause in which Dallas adopts a blank expression and says nothing]
Because of my quick retorts.

If you win the $20,000 prize, what will you end up doing with it?
We haven't really discussed it, but we'll probably do what we always do, which is fight over whether to put it on black or red. Otherwise, I'll probably start a school for the blind, a school for the deaf.

I can't offer a straight enough answer to make you laugh or be serious, so let me try one more time. What I think is important about a cash prize like this is to keep it inside the music industry, and so whatever it may be it will be a direct result of something The Sadies were having a difficult time doing. I am a huge fan of doing off-stage releases, maybe we can do something along those lines.

I find answers like "buy a new van" kind of frustrating because we know we'll need a new van regardless of whether we win or lose.