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It’s Their Party, But We’ll Pry If We Want To | Winter Gloves were game to answer (almost) any question we asked them.

WINTER GLOVES
w/ Kisses of Fire. The ARTery (9535 Jasper Ave). Tue, Nov 24 (7pm). Tickets: $15 advance/$18 at the door, available through Blackbyrd Myoozik, Listen Records.

“As long as your songs are good and people are listening to them, the rest doesn’t really matter,” says Charles F, lead singer and keyboardist for the Montreal dancecore act Winter Gloves. Currently elbow-deep into a tour of the Western U. S. in support of their album A Way to Celebrate, Charles and crew are about to swing back north to the land where their perceived “Montreal sound” precedes them.

“I don’t think we have this Montreal sound at all,” Charles says. “For me, the Montreal sound a couple of years ago was Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and a bunch of bands influenced by British music and being dark with a lot of reverb. In Montreal a lot of people like dirty music and I don’t feel like Winter Gloves is a part of that. There are more bands playing with keyboards and vintage loops, so I feel like we belong to the Montreal scene more than the Montreal sound.

“It’s positive to be associated with those bands,” he continues. “They are such good songwriters. What’s more important to me is the way the music sounds and the attitude. As long as we have good songs to listen to life is worth living.”
Opinionated as he is, let’s find how he feels about some completely unrelated topics ...

SEE Magazine: What Star Wars character do you relate to most and why?

Charles F: Can we just make it about TV? Do you know the TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm?

SEE: Yep.

Charles F: I could be that guy. I like to work alone and do my thing. When I go for an ice cream cone and the line is too long because someone takes too much time tasting flavours, I get pissed like that guy.

SEE: What were some other names you came up with for the band?

Charles F: One of the ideas was Winter Is the New Wolf. But there are too many bands with wolf in the name like Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, and We Are Wolves. Wolves became an indie icon and it was ridiculous at one point. I wanted “Winter” in the band name because if felt right since we are from Canada. But we went for Winter Gloves because Winter Is the New Wolf is a bit pretentious.

SEE: Would you rather be able to have a baby, be a baby, or have Queen Elizabeth phone you once a week for the rest of your life and call you baby?

Charles F: Oh my God. [Muffled laughter.] I’m going to have to be boring with this one and say have a baby.

SEE: Why?

Charles F: We all have girlfriends and we all want to start families, but this lifestyle we have isn’t something you would really expect from a father. So it’s tough. I want to tour and write music and get myself out there, but at the same time, having a family is very important as well.

SEE: With Remembrance Day just past, if you were conscripted, what war, of any of them in any time in history, would you have fought in?

Charles F: I think it would be a war against cars. I love vans and trucks, but I hate cars. All right, do your best with that!