Plants And Animals Quiz Time | Can you spot which of the figures in this photo is not a member of Plants and Animals?
DETAILS
Starlite Room (10030-102 St). Fri, Mar 20 (8pm).
“You haven’t had the pleasure — or misfortune — of seeing us yet, huh?”
This is the surprising (albeit self-deprecating) response given by Matthew “Woody” Woodley, drummer of Montreal’s Plants and Animals, when I ask him how the band arranges their songs live. His answer is unexpected only because the band’s debut album Parc Avenue is a masterful, multi-layered affair mixing classical rock and free-form jazz inspirations. Can you blame me for assuming that, like so many indie music collectives, Plants and Animals would have to crowd onto the stage whenever they performed live?
However, my assumption was wrong: Woodley tells me that the band opts to tour without the additional musicians heard on the album — a choice not made out of necessity.
“What we do is what’s at the core of everything, which is two guitars and drums and singing,” he says. “So there’s no strings and horns. [Guitarist Nicolas Basque has] turned into a multi-instrumentalist; he plays the keyboards and every once in a while adds a little bit of texture.... I know [the orchestral accompaniment] adds to the songs and it really creates something, but we’ve some to think of recording and playing live as two different things with the same songs.”
And what about concerns that the live performance won’t live up to the album? “Essentially we just step it up,” Woodley says. “It’s a very in-your-face, in-the-moment kind of thing.”
Considering that Parc Avenue’s sound is so dispersed, it may startle some to learn that the band recorded it on a 24-track analog tape machine. Woodley says there was a purposeful logic behind this decision as well: “Computers are fast and you can put a million tracks on them as opposed to 24. The thing about analog is ... well, there’s two things. It sounds better, and I really like the power of limitations. If we had 100 tracks with all those ideas we were trying out, I think we would have ended up in a black hole trying to dig our way out.”
Instead, the choice of technique has paid off; Parc Avenue was shortlisted for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize and they recently received two Juno nominations. This recognition has led to increased exposure for the band including headlining tours, a change Woodley says they’re still adjusting to. “When we were virtually unknown, opening for bands that were known, we had to go out every night and really try and make an impact in a short period of time,” he says. “Now it’s a little bit different. People know what’s coming and it feels more like you’re sharing something rather than presenting people with something.”
The newfound appreciation has not gone unnoticed; Woodley sounds elated as he describes people he has seen at their shows who are concerned with nothing else but dancing. Seeing this gut-level reaction to their songs has in turn made the band work harder at performing live — so maybe it’s not such a bad thing seeing them play after all.
“You go into a room [that’s] full of people and you’re excited and there’s an energy in the room, it just kind of carries you,” Woodley says. “The audience can feed you and make you want to play, give that extra 10 per cent. That’s what hockey players give, right? 110. So we try to give 110. We’re up onstage dancing, so if other people are too, we’re all getting along pretty well, aren’t we?”
Post the first comment: (Login or Register)