Hector Fector
w/ Daniel Moir. Sept. 26 (9pm). The ARTery (9535 Jasper Ave).

Greg Amundson is tall — intimidatingly so. However, as we chat about Hector Fector’s indie rock debut, We Are Romantic, it becomes increasingly clear that he is far more nervous about my tape recorder sitting in the middle of the table than I am about his height.

We Are Romantic (W.A.R.) is an album that has been waiting to be released from Amundson’s mind, mouth, and fingertips for years — or at least since the summer of 2006, when the recording process started. And that’s not counting the time it took to write the songs or to live through the experiences that inspired them.

“I didn’t go hang-gliding with a friend because I didn’t want to risk dying before I finished this album,” Amundson says. “It was such a goal to get it done.” With so many years of work behind W.A.R, it only makes sense that he gives every answer to my questions the same level of consideration with which he composed the record in the first place. He waited for Raymond Biesinger, the artist he wanted to create the album’s artwork. He waited for the mastering. Then he waited to make sure it felt right. .

“At the end of the summer of 2007 it all finished up,” Amundson says. “And then I sat on it for a while. Honestly, I was feeling kind of tired. It was a really long process — a lot of work and a lot of time spent on it so I wanted to sit on it to make sure I was up to really going for it.” In that context, waiting a few extra seconds for his answers seems perfectly reasonable.

With the help of some friends and local players, W.A.R. is now official and glossy. Like the contrast between its title and its abbreviation, the album feels at times like it’s simultaneously falling and floating, both dark and light. The sounds include natural, piano-based melodies and skittering electronic noise. And the lyrics were no afterthought.   

“What I’ll do is just write and write and a lot of it’s shit,” Amundson says. “I’ll write and edit, write and edit, ’til I have a song that feels cohesive lyrically. I tend to do best with songs, ’cause writing 500 words or 1,000 words, I don’t know how people do that. That was my worst thing in school, writing papers — so painful. I’m good with poems. I have a way of getting what I want to say briefly, ’cause I’m not good at elaborating and detail.

“The songwriting itself, like crafting songs, is probably my favourite thing in the whole world. I’m kind of an obsessive craftsman and it’s just something that brings me a lot of happiness. I mean, it’s kind of frustrating too sometimes, but it’s just a real passion.”

So what does all the craftsmanship, the careful consideration, and the waiting add up to? Amundson takes a long pause, crinkles his brow and looks around, as if searching for the answer in the air around him.

“I would say that it is desperately trying to be... artful,” he says finally. “Just really trying to make music that is about the art, and the craft of songwriting and the music itself. I think people say ‘artist’ and some people kind of smirk at that word, but it really is ‘creative’ that I try to follow, and I know it’s the same with the people I work with. They are really interested in making quality, striving for originality and doing something that’s interesting and adventurous.”   

Good answer.