Significant Others: Exchanging Words with Vancouver's Girlfriends and Boyfriends
Vancouver, BC's Girlfriends and Boyfriends are feeling pretty good right. Touring down the coast to celebrate their signing to Manimal Vinyl in Los Angeles (with whom  they were just featured on a rad Duran Duran cover album), I took the chance to talk to them about what the scene is currently like in Canada and what it's like to be a Canadian musician. "Vancouver has a decent variety of bands and scenes. There's something up here for everyone, ranging from contemporary indie pop radio rock, country, folk, art school punk and underground hardcore. There's definitely spillover influence from the North-West Seattle Punk and Grunge /Sub Pop scenes within our indie and punk community. We're pretty lucky to be part of a scene of supportive bands and good creative people who generally value and respect one another. Canada has a smaller scene than the US and Europe simply because of the size and population differences, and touring is harder up here because of the distances between cities, so that sometimes can seem to make the scenes a bit insular. That said, a lot of good music has been coming out of Canada's creative centers, despite the pattern of gentrification and the closing of good music venues that seems to be prevalent everywhere. Artists always seem to find a way to be heard, even if it's through DIY type venues". Girlfriends and Boyfriends deliver an 80's-inspired synth-pop/rock sound, but that doesn't mean that is where all their influences stem from. When asked about what other musicians have steered their musical ship: "Christopher Cross, king of smooth. Guitars that sound like wind chimes! Metallica for sure. Our primary guitarist, Pete grew up playing only Kirk Hammett solos. Brit Pop. Oasis, Suede, Blur. And grunge / 90's radio post-grunge. 90's Canadian bands like Rusty, Sloan, and Treble Charger. That's all we had access to up here on the radio before Napster. We were all around in the 90's so bands like Everclear, PoTUSA, Bush, Stone Temple Pilots and Spacehog. A good song is a good song." Many Canadian artists have (rightfully) broken into the mainstream like Grimes, Owen Pallett, Shad and Majical Cloudz. When asked who they think from their homeland should be getting some notice: "CFCF from Montreal continues to impress me. Over a few albums he went from these ultra slick hard synthy remixes and dance tunes to an almost pure late-80's contemporary Eno-style New Age sound. Really sparse easy listening piano music. That takes guts. And, our friends in Weird Candle are killing it, we just played with them in Vancouver and they're down in Cali now on tour."
The life of a playing and touring musicans always brings unique and memorable experiences, when asked if one stuck out in particular: "We played a show at a Legion Hall in Guelph, Ontario when we were on tour last year. There was this tropical beach wallpaper on one wall and the rest was 70's wood paneling and patio furniture. It was classy. There was this old electrician dude helping us with the stage setup. He was smashed off his rocker. He told us he toured on a crew with Rush and said that they didn't get paid but "we got laid, brother!"  Then we played "Tom Sawyer" for him and he didn't recognize it. He said the mix wasn't right, so I asked if the bass was too loud or too quiet and he said "… yeah." and walked away. His shirt was sticking out of his fly the whole time." Coming to Santa Barbara for the first time, I asked bassist Grant if he had a chance to check out any of the Californian bands they'd be playing with on tour: "We're really stoked to see all the Cali bands we're playing with on tour, including Internet, The Blues and Greys and Dead Dawn".