Sitting with their dog RG against the sound of pouring rain, front man of the Operators Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) and band mate Devojka sat down with Larry at the annual RBC Bluesfest in Ottawa to talk about their latest musical pursuits. Click through to hear what they had to say…
Larry: Devjoka, I want to first ask you about the table of musical goodies you perform with, how much do you have up there? You seem very busy…
Devojka: Yeah I mean so the table is actually a construction a Dan’s imagination, it’s his Frankenstein… I feel like, when I was first hired, I was hired to babysit Frankenstein. And then it became more of like “oh I can be a surrogate mother of Frankenstein” and and then I came to understand Frankenstein. It’s a table of analogues and synthesizers and drum machines… it depends on the song but it’s either way less complicated than you think or it’s a lot more complicated than you think it is. Does that answer your question?
Basically, there’s a lot of shit on a table…
Dan: …we don’t use computers, the table exists in its complex form in place of using Ableton which maybe isn’t the smartest move and maybe eventually we’ll transition.
I like the fact that Devokja can do everything live and manipulate, it’s never going to sound the same each time, it can, but there’s a lot more flexibility with hardware. The downside it takes forever to set up and there’s a lot of fiddly bits to it
Which makes events like SXSW or CMW a bit tricky
Devojka: I’m not totally convinced I’ve seen other bands who have laptops and you know they do Ableton and whatever else exists and they still have stuff go hey wire and they still have to deal with the possibility, it is like a separate member, it isn’t like an acoustic instrument. Me playing in an analogue form gives me a sense of that control to a certain degree, more so than if we had Ableton and tracks were just running. This is what I think but I could be delusional and tell myself that the reason why I put myself through that every time i get on stage…
Dan: I totally agree, and also it just sounds good, you can really melt the sounds down, it’s similar, if you were running your guitar through plug ins on a computer then out into the front of house… there’s this unpredictability psychedelia that you dont get with that but with the melted analogue quality, you can get pretty trippy pretty fast…
And you played a few new songs today….
Dan: There’s one song that we played that’s literally brand new, we wrote it last week
You got a bit of constructive criticism from an audience member
Dan: “put a solo in there,” is that what he said?
He said “put a solo in it and put in the record”
Dan: Well, maybe there will be a solo on it… thanks random guy…
Devojka: That kind of was the plan, he wasn’t totally far off the mark. People get excited they want to help what can you do? You’re like OK, thank you!
Dan: We’re in this position, we have an EP out, there’s 5 songs on it, we released a single like a house-ier song that we didn’t play today and then we have a mass of other songs we’ve been waiting to put on a record which we’re recording right now and then this new thing that we recorded recently. So it seems that the band exists in 4 or 5 different times right now. We have the first stuff we wrote over a year ago, we have the stuff we toured and it has completely changed, we have this brand new stuff too. I don’t know it’s fun, it’s exciting. We get to structure the set in a way that’s exciting for everybody.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, is that going to be the evolution of a full length record?
Dan: We’re right smack dab in the middle of recording the LP right now. We’re working with this producer, Graham Walsh, he plays in the band called Holy Fuck and he recorded the Viet Cong record and the last two Metz record. He’s Canadian and we spent 3 weeks sequestered in a barn, sleeping, eating, playing music in a barn. We’re about half way through the record.
Coming back to Canada for you, is it good to be home? You’re in Montreal now aren’t you?
Dan: I feel pretty rootless as a person… I feel kind of rootless in general. Montreal is the closest thing to home I’ve ever had. I spent most of my twenties there, I love it there very deeply… I feel good to back in Canada, 4 years in America was interesting and it was great, I met a lot of wonderful people but don’t want to live there, I couldn’t vote!
No free healthcare…
Dan: No health care at all, and a political system that is increasingly more of a joke. I feel bad for my friends who live there that they have to deal with that, like Sam who plays drums for us, he’s an American, he lives in Columbus, Ohio, he’s got a wife and kids, and I had the luxury of being able to exit and come back to Canada. I feel good to be home but it’s bitter sweet for me, I have a lot of connections down there now.
Devojka: That definitely is a privilege to move as a person through different countries and not commit yourself and not beholden to a country or a state or a community…
Dan: I won the life lottery being born in Canada
Devojka: Or being born in North America, that is a privilege that not a lot of people have…
And you’re part of the Commonwealth so it’s easier access for you to get to Australia as well!
Devojka: I would love to come there.
We’re going to get you guys down to Australia. Laneway is an obvious fit, I guess it’s getting the LP out first though…
Dan: The LP is coming out late this year early next year. One of my favourite experiences, I love doing Laneway… the club shows that the Divine Fits did around Laneway were fantastic… it’s really one my favourite places to tour. For me its bizarro world.
Everything is upside down… or right side up?
Dan: I got to hang out with kangaroos’ and koala’s. Although everything’s poisonous…
There’s that….
Devojka: You have to really want to live there
Dan: There is a amazing music scene like Pond and Total Control, one of my all time favourite modern bands. I want to go back.
I’ll leave it on this, in your illustrious career, where do you think Operators fits in among the rest of it?
Devojka: Well I feel that in my illustrious career, I feel like Operators fits in that its the first viable part of my career *laughs*
Dan: The first economically sustainable band? Yeah.
For me, I think Operators is a culmination of things I’ve been working on since I started performing music in front of people… since I got the courage to get in front of people and play the songs that I wrote. It’s the sort of dance and synth, late seventies early eighties, punk synth stuff with Handsome Furs… mixed in with the guitar stuff from Wolf Parade and the songwriting… and now I’d like to think it has a refined quality to writing songs… it’s really exciting for me. I love going into my studio in Montreal and writing songs with this band and for this band and I love performing it live. There’s a lot of freedom in this project for me.
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Visit the band’s official website for more: http://operatorsmusic.com/
