Interview: The Besnard Lakes - Part 2

Scott: Even though this album is totally awesome, easily one of my faves of this year--right up there with Blonde Redhead, is there anything that you would like to do differently on the next record?

Jace: You know I’m just so happy with it. It was going along so well and then our keyboard player Nikki said she wanted to put strings on it, and she’s a composer in Canada and really super-smart. She scored it, wrote the melodies, and once the strings and horns got added it was just...it was just beyond me. I thought it would be nice to have those elements and melodies but her stuff is just incredible. She brought in those orchestral examples and I just don’t know what we’re going to do next?
(Laughter)

I’m just so excited that it turned out so well. We’re all very shocked that it became so critically acclaimed and people were touting it as some of their favorite records. The only expectation I really had is that we could have it out on a label.

Scott: Now that’s your blueprint. You have a great platform to work with. So what’s the best tour story you have or most memorable moment?

Jace: There’s probably one of the most memorable moments, in my entire life, that happened on this tour. I’m really into Carl Sagan and the cosmos and geology, space….natural events. Something that you’re seeing that’s completely natural and amazing.

So we were driving and heading out to Denver and we drove into this crazy thunderstorm. We were still on prairie, this really dry grassland, and we’re just watching the lightning come down and it came really close to us. There was this one lightning track that hit the ground and we saw the ground explode. It shot dirt up and shit and I was like “Oh my god did you guys see that? Let’s get out of here!”

So we’re driving a little more and that plume turned into smoke and as we come over the hill we can see that the ground is on fire! So this lightning bolt lit the ground on fire and there’s like cattle around there and other stuff. You always hear about how lightning starts a forest fire and I’m always like “yeah lightning doesn’t start forest fires”, but I actually saw lightning start a fire and that was pretty mind-blowing. It’s not really a tour story that has to do with jumping out of a hotel room into a pool or something.
(Laughter)

Scott: But that’s unreal! I’d be pretty scared.

Jace: And I realized I got to witness something very special that no one ever gets to see.

Scott: What other sort of natural events would you like to encounter? Like a comet passing or something?

Jace: Well, I’ve seen meteor showers. We go up to Besnard Lake once a year and there’s nobody up there. I’ve seen some satellites and meteor showers. I thought I actually saw the Russian Space Station when we were up there. It was incredibly bright, brighter than any star. It was in the news that week and we were pretty far up north so I’m pretty sure that was it. It just looked different from everything else.

I’d also like to go up into space, let’s hope Richard Branson gets his shit together and I can sneak into to one of those rockets. I’m always interested in what the astronauts had to say when they came back down. They can’t really talk about it can they? Or describe the earth from the moon? That would just turn your whole world around.

Scott: Right. How do you describe that? Almost like it needs a whole vocabulary. It’s not the same as describing a normal object like a trashcan in everyday language. Those guys went to fucking space!
(Laughter)

Jace: Yeah it’s hard to impress a guy who’s been to the moon with a typical day-to-day story. We actually heard an interview with an astronaut who’d been to the moon on Coast-to-Coast AM and he’s like “It changed my life.” It is funny to think about things like taking a piss, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash….he’s like “I’ve been on the moon.”

Scott: So what music are you listening to right now?

Jace: We’ll the new Sunset Rubdown is amazing and I was fortunate to have recorded it. The band that we’re playing with tonight, Starvin’ Hungry, brilliant band, their record just came out. And another band, well…this is quite lame because I just realized I have something to do with all these bands. I can’t help it because I never get out to buy music. Sunday Sinners from Montreal, they’re like of Montreal meets Pretty Things.

Something that has nothing to do with me is the David Vandervelde album.

Scott: Me too, I love that record.

Jace: It’s pretty T. Rexy and sounds like Big Star. But I think his voice is just so great and he can’t help it but sound like that. He’s just incredible.

Scott: He always kind of reminded me of Gaz from Supergrass most of the time. I don’t know many people who dislike that album at all.

Jace: They came upon us by accident. They opened for us and that was a really great night. I also got to meet Chris Hillman from the Byrds. He was playing in the big room and we were downstairs but we were also sharing the green room. I went and got Olga and I’m thinking “oh my god it’s Chris Hillman!" I don’t really get star struck but I mean...Chris Hillman! He did “8 Miles High” on Mandolin that night. It was amazing.

Scott: That guy is an icon. Well, I really appreciate you meeting with me, I’m a huge fan of your band.

Jace: Right on, thanks a lot. Hopefully we’ll come west again soon.


-Scott McDonald