Photo courtesy Jamie Kronick
Earlier this year, Ottawa garage rockers The Polymorphines packed their bags and headed south. Way south. As in, Austin, Texas south. That’s where the lads holed up in a studio to record tunes for a new album, and this weekend they’re giving their fans a taste of what’s to come with their release party for The Slip EP. They even recorded a short film (Is that the Dom Polski? I do believe it is!) to promote the Saturday night show at Mavericks.
I got in touch with lead guitarist Alexandre Brandt-Dumas – or just Alex D, as he says – over Skype earlier this week at the band’s practice space. And it turns out the band’s southern U.S. tour was pretty eventful: not only did they learn the secret of playing live from Tim Kerr (Mudhoney), but an unexpected ER trip nearly set the boys back a cool ten grand.
But hey, don’t take my word for it. Click through for the complete transcript of my interview with Alex D. (There just might be some free Polymorphines swag for those who make it to the end!) Or even better, go check them out and get the full story from the band firsthand.
Apt613: Let’s say someone arrived on earth from outer space and had never heard of the Polymorphines before. How would you describe your sound?
Alex D: Greasy, dirty, loose-but-not-sloppy rock and roll. Something along those lines.
Apt613: Tell me a bit more about your new EP, The Slip.
AD: We recorded that in Austin, Texas in February of this year. And we were working with a couple great guys down in Austin, one of them being Tim Kerr, who’s a huge name in the music industry down in the south. He’s been in bands like Poison 13, Big Boys, Lord High Fixtures – all great bands. He’s worked with Mudhoney and Bad Brains, and he’s influenced a lot of different people and a lot of different sounds. And Mike Vasquez – he owned the studio that we recorded at, Sweatbox Studios. So we worked really close with them for about 12 days, and during those 12 days we just recorded and talked a lot and really listened a lot, especially to Tim Kerr. He’s sort of a music guru. And he taught us a lot about what was to play in a live band – what it’s all supposed to be about.
Apt613: And what was that?
AD: He was basically just opening our eyes to the fact that it’s all just a celebration, and that every time you step on stage, it’s just a party, you know? We’re doing this all for fun – if it’s not fun you really shouldn’t be doing it, unless you’re driven by fame and glamour and money and all that stuff. And that’s really nothing that we’ve – we’ve never been that kind of band, and we’re not that kind of people. So he really just sort of sunk it in that, really, everything that can be explained in one word: celebrate. Celebrate everything. And we took that, and we’re like “Wow, you’re so right.” We played our first show after we were done recording in Austin, and we took that philosophy onto the stage, and it was probably one of the greatest shows we’ve ever played.
Apt613: Tell me about the southern U.S. trip – where did you go, where’d you play, what was it like?
AD: It was our first time to the states, so it was a big leap for us. Especially since after recording, we were just ready to hit the road. So we started off in Austin, Texas. We drove all the way down there to record for the first leg of the tour, and from there we went to New Orleans; Florence, Alabama; Louisville. We went to – I’m going to start forgetting places. We ended up in New York City. We played there twice with a couple of friends’ band – Dead Sexy Sheila, which actually originated in Toronto. And we had a show booked in Baltimore, but the booking agent, the booking manager – it fell through, somehow. They forgot that we were playing. And then we showed up there, and the night was already booked or something. Then we played New Jersey.
It was a wicked time, man – we met a lot of really great people, in Florence, especially. There’s a lot of cool, young, really excited kids. The scene’s really neat down there. We played a record store, and it was really intimate, because we were all set up on the floor and we couldn’t really play that loud. But we did anyways. It was a really neat experience – really different from Canada. We’ve toured the east – we went out to St. John’s, Newfoundland, last fall – and it was way different, but still super cool.
Apt613: Did being Canadian in the deep south get you any extra attention? Were people like, ‘Hey, who are these guys?’
AD: Did you say tension or attention?
Apt613: Attention.
AD: Yeah, you know, I hate to say it but some people really didn’t know what Ottawa was. So that was cool to see them or hear them say “Oh yeah, wild, I’ve never heard of you guys!” We got a lot of good feedback, and they were kind of surprised that a band from Ottawa or from Canada was down there, doing this stuff on their own dime. We didn’t really get any bad feedback or anything like that. No one came up to us and said, “Oh you Canadians, what are you doing down there? Why don’t you stay up north?” It was mostly real positive. Everyone we met was really nice and helpful.
Apt613: No one was like, “You dirty Canadians and your free healthcare!”
AD: Actually, we had to sort of go through some of that! Our bass player Nick got sick while we were down there, and he went to the ER room. And he had a $15,000 bill or something crazy like that. Or like $10,000. He was insured, which was good, but he had to put the money up front, so he had to call his mom, stuff like that. Down there, you know, we were talking to [people] and we were like, “Man, this is crazy!” But our friends that we met in Austin, they were just like, “Well, that’s the way of life here.” You’re born into this system, and it’s just like an everyday thing – if you gotta buy prescription drugs, or you break your hand, it’s going to cost you, like, $600.
Apt613: Is The Slip EP a precursor to a new full-length album?
AD: Yes it is. We recorded a full-length amount of songs. We have 12 songs recorded. This is sort of just a little sneak peek as to what’s coming up. We’re waiting on recording the full album as soon as we have enough funds. Because we sort of broke all our banks for this one.
Apt613: And are you going to debut some of the new songs of the album at your EP release show?
AD: Oh yeah, yeah. Ninety percent of it is going to be all new stuff, all stuff off the new album. Some old stuff that fits into the set, plus a couple new covers and stuff. But yeah, we’re really pushing the EP right now.
We’re giving away tickets and copies of The Slip! The first two people to email us at apartment613 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line “Polymorphines giveaway” that contains the correctly-spelled name of the band’s 2010 album each get on the guest list for Saturday’s show and a copy of the new EP. The Polymorphines play Mavericks Saturday night with The Flaps, Devil Eyes, and Thunder Uncle. Doors are at 9pm. $8/19+
