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Featured article...

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The Besnard Lakes – Squidgying your third eye

Excellent espionage obssessed dream poppers, The Besnard Lakes, relent under Subba Culture interrogation

The Besnard Lakes are based around the songs of husband and wife duo Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, their widescreen mix of sweet vocals, waves of distortion and insistent melodies has reached new heights with their fantastic new record The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night. CJ Brockman grills Olga Goreas about pressure, spies and classic rock.

Your last record The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse, was your breakthrough, it was critically acclaimed and nominated for the Polaris award (think the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury Music Prise), did this lead to anymore pressure when undertaking the new record and have there been any changes in the day to day workings of the band with this acclaim?
I don't think it changed the way we do things or go about our music. I think the thing for us is that we never expected to have the success that we've gotten, so it's a very nice surprise when it happens that way. I suppose on the flip side that there may be a little bit of pressure put upon (us), either internally or externally, to whatever will follow something that is well-received. I never really felt too much pressure though. Jace says he felt it a bit at first but it soon went away once we started recording the album. Once we're in the studio we're okay.

What defines, for you, the difference between this new record and your previous records?
This new record feels a little more direct and hits you harder than the last one. For me Are the Dark Horse was a complete departure from Volume One, and I actually think that this record is more of a combination of those records. Are the Roaring Night takes from the spirit of experimentalism found on Volume One, and combines it with the more classic form of song writing that is on Are the Dark Horse.

While there is definitely a shoegaze element to your sound, Your new record was recorded on a old Neve console that you think may have been used to record part of Led Zepplin’s Physical Graffitti and I certainly detected a epic, classic rock feeling to some of the songs as well, what classic rock bands do you like and what do you try to take from them for your own sound?
Well, I guess I have a bit of a love-affair with bands of yesteryear. For sure Led Zep are up in there, The Who, The Kinks...oh, and AC/DC, of course! I think what impresses me about those bands is the genuine rockingness of them - they consist of some of the greatest players ever, but there's also something else to it. You've got to be just a little bit crazy to get up on a stage and play balls out like that, whether it be to many, or not many at all. You have to project this aura of being the greatest rock band there is. I really like that feeling of confidence that classic rock bands exude.

We're also influenced by Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees in their earlier stuff, The Beatles and the solo work especially RAM - era Paul McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Electric Light Orchestra too is a direct influence on this new record. We love the vocal harmonies and the beauty of the song arrangements from these groups.

As for the shoegaze element I see you have collaborated with Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, how did you meet and I assume he is a fan of The Besnard Lakes?
I initially contacted Adam Franklin to tell him how big of a fan of his I am and that I had played in a band many years ago when I lived in Vancouver who had opened for Swervedriver. It was a total superfan moment. I think it was a couple years ago too that Adam was playing in Montreal, and we played a couple Swervedriver tunes with him. I remember saying that night that now I could truly die happy. Anyway, we kept in contact with Adam and he sent us a track he was working on for an upcoming record and asked if we'd like to add to it and we unhesitatingly said yes. It's been a lovely dream-come-reality to have worked creatively with Adam. He's such a beaut of a guy!

Your website says this record is “a twisting chronicle of spies, double agents, novelists and aspiring rock gods turned violent. Loyalty, dishonor, love, and hatred are all seen through the eyes of two spies, communicating through short wave in code and fighting a war that may or may not be real”. Phew, that is not exactly your standard lyrical tropes, what was your inspiration for the lyrics on this record?
Jace uses the continuing story-line of the spies as his lyrical inspiration whereas I draw from personal experiences and dreams that I've had. Our two writing styles seem to mesh really well with each other; there will always be this tension between fact and fiction. Plus there are all the cool extra elements that play-in really well, for example the short-wave radio bits. We used some more of those this time around, and they were taken from recordings made from Jace's short - wave radio or our own re-creations of them. These transmissions were supposedly used during war times to give spies and generals their orders for the day. They still have these codes being broadcast in present day, which is so strange... are they being used for real or not?

And of course the burning question, who is your favourite spy and why?
Why Bond, James Bond of course. So suave and debonair, yes please! As Liz Lemon says in 30 Rock, "I want to go to there".

How does being husband and wife affect your working relationship? Do you have rules about how you approach work as opposed to your home life? And because we like to try and start fights at Subba Cultcha, is one of you in charge in the musical realm and is that different from who is in charge in at home?
Hmmm.... I am definitely the general manager of some things to do with the Besnard Lakes. For example, I just booked all the flights for the European press tour we just did. However, it's Jace who takes care of some administrative things, and he does phone interviews a lot. It works out equally for the most part since we both need to approve all the major decisions, and when it comes to the creative side, it's definitely equal.

I'm more in charge of the home, although judging by the inch-thick layer of dust around here I would guess I haven't been doing a very good job of it!

You have just announced that you are doing a soundtrack for Mark Ruffalo’s new film. How did that come about?
Yes, and it's completed - in fact the film, which is called Sympathy For Delicious, was recently screened at Sundance. The way Mark tells the story is that he was lying in bed sick with the flu and was listening to itunes and he clicked on one of the "if you like this, you'll like this" type of things, which led him to some songs off of Are the Dark Horse. So I guess it stands to reason that we're the perfect musical accompaniment for those who are literally in a feverish state. It was really perfect though; we've always wanted to do soundtrack work and thought for sure we'd lend ourselves well to that medium. I hope we get the chance to do it again, it's so much fun.

While your music certainly has an epic and perhaps widescreen quality, have you approached the soundtrack differently to your albums? If so could you talk us through the different process for each?
Well, it's a bit of a different process since you're working off a visual narrative. That's what I loved so much about doing the score was that you're freed up to do whatever you desire really, and I suppose that it's no different for making a record except that you watch and play something at the same time in the case of a film. You still have to provide an emotional landscape that helps support the film's characters and plot. It felt absolutely natural to do this kind of creative work.

Your second record was released 4 years after your first and this record 3 years after that. Have you got plans for the next record yet? Will it take another 3 or 4 years or can we look forward to something sooner?
It's hard to say. We like to take time to refuel ourselves creatively between albums. Plus the studio that Jace owns is usually quite booked so we have to make sure we have a solid chunk of time, and of course we're all busy with other projects as well. But once we get in the studio, it takes very little time. We recorded this album in May last year, and shortly after that we commenced the movie soundtrack. Hopefully the movie soundtrack will be released, but I'm not exactly sure, we'll have to wait and see

The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night will be released March 8 on Jagjaguwar

UK tour dates:
March 25 Liverpool, Academy 7pm, £8 adv
March 26 Bristol, Arnolfini w/Tunng 7pm, £10 adv
March 27 Leeds, Cockpit 7pm, £8adv
March 28 Glasgow, Captains Rest w/Wolf People 8pm, £8 adv
March 29 Manchester, Dulcimer 7.30pm, £9 adv
March 30 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds w/Wolf People 7.30, £8 adv
March 31 London, Cargo w/Wolf People 7.30pm, £12 adv
thanks to Manish @ Jagjaguwar

Chris Scott