Brendan Canning is one of the most down to earth and genuine souls walking among us, and he also just happens to be one of the founders of Toronto’s celebrated indie rock band Broken Social Scene. The band—which is more like a collective than a traditional rock band —is returning to Victoria on August 31, and Canning hopes that locals will leave the show with a sense of liberation.
“Hopefully, it’s some sort of cathartic adventure. You want to be able to go to a show and just rock out,” says Canning, who plays bass, guitar, and keyboards and sings in the band. “Just let something go. Leave something that you brought into the auditorium and walk away a freer person.”
Broken Social Scene released their fifth album, Hug of Thunder, last year. The band is known for having a lot of members, and Canning says the lineup on the album consists of “something like” 15 members, including Canadian indie pop singer/songwriter Leslie Feist and Metric lead vocalist Emily Haines.
“We’re generally eight on stage, and then four, five on crew, and then we often pick up stray horn players, which we’ve been doing pretty much everywhere we go,” says Canning about the band’s touring lineup.
Broken Social Scene took a break in 2011 before reuniting for Hug of Thunder. New band member Ariel Engle, a singer married to Broken Social Scene guitarist Andrew Whiteman, fits the vibe perfectly.
“Going forward with the band, and when we did this record, it just made the most sense that Ariel was going to be a full-fledged card-carrying member with the Broken Social Scene,” says Canning. “Just kind of a no-brainer decision.”
After their reunion, Canning turned his house into a studio, transforming his living room into a jam space and recording studio. Although Canning admits there are always going to be challenges with this band, he also recognizes that nothing is forced.
“We just try to go at whatever pace it goes,” he says, “and with this next album coming down the pipe, it will be a little bit quicker than the last one because [last time] we really had to start from the ground on up.”
While members of the band are getting used to being in each other’s spaces again, they still have a unique bond that has lasted over 18 years.
“You spend more time with your bandmates than you do with most people,” says Canning. “You get to know how to push each other’s buttons just like a family, or a collection of marriages, or however you want to analyze it.”
The initial collaboration process on Hug of Thunder started with the band’s five core members, and then they started slowly adding people in. Canning says there are many subtleties involved in the collaborative process.
“It can be a difficult beast to wrangle,” he says, “and if there is too much combative behaviour, then it’s just going to sink the ship eventually.”
But the ship is still afloat, and for all the right reasons: at the end of the day, there’s still a demand and a desire for the members to go out and play fun gigs.
“We had a day off in Caldwell, Idaho,” says Canning, giving an example of this, “so we played in someone’s living room.”
Meanwhile, Canning has been spending a little bit of time in Banff working with bands as well as with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in a mentorship role.
“It was a nice opportunity to work with some younger artists and get inspired by what they are doing,” he says. “We started this program out there called the Indie Music Residency, which finally got its plug pulled, but we had a good run there for a little while.”
But it always comes back to Broken Social Scene. Throughout the years, this band has stood the test of time and made an honest connection with their fans.
“I think the goal is just to try and put on a good show, and if you can—if the gods of sound let you hear everything on stage that night and if everyone’s a good listener that night on stage—then I think that’s kind of the musical goal,” says Canning. “Just try and have performances that are meaningful and connecting and not disorienting for the crowd in any way, and just really try and deliver the best possible version of the band.”
Broken Social Scene
Friday, August 31
$39.50, Capital Ballroom (Sold out)
sugarnightclub.ca
So excited for this show and so damn happy I’m still following this band 15 years later!