{"id":4694,"date":"2012-10-31T08:55:54","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T15:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=4694"},"modified":"2014-03-12T13:59:36","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T20:59:36","slug":"plants-and-animals-embrace-their-frenchness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/10\/31\/plants-and-animals-embrace-their-frenchness\/","title":{"rendered":"Plants and Animals embrace their Frenchness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes a Canadian indie rock band gets to record their latest album in a pretty cool spot. But a recording studio in a 19th<\/sup> century mansion just 15 minutes from downtown Paris? Plants and Animals have to be kidding us.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Montreal\u2019s Plants and Animals did not pose with plants for this photo shoot. Or animals. However, they did bring one big scarf. (Photo provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe did it in a big house and that house itself is an instrument,\u201d says the Montreal-based band\u2019s drummer and vocalist Matthew Woodley about recording Plants and Animals\u2019 The End of That <\/em>at La Frette Studios in France. \u201cThere are giant, carpeted rooms and chandeliers and a grandfather clock with a secret staircase behind it. We put our amps in the wine cellar in the basement and there are these microscopic cobwebs there that deaden the sound just so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the guiding hands of engineer Lionel Darenne, who has also worked with Feist and Readymade, the three-piece took their magnificent surroundings as a chance to try something different for their third album. The End of That<\/em> was the first time that Plants and Animals wrote songs in advance of recording, as opposed to the improvisational jams that ended up on their first two albums. And, according to Woodley, it wasn\u2019t just Darenne who was able to provide feedback during the recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were songbirds going at it outside for most of the day,\u201d he says. \u201cThe recording console itself is built from the wood from an old schooner with 1,001 tales from the stormy sea. The walls spoke to each other at night and sometimes between takes, if they had any comments or constructive criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is an album that lives and breathes, but it\u2019s a life that isn\u2019t always easy. It\u2019s a life where relationships come to an end, and the cycle of life begins all over again, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe album means coming of age all over again for the first time,\u201d explains Woodley, who, along with guitarist\/vocalist Warren Spicer and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Nicolas Basque, created songs like \u201cControl Me\u201d that are beautiful with a dark edge. And with sugar on top? \u201c\u2018Control Me\u2019 is about control, lack of control, relationships, and, believe it or not, doughnuts,\u201d says Woodley.<\/p>\n

The cruelest question you can ever ask a musician is to pick their favourite song off any of their albums. The End of That<\/em> is teeming with really good songs, but Woodley only has to reminisce about the amazing La Frette studios to come up with his hard-fought answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHmmmm,\u201d he ponders. \u201cI like \u2018Before\u2019 a lot. It really reminds me of being at that studio in France. I can honestly smell the place when I hear that song.<\/p>\n

Plants and Animals<\/strong>
\nWednesday, October 31, $20<\/strong>
\nLucky Bar<\/strong>
\natomiqueproductions.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes a Canadian indie rock band gets to record their latest album in a pretty cool spot. But a recording studio in a 19th century mansion just 15 minutes from downtown Paris? Plants and Animals have to be kidding us. \u201cWe did it in a big house and that house itself is an instrument,\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-issue","category-october-31-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4694"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8740,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4694\/revisions\/8740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}