Interview/Concert Preview: The Deadly Snakes @ The Grad Club, Thursday
Toronto’s favourite garage rock collective, The Deadly Snakes, has returned with another offering. However, this isn’t the usual exhaust-fume-soaked, five-star whiskey-fuelled four-piece, banging away at power-chorded blues rock on improperly- tuned instruments.
This album is firmly grounded in past traditions and fundamentals, yet infused with a life, ion and maturity rarely seen in association with the genre of music made famous by bands like The Zombies, The Haunted and MC5. The Snakes have been heavy in this game for the past decade, and gathered steam in the past five years with a handful of successful releases, notably 2003’s Ode to Joy. This recent record, Porcella, has been receiving more than its fair share of press. And much has been made about the Snakes’ apparent step “out of the garage,” a movement towards more instrumental experimentation. However, the band’s organist and vocalist, who goes by the pseudonym “The Age of Danger,” said he feels that this progression isn’t necessarily true. “I know that this record, people have been saying that it’s very different and everything,” Danger said. “I think it’s been kind of a progression that we’ve always had in our records, from record to record we’ve always changed—it’s not such a massive change.” He insists that this difference was not predicated on a deep yearning for change, or a need for something new—in fact, it was much more organic than that in between albums.
“I think it just grew, I think it was kinda a natural progression,” Danger explained.
Danger assured me the changes didn’t just stem from the band ’ own personal taste in music.
“I mean, we’ve probably listened to things in the past couple years that inspired that change, but I think it was a natural thing, definitely,” Danger said. “The record Chelsea Girls [by Nico] was a huge, huge, huge influence on me personally.” “I mean, I’ve had that record for years before we made this record but I think maybe at this time, we could try something like that, arrangements like that, I don’t know what exactly. The reason that this record sounds the way it does, besides the things we were listening to, is the mood we were in, the conditions that we recorded in.” The conditions in question? A rustic cabin in the Canadian wilderness, away from all outside distraction and influence, Danger explained. “One of the more … detectable things that you can hear on this record, specifically to do with the cabin, is that the fact that we got to take as much time as we wanted and we got to work really slowly and we got to do things as many times as we wanted,” said Danger.
“There was no pressure to do it quickly, ’cause … it wasn’t a money issue, it wasn’t like we were paying for the studio by the day, we were up there with more than enough time to do more than what we needed to do. I mean it was a great time, but it wasn’t necessarily fun, it was just really quiet … we just recorded all day and recorded all night and it was all just about music, and everybody was just really concentrated and there were a lot of parts that were just born there, little things and pieces of songs that were formed there. “It was one of the calmest times in my life, it was so serene,” Danger said. “There was no other influence, there was nothing. I mean, I’m not trying to sound macho, but there was no girlfriends, there was no jobs, no vacuuming, no brothers … whatever, just totally us in this place, making music and eating.” When asked about the current state of Canadian music, Danger had this to say: “I think it’s great. I hope that it’ll be to our advantage. But I don’t expect this trend to last—yeah, there’s a lot of good music in Canada, but [this was happening long before it was trendy],” Danger said. “I think the state of music in Canada gets people all wound up and they start making dumb decisions. It’s ridiculous. Major labels are going to be g up bands and bands are going to get fucked just like they always have. Every time [music in Canada becomes popular], bands come out of the woodwork.
“This [cycle] exists, and it’s always going to exist. As much as Canadians can pat themselves on the back for having a bunch of hyped up, good bands, they’re still waiting for validation from the States,” Danger said.
The Deadly Snakes play the Grad Club October 20. Slither on in and see one of the finest examples of Canadian balls and brains.
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