DESTROYER
WAVELENGTH 31
SEPTEMBER 10th - 11PM
But Lady Luck has smiled on Wavelength, and Dan Destroyer will be here on
the 10th for a special solo show. Jonny Dovercourt corresponded with the man
via electronic mail.
By now you must have come up with some sassy comebacks whenever anyone jokes
about Destroyer being a KISS cover band. Could you share them with us?
Uhhhhhhh.
Are your records available in Ontario, and if not, will you bring some with
you so you can make some money? (posed by Zombiegirl)
I think some Destroyer records are available in Ontario, definitely in
Toronto. I was planning to bring some as an experiment in sales. I’m also
not opposed to bartering.
Is Jason Zumpano as much of a loverboy in real life as he is in the video for
“The Party Rages On”?
Follow the trail of broken hearts to your answer.
Which song on Thief causes the most controversy and sordid backstabbing
amongst your circle of friends?
None of the Thief songs have landed me on a shitlist, that I know of. “The
Temple” has been misconstrued here and there as being something it is not.
“Canadian Lover/ Falcon’s Escape” raised an eyebrow or two.
Tell us about your involvement in the film Low Self Esteem Girl and how this
brings you to our smog-filled metropolis?
My friend and then-roommate Blaine was shooting scenes in our house. I was
roped in early on to get the ball rolling, though my screen-time is minimal
and I essentially play myself. It’s now going to the T.O. Film Fest, and The
New Pornographers, the band I play in with Blaine and one of the main stars
— Carl Newman — was asked to play an industry schmooze-up. Since three of
our five members were going to be out there anyway, they offered to fly the
remaining two out rock-star syle.
Any decent greasy spoons in Vancouver?
The Nice Cafe truly lives up to its name.
Which comes first, music or lyrics?
Lyrics, though these days both at the same time. I’m the guy on the bus
humming to himself with a confused look on his face, but upon closer
inspection you find that he’s actually singing some song no one’s heard
before, nor will ever hear again. I think I’ve said too much.
What are we going to do about Matthew Good?
I’d like to think that, in the end, these people take care of themselves.
Perhaps this is too rosy a view of the world. All this being said, the idea
of somehow scaring him into silence is not one that should be discarded
lightly.
Hammock + cold beer + good book = paradise. Discuss.
I sense a fourth element missing, though I’m not exactly sure what it is.
However, if every man, woman, and child were provided with these things, I
can’t see the world not being a happier place.
I love these lines from “The Way Of Perpetual Roads”: “It’s a long climb down
from obscurity/ So cancel the keys to the city, please/ Upon which are
etched the inextricable failures of Popular Wisdom and Popular Music”. What
was on your mind when you wrote that?
For one thing, the only other “Popular” term I could think of was Popular
Mechanics, and Pollard got that one a few years back. It’s more just riffing
on the idea that these are things which will deliver you the brass ring in
the world of song, that they are entwined, and in the end they are a bit of
a sham. Maybe. Elevate the peripheries of Popular Song to being that which
one should aspire to, though it might result in obscurity. All this bringing
you to the somewhat-fucked crossroads of: “Why would you bother takin’ on
the ‘pop song’ as your form of choice if you think so much about it and its
forum?”
For the benefit of all those first-year students out there, and based on your
educational experience, rank the following in order of priority: attending
lectures, coffee, beer, books, boys/girls, rock’n’roll, sleep, staying up
late philosophizing, studying your notes.
attending lectures
studying your notes
rock‘n’roll
boys/girls
staying up late philosophizing
books
coffee
beer
sleep
I did these things in the opposite order of how they appear above, so I can
say as the voice of experience that it was the wrong order.