Emerging from Montreal, Canada in 2005, Wolf Parade made an immediate splash with their debut album Apologies To The Queen Mary. A culmination of two preceding independent EPs, their Sub Pop debut neatly fused the esoteric songwriting prowess of Spencer Krug (Frog Eyes) and Dan Boeckner (Atlas Strategic), deftly showcasing their success at experimenting with the 'indie rock' form. These intertwining world views of Krug and Boeckner - the rampant mythologies of the former blending neatly with the heart on the sleeve mentality of the latter - were ably rounded out by multi-instrumentalist Hadji Bakara and drummer/engineer Arlen Thompson (who, along with Boeckner, had moonlighted in Arcade Fire).

While the band swelled to a five-piece with the addition of guitarist Dante DeCaro, Krug and Boeckner both spent time establishing side projects that would allow them to focus on their singular visions; Krug roping in friends for the baroque, almost proggy Sunset Rubdown and Boeckner matching minimalist beats and frantic guitar with partner Alexei Perry in Handsome Furs.

In 2008 Wolf Parade reconvened for their second album At Mt. Zoomer. Less immediate than it's predecessor, Zoomer had the band taking its foot off the accelerator somewhat and moving laterally, resulting in tense, sprawling songs that were more affective at establishing moods rather than tumbling dynamics. After a period of touring, Hadji Bakara left the band and Krug and Boeckner would once again turn to their solo projects, both releasing critically acclaimed records in 2009. (Handsome Furs' Face Control was in our Top 12 of that year and the band's Australian tour in late 2009 (read our review) one of our highlights).

Now comes Wolf Parade's third record Expo 86 and it marks a shift for the group. Named after a communal event that harks back to their childhood, the album is the first time DeCaro has been heavily involved in the songwriting process, as well the first to be recorded live. Helmed by Hotel 2 Tango alumni Howard Bilerman (who will forever be referred to as the producer of Arcade Fire's Funeral) Expo 86 marks a shift away from the studious creations of At Mt. Zoomer and (to a lesser extent) Apologies To The Queen Mary, instead capturing the band at their firey, obtuse and inventive best.

On the eve of Expo 86's release, we spoke to an amiable Dan Boeckner (above, far left) about the band's new approach to recording, the welcoming of Dante DeCaro into the songwriting process, internet chat and Boeckner's seemingly forever touring Handsome Furs.

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I'm going to start with a back to basics question: what was your first guitar?

It was a BC Rich. A full on metal guitar. I think it was three quarter scale, it was for children. And it had like, lightning bolts on it. I was playing in a Metallica cover band so it suited the gig.

Most of the people I know who were into metal when they were kids ended up being the best guitar players.

(Laughs). I actually had to quit that band because I wasn't good enough to play Metallica on guitar. I was demoted to bass and then eventually just quit.

Does it mean that you still have a repository of Metallica riffs you can call forth?

I do. Sometimes when we're soundchecking I'll play 'Sanitarium', just the opening riff. Just to kind of check it out. Or the bass solo in 'For Whom The Bell Tolls'.

I was listening to At Mt. Zoomer today and I was struck at how polite it sounds next to Expo 86.

I liked recording ...Mt. Zoomer but I think one of the things I was disappointed in - I like [the album] it in retrospect - was that we didn't capture the live sound of the band very well on that record. And I think that was partially because we recorded it in three different studios and also because of overdubbing instruments. You know, not to shit talk that record, I like that record. I think it works as a collection of songs. But I don't think it did justice to the live show, which is kind've what I hoped it would. That's the ideal format for me, for people to experience Wolf Parade. Live.

Expo 86 seems so much more successful at capturing that energy.

Yeah I mean we tried. Like a lot of Apologies..., a lot of the [basic] tracks are recorded live. But some of it was done to a click track. Which is standard operating procedure for even, you know, weirder left-wing indie rock bands. A lot of these records are recorded with [computer programs] Pro Tools or Logic 'cause it's cheap and easy to use. But it kind've lends itself to overdubbing stuff into oblivion.



Is it also a matter of Arlen becoming a better engineer?

Yeah absolutely. We had this guy Howard Bilerman working on the record and Arlen could sort've be the guy from the band that could correct him. I mean we're all friends with Howard, like Howard and I played in the Arcade Fire together for a while and I love that guy. But his role was great, he would basically let us play these songs live and talk through the talkback mic, saying "that was good, that was the one". Or "that stunk" (laughs).

Even just small things make a difference. Like you're not double-tracking your vocals anywhere near as much as you were before.

Yeah that was another thing that we wanted to do. We used this classic, John Lennon echo delay thing [on the vocals], which gives it this richness - but it wasn't a computer plug-in. It was an actual tape box. And then Spencer and I both kind've came up with some parameters for recording. One of them was like, 'there should never be more than two of each persons voice on any song', you know? Just that classic Bowie style of recording where the verses are single tracked and the chorus' are sometimes doubled and sometimes not. I like that.

Double-tracking can make you feel less sensitive about your voice, because it automatically makes it sound stronger. Is it a matter now of accepting what you sound like?

Yeah I think so. Becoming comfortable with how your voice actually sounds and how it's gonna sound live. Unless you're one of those bands that's affluent enough to play a gig with a rack mounted pitch correction unit (laughs). Which some bands do. Or the TC Helicon 4 model that you can buy now, I guess that's becoming more of a reality. Double-tracking was the original autotune right?

I could be wrong but is 'Kissing The Beehive' [the last song on At Mt. Zoomer) the only song where you and Spencer alternate singing?

Yeah that's totally true.

Is that something that you've tried to do again? I've always liked alternate vocals, especially from a band where there's two strong songwriters. Even if it's for a brief moment. Which is a long-winded way of saying, why don't you do that more?

(Laughs). I dunno why we don't do that more. I love playing that song, we probably should. It just didn't happen on this record - I think we even talked about it  way back last year as a vague concept. But yeah, I dunno (laughs). I guess that's my answer, I can't tell you. We both really like playing that song, we've been closing out our sets with it. We've been doing it as the last song of the encore. Because it's really hard to play a ten minute song and then be like 'ok, here's another one'.



When you have two vocalists singing alternate stuff, I guess it's the moment that has the band presents as a single vision. Which is interesting for you guys because your songs versus Spencer's songs, even though they exist in the same world, often feel like they come from left and right. Which is a strength, but it's an interesting dichotomy.

I think that now we've been in this band for a while - and friends for a while - we both have internalised this kind've idea that 'Spencer's songs are gonna be like this. [His] lyrical content is going to be like that cause that's what he does. My songs are going to be like this', and we'll bring them together. And a little bit of Spencer's mentality will bleed into my stuff and vice versa, so. It's kind've my favourite thing about being in the band.

And in a weird other way, my least favourite thing about reading stuff on the internet. When this band started I had just gotten the internet at my work - I didn't have it at home. But I was like 'I wonder what people on the internet are saying about me?'. And [online] there would be these huge fights. Like, 'Dan vs Spencer's songwriting'. And I know that kind of puts a stop to uh, 'narcissurfing' (laughs), it can be brutal. And it can make you feel really good too. But I know that that still goes on, that's still an element of the Wolf Parade fan presence on the internet. It's just weird. This unending debate.

It does seem to be the default conversation that people have whenever one of your new records comes out.

I mean we've kind've invited that, by having - like you were saying - two totally separate singer-songwriters in the band. But sometimes it's hard to read. For both of us. If we're feeling particularly bad....I know on the last North American tour in 2008, [Spencer] was like 'man you always have the fun people in front of you, and I have like, the people who are really paying attention to what notes are coming out'. (Laughs) But I mean that's a very black and white looking way of one specific show we had in 2008. But I think there's some truth to that sometimes.

But that also touches on why people do like Wolf Parade so much, because it's left brain and right brain coming together to form a whole. And to make a cliche segue, that seems to work beautifully on Expo 86. Where that delineation of the songwriters sounds less and less. Like Wolf Parade has a sound now.

I think that's totally accurate. This is not a concept record by any stretch of the imagination, but I think there's an aesthetic theme to it. And one of the reasons we picked the title too, is because this record is the most integrated me and Spencer's disparate songwriting styles have been.

And this record was just fun to record. Like, I had a really good time (laughs). It was a lot of hard work but it just felt good. You know when you're a teenager and you're like, 'I'm gonna get a band together with my friends and we're gonna make a record!'. That's what this felt like. It was my idea of what a fun band would've been when I was 17 or 18.

When you say that the title ties into that coming together what do you mean?

Well 'cause we were all at Expo 86. Separately but over the same three days. Me and Spencer would've been eight and nine respectively and Dante would've been younger and you know, we were all there. There's a possibility we were all there on the same day. I might have even walked by 'lil Spencer (laughs).

You with your Metallica t-shirt on and him in his boat shoes.

(Laughs) Totally. You know as cool as I like to think I was, I was not into Metallica then. I was into areoplanes (laughs).



Do you hear Dante much when you listen back to this record?

Definitely. Yeah, he was another major factor in the unified sound of this record. It was the first record he actively wrote the songs top to bottom with us. You know, structured them. Obviously he wrote all his own parts, but he was there as much as me or Spencer or Arlen was in terms of actually structuring the songs or the way they sound.

Do you think he's an influence in you feeling now that it's the most fun period of Wolf Parade?

Yeah, I definitely do. I definitely do. You know it was a weird couple of years for us. ...Mt. Zoomer was not as critically acclaimed as Apologies to the Queen Mary, but at the same time our audience - when we were touring that record - it tripled in size. From when we were touring Apologies.... Which was bizarre to us. So we were going through that and we also lost Hadji a couple of years ago. Which was kind've a long drawn out process and not fun for anybody in he band. But once all the dust settled, we did a European tour in winter 2008 as just a four piece and it felt really good. And at that point we were like 'we may as well take a year off now and do our own thing, then come back and make a really good record' (laughs).

When I spoke to you last time in mid-2009 you were here for Handsome Furs. You were saying you didn't even have any new material for the Wolf Parade record. And now you say you've recorded almost a double album?

Yeah, yeah. We recorded 70, 80 minutes worth of music so about 14 songs. So we've got three songs that we want to put out as an EP or hopefully a split record with a band we like. I'd love to do that. But yeah, I would've talked to you in late August or early September, or maybe even before that. And [back then] I didn't have a single riff for this Wolf Parade record.

Are Wolf Parade planning on coming to Australia any time soon?

Yes, actually. We are going to come to Australia - barring any sort of unforseen tragedy - in January of 2011. And we're just trying to figure out what dates make the most sense for us right now. I think it's going to be starting on the 26th of January. I'm really excited to come back. If we do that I'll have my birthday in Perth, so what better place to spend your birthday.

Will you be playing a festival when you come down?

Well that was the big thing we talked about. Like I don't wanna just do festivals. I don't want to come down and just play at a big beery festival. So we're trying to split it between festivals and club shows. Which is something I was really adamant about with Handsome Furs. Not touring the Big Day Out or something like that, you know? Like coming down with the Furs and doing all those club shows was great! So we want to try and do a similar thing with Wolf Parade.

I was going to say that the show I saw Handsome Furs play in Melbourne, I was really taken with how furiously you guys play.

Oh thanks. That's the thing I like about that band is that, Alexei and I are both kind've freaks so we let it all hang out on stage. We're going to play in Toronto in a couple of days.

You're also going back to Asia soon aren't you?

Yeah after the last Wolf Parade show in Los Angeles on the 31st, Alexis going to meet me and we're going to fly from Los Angeles in the morning to Hong Kong. Practice in Hong Kong for a day or two and then go on tour.

How come you're going back there so soon?

We got invited back by the Chinese basically. The guys in Beijing wanted us to come and do another show and we decided we'd just expand the tour. Because it was really successful in China [last time]. And we were like, while we're there we may as well hit some countries we haven't hit yet. So we're going to go to Korea, Indonesia and possibly Burma too.

Is that tied into the CNN doco you guys did?

No that was just a one off but we uh, kept the cameras that they loaned us. We never returned them. So we're going to do a tour documentary of that and upload it on this Chinese website. I think it's going to be fun.

Marcus

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Expo 86 is out July 2nd.

myspace.com/wolfparade