“Tom Cruz”
from the album La La Land
2010
iTunes
To some, Montreal indie pop-rock trio Plants and Animals have followed up their critically acclaimed 2008 debut, Parc Avenue, by taking a hard left turn. At least that’s what some are calling the group’s warm, fuzzy-sounding, guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll collection, La La Land, which just hit stores. Think Neil Young in his Crazy Horse phase.
Still, singer-guitarist Warren Spicer would argue the genre-defying group — filled out by drummer Matthew (Woody or The Woodman) Woodley and guitarist-bassist Nicolas Basque — were already headed in this direction for the last couple of years as they toured in support Parc Avenue.
“We didn’t try to recreate our first record sonically on stage at all,” said Spicer, seated with Woodley earlier this week at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern, where the threesome performed a free show to kick off a two-month North American tour.
“So we just abandoned that studio sound completely and just figured out a way to do it with a more electric guitar, rock ‘n’ roll set-up. So even though people are saying we’ve taken a big left turn with this album, to us, it doesn’t really feel like it ’cause we’ve been playing this kind of music for the past couple of years.
“Parc Avenue happened a long time ago and feels like another completely different place. So I think if we were going for anything, that kind of Crazy Horse sound comes from just getting into that rock ‘n’ roll but still with some folk sensibility. It’s not full on hard rock all the time. There’s a lot of ups and downs; there’s a lot of dynamics and pockets. Even though it’s louder and rock-ier, it’s not like hard rock.”
Parc Avenue garnered Plants and Animals — who formed in 2004 when all three members were at Concordia University — their first Juno nods plus a Polaris Music Prize nomination. But apparently those accolades never translated into pressure-filled moments about the so-called sophomore jinx while recording La La Land in both Montreal and Paris.
“Our day-to-day lives haven’t turned into this complete insanity that we’re not able to deal with,” said Spicer. “So it doesn’t feel like when you make another record, ‘Oh, my God, what are we doing to do? How are we going to deal with this?’ It’s just like, you just keep making music. It’s not that much different than what we were doing before. We’re the same band making a new record. We can’t screw it up that bad.”
Spicer has jokingly described the month-long session in their Montreal studio, The Treatment Room, situated in an windowless old building in an industrial neighborhood, as a baked potato — and the five-day session at Studio La Frette outside Paris in a broken-down mansion with analogue equipment as a nice Bordeaux.
“They’re both great,” said Spicer. “Baked potatoes are wonderful, very heavy and comfort (food).” Added Woodley of Paris: “In contrast, not better or worse than The Treatment Room, but it was very different, and so it was cool in the way it made us think about things.”
“It was very sophisticated in a lot of ways — but not hoity-toity, not posh,” said Spicer.
Otherwise, don’t read too much into the title of the new album or such tracks as Tom Cruz, Game Shows and American Idol as being anti-Hollywood statements. “La La Land didn’t come out as a term for Los Angeles,” said Woodley. “I think it meant a state of mind to us.” Still, in a strange twist, Woodley actually worked alongside American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert a decade ago.
“He was going to be one of Barbara Walters’ 12 Most Fascinating People of 2009, and I was like, ‘Oh shit, I worked with that guy on a cruise ship, like, 10 years ago.’ He was my next-door neighbour on the A-deck. He was the singer in the cheesy musical and I was taking care of kids in a youth program, doing summer jobs.”
Oh, how things have changed.