The Lovely Feathers Soar Back On The Scene

Posted by Emma Renda on July 16th, 2009

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“Sometimes you duck under the radar, and sometimes the radar just moves focus. You know the radar in the navy that goes around in a circle and you fade out when the green sweeping thing is not sweeping past you?” explains The Lovely Feathers’ bassist Mark Shortt, of the hiatus following the band’s break-out debut, Hind Hind Legs. “That took three years, that sweep.”

It was an odd time to duck out of the spotlight, when in fact it was burning so brightly it probably singed their eyebrows. The Lovely Feathers were poised as the next big thing from Montreal, a steep reputation to live up to considering the city has churned out Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Sam Roberts and Leonard Cohen, if you want to go back that far. They made the watch-lists of Rolling Stone, Spin and Pitchfork almost simultaneously, and logged tour dates with Metric and Tokyo Police Club across North America before headlining their own run. “Wrong Choice” was even featured on a season premier of One Tree Hill.

Then all of the sudden they were gone. Equator Records dissolved and while their labelmates, Islands, were signed to Anti-Records, The Lovely Feathers were left in limbo.

In the meantime, up popped the next-next-big things and for a while, The Lovely Feathers were just another blip on a fairly crowded screen.

If there is one thing the band learned in their time off, it’s that fame is a far cry from success. Incidentally, most of their new album Fantasy of the Lot is loosely based on coming to this realization.

“It was a fantasy,” says Mark Kupfert, lead singer and songwriter. “We didn’t really succeed, necessarily. We had to go home and get day jobs and go back to school. And it messed up a couple of relationships. But I’m back at it . . . I had to be doing it. Even though I knew the chances of succeeding tangibly and emotionally and existentially, I guess, were still very slim, we still did it even though we know it’s probably going to fuck up our lives again.”

Sitting with the Lovely Feathers, it’s hard to detect even a whisper of anxiety about the next leg of their career. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere on a patio downtown Ottawa on a sunny June evening, or the simple fact that it’s the weekend and they get a few days off work, but they are all positively beaming. With the exception of Kupfert, who is looking more disgruntled by the minute as the Stanley Cup final rages in the other room and his short stature won’t allow him a glance at the scoreboard.

At one point, they even burst into song together - when one of them mentions the latest Montreal hype-band, Parlour - complete with drummer Ted Suss keeping time with his spoon on a wine glass.

“Took some time, took some time, took some time . . .”

“That part is genius, just perfect,” Kupfert muses, without detecting the irony. A second later, he is standing on his chair to see who has just scored in the hockey game. It’s this chemistry that recalls the raves about The Lovely Feathers’ live show, and suggests the time off was really just that: time off. Not a break-up. Not a spiritual journey. Not rehab.

Fantasy of the Lot, however, has all the depth of an existential breakthrough set to music that fits more suitably than the excited fare from the beginning of their career.

“Hind Hind Legs was very naive. It ended up being very produced, very plastic sounding. You couldn’t really feel the human, everything was treated. It was like there was a layer between the listener and the music,” says Kupfert. “This album is trying to create a more raw vibe, just dudes in their room trying to make some music. It is an honest representation of the last three years of our lives.”

Despite all this talk of slowing things down, Fantasy allows only a handful of standstills for the band. “Ossified Homes” sounds like it was written for their live show, down to the group-chants that somehow incorporate a rolled ‘r’ and faux-whistling. “Fad” is sing-song ska that would be quite at home in a Corona commercial, and they have even managed to squeeze in a polka. Hardly a shock considering their inspirations range from keyboardist David Buzaglo’s classical piano training to their beat-keeper Suss’ love of The Beatles and NOFX.
The first two tracks, “Lowiza” and “Long Walks,” are typical Feathers fare, playful rompers complete with gang choruses and psychedelic keyboard solos. On stage at Maverick’s later that night even despite the absence of guitarist Richard Yanofsky, these hits are well-received – at one point inciting two couples to waltz.

Later on in the album come the slower stuff Shortt and Kupfert are referring to. “Fantasy of the Lot” is an almost dissonant verse-chorus-verse ode to nostalgia, incredibly fitting of its title and content.

“The fantasy of the lot refers to fantasies that we have as individuals that you think are really great at the time but turn out to be wrong,” says Shorrt. “It refers to the inability to kind of appreciate your own existence in your own time.”

Although this song is a noticeable lull in the album – for tempo, not enjoyment – Kupfert actually cites it as a kind of thesis.
“[Fantasy] is the only song I’m not totally sick of right now,” says Kupfert. “The song is the pace I’m kind of living at right now, I’m trying to slow it down. It’s interesting because our shows are still pretty high tempo, but it takes a lot out of me.”

Though they make it clear they aren’t the spring chickens they used to be – before their set at Maverick’s, a few of them actually venture back to their cars to nap – The Lovely Feathers aren’t shying away from their duties as a rock band.

Their Canadian tour kicked off at Toronto’s NXNE, and will take them across the country, to stops as obscure as Nanimo, B.C. and Thunder Bay, Ont. Before that, they played one-off gigs around Quebec and parts of Ontario, to crowds as small as 60 people. They have found a new home on Sparks Music, the Toronto-based label also home to fledgling youngsters Spiral Beach, and Buzaglo drops hints about songs they have already started writing for the next album.

“I think we’re all happy that the album is released,” says Suss. “We’re happy with the direction that the band has taken, it’s a refreshing shift. It feels very comfortable. Three years is just putting a time frame on it – it’s everything that happened within that.”

In the music industry, breaks are risky business. Particularly in the over-crowded indie scene in which The Lovely Feathers’ reputation resides. But Shortt, Kupfert, Suss and Buzaglo aren’t dim to the reality of what they are getting themselves into this time around. It will be an uphill battle, but with the heft of Fantasy – a record already being hailed by various Canadian media as a mature and worthwhile triumph – The Lovely Feathers are armed and ready.

Shortt even says he wants to take a page from Lil Wayne’s book.

“We’re smashing out records now, no more taking three years. It’s three a year,” Shortt laughs. “Lil Wayne, if you’re listening, that is the plan for the next record. We want to collabo with you. 2009-2010, three records a year. Bring your friends.”

It’s an admirable ambition, but at this point Feathers fans can just be glad they are back and, it’s safe to say, better than ever.

Tags: Fantasy of the lot, interview, The Lovely Feathers

Categories: Interviews, Music, Rock