HEARTS ON FIRE END NOTES
All interviews conducted in 2020-21 unless otherwise indicated
CHAPTER 2: National Hum
Interviews with Geoff Berner, Howard Bilerman, Dan Boeckner, Buck 65, Basia Bulat, Tyler Clark Burke, Will Butler, Torquil Campbell, Joel Carriere, Ro Cemm, Kim Cooke, Kevin Drew (2003, 2020), Kathleen Edwards, Joel Gibb (2004), Gonzales, Mike Haliechuk, Ian Ilavsky, Danko Jones, Steve Jordan, Tim Kingsbury, Trish Klein, Steve Lambke, Corb Lund, Stephen McBean, Efrim Menuck, Amy Millan, Carl Newman, Owen Pallett, Mauro Pezzente, Allan Reid, Aaron Riches, John K. Samson (2007, 2021), Justin Small, Arlen Thompson, Hawksley Workman
“Total breakdown of civilized society…” Alex Hudson, “Sook-Yin Lee on getting stuck in an elevator with Moby and surviving the anarchy of Woodstock ’99,” Exclaim, April 7, 2021
“Despite the obvious benefits that the Band..." Marc Hirsh, “Aural Gratification: The New Pornographers Do It in Your Earhole,” Space City Rock, Jan. 29, 2002
“We have a saying in the U.S….” Shanda Deziel, “Sam’s fire,” Maclean’s, May 19, 2003
“The mainstream does not include everybody...” Nick Dwyer, “Peaches,” Red Bull Music Academy, 2011
“I’d seen Godspeed at the Fleece and Firkin...” Matthew Holmes, “We queued for it and cried in shock: Readers on their favourite NME issues,” The Guardian, March 9, 2018
“Every $1 in federal or provincial music program support…” Canadian Independent Music Association, “Sound Analysis: An examination of the Canadian Independent Music Industry,” March 2013
“Coming from Canada…” John Ydstie, “The way you look at Feist, so she appears to you,” NPR, June 16, 2007
“Edwards seems firmly rooted…” Amanda Petrusich, review of Kathleen Edwards’s Failer, Pitchfork, May 29, 2003
“I go to all these other parts of the world…” Vish Khanna, “Exclaim! Questionnaire: Buck 65,” May 23, 2009
“I loved what I heard...” Anthony Mansuy, “Children, wake up,” DumDum, Sept. 22, 2014
“Just being in the same physical space as other bands…” Todd L. Burns, “Win Butler,” Red Bull Music Academy, Oct. 3, 2016
“The world’s been laying wet smackers…” Carl Wilson, “Maple Leaf rags burn up the bandwidth in 2003,” Globe and Mail, Jan. 1, 2004
Also referenced:
Berman, Stuart. This Book is Broken, House of Anansi, 2009.
Carr, David, “Cold fusion: Montreal’s explosive music scene,” New York Times, Feb. 6, 2005
Exclaim!, various writers, “Year in review,” Dec 2004
Hermes, Will, review of Hot Hot Heat’s Elevator, Spin, June 2005
Paynter, Ben, “How Canada’s Philanthropic Pop Industrial Complex Took Over The World,” Fast Company, July 27, 2016
Perez, Rodrigo, “The next big scene: Montreal,” Spin, February 2005
Valania, Jonathan, “The last picture show,” Magnet, October 2005
CHAPTER 3: Dead Flag Blues
Interviews with: Howard Bilerman, Ro Cemm, Kevin Drew, Ian Ilavsky, Efrim Menuck, Mauro Pezzente, Justin Small
“The band who ride with the Four Horsemen…” “A slower sort of exploding,” by John Robinson, NME, April 1999
“I remember being really happy…” ibid
“We sell out in tiny ways…” untitled interview, by John Robinson, NME, April 1999
“They would destroy every venue…” @lowtheband, Twitter, May 11, 2021
“I didn’t really understand it…” “Efrim Menuck On Fatherhood, Tape Trading, Punk Rock Politicizing and the Paralyzing Power of Fear,” by Andrew Parks, Self-Titled, spring 2014
“You are filled to the ears with shit…” Constellation Records, response to 2003 Exclaim! Article, archived at http://web.archive.org/web/20021201094958/http://www.cstrecords.com/html/exclaim.html
“The reason we asked him...” “There’s only hope,” by Vish Khanna, Exclaim, May 05, 2015
“It seems like any time…” Geoff Berner’s Facebook page, Sept. 23, 2013
“It takes a lot of conviction…” @WeirdCanada, Twitter, Sept. 23, 2013
Also referenced:
Brainwashed.com/godspeed
Carpenter, Lorraine, and Ali Rahman, “Experimental jet-set and new stars deconstructing the Mile End ‘scene,’ ” Montreal Mirror, Oct. 19, 2000
Catchlove, Lucinda, “How the Godspeed generation made Montreal the centre of the universe,” Red Bull Music Academy, Sept. 28, 2016
Costa, Maddy, “Godspeed You! Black Emperor – the full transcript,” The Guardian, Oct. 11, 2012
Fiallos, Francella, “Superconnected investigates All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling,” Mixcloud, April 5, 2021
Keenan, David, “Back from infinity,” The Wire, September 1998
Keenan, David, “Life stinks,” The Wire, May 2000
Leech, Jeanette. Fearless: The Making of Post-Rock. Outline Press, 2017
Lukowski, Andrzej, “Constellation, the plan B transcripts,” Drowned in Sound, Sept. 8, 2009
Pearson, Will, “Alternate Universe,” Maisonneuve, April 11, 2018
Sokol, Roman, “Are you there, Godspeed? It’s me, Roman.” Exclaim, November 2003 CHECK
Visser, Menno, untitled Godspeed interview, OOR, Jan. 13, 2001
CHAPTER 4: Don't Be Crushed
Interviews with: Allan Reid, Hawksley Workman (2001, 2020)
CHAPTER 5: Second Acts and '90s Survivors
Interviews with: Ian Blurton, Stephen Carroll, Kim Cooke, Sarah Harmer (2000, 2001, 2004, 2020), Danko Jones, Joel Plaskett (2007, 2010, 2016, 2020), Allan Reid, John K. Samson (2007, 2010, 2021), Jason Tait
“If anything, both Fitzgerald’s writing...” Jillian Goodman, “Second acts: F. Scott Fitzgerald in Hollywood,” LA Review of Books, June 6, 2013
“It may be just as useful a fiction…” Carl Wilson, review of Joel Plaskett’s Truthfully Truthfully, Globe and Mail, Nov. 1 2003
“It was their first time in an airport…” Jonah Bayer, “Rank Your Records: NOFX Frontman Fat Mike Lists His Top Ten Fat Wreck Chord Releases,” Vice, June 8, 2015
“There were some really serious, strangely frightening shows...” Greg Pratt, “Nazi Baiting and Hardcore Raging,” Exclaim, Sept. 24, 2012
“There was a show in Denver, in a legion hall...” ibid
“That Laundry Mat gig was a watershed show...” Stuart Berman, Too Much Trouble: A Very Oral History of Danko Jones, ECW Press, 2012.
“I got obsessed with Danko Jones really quickly...” ibid.
“I need a band…” Josh O’Kane, Nowhere With You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, the Emergency and Thrush Hermit. ECW Press, 2016.
“The song is about the pitfalls of boosterism..." Winnipeg Free Press staff, “Sounds like home,” Winnipeg Free Press, June 26, 2020
“Not wanting [Joel] to be forgotten…” O’Kane
“ ‘You sold out to Zellers’—as if that isn’t the funniest Canadian sentence of all time...” O’Kane
“I’ve pretty much given up on the States…” O’Kane
CHAPTER 6: From Blown Speakers
Interviews with Carl Newman, John Collins, Tegan Quin, Sara Quin, Katie Sketch
“I could do better than this in a fucking second...” Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack, Jason Schneider, Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-95. ECW Press, 2001.
“Superconductor may never sell as many records…” Darren Gawle, “Hey dad, the kids are all right,” Drop D magazine, Oct. 31, 1997
“They’ve done it...” Alex Wisgard, “Nine Songs: the New Pornographers,” The Line of Best Fit, Sept. 27, 2019
“I just went into it very open-mindedly..." Chris Nelson, “Searching for salvation on Mass Romantic,” MTV.com, Feb. 16, 2001
“I used to have an old landlord named Michael...” @acnewman, Twitter, April 29, 2020
"[Carl] would boss people around with really vague ideas..." James Keast, “Mass hypnosis,” Exclaim!, May 2003
“I can’t string a four-minute country song together about what happens to Poncho...” Brave New Waves script, date unknown
“I wasn’t born to this...” Alexis Petridis, “It’s embarrassing to make rock music in your 40s,” The Guardian, Dec. 10, 2015
“It happened right at a time...” Ryan Dombal, “Destroyer’s Dan Bejar serenades the apocalypse,” Pitchfork, Jan. 14, 2020
“When I was growing up there wasn’t much rock music...” Petridis
“1992 was pretty noisy, pretty grungy still...” Vish Khanna, Kreative Kontrol podcast #522, Jan. 30, 2020
“For me, the most impossible thing to do...” Dombal
"I kind of wanted to go for a rock 'n' roll name…” Daniel Schulman, “The art of destruction, Free Williamsburg, November 2002
“It’s my real Vancouver record...” Carl Wilson, “Rock antisongs and antirock songs,” Globe and Mail, July 17, 2003
“I see [my songs] as short films with large ensemble casts...” Ryan Chapman, “An interview with Dan Bejar,” FSG Work in Progress, Sept. 16, 2020
“I look back at it now and it seems like a very self-righteous record...” Brave New Waves
“It was this weird retrospective...” Cam Lindsay, “New Pornographers frontman catches us up,” A-Side, April 2, 2017
“I know you’re not supposed to say things like this…” James Keast, “Mutual appreciation pop society,” Exclaim!, November 2000
“I thought that was the end of the band...” Lindsay
“I guess he heard our record…” Marc Hirsh, “Aural Gratification,” Space City Rock, Jan. 29, 2002
“Maybe [Davies] walked off stage…” Hirsh
"The more I wrote songs...” Matt LeMay, “Destroyer interview,” Pitchfork, July 1, 2001
“I wanted to make a drastic change...” Dombal
“A song cycle concerning the rock-star myth…” Tim Perlich, review of Streethawk: A Seduction, Now, April 19, 2001
“Whenever I use the word ‘you’ in a song or a piece of writing...” Patrick Lyons, “Cue fake drums,” Stereogum, Jan. 23, 2020
“Not give a shit about anyone’s precious Destroyer songs...” Wilson
“I am the king of conspiracy!” Erin Munro, “Sara and Tegan win the garage war,” The Reflector, May 8, 1998
“Ever since, I tell people ‘Jimmy Swaggart…’ ” Keast, 2000
"His songs are so separate from mine..." Keast, 2003.
“The end result was a better performance...” uncredited, “New Pornographers, Stars in Brooklyn,” Spin, June 29, 2005)
“I wanted it to be along the lines of a weird, crooning record...” Lyons
“John edited it to make it sound—not completely embarrassing...” Lyons
"It wasn't like 'I have to reinvent myself…’ ” James Keast, “Writer, thinker, creator, destroyer,” Exclaim!, March 2006
“The critical reviews of So Jealous…” Andrea Warner, “Transformers,” Exclaim!, June 10, 2016
“I didn't know whether to cry or to bludgeon her..." Bradley Bambarger, “Sisters in rhyme,” New Jersey Star-Ledger, July 10, 2005
“I saw these five girls sounding like the Smiths...” Kaitlin Fontana, Fresh at Twenty: The Oral History of Mint Records 1991-2011, ECW Press, 2011
“My history is as much rooted in alternative music…” ibid
“ ‘No’ was not an option...” Lorraine Carpenter, “Glummer girls,” Exclaim!, June 2004
“But Kurt was only trying to do...” ibid
"I was very, very, very, very involved..." ibid
“Eloquently illustrating cold, pain…” ibid
“New wave is a haircut...” ibid
“I think any other sane band would've tried to make a slick record...” Nicholas Parco, “Tegan Quin on the legacy of The Con and how Tegan and Sara almost broke up while touring it,” New York Daily News, Nov. 1, 2017
“It’s become a touchstone for a wealth…” Laura Snapes, review of The Con X, Pitchfork, Oct. 19, 2017
“Tegan and Sara should no longer be mistaken for tampon rock…” Jessica Suarez, review of The Con, Pitchfork, July 27, 2007
“It was a tough record cycle...” Parco
“I told Sara she was being impossible” ibid
“I don’t go to rock bars at home...” Keast, 2006
“It used to feel more like a cool drunken frolic...” T. Cole Rachel, “Dan Bejar on having no process,” the Creative Independent, Nov. 20, 2017
“Let’s make a record that sounds like...” Dombal
“Kaputt just happened to line up...” Ryan Dombal, “Accidental pop,” Pitchfork, May 25, 2015
Also referenced:
Quin, Tegan, and Quin, Sara. High School. Simon & Schuster, 2019.
Strauss, Neil. “The Pop Life: Undeservedly Obscure; Pop Critics List the Worthwhile Albums Most People Missed,” New York Times, Dec. 28, 2000
Various, “2000: the year that was,” Exclaim!, December 2000
Wilson, Carl, et al. “The top 25 Canadian pop songs,” Globe and Mail, July 1, 2002
CHAPTER 7: First We Take Berlin
Interviews with Feist (1999, 2004, 2017, 2020), Gonzales (2008, 2020), Peaches, Brendan Canning, Andrew Whiteman, José Contreras (2016), Torquil Campbell
“Every musician I knew...” Jon Pareles, “Just Feist. Just wait,” New York Times, April 15, 2007
“I don’t like being spoon fed anything...” Nicholas Jennings, “Fantastic Feist,” SOCAN magazine, July 2, 2007
“They scared the shit out of me when I was little...” Lorraine Carpenter, “Profane Peaches,” Exclaim!, October 2003
“I would jump out the window…” Kitty Empire, “Ripe for stardom,” the Guardian, Aug. 17, 2003
“The teachers walked in…” Nick Dwyer, “Peaches,” Red Bull Music Academy, 2011
“I wanted [the kids] to remember the creativity in music...” Empire
"Dale Morningstar [from the Dinner is Ruined] is my guitar god..." Carpenter
“I learned a lot from working with kids…” Kimberley Chun, “Hot for teacher,” SF Gate, Aug. 10, 2001
“If you think of pizza…” YouTube clip of CBC-TV circa 1990, posted by Darrin Cappe
“When I signed a record deal in Canada...” Randa Wazen, “It takes a lot of beans to make a Chilly,” The Word, May 31, 2011
“There was something very pragmatic...” Alexis Petridis, “Headed for the top,” The Guardian, April 26, 2008
“I was backstage with the lyrics...” Stuart Berman, This Book is Broken, House of Anansi, 2009
“ARGH! I just feel so fucking HORNY!” Sook-Yin Lee, “Inspiration is a Monster,” AGO.ca, Oct. 3, 2017
“They did really raw performances...” Nadja Sayej, “Peaches: Rubbing Berlin up the right way,” Lola, date unknown, 2011
“Like [Led Zeppelin’s], ‘Squeeze my lemon...’ ” Dwyer
“Anytime I would try and make beats...” Sayej
“Nothing on The Teaches of Peaches starts on the one...” Dwyer
“I was like, ‘Bikes! Friends! Let’s do this!’ ” Lee
“Some of them have never been seen...” Arielle Bier, “Collaboration,” Berlin Artlink, Aug. 26, 2015
“The DJ would always play hair metal...” Sarah Liss,” Army of Lovers, Coach House Press, 2013
“It was kind of an improv night...” ibid
“It was super friendly, cruisey and so fabulously mixed…” ibid
“Peaches made her one-woman, hair-raising throw-down..." quoted by Andrea Warner, “The teaches of Peaches,” CBC.ca, Oct. 28, 2020
“But the club cancelled me because I’m too dirty...” Ambika Thompson, “Peaches teaches Euro-trash lesson,” Now, Oct. 18, 2001
“I just picked a name that was a bit far away from me...” Wazen
“When I left Canada...” James Keast, “The great pretenders,” Exclaim!, August 2000
“People would come up to me and say…” Michael Hoh, “Peaches outdoes herself,” ExBerliner, Sept. 24, 2015
“Prada and Givenchy were using it on the catwalk...” Chun
“Some wailing, PVC-clad ropey old slapper from Canada…” David Rose, Gigbook.blogspot.com, May 26, 2010
“Not cock-rock, [it’s] bukkake-rock...” Robert Christgau, review of The Teaches of Peaches, archived at RobertChristgau.com, undated
“A stagehand was holding a sign that read, ‘Say goodbye!’ ” William V. Meter, “She’s a very kinky girl,” Spin, June 23, 2003
“The [audience] doesn’t want to have sex with me...” ibid
“So then I started thinking about hair...” Dwyer
“Rapunzel proportions” Meter
“Our life was a rolling circus of Berlin vaudeville...” Ryan Dombal, “Hard feelings,” Pitchfork, April 17, 2017
“I had no problem injuring people...” Dwyer
“It was funny because major record labels would not touch me...” ibid
"You look at Britney Spears' video...” Carpenter
“I did Brazilian interviews…” ibid
“Cartoon Canadian gigolo…” Simon Price, live review of Mary J. Blige, The Independent, April 28, 2002
“This is great!” Berman
“I had this great moment with my song ‘Smothered Mate’...” Cian Traynor, “A life less ordinary,” Huck, Oct. 2, 2018
“You’re the mermaid 40 feet down under the raft…” Pareles
“But it’s a Ron Sexsmith melody…” Rob O’Connor, “Leslie Feist lets it bleed,” Paste, June 6, 2007
“It felt revolutionarily melodic and simple...” Claudia Dey, “An interview with Leslie Feist,” The Believer, July 1, 2013
“Virtually rolling on their backs…” Petridis
“What happened to ‘1234’ was not the way I ever saw it playing out...” Dey
“I was so glad...” Dey
“I need to allow myself to believe I may never write another song…” Michael Roberts, “Q&A with Feist,” July 9, 2008
CHAPTER 8: Don't Mess With Our Love
Interviews with Murray Lightburn, Natalia Yanchak, Torquil Campbell, Sam Roberts, Linda Bush, Kim Cooke, Danko Jones, Howard Bilerman, Allan Reid
“There was one Montreal band…” Lorraine Carpenter, Lost in the Plot. Invisible Publishing, 2011
“[Drummer] George [Donoso] moved here from Chile…” Lorraine Carpenter, “Big love hits the big time,” Exclaim!, April 2003
“I mean, there might not even be a world two years from now...” Carpenter, Lost in the Plot
“Big mouth strikes again” James McNair, The Independent, April 29, 2005
“beer-soaked fans with backward baseball caps” Jordan Zivitz, “Outsiders on an inside track,” Montreal Gazette, Nov. 27, 2003
“While the album boasts some of the band’s signature suicide symphonies...” Stuart Berman, “There is a light that never goes out: the Dears take their orchestral manoeuvres out of the dark,” Eye Weekly, date unknown, found on Stubermania.tumblr.com
“I don’t know if you’re going to like it...” T’cha Dunlevy, “The Dears get dark and dirty,” Montreal Gazette, Aug. 31, 2006
“There’s a spirit that inhabits the Dears...” Carpenter, Lost in the Plot
CHAPTER 9: Now More Than Ever
Interviews with Bry Webb (2001, 2005), Jonny Dovercourt (2006), Steve Kado (2006), Aaron Riches (2000, 2001, 2005, 2020), Tyler Clark Burke, Lisa Moran (2005, 2020), Nathan Lawr, Jim Guthrie, Maggie MacDonald, Joel Gibb (2002, 2004, 2013, 2020), Matias Rozenberg, Leslie Feist, Justin Stayshyn (2004), Doug McGregor (2001, 2020), Steve Lambke (2020), Gentleman Reg (2002, 2004, 2009, 2020), Owen Pallett (2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2020), Carl Wilson (2014), Stuart McLean (2006), Richard Reed Parry (2006), Sam Roberts,
“In 1999, I had a problem with ecstasy...” Ben Rayner, “Cons’ prose,” Toronto Star, Dec. 7, 2009.
“Children of Fugazi…” Stuart Berman, Eye Weekly, archived at Stubermania.tumblr.com
“a cold, crappy [Sunday] night,” Rayner
“Reached its mid-song pause...” Stuart Berman, Eye Weekly cover story, 2003, archived at Stubermania.tumblr.com
“Honestly, this pack of queer Canadians...” Brandon Stosuy, review of The Smell of Our Own, Pitchfork, April 17, 2003
“I don't think I ever really understood music-making...” Star DT, “What I Play: Owen Pallett,” Exclaim!, April 2005
“I loved watching them every night...” Stuart Berman, “Can I get a witness?” The Grid, 2014, date unknown, archived at Stubermania.tumblr.com
“Given the tenacity of their music…” Jason Crock, “The Constantines interview,” Pitchfork, Oct. 16, 2005
“Gradually, as we went south in Italy...” Matthew Ritchie, Exclaim! Questionnaire, May 22, 2014
“We ended the tour with a chaotic cover...” Rayner
“Expensive Shit became known for well-programmed sounds…” Denise Benson, Then & Now: Toronto Nightlife History. Three O’Clock Press, 2015.
“[Club 56] was a temple of tolerance…” ibid
“On a cold night walking down Mont-Royal,” Bry Webb, TheConstantines.wordpress.com, Feb. 11, 2014
“Perhaps the grandest orchestral pop record since Joanna Newsom's Ys.” Louis Pattison, “From Arcade Fire to Mika, Owen Pallett is the industry’s go-to guy for a lavish orchestral arrangement,” The Guardian, Jan. 16, 2010
“The Constantines are a world-class, unimpeachable, incredible rock band...” Berman, 2014
"The closest thing to a deity that I believe in,” Berman, 2003
Also referenced:
Dovercourt, Jonny. Any Night of the Week: A D.I.Y. History of Toronto Music 1957-2001. Coach House Press, 2020.
Keast, James. “Where I play: House of Miracles,” Exclaim!, Dec. 1, 2004
CHAPTER 10: Country in the City
Interviews with Corb Lund, Geoff Berner, Frazey Ford, Trish Klein, Samantha Parton, Mandy Wheelwright, Kathleen Edwards, Jim Bryson, Dallas Good
“All the Edmonton punk rockers from the early ’90s...” Mike Ross, “Shuyler Jansen leads the herd through grunge rock, alt-country and beyond,” GigCity.ca, March 16, 2012
“That song got written right around that time...” Douglas Heselgrave, “ ‘An angel whispered in my left ear,’ ” No Depression, June 29, 2011
“Be Good Tanyas create instant classic,” Stuart Derdeyn, review of Blue Horse, Vancouver Province, Dec. 19, 2000
“Rich-kid-with-a-rusty-truck songs” Lynn Saxberg, “Day-by-day at the Tulip Festival,” Ottawa Citizen, May 9, 2002
“I have a serious question to ask you...” Tralee Pearce, “Tunes to take home,” Globe and Mail, Jan. 25, 2003
“It cheapens you...” Dave Dawson, “Rhinestone flush,” NuCountry.com.au, May 7, 2005
“My folks did everything they could...” Cam Lindsay, “The Sadies are Canada’s greatest living rock band,” Vice, Feb. 13, 2017)
CHAPTER 11: Your Ex-Lover is in the Band
Interviews with Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman, Amy Millan, Torquil Campbell, Evan Cranley, David Drew, Trevor Larocque, Murray Lightburn, Jon Gallant, Ben Kowalewicz, Allan Reid
“I was completely blown away...” Helen Spitzer, “Poster of a woman,” Nuvo, Feb. 20, 2018
"It was horrible when we first moved in...” Joshua Ostroff, “Metric’s system,” Exclaim!, July 2003
“I don’t want to be the Ramones...” Ben Kaplan, “The measure of a band,” National Post, April 2, 2009
“I’d have arguments with people...” Tab Siddiqui, Exclaim! Questionnaire, October 2006
“I felt like an idiot waiting...” Kaplan
"It was like that Flaming Lips song..." Ostroff
“I need you to be the girl” Stuart Berman, This Book is Broken, House of Anansi, 2009
“I wanted to rebel well” Alissa Quart, “Guided by many, many voices,” New York Times, Feb. 26 2006
“It’s everything, aesthetically...” Cam Lindsay, “Stars Co-Frontperson Torquil Campbell Bluntly Ranks the Band's Eight Albums,” Vice, Nov. 21, 2018
“The Broken babe factor” Sarah Liss, “Broken Social Scene,” Now, Aug. 26, 2004
“A lot of people want to tell [us] how they’ve wept at [our] shows...” ibid
“In fact, it was pretty fucking epic.” Ostroff
“Joules got a job moving breast implants...” Siddiqui
“Our options were clear....” Kaplan
“Certain audiences get the double meaning...” Devon Powers, “Taking measurements,” PopMatters, Oct. 13, 2004
“There were maybe 50 people...” Siddiqui
“It took eight years of being together...” Spitzer
“I didn’t specifically mention [Bush’s] name…” August Brown, “Interviews: Stars,” Under the Radar, April 2, 2005
“There was a lot of emotional turmoil” @younggalaxy, Twitter, June 18, 2020
“There's a crushing sadness underneath what [the male voice] is saying...” Melody Lau, “Your Ex-Lover is Dead turns 15” CBC Music, May 17, 2019
“After that, everyone would say…” Lindsay
“The sound of anxiety...” Berman
“We’ll use it to pay for therapy...” Tabassum Siddiqui, “Star power,” Eye Weekly, Sept. 14, 2006
“Broken were leading the crew...” Berman
“That was definitely a career high...” Siddiqui, Exclaim!, October 2006
“The feeling that no one gives a shit about you...” Powers
“When I was [growing up] in a shitty little town...” ibid
“We were raging, raging, raging alcoholics...” Kaplan
“I grew up in a small town...” Berman
"I don't really know how involved I feel..." Sean Michaels, “ ‘Tuckered out’ Feist to take time off,” the Guardian, Oct. 15, 2008
CHAPTER 12: Ain't Nobody Can Hang With Us
Interviews with Saukrates, Prevail, Rob the Viking, Allan Reid
“When the scene was forming within Toronto...” Anupa Mistry, “Kardinal Offishall,” Red Bull Music Academy, Oct. 10, 2016
“To be honest, it was never about the States for us...” interviewer unknown, Red Bull Music Academy, 2007
“We realized we didn’t have an infrastructure...” uncredited, “Kardinal Offishall and Clairmont the Second are snapshots of Canadian hip-hop’s DIY spirit,” The Fader, May 18, 2018
“We didn’t wait for anyone to give it to us...” The Fader
“She taught us everything...” Karen Bliss, “It’s not easy being Kardinal Offishall,” Vice, June 1, 2016
“Were remarkable for their military precision...” Del Cowie, “Man on fire,” Exclaim!, November 2005
"I was just blessed to be around super-creative people..." ibid
“If you know anything about how the vibes were in Toronto...” Mistry
“What [they] didn’t know at the time...” ibid
“We were just kids from the street...” ibid
“We were brash...” Tyrone Callender, “Northern Touch at 20,” Jan. 31, 2018
“Being a part of that whole movement was life changing...” Mistry
" ‘Northern Touch’ was a seminal moment...” Callender
“We’ve invested significantly in this record...” Murray Whyte, “Ice-cold comfort,” National Post, Nov. 2, 1999
“They even raided the plant in Scarborough…” Slava Pastuk, “Mastermind: the DJ Drake flew to Calgary to meet,” Vice, June 7, 2015
“Three things worked in our favour...” Kris McDermott, “Swollen Members MC talks diversification and lessons learned after early success,” Vancouver Weekly, Jan. 16, 2018
“Best stepdad in the world...” Andrew McCredie, “Swollen Members' Madchild riffs on the drug addiction that nearly killed him,” Vancouver Sun, Aug. 27, 2012
“Drinking Coronas and going to the beach...” Alysa Lechner, “Pissing people off,” Vice, July 22, 2014
“I was selling more weed than anyone else in North Vancouver...” Nardwuar.com, Aug. 23, 2013
“We had 150 drunk kids dead quiet...” McCredie
“Madchild is still learning the rules...” Alicia Cox, “The birth of Battle Axe,” Faze, date unknown
“I purposely didn’t want to put many collaborations on the album...” Jesse Plunkett, “KO talks Quest For Fire, MCA, Canadian hip-hop and more,” HipHopCanada, April 5, 2001
“You go to New York and they talk about...” Mistry
" ‘BaKardi Slang’ was one of the first rap records...” Ty Harper, This is Not a Drake Podcast, Episode 1, Jan. 14, 2021
“I didn’t realize how powerful the song was...” Mistry
“My dad was a minister...” Ben Rayner, “Return of the rhymer,” Toronto Star, April 14, 2009
“More than anything,” Del Cowie, “Organized K-OS,” Exclaim!, February 2002
“There were several completed records..." Matt Galloway, “K-OS,” Now, Nov. 21, 2001
"I can't deny who I am..." ibid
“The album is sonically restless...” Del Cowie, “Big Black Lincoln very necessary,” Exclaim!, Jan. 1, 2006
“Nowadays people really understand how Toronto is...” John Kennedy, “Canada’s Director X reflects on Rihanna’s first music video,” IHeartRadio.com, May 29, 2020
“The Timbaland and Kardinal song does exist...” Cowie, 2005
"It's one of those things where people who don't know him…” ibid
“Anytime someone tells you that you have to...” Harper
“I was cocky, I was young, I was arrogant...” Lechner
“I was a little bummed out with that...” Andrea Woo, “Swollen Members,” Exclaim!, Oct. 25, 2009
“Bad idea for someone with a personality like me...” McCredie
“I’d seen Basketball Diaries, I’d seen Trainspotting...” ibid
“I moved to Kelowna...” ibid.
“It was basically time to save my life...” Lechner
"Did I think that it would be 2008…” Ashante Infantry, “Kardinal Offishall’s time may be now,” Toronto Star, Sept. 7, 2008
“I literally was exploding around the entire planet...” Harper
“Honestly, when I go out [into the world] it’s not for me to represent T-dot...” Red Bull Music Academy, 2007
CHAPTER 13: Must You Always Remind Me?
Interviews with Danko Jones, Corb Lund
CHAPTER 14: Baiting the Public
Interviews with Sam Sutherland, George Pettit, Dallas Green, Joel Carriere, Damian Abraham, Mike Haliechuk, Ben Kowalewicz, Ian D’Sa, Jon Gallant, Jordan Hastings, Aaron Solowoniuk, Steve Lambke
“Joel had this special section at Sam’s...” Damian Abraham, “Episode 35: Dallas Green,” Turned Out a Punk podcast, July 8, 2015
“I’d heard vocals like that before, but never right beside my face...” ibid
“Street cred? I'm so sick of that bullshit...” writer unknown, “Billy Talent,” Soulshine, September 04
“A lot of Canadian hardcore community thought we were dicks...” Abraham
“In no way, shape or form was Fucked Up banned from MTV...” Vice staff, “Fucked Up banned from MTV,” Vice, Jan. 25, 2007
“If it were up to me, we wouldn’t tour or really play at all.” Sam Sutherland, “The tensions of Fucked Up,” Exclaim!, October 2008
“The scene we came out of has forever been ignored…” Damian Abraham, “Better know a Polaris nominee,” Torontoist, Sept. 21, 2009
“This is an undocumented, underreported crime...” Keith Carman, “Fucked Up to Use Polaris Prize Money to Record "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with Broken Social Scene, Vampire Weekend, No Age, GZA,” Exclaim!, Nov. 6, 2009
CHAPTER 15: Weirdo Magnets
Interviews with Kid Koala, Rich Terfry, Dan Snaith, Richard Reed Parry, Rollie Pemberton
“I was fanning out on them like crazy...” Dimitri Nasrallah, “Starting from scratch,” Exclaim!, Oct. 24, 2011
“While I imagine certain people thrive on that kind of attention...” Kid Koala, “Happy story, sad story, happy story,” Patreon post, May 27, 2020
“I probably listened to over 2,000 records...” Nasrallah
“For the first time in ages, I was having fun working on music again...” Koala
“We’re jumping around and breaking needles...” Mike Usinger, “The Slew play truth or dare,” Georgia Straight, June 23, 2010
"What makes Halifax different..." Thomas Quinlan, “Halifax hip-hop anticipates the big bang,” Exclaim!, May 1, 2000
“I now hate hip-hop...” Aaron Newell, review of This Right Here is Buck 65, Coke Machine Glow, Feb. 2, 2005
“No hint of irony or role-playing or intelligence came across in the story...” ibid
“Growing up in an academic family...” Ryan Dombal, “Caribou: 5-10-15-20,” Pitchfork, Sept. 30, 2014
“I had zero context for it...” ibid
“We'd play once a year at the school’s battle of the bands...” ibid
“It was a revelation...” ibid
“They'd be like, ‘You've got the entire recorded work of the Beatles here…’ ” Joe Clay, “Beautiful colours everywhere,” The Quietus, Oct. 30, 2014
“A good amount of sloppiness...” Chachi Jones, “Manitoba makes it seem easy,” Tape Op, September/October 2003
“It still sounds like the sound of tomorrow to me...” Clay
“Something must have happened to Manitoba's Dan Snaith...” Mark Richardson, review of Up in Flames, Pitchfork, April 3, 2003
“I’m always sober when I make music...” Jesse Locke, “Caribou: Clarity Within the Psychedelic Wilderness,” Beat Route, April 2008
“It’s such a cumulative subject...” Dombal
“It was so diverse, challenging, and fun...” ibid
“I love this idea that some people think of dance music as being very restrictive...” Sam Richards, “Caribou's Dan Snaith finds the formula for success with Swim,” the Guardian, Nov. 20, 2010
“Not only did Swim sell more copies...” Clay
“Whether it’s a matter of Cadence Weapon…” Tim Perlich, review of Afterparty Babies, Now, Feb. 28, 2008
CHAPTER 16: Drunk Clowns of the Victorian Era
Interviews with Dan Boeckner, Arlen Thompson, Spencer Krug, Steve Bays, Nick Thorburn, Jamie Thompson, Dan Seligman, Richard Reed Parry, Josh Wells, Stephen McBean, Will Butler
“I just thought it was so awful...” Cam Lindsay, “Rank Your Records: Steve Bays Ranks Hot Hot Heat’s Six Records,” Vice, June 30, 2016
“Infamous in Montreal for their cheap rent...” J.M. Farr, “Portraits of Alden Penner, Maisonneuve, March 28, 2014
“The undeniable charisma of Hot Hot Heat’s Steve Bays.” Peter Gason, live review of the Killers and the Stills, Spin, Jan. 29, 2004
“We really wanted more emphasis on the songwriting...” Lance Fiasco, “Hot Hot Heat’s power pop yields a modern rock hit,” Idobi.com, April 10, 2005
“It's not really a cash grab,” Vish Khanna, “Episode 71: Alden Penner,” Kreative Kontrol podcast, Feb. 12, 2014
"I waited for that call for 12 years..." Martin Patriquin, “Dave Wenger, musician: 1973-2006,” Globe and Mail, Dec. 18, 2006
CHAPTER 17: Crown of Love
Interviews with Win Butler (2004, 2007, 2010), Regine Chassagne (2004, 2007, 2010), Tim Kingsbury (2004, 2007, 2010, 2020), Richard Reed Parry (2004, 2007, 2010, 2020), Jeremy Gara (2007), Howard Bilerman (2004, 2020), Will Butler (2021), Sean Michaels,
“I had associated indie music with having an excuse to be crappy...” Jon Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
“When I left the show, I could sing 10 of their songs...” Todd L. Burns, “Win Butler,” Red Bull Music Academy, Oct. 3, 2016.
“When I was in New York...” ibid
“My mom took difficult job after difficult job...” Dorian Lynskey, “Arcade Fire: ‘It’s a lot easier to get smaller,’ ” The Guardian, Feb. 10, 2011
“They came across like they were trying way too hard...” Anthony Mansuy, “Children, wake up,” DumDum, Sept. 22, 2014
“The most straightforward way to make people not talk...” Burns
“I was nostalgic for an earlier time...” Mansuy
“The screaming audience was practically in tears...” Sarah Liss, live review of Arcade Fire, Now, date unknown
“There’s something greater than you…” Lynskey
“They told me later that if they put it out...” Cook, et al.
“You know that joke about how someone asked John Lennon…” Todd L. Burns, “Howard Bilerman,” Red Bull Music Academy, Oct. 3, 2016
“We started to understand the gravity of the 10.0...” Rob Harvilla, “Pitch perfect: The history and influence of the Pitchfork 10.0,” The Ringer, May 11, 2020
“It was a confusing mix of them playing small clubs...” Erik Leijon, “Arcade Fire’s Funeral at 15,” Montreal Gazette, Sept. 13, 2019
“Funeral seemed to resonate as Americans grappled with war…” Caryn Ganz, “Arcade Fire,” Spin, January 2006
“I wouldn’t want any other group to support us ever again...” Paul Morley, “Keep the faith,” The Guardian, March 18, 2007
CHAPTER 18: We Built Another World
Interviews with Steve Jordan, Kevin Drew, Sara Quin, Richard Reed Parry, Dan Boeckner, Howard Bilerman, Hawksley Workman, Efrim Menuck, Arlen Thompson, Allan Reid, Tyler Clark Burke, Ian Ilavsky