Category: Interviews
For twelve years, Montreal’s Chiwawa have not only witnessed, but actively contributed to, a glowing music scene that has leapt in and out of the hype machine faster than a cat at a dog show. With over 10 releases under Chiwawa’s collar, fans should be willing to forgive the wait while the band polishes their latest release. “Bright” is soon to be released on the band’s own label, “Satellite Records”.
Chiwawa’s sound can best be described as prolific pop rock--due to the enormous quantity of material and sheer variety of style. From the slow Portishead-inspired ambience of “Tell me Lies” to the upbeat, Garbage-like style of “Love’s Got Heart”, Chiwawa infuses a bright and unique sound into the core of their songs while managing to avoid direct comparisons. Simply put, their songs are catchy, diverse, and sincere.
Project Opus was lucky enough to talk to the husband and wife team, Laurie Gordon and Krassy Halatchev, about Montreal’s history, trends, communism, creative memory loss, music, and life.
Project Opus: I read on your blog that the two of you recently bought a house?
Laurie Gordon: Isn’t that exciting?
Krassy Halatchev: It is exciting.
PO: Was this a musically inspired decision?
KH: Living and music…the musical part is being built as we speak.
LG: We lived in the plateau Montreal and never even imagined to move out, cause we loved the area. And now it’s like a complete fluke that we’re out here. Now we’re going to jams and like passing farms and silos. Yeah that’s how we go to a jam, we pass the farm, and then we look at some silos and go, “Isn’t it beautiful? Let’s look for UFOs.”
PO: Why did you move to the woods?
LG: It’s not really in the woods. It’s about 40 minutes from here to the bridge that takes us right into downtown Montreal. It’s not a big deal, and it’s a beautiful to listen to music when you’re drivin’.
PO: What is the Montreal scene like these days?
LG: Well you know there’s a very different scene going on. It’s very trendy right now. It’s even trendier than it is. I know what the real scene is about and it’s about being secluded and isolated. That was the whole thing about Montreal, is that it’s secluded and isolated and there’s just so many musicians, and we’re all kind of very densely populated in the area I was telling you about: Plateau Montreal. But in general Montreal is just full of the vibe--and it’s always been there. Whether this buzz comes or goes, that vibe is always there. Now everybody is catching on, but it’s obviously because there is a lot of hype going on since that New York Times article last year, and Arcade Fire and all that stuff. But that’s just people jumping onto something that’s been there for a long time. Even if none of these bands ever became really, really, really famous, there are certain bands out of Montreal like The American Devices; they’ve been a punk outfit here for like 25 years. I mean if they were living in like New York or London they would be world renowned, just because they’ve been around for so long.
KH: It’s always been a bubbling city.
LG: What happened was the city went dormant in the 70’s thanks to the PQ, or whoever. I don’t know what you’re leanings are, I don’t want to get political here, but essentially tens of thousands of English people left in exile to Toronto and we lost everything. We were the head city of music here. My Mom's friend worked for Polygram and artists could get a deal in Montreal. The industry was here. Montreal was a buzz city since the 1920’s, but then it kinda went blah and people got scared and left. So there were still a lot of people left but it became a very different place. And of course you have the French-Latin thing which is the Québécois. And Montreal was cheap to live so it attracted a lot of artists. Like Soho before it became Soho and cost a bizzillion dollars a month—Soho was a cool place where poor people could live in a nice old place and renovate it themselves. But then people catch on and then you get the buzz. So this thing is going to come and go and there’s a lot of people that are passing by now in the music scene, like kids running to Montreal.
KH: There’s always a hotspot somewhere on the planet.
LG: Yeah but people don’t go running to Kiwi New Zealand to make it in a rock band.
PO: Is Chiwawa benefiting from Montreal’s hype?
LG: Of course.
KH: We’re not out there that much, we’re recording.
LG: We’re recording too much, we need content.
PO: Tell me about your last newest album “Bright”.
LG: We’re working on but we haven’t marketed Bright yet.
PO: You haven’t released it publicly?
LG: Well yeah, not really, you know but everything can still burst. There’s a lot of room for this thing to just burst because I’m also working with Ryan Larkin. We’re working with him and the world is waiting for his film—which I’m producing.
PO: Cool, tell us about Ryan Larkin.
LG: There’s a very intriguing and complicated story behind Ryan. If you know his story about being this weird wonder kid in this world of animation, an Oscar nominee to a big downfall with alcohol and drugs. Now fast forward to 2005 and the film comes out about him, and it went to an academy award and it puts him on the map. Basically the world is back on him wondering, ‘cause when you see the film you wonder if he can ever draw again; you don’t know what to think. But I’m producing his next film and we’ve gotten grants from the Canada Council and we’re working very, very hard on this project.
PO: Music is just one of your outlets.
LG: Music is my main outlet. By producing the film I mean I’m doing the soundtrack.
KH: Ryan took the initiative that he wanted to have a film done with Chiwawa’s music.
LG: He chose our music.
KH: His motivation to draw comes when he listens to music.
PO: You’ve been described as intelligent pop with techno elements and I think that’s an accurate description because you sound like so many different bands. Was that a conscious decision to travel in that direction?
KH: It’s natural you know, it comes from your background. If you’ve listened to a lot of music which I hope I have, you’re more open to music as music. It’s not about genres, it’s not about youth, it’s just about music.
PO: How do you use the internet to promote yourself?
LG: Project Opus has been great. I like the vibe and I like the fact that you guys are still Canadian. I think that’s important for a Canadian band. I think Canada is really up there now and I think the world is watching us. Why not do it together? I mean clearly we’re not yet the hottest selling band on the planet, perhaps we will be. For the moment we’re working on the tour and shit like that and there are some really interesting talks going on right now. But in the meantime the internet has given us a lot of exposure and you know…I haven’t really exploited my Myspace page.
PO: Technology is amazing.
KH: I’m actually involved in Apple, servicing computers and that sort of thing, operating systems. As much as I’m learning daily, I’m still fascinated with the speed, the way things are going.
PO: What inspires Chiwawa to create?
LG: Well a lot of stuff. Why are you laughing Krassy, what’s so funny?
KH: Because I have a lumpy smirk on my face.
LG: Ok I don’t know what that means.
KH: You know, when you’re laid back, really relaxed?
LG: Like…smoking a joint?
KH: Exactly.
LG: Hahaha.
PO: Heh. Canada is very comfortable with that concept. They support their artists.
KH: What was I gonna say…well there’s the thing, what was I gonna say? Hahhaha.
LG: You forgot what you were going to say Krassy.
KH: You bet.
PO: You can say it.
LG: No, but he forgot.
KH: I’ll remember…but I think it’s gone for awhile.
PO: I think that’s almost on the same topic isn’t it?
LG: Exactly.
PO: How did the two of you meet?
LG: A long time ago when we were still young, as we are, we were in a band together. Ok, this is a hysterical story. Our friend who’s name is Ian Halperin, who happened to also be the writer of the book, “Who killed Kurt Cobain?” he was the sax player in the band for awhile. Krassy and his band had just emigrated to Canada from Bulgaria on a plane; they escaped communism. Ian put this classified ad in the paper reading "International Band Seeks Female Vocalist". So I thought "hey they must be famous." What International Band really meant four Bulgarian immigrants. They came to the country and basically Krassy was going to get booted and I just said, “Hey man, you want to get married?” so he wouldn’t get deported. So that’s what I did. And then I kinda went, “You know what? You’re not too bad!” He played bass very well and he was a good singer.
PO: Are many of your songs about each other?
LG: Not for the last eight albums. We’re in a band, we make music together, we’re not a couple like Sonny and Cher, we’re a little bit more independent than that.
PO: What was your last song about?
KH: The last song was about God’s children. If we’re really all God’s children why can’t we just work it out?
LG: They’ll hear it, they’ll hear it. I guess it’s about helping people. It’s partially inspired by Ryan Larkin.
PO: One last question: What’s the future of Chiwawa?
LG: We want to conquer the world. We want to first conquer Canada though, and then we want to conquer the Project Opus website.
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