We were just trying to make cool late-night music. How did it all come together originally?īrendan Canning: I grew up in the ’90s, playing in a couple bands that were always chasing “it.” I mean, I was part of that band Len, who sang “Steal My Sunshine.” But I just wanted to make some basement music with Kevin Drew on a 1/4” 8-track. We’re not the Flaming Lips and we’re not Dinosaur Jr., but we still fit in somewhere around there.” Though the band’s collective muse may be running in a million directions at once, both Canning and Spearin echoed that there’s one thing Broken Social Scene is for certain: a family.īroken Social Scene is a very unique situation. “We’re not the same as Wilco and we’re not the same as the National. In fact, when asked to explain the band’s sound, Canning found it easier to describe what they’re not. From the ethereal pop of the album’s title track to the mid-’90s industrial feel of “Vanity Pail Kids,” Hug of Thunder covers a lot of territory. With the release of this year’s Hug of Thunder, the band has circled the wagons to continue its legacy. After a few successful reunion performances, Broken Social Scene decided to officially shake off the dust. But eventually the urge to bring the ever-evolving musical crew back together became too great. Some put their energy into producing other artists, while others wrote and recorded their own material. So the members went their own ways after 2010’s Forgiveness Rock Record. “It’s almost painful when you have a vision for a song,” says Spearin, “and then everybody gets involved and starts steering it into new directions.”
Many members yearned to focus on other projects. Years of living in close quarters and the creative compromises inherent in writing with so many people had begun to take a toll. “I’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah, it sounds like such a simple thought that’s coming across here.’ With Broken, it’s definitely not just a simple idea sometimes.”īut after recording four albums (and scoring a couple of Juno Awards along the way), the Toronto collective needed a break. “It’s really interesting when I listen to other bands,” admits Canning. Soon, the band stopped looking like a band and more like, well, a social scene.īy their second album, 2002’s You Forgot It in People, BSS had created a dense sonic signature built from musical input from a wide cast of contributors that come and go from the band at any given time. But the duo quickly added guitarist Charles Spearin, while also welcoming contributions from members of fellow Canadian bands such as Metric and Stars. Formed in Toronto in 2001 by frontman Kevin Drew and bassist Brendan Canning, the project was initially more of a creative outlet away from the stress of being in other bands. They’re not just a tight-knit group of musicians pursuing the common goal of creating great music-they’ve also got nearly 20 members. To say Broken Social Scene isn’t your typical band is an understatement.
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