INTERVIEW: Elliott BROOD

MFR is amped to see Toronto’s folk-rock trio Elliott BROOD come through Minneapolis for the first time ever! They will shine their light at the 7th Street Entry on February 25 in support of their new album Days Into Years (out 2/28 via Paper Bag Records). I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Casey Laforet (guitar, vocals, bass pedal extraordinaire) about tour, good food, and talented Canadian musicians. His thoughts are below.

Elliott BROOD on tour is highly anticipated among your existing fans. With a broad U.S. tour on the horizon, what are your biggest fears and what are you looking forward to most?

With the U.S. tour we are still trying to develop an audience and the fear is that no one will show up. We try to engage the crowd, we want them to be ready to be a part of the show. We try to break it down, make it a house party feeling. Another fear is crappy food, maybe, but we really enjoy touring. There are a few long drives on this one though (like Minneapolis to Seattle).

Do y’all have a favorite spot yet?

I think we all really enjoy Portland. The big parts of the day become about eating the best food that we can. No Mickey’s or truck stops. We look forward to a good steak, or a good meal. Our favorites have been in Portland.

Success is hard to gauge these days in the music industry (album sales, tours, placements, etc.), but EB appears to have reached a fair level of it in terms of fans. How is that measured to you?

I don’t think we can measure on album sales. Then almost any band would consider themselves not as successful as they are. We want to play great shows that people remember. People see us and tell their friends and that is the goal. The reason we have done so well is because we’ve toured a lot more and we love to play to people. People love being the first person to tell someone about something great— that is what we go off of. Word of mouth, wanting to introduce us to your friends, that’s all we can really count on.

What was it like for you the first time you played a show and realized that a good portion of the crowd was singing the lyrics back to you?

We’ve had that moment. It is pretty amazing. There are literally songs that we don’t have to sing the words to anymore and its a wild and humbling thing. It’s great connecting with people on that level. It is strange, I imagine, for any band. I couldn’t imagine being someone like U2. I do remember once at a show people around me were upset because I wasn’t singing the words to Pearl Jam.

Periodically we tend to see an uproar of bands all with roots in one spot (Leeds, LA, Toronto, etc.) These days it seems a large amount of brilliant music is emerging, and being noticed, from all parts of Canada. Is that something you agree with?

I think there have always been a few big bands around. Nickelback, Avril, shit that no one really likes. Then there are bands like Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire getting recognition. We were invited to a few places in Europe just because we were associated with Canada. Hey Rosetta! is finally getting mainstream radio here. We all kind of started out together, and there is a little bit of a brotherhood. I think there is a bond between bands here, and no real competition. We have things like the Polaris Prize; we have Fucked Up [the band]. So, I do think there is a lot of great stuff, but I don’t think it is any different than before. But hey, we’ll take it if that is the case.

War On Drugs— they remind me of what Arcade fire was doing, and now I’m looking at Philly and thinking it’s going to happen there too.

If you were performing at a one-day festival with all of the bands you’ve ever dreamed about playing with, who would be on the bill?

Putting a festival together, ourselves, right now? War On Drugs, Dinosaur Jr., The Sadies (kind of like surf rock, psychedelic, crazy, apocalyptic), Neil Young, and Metric. They [Metric] put out Fantasies and it’s one of the best records I’ve heard in along time. Also, A Tribe Called Quest, if they performed The Low End Theory from front to back.

What book, comic strip, TV show, film, etc. are you hooked on right now?

Breaking bad is taking over our lives. All three of us are watching it on Netflix and we’re at different places in the series, so we have to gauge the conversation when talking about it. Just the other day someone walked away because they heard us talking about it. We’ve been obsessed. Personally I’ve been completely hooked on The Walking Dead also.

A lot of folks, especially bands, have told me lately that they are obsessed with Breaking Bad.

It’s a virus right now. It’s hard not to notice that it is that good. It’s really that good, and I think that’s why it’s that popular. The three of us get to a hotel and immediately go to our rooms and watch the next episode.

Final thoughts?

We will be debuting ourselves in Minneapolis and we’re really excited! We’re going to have a lot of fun so that is all I can convey and we hope this is the first of many stops.

-Interview by Laura Yurich
Saturday, February 25 2012
7th Street Entry

Posted 2 months ago