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“Making a record is like falling in love some of the time and being tortured the rest…” Dean Povinsky, Wildlife.
If you’re impatient, a little bit naughty and a big fan of Arcade Fire, you may have rather accidentely stumbled across fellow Canadians, Wildlife. In the summer of 2010, as anticipation for Win Butler et al’s The Suburbs grew, an early leak showcased a group of songs that were spikey, intense and wonderfully melodic. As Arcade Fire fans quickly realised, they weren’t in fact from the group in question. They were songs belonging to Wildlife’s debut album, Strike Hard Young Diamond.
Their second album …On The Heart is due out in March and has been preceeded by the epic, soaring, chant-along single ‘Born To Ruin’. Produced by the legendary Peter Katis, it is a notable step-up to bigger and better things that is present throughout the entire record.
We thought it would be a perfect time then to sit down with singer and guitarist Dean Povinsky to discuss violence, romance and soup.
“It all happened very passively in retrospect, but I do remember, at the time, being really giddy. He’s (Peter Katis) somebody I have tons of respect for…”
Hello Wildlife. Let’s get to know each other a little a bit. What’s your story?
Dean Povinksy: We all came together after meeting in the Craigslist “missed connections” forum.
You’re releasing a new album in March. Is the period between finishing it and releasing it always the most frustrating?
Well we went on tour directly after we finished the album, so we had a really good opportunity to get excited about playing the new songs live, which was good. But ya, these first couple months in the new year when things start to get up and running again are filled with lots of waiting games.
You’ve only gone and got Peter bloody Katis producing the thing. How did that come about?
It was pretty uneventful really. We sent him our music, and he said he was interested in doing something. We were getting a little sick of writing in our rehearsal space so we went away for about a week to write and record demos and rope in all the songs and bits and pieces we’d been working on. We sent him that stuff to indicate what we wanted to work on and he was into it. It all happened very passively in retrospect, but I do remember, at the time, being really giddy. He’s somebody I have tons of respect for.
What was he like to work with? Did he tell stories about The National?
I feel like it might be a little unfair to disturb someone’s mystique, especially a record producer. I mean, you’d only expect for me to say nice things anyways right? Knowing that, I will say that he is genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve met. We had so much fun working with him. After we sent him demos, he and I had the initial conversation over the phone, and after about 10 seconds I knew it was going to work out great. What we really wanted to do with this record was something he was very much down with, and a lot of the things we like to do sonically as a band he likes to do as a producer. I told him that we have these songs, nothing is totally written in stone, we want to do a lot of experimentation, we have some very specific ideas in terms of sounds and how we hear things stylistically, but we are absolutely open to anything; that made for a great arrangement. He is a very talented guy, and funny. That’s probably just as important. We are really big fans of a lot of what he’s contributed to music, and we are all stupidly huge fans of the National. So we did bug him to talk about working with them. I’m sure more than necessary.
He fed you soup. Was he a tomato man, cream of spinach or minestrone?
Man that guy loves soups. We’d just make these massive pots of hearty soup concoction, way better than anything you could put a label on. I think it was the dual payoff of trying to eat healthy and feeding lots of people.
Now is also a good time to mention Gus Van Go and Werner F. Those guys produced 5 of the songs on the record and they are equally as wickedly talented and very fun. And it was fantastic having the experience of doing something totally different and seeing if we could take all that and still make a cohesive album, which I’m pretty confident we did. When we worked with them we were a little more conscious of time and it was rad because we just didn’t stop. I feel like we did less humming and hawing there because we got really into the idea of being super decisive, and they really provided that environment. They worked in tandem with us and we hammered out some really awesome stuff under pressure but it never felt too stressful. So when we took that back to Peter to mix, he was really able to see where we’d gone and how we could unify the whole thing. He’s a genious mixer.
Do you think, with the plethora of ways to get heard, the barriers to big name producers are lower than ever for what you might call lesser-known groups?
Ya maybe. I know Gus came to see us play a coupe years ago, which is a pretty conventional way to get heard. I’m pretty sure Peter had never heard of us before we sent him our music, which is also pretty normal. I don’t think anyone has ever accused us of being that good at the internet. I mean, that’s the only new way I can really think of for bands to get heard, and it isn’t really new at all. It’s probably easier for you to find out how to contact people, or even where they live, but I feel like if you just showed up at Nigel Goderich’s house or Rick Rubin’s floating cloud palace they wouldn’t deem it very respectful.
You’ve previously said that a lot of romance and violence has gone into this record. Not too much violence we hope? More the romance? Just a few stubbed toes and lots of cuddles?
Anyone in or around bands knows a thousand bajillion people are going to ask what you sound like, so I replied once in an interview that we sounded like a mixture of violence and romance and it kinda stuck. For me it describes our sound pretty well, and it’s more fun to try to figure out what that even means I guess. Making a record is like falling in love some of the time and being tortured the rest.
“We dedicated this album to the heart itself, so we could look at all the different aspects of what the heart means, what it symbolizes, what it does for us physically and metaphorically…”
How does …On The Heart progress from your debut album?
Chronologically.
And also it takes the concepts we dealt with on that album and follows up on them in a way. Our first record was all about the adventure and naïve aspects of youth. Not giving a shit and the positive side of that. What it means to make stupid mistakes and be better for them. We dedicated this album to the heart itself, so we could look at all the different aspects of what the heart means, what it symbolizes, what it does for us physically and metaphorically. In doing that, I really found it seemed like a very relatable call and answer to our last album. For me, it answers a lot of the questions Strike Hard, Young Diamond asked, and presents new ones. What’s important? Everyone has their quest, they’re journey that they set out on and don’t know where its’ going to land them. But the majority of people come to the same or at least similar conclusions about what the most important thing is…and in that sense, the songs are written so that even if some parts aren’t specific, the record’s appeal should be that everyone can identify with what’s going on emotionally and lyrically.
Born To Ruin is a very special song. How did it come about? Has it been knocking around for a while?
I appreciate the word special! Born to Ruin has been kicking around for a while, yes. We actually used a very short version of it to open our set for one tour. So we knew we wanted it on the record but needed some more parts. The song obviously borrows from Born To Run. Flipping the optimism of that song on its head was interesting for me, because a major point of this album was to BE really positive. But after fucking with the lyrics for a while I realized I could write a song that, even though it sounded negative in its title, actually delivered a really similar message of positivity that the Boss song does. Its about when you give yourself over to the idea that things can be or are pretty messed up a lot of the time, but if we all know that and all stick together, its going to be better. It’s about not being defeatist about being defeatist sometimes, and vowing to try to be awesome the rest of the time.
Your sound is certainly reminiscent of the best parts of Arcade Fire, and some of your songs curiously ended up on an early leak of The Suburbs. What was the story there?
That’s a great compliment in our eyes, so thank you. Someone leaked a bunch of our songs saying it was the new Arcade Fire a couple years ago. I was kinda horrified. A lot of people downloaded it and you know how people can be online, one wrong move and they’re threatening to kill you and vowing to hex your ass. But the result from that was actually resoundingly positive. People really liked the songs and were genuinely happy to have found us. We’ve met so many people in person who listened to that and showed their friends, or waited like two years two come to one of our shows as we play a further and further radius from Toronto.
With the rise of the xx and the like, small seems to be the new big. Are you trying to bring back big?
We just do what we do. One of the main goals was to have moments on this album that sounded like the “biggest” thing you could ever hear. But there is a lot of variety on it, it’s meant to flow as a record and be very dynamic, because that’s more what we’re interested in. So there are some very mellow, sparse parts. But they never seem to last too long. By the way, I know it’s saying nothing new, but The XX is so damn good. It’s some of the most brilliant music that’s come out in the last decade. But if our stuff sounds “big”, that’s great. It might be my favourite sound.
What are you listening / watching / reading at the moment?
I just finished the BBC series Sherlock which is really fun. I’m reading a John Irving novel called A Widow for One Year, which I’ve been going at forever, not because it isn’t great, but because I’m going through a period where I can’t seem to finish a book. He is amazing though, everyone should read The World According to Garp. I’m not really listening to anything new right now. So if you’re also feeling that way, you should just listen to Sam Cooke.
What are your plans for the rest of 2013?
Going to SXSW which we’ve never done. Pumped. Lots of touring.
How hard is it for new bands in an age where people expect music for free? Is it still the best job in the world?
Hard. Also, I think you need to get paid to call it a job. But it’s not my hobby either. So basically I have no job and no hobby, which sounds depressing. But it is not. It’s awesome.
…On The Heart is out on 5th March