Cityzen: I hear you guys played the entire album.

Oliver: Yeah we played songs 1 through 10 straight through and then played songs 11 and 12 (laughs) and that was it. We were actually thinking of doing that as a joke for a while. The last show we played was in London, maybe two weeks ago, and we were talking about it backstage afterwards. We’ve been playing these songs for a while now so we have to find a way to keep ourselves entertained with the same material because we’ve been playing it over and over again maybe 500 times now (laughs). So we were like “Fuck it, man, let’s do the album order, it’ll be funny” and then we did that yesterday and at the end of the set we were like, “Holy fuck that’s a good order!” I mean, obviously it is because it took us a week to find that order when we finally had to record the album.

Cityzen: Oh really?

Oliver: Oh yeah. We slaved over that order – we would fight and debate over it and finally we got the perfect order.

Cityzen: How do you figure out the “perfect” order for a track listing?

Oliver: Basically what’s a good finisher, what’s a good opener, what are good middle tracks, thoughts like that. It’s pretty complicated to get a good balance. And when we applied it live we were like “Holy shit this is so awesome” and obviously it is because we slaved over it for so long! So we were like “OK…uh…now we’re going to play…track number 8!” (laughs)

Cityzen: How did the fans react to that?

Oliver: I think they were pretty happy. It wasn’t a big rowdy crazy show because it was early, and it wasn’t at a bar so there weren’t any drunk people – and there weren’t any opening bands to get drunk during (laughs). People were really happy – they weren’t super rowdy but they were really loving.

Cityzen: They must have liked to hear all the songs. You guys don’t play every song on the album at shows usually, right?

Oliver: No, we don’t, usually because we put in other songs like “The French Song,” so we usually take out “Love & Death” and “Let’s Roll.”

Cityzen: Have you guys played “Love & Death” and “Let’s Roll” live then?

Oliver: Yeah, we used to play it live all the time but for some reason we stopped playing them and then lately, we’ve been playing them again (laughs).

Cityzen: What did you guys want to convey in your album? How would you personally describe it?

Oliver: Well I can describe it from one song to another – “Lola Stars and Stripes” is a love and political song. “Gender Bombs” is a love song. “Changes Are No Good” describes a head space that the particular writer was having at the time. There’s a threat of chronic dissatisfaction and irony, I think. I think that goes with the aesthetic of the art on the album too – it’s sort of weird and dreamy – I think that has a lot to do with the sound of the record. The guitar, sounds, beats – I think they’re all trying to compliment what the lyrics are saying.

Cityzen: What’s the writing process like? Is it a collaborative effort?

Oliver: Dave and Tim write the tunes and then bring them to the band and we all come together to try to compliment the main idea of the lyrics.

Cityzen: You seem to be more popular in America than in Canada. I’m not so sure how true that is, because it’s just coming from my perspective. What’s your take on that?

Oliver: I guess it depends on what you mean by popular. We’re more popular in New York and LA than we are anywhere in Canada. But if you look at our record sales, we’re equivalent I think, maybe even more in Canada. We’ve played more shows in America and probably a lot more people know us here. Plus there are a lot more people in America.

Cityzen: Good point. Did you expect to “explode on the scene” like you have?

Oliver: Have you ever watched the show The Kids in the Hall?

Cityzen: No.

Oliver: Well The Kids in the Hall is a comedy troupe from Canada. They got picked up by Lorne Michaels, the guy who does Saturday Night Live. If you’re Canadian then you know about them. They’re probably one of the best comedy troupes to come out of the western world ever. Absolutely amazing fucking comedy. The TV show they did was like sketches – similar to SNL except way cooler. I bought the DVD boxed set. I was really excited about it. I watched it on the road a lot. There was a bonus CD that came with it and it was an oral history of each of the members. It was really cool because they were explaining how they got to where they were. They all lived in Toronto and played shows at little venues and not too many people would show up. And someone saw them and invited them to New York City to do stuff there. So they went to NYC and were playing at two different comedy clubs, and at one of them, a writer for Rolling Stone showed up and put them as one of the “hottest new comedy acts to watch for the new year,” which is exactly what happened to us too. We came to New York from Montreal to do shows and Rolling Stone dubbed us as one of the “hottest new bands to watch in 2004.” They (Kids in the Hall) ended up doing NewsRadio with Phil Hartman and they were explaining how everything in show business moves so slowly that when something really big or exciting happens, you’ve been expecting it for so long that it’s never exciting (laughs) and that’s exactly my feeling. When we hear people saying, “oh you’re exploding on the scene, it must be exciting,” when you’re actually in a band, you’re not surprised or shocked by anything.

Cityzen: Because you guys have been working towards it for such a long time.

Oliver: Exactly. It’s like if you have a connection at Rolling Stone, and it’s looking like they’re going to get you in as one of the main writers in July and this is in December. Then it’s July and you become a big writer for Rolling Stone but you’re not super stoked about it in July because you’ve been anticipating it since December – it’s kind of the same thing. I mean, if I were to fall asleep and wake up the next day to discover that we sold a million records, it would be different (laughs) but that never happens. We see it happen but it never just happens like that. And that’s my really long answer to your question.

Cityzen: It was a really good answer. For the 2nd album, have you guys started writing or recording anything?

Oliver: Dave (Hamelin, drums and vocals) and Tim (Fletcher, vocals and guitar) have been writing a lot of new stuff but fortunately we’ve been so busy that we haven’t had time to get a proper jam space to really start getting creative. Actually, we have a meeting about it today because everyone’s getting really impatient about doing new material because we need to do new material – we need it for our souls (laughs).

Cityzen: You need to play new songs because you’ve been playing the same ones and you’re getting tired of them (laughs).

Oliver: Exactly, I mean I still have a blast playing them live but sometimes people just need new stuff for themselves and also for their creative sense. So we’re really going to try to make that happen this summer.

Cityzen: Do you have any idea as to when we can expect the second album?

Oliver: I have a feeling that it’ll come out in September 2005 or October 2005.

Cityzen: That’s a long time.

Oliver: Yeah it is, but this record isn’t done yet – we’re going to release a new single in America. We’re releasing “Lola Stripes and Stars,” so that’s going to be a big thing. We’re thinking of releasing another one after that – having three singles off the album in America. Not necessarily touring the shit out of them, but just getting our music out there. Right now everything’s sort of been put on hiatus while we work on exposure in Japan a bit. We’ll be coming back to America and Canada in August for a tour. When we come back we’ll have new shit too so it’ll be interesting for people who haven’t seen the band and for the people who have seen us a bunch.

Cityzen: Who are you guys listening to now?

Oliver: I was listening to TV On the Radio a lot. I like those guys, they make good shit. Also Broken Social scene, they have a great record. They’re also from Canada. I’m also listening to another band from Canada called The Dears, who are absolutely unbelievable. They’re probably one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen in my life.