Parlovr Not a Fightr
In Studio With Montreal’s Parlovr
__900_611_90.jpg)
HAMILTON, Ont. (CUP) — And if you probe into the Montreal trio’s sound of self-described “sloppy pop,” they’ll modestly quip that owning practically no gear is the influence driving it.
Yet, there’s something infectious about the quirky outlook of this group—a certain sleight-of-hand to the way they operate, if you will.
On the surface, the do-it-yourself mingling of keyboard, a two-piece drum kit, a gutted and rewired guitar and spastic yelps may sound like the result of a drunken stumble to the local pawnshop, but since forming in 2006, the band has amassed a great deal of critical praise for manipulating these elements into a larger-than-life sound of their own.
While the trend of multi-member-meets-multi-instrument has come to shape most acts coming out of Montreal’s music scene in recent years, Parlovr has made a distinct mark into the city’s well-etched sonic landscape, and their mark has been well recognized.
Their self-titled debut LP in 2008 made enough waves to earn the band a spot on Dine Alone Records’ bulked up roster, and with the recent EP Hell/Heaven/Big/Love under their belts, they’ve found themselves trekking across Canada, parts of Europe and even venturing as far as mainland China in a short period of time.
“Those overseas tours were just… well, I don’t want to say dumb luck but, Jesus, it was out of the blue. If you read about a band going to somewhere like China, you have to ask, ‘What the fuck did they do to get that?’” explained guitarist and vocalist Louis Jackson in an interview last week.
“There’s definitely an exclamation point beside the band,” he continued. “And I guess we’ve progressed really well since our first album to the point where things have been really busy as of late.” While cooped up in the studio with keyboardist Alex Cooper tracking vocals nearby, Jackson couldn’t help but highlight his enthusiasm over working on the band’s sophomore release.
“Things are sounding crazy right now,” he said. “We’ve taken a few months off to record these glorious messes that we’ve had going for the past year —I mean ‘messes’ because we’ve gone in with this outlook of not worrying too much about how we play or how tight things sound, and instead just getting the groove going. That’s what the sloppiness is about, and it can be really rewarding.”
With drummer Jeremy MacCuish contributing with what Jackson considers a very necessary soulful backbeat to the band, Parlovr has treated their current studio time as a chance to tamper with as many instruments and genres as they see fit. “We’re really trying to put together an R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, kooky party album that plays into those throwback pop gems done by many bands in a light-hearted way,” said Jackson. “It sounds twisted, but there’s a definite musical theme to the songs.
“So we’ve taken advantage of the huge amount of studio instruments by making lots of noise,” he said. “I listened to all of the songs last night for the first time and it just sounded like a crazy mess. As of now, we sound like a 40-member band.”
No doubt the band’s “big sound” reputation has become an immediate tag for most critics, but they’ve also garnered attention as being innovators in the ever-burgeoning Montreal orchestral pop sound. Jackson, however, is quick to pin the band’s influences on a wider range of genres.
“We definitely understand what it means to be considered rockin’ and raw in terms of the Montreal sound. And bands like The Dears have beautifully pioneered the orchestral thing, but my musical upbringing has always been based more on grunge, hip-hop and pop gems from the ’90s,” he explained. “Plus, we’re obsessed with The Beatles’ catalogue.”
The band’s emphasis in the coming months will be focused on tinkering with their much-anticipated summer release, and aside from Jackson’s priorities of “getting a haircut and restringing the guitar,” the band plans to stay the proverbial, yet often rewarding, course.
“We plan to tour like crazy once the album’s out,” Jackson said. “But for now, we want to continue to not set our hopes too high, and instead just work hard as hell in the studio and hopefully surprise ourselves. Of course, we’re still going to have fun along the way.”
More info:
_Passovah Cover Band Party / Parlovr with Reversing Falls (covering the Foo Fighters), Play Guitar (covering the Talking Heads) and more.
Friday March 4 / Il Motore / 179 Jean Talon / PWYC
This article originally appeared in Volume 31, Issue 24, published March 7, 2011.
