Canadian Rockers Get The Band Back Together

Indie rock band Broken Social Scene will bring their orchestral, experimental style to The Paramount on April 7. Photo/Norman Wong

By Connor Beach
cbeach@longislandergroup.com

Getting a band back together to produce a new album is never easy, and it was especially difficult for 15-member Canadian indie rock band Broken Social Scene.

The band’s last album, “Forgotten Rock Record,” was released in 2010 and reached number one in Canadian charts. The band has since been on a hiatus of sorts, according to guitarist and founding member Brendan Canning, as it’s only played one gig per year.

When they do take the stage together, or hit the studio, Broken Social Scene’s sound is made up of a variety of instruments, including guitars, horns, woodwinds and violins. The sounds those instruments produce are put together in unusual song structures, part of an experimental style.

Last July, Broken Social Scene released “Hug of Thunder,” its first new album in seven years.

Canning said that the idea to get things back together developed “very organically.”

“In 2015 we got a couple of 11th hour offers for festivals in the summer that really kind of ignited us,” Canning said.

After a series of meetings and a management switch, Canning said the band got back to the rehearsing space to produce the new album.

“We just had the feeling that we hadn’t finished what we started,” Canning said, adding that the band shared the same collective spirit that drove him and Broken Social Scene’s co-founder Kevin Drew to bring musicians from the Toronto indie scene together back in 1999.

Once the decision was made to release a new album the 15 members of Broken Social Scene had to decide what songs to include.

“That’s like you would imagine with countless emails, phone calls and difference of opinion on this song or that song,” Canning said. “It’s a lot of batting the ball back and forth, and eventually you come up with something that reflects the collective.”

Eventually that collaboration paid off when “Hug of Thunder” peaked at number three on the U.S. Indie Record charts shortly after its release.

Broken Social Scene has now set out on the Hug of Thunder Tour, which includes a stop at The Paramount in Huntington on Saturday, April 7.

“It’s a very celebratory evening whenever we roll into town,” Canning said. “It’s not going to be any sort of quiet affair, and it’s not going to be underplayed.”

Canning said the band is still excited that people still want to come and see them play after so many years.

He said, “After 18 years of being in a band you can’t really take it lightly. You still have to go out and earn the respect of the fans.”

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. show. Tickets are $30.50-$60.50 and can be purchased at the box office or online at Paramountny.com.