The Alternative Star.com

Theset

Theset are making their way across Canada and at the Winnipeg stop at the Church Basement, I chatted with the band’s singer Martin Macphail. Sitting around a huge pot of chilli, we discuss random topics like Sharon, Lois and Bram, science fiction and a fake tooth. However we also have time to get just a little serious and discuss their latest record Never Odd or Even, his musical influences and their new single.

Which bands inspired you to take up music as a career?

Martin: The bands I grew up influenced by? Well in junior high, pretty much all I listened to was Nine Inch Nails and Tool. Though the bands that actually inspired me to perform and write music were At the Drive-In and the Mars Volta. I draw a lot of inspiration from them, especially for performance.

What was your first concert?

That’s a good question! My first concert was when I was three years old and I went to see Sharon, Lois and Bram! Apparently I was sitting in the audience and I always watched that show on TV. Do you remember that show?

Faintly, I watched Mr Dress Up a lot more though.

It’s a kid’s show with these three folk singers. Well basically I always watched it on TV and apparently at the end of the performance live I started bawling my eyes out. My parents were like ‘What’s wrong? What’s wrong?’ and I was so confused because I was wondering where the words were! Because the credits usually roll at the end but there were no credits because it was a live show. It was very confusing! Anyway, that’s my first show.

Interesting answer. Moving on, your new record came out back in September, didn’t it?

Yeah, kind of. We just did a digital release for it around then.

But the physical release came out at the end of January?

Yeah exactly. The original release was on iTunes and we were selling the CDs at shows exclusively. But what’s really exciting for us now is, as of January 27, the CD is actually in stores everywhere!

What is your favourite thing about Never Odd or Even?

I think my favourite thing about this album is the amount of thought we put into creating the whole concept and feel of the record. We really aimed to create a body of work that we enjoy and can listen to the whole way through so a lot of attention to details. The melodies, the lyrics, music, everything, just to bring out this overall story. I picture someone listening to it having the similar experience they’d have watching the movie. They can journey all the way through and that’s what I like best about this record.

Looking at the cover art, it seems obviously about astronomy and space, stuff like that.

Definitely! Absolutely yeah.

Where did the inspiration for that come from?

Well, the fact that I’m a huge nerd mainly! (Laughs) Yeah, I mean I did the first year of a Bachelors in Astronomy and Physics in university. I’ve always been really into space so I ended up drawing a lot of inspiration from science and science fiction. This record specifically is a concept record, being in that it follows a story pretty directly about the sun going out and an end of the world sort of thing. There are palindromes all throughout the record as well as the base theme of the world ending as it began. It certainly has sci-fi elements to it.

Which is your favourite?

Star Trek Next Generation. Yeah, lots of that.

I’m guessing most of the inspiration for the lyrics you write comes from that too.

Yeah, a lot of it comes from science stuff. Though I find that if I write too third person or intellectually I end up distancing myself from the actual emotional concept of the song. All these songs start from my life or our life as a band and they really do mean a lot to me. As far as specific lyrical value, I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of poets as well. Just reading a lot of writing, poetry and what authors have to say.

Which poets?

I’m trying to think off the top of my head. I have this massive book of poetry at my house that I read through and I’m trying to think of them. I read a lot but apparently I don’t remember who I’m reading! (Laughs)

What was it like working with Warne Livesey? He has worked with some pretty big Canadian acts like Matthew Good.

Yeah, Matthew Good, Midnight Oil, lots of great bands. It was great working with a really experienced producer like that, he really got into our music and our ideas, he was really supportive of the way we were. We ended up spending lots of time getting the right sounds and it was a really positive experience.

How did you come up with the concept for the “Survive” video?

We sort of shied away from making videos directly about the album concept, mainly because we wouldn’t have the budget to pull that off. The concept was the idea of our director’s, although we worked on it with him, it was his original idea.

Anything interesting happen while filming?

Yeah, now that you mention it a lot of interesting things! First of all we applied for a Video Fact for it, which is basically money from the government to help us shoot. We didn’t get it so we decided to go ahead and shoot it anyways. We shot it in our bass player’s house, where our bass player, guitarist and drummer all live and it’s kind of looking like it needed to be quarantined anyways. Everything is so dirty all of the time so we just pulled all of the furniture out of it, put plastic over the windows and did it all totally guerrilla! Colin handling the cameras definitely made it look more professional though! The most exciting thing that happened was during one take. We were performing and I hit myself in the face with the microphone and knocked out my front tooth!

That must have really hurt!

Yeah, (points to tooth) this one’s fake! It actually looks better than the original though.

Haha, you’re right, honestly you can barely tell.

Yeah! 

Moving on, if someone never listened to Theset before, which song would you have them listen to? Why?

Interesting question. I’d have to say “Survive” our first single because it’s one of the more concise songs to get a grasp of what the band sounds like in a short, relatively memorable format. My favourite song on the record is probably the last song called “Red Spider” so if I had my way I’d want to show somebody that one. It kind of shows how we go sonically and is the best representation of the band I would think.

What plans do you have for 2009?

Yeah lots of plans! We actually just found out we got our Video Fact grant for a second video so the second we get back from this tour, we’re going to shoot a video for “Echo Head” with Colin our last director. Then afterwards we’ll be leaving for a tour with Gob and then we hope to head down to the US for a tour out there! It will be a busy year; we’re going to spend a lot of time on the road.

 Really? Where will you be touring with Gob?

It just looks like Western Canada, probably between BC and out to Winnipeg, maybe some Ontario stuff. It’s all still kind of in the works. We just played a show with them last night.

Yeah, I just saw them two nights ago and met up with Tom for the same feature.

Cool, we just played with them last night in Regina. It was a super cool show and they were great guys!

How has this tour been going overall? Anything interesting happen?

Yeah, I’m trying to think of some specific occasions. Last night was honestly one of the more interesting nights. Most of the tour has been kind of a struggle against nature kind of thing, because of the amount of ice and snow that we’ve had to go through in the mountains and everything. Now that we’re out here, especially during that show with Gob it was just a great club, great sound. Playing with those guys was awesome, it was an amazing show! The other night everyone was partying way too hard and dancing. I got a lot of it on video; it will be on the Internet. It’s really embarrassing.

  Cool! What would you be doing if Theset doesn’t work out?

I would be wasting away at university. Well, I guess that isn’t really fair to say though I would be at university and finishing my degree. I’d probably become a professor and go crazy.

That’s unique. You don’t often expect the lead singer to become a prof.

Yeah, it’s kind of my back up plan for some reason. Though, I don’t think about it too much to take it very seriously.

Lastly, if you could tour with any band, which one would it be and why?

For my own satisfaction I’d love to tour with a band like the Mars Volta. That would be amazing, just to tour with those dudes. But realistically, U2. You know, sold out stadium shows, I could live with that!

Interview trancsribed by: Deborah Remus