After two successful full lengths, an EP, and a number of compilation tracks, Canada's the Weakerthans have taken their game to a whole new level with 2003's "Reconstruction Site". Released on Epitaph Records, this 14 track gem has shown any of the few doubtful souls around that the Weakerthans are one hell of a band. I spoke with Stephen Carroll, guitar (and a whole lot more) player before their show at New York City's Knitting Factory.

Band Site: www.theweakerthans.org
Label: www.epitaph.com
interview by Paul Cardone

FE: Ok man, if you could just give a brief introduction, what you do in the band, you know.

Steve: My name is Steve Carroll, I play pedal steel guitar, lap steel, lead guitar, Whirly-wind, keyboard, and am a backup vocalist.

FE: Ha, so you pretty much run the gamut. Cool. Can you give us a brief band history?

Steve: Sure, we formed in Winnipeg in around '97. I say we, but I wasn't technically in the band when it started, I joined about a year later, just after they released Fallow. We've know kind of partially relocated to Toronto, with the rhythm section living, and the other half of us living in Winnipeg. We tour a lot, and there you go.

FE: What's the scene like up there, because you here of all these bands around these days and most of them come from the U.S., but you don't hear of as many from Canada. Is it harder to get started off up there or is it just hard to make your way down this way?

Steve: It's certainly harder to make your way down this way. In fact, it's like you take your life in your hands when you do it. It's really the most risky thing about our project is having to cross into the United States. It creates the most jeopardy, because Customs and Immigration are such powerful organizations that when you decide that you want to cross the border, you give them ultimate authority over you. They have unrestricted authority to do with you as they please based on suspicion alone.

FE: That doesn't sound like a good time.

Steve: No, if they think you've done something wrong, they'll hold you for 4 or 5 hours, you know, until they come to a conclusion of their own, based neither on fact nor previous information. Sometimes it's just like they don't trust you, so they put you in a room, and they're like "What are you doing, what are you doing?" It's still worth it to come down, because people offer us to play in the States.

FE: Is it the same going the other way?

Steve: Oh yeah, they're bastards. They're all big bastards.

FE: Alright, "Reconstruction Site" came out on August 26th. How did you guys initially get going with Epitaph, and I know its released on Burning Heart in Europe. How'd it all come about?

Steve: We've always had a fondness for Epitaph and had been buying a lot of the records that they and their sister labels had been putting out. They were on the top of our list for labels we wanted to be on. After the concerted efforts on our behalf of our friends and associates friends, they got a hold of our demos and listened to them, and Brett called one day and said "Hey I like your band" and I was like "Awesome". Then I called everybody and was like "Brett Gurewitz just called".

FE: Tell me a little bit about the recording process, where'd you record at and all that.

Steve: We recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto, Ontario. I just moved there for a month and a half, so did John Samson, because we both lived in Winnipeg. We worked with our producer Ian (Blurton) on shaping the record. Then we were searching around for someone to mix it, and Adam Kasper, who did some pretty heavy stuff, like Foo Fighters, QOTSA, tons of Seattle grunge stuff, got our record and really liked it. We circumvented all the bullshit, he just said :I love your record, I want to work with you guys". He did it for a nominal fee, like the equivalent of nothing in terms of his fees, and Ian went and they mixed it. We got the copies and we were like "Great!"

FE: About how long were you in the studio for?

Steve: About a month. Three weeks for us, really.

FE: How do you guys handle that, do you fight a lot or just kind of laid back?

Steve: No, we didn't really fight that much. I mean it gets tense, but we'll try anything once, that's the policy.

FE: A couple of the songs have a little country tinge to them on the new album. Is that a style that you guys are all into and are trying to incorporate into the songs now?

Steve: Well, the one that's most country on the record, "A New Name For Everything", was actually written before "Left and Leaving" came out. It just sort of waited around for John to finish the lyrics. In fact it disappeared, i had all but thought it had gone out of existence, become extinct. Then one day, John walked into practice and was like "Hey remember that song?", and I was like "That song?". I had to remember all these parts...

FE: We saw you guys the other night at CBGB's, and you didn't play anything from "Fallow". Are you trying to get away from those songs?

Steve: No, we usually play a couple of songs a night. We usually play 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3, at least that's what Samson tells me, 'cause he writes the set list. It's most fun to play the new songs though, I like them. We also tend to play the ones the we think work best live. Some of the stuff from the records, we've either changed the arrangements so that they don't work live, like we play them with piano and we don't have a piano on this tour. Or they never really came off live, like they're too heavy or too dark sounding or John can't sing in that range live, it sounds bad, so we don't often play them live. The set list is very selective and is mostly about practicalities regarding how the flow of the set will be best, how we can hear ourselves best, and what instruments we have. It's all down to where the capo is and stuff, key changes and how hard they are, instrumentation changes and how hard they are. So some of the stuff from "Fallow" is falling away, but I love playing it live. I had nothing to do with it when it was recorded, so I'm like "Yes, alright, this song. This song rocks, I know this one."

FE: Ok, so you're doing this tour now then you guys go to Europe in the end of November. Who are you touring with over there?

Steve: We're touring with a whole bunch of bands, nobody that you might know...

FE: They're all from there?

Steve: Yeah, well, one band from Canada, Four Square. We have a lot of friends in Germany and stuff that play in bands so we try to go out with them.

FE: How long are you there for?

Steve: In Europe, we're there for three weeks.

FE: What's it like playing over there?

Steve: It's terrific. It's hard, but it's good. It's an interesting experience, I find that its very rewarding to have...it's the same a little bit here, especially here (in NYC). It means something, we've had to work pretty hard to get accepted here and for people to like us and come out to the shows, and it's the same in Germany, people do come out, the UK, anywhere in Europe, it's exciting. You come all this way and its like "Who are you?", you're not really anybody, you've had no media exposure, you have no giant machine behind you, you're just like this little rock band and all these people are coming out. It's a community of sorts that exists, and we're finding it all over the world, these people that come together, are like minded, and are interested in having this time with us and that's great.

FE: Is there anywhere else that you'd like to tour?

Steve: We tried to go to Australia, which would be pretty awesome.

FE: Yeah I wanna go to Australia too, but I have no band to tour with. I saw the video for "Our Retired Explorer", and i know the Canadian government does something with grants for bands to make videos or something like that...

Steve: Yeah well the government subsidizes the arts in general. Probably to the equivalent that the US government funds them here, except for that we have the entire funding for the US, you know, the same amount of money, going to 30 million people. So we have a great arts...there's a social welfare network and there's funding for the arts and there's health care and all these things that don't really exist down here. We benefit from that all the time, that video was funded through that program.

FE: Did you see "Bowling For Columbine"?

Steve: Yeah.

FE: How accurate would you say that was to what it's really like?

Steve: Oh it was exaggerated, it was exaggerated to prove a point, but it is true, some neighborhoods you don't lock your door. I lock my door, I have a sketchy back door man, a sketchy back lane. There's crime in Canada, there's violence in Canada. I don't know how to explain the concrete differences between the United States and Canada, but it is an easier place to live. We do have a welfare system, a social welfare system, and people have access to it. You can go to the hospital, like I go to the hospital all the time and I don't even think about it, I just go. I go "Shit man, I got this thing on my leg, I gotta go", and to do that down here is like a great sacrifice, it's something you have to plan for and be financially liable for for who knows how long. It just seems that everything is a lot less intense, there's a lot of similarities, but i find that there are a lot of cultural differences. They're small but have a wide range of effects oh how society lives and how they treat each other. I live in the harshest city in Canada, Winnipeg is the murder capital of Canada. Furby Street, this intersection, just like two blocks down from our jam space is the murder capital of Canada, and well, it's not so bad there. I mean its harsh, and sketchy, and you know it, but even if you walked through there at night you'll be fine, its just there's people living fucked up lives there, there's a lot of poverty. But we do have a support network there that helps those people out, makes it so that maybe the poverty is not as fierce as the poverty here in the United States. That's my outside opinion. It might have a butterfly effect on how the rest of society conducts itself, you know?

FE: Well, i think that is pretty much all I've got.

Steve: Alright, cool, I probably have to go um...well, I'll probably get another beer.