Q+A
THE POET’S DEAD
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CHRIS GRAHAM
Rah Rah makes a masterpiece BY ALEX J MACPHERSON
T
he Poet’s Dead is a masterpiece, a poignant and powerful album from Regina’s preeminent musical export. After years spent recording and playing lo-fi garage rock, Rah Rah returned last year with The Poet’s Dead, which weaves together strains of bookish intellectualism, lowbrow rock aesthetics, and a fierce determination to look beyond their own musical and emotional horizons. I caught up with singersongwriter Erin Passmore, who was in a van bound for Boston, to find out more. Alex J MacPherson: The Poet’s Dead was pretty widely hailed as a breakthrough album for Rah Rah. Have any of those predictions borne out? Erin Passmore: I mean, I’ve only read one or two reviews. I get excited to read them, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. I like it, and to me that’s a success. If I’m happy with it, if I don’t get tired listening to it or playing it, then that’s something I take as a success. But it’s nice that people like it, obviously! AJM: Perhaps the standout thing about this record — and the band itself — is the sheer number of voices. Does it ever get chaotic? EP: I think that we’re fortunate enough to really trust each other’s songwriting. Marshall’s obviously really poetic, and can write these amazing stories that you’re not sure if they’ve happened to him or not, whereas I write more from my own
perspective, but I think in a way that leaves people guessing … Kristina’s songwriting, too. Being in a band for this many years, we’ve just converged on how we write songs.
you get something that’s sonically really interesting. You’re interested when you’re listening to it: you want to find out … how it was done. At least, that’s how I listen to music.
AJM: The songwriting is still classic Rah Rah, but this album is so much smoother.
AJM: I think the record is fantastic, but I also think this band’s greatest strength is most apparent onstage. It feels like a big party, and while instrument-switching and chaos create challenges, it seems like there are advantages, too.
EP: I think it was a conscious decision. We had made these more lo-fi records, because that’s what we did and that’s
You have to give the audience something else to hold on to. ERIN PASSMORE
what came out, but we had this opportunity to work with [producers] Gus Van Go and Werner F., and they work in such a way that it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be really slick-sounding. The way they record, and their process, is to get the sound right before you hit record. It’s almost like it’s a really full-sounding record instead of this post-production edited, produced record. We wanted to give it a shot, and I’m really glad we did.
EP: I always tell people that that’s how I keep from getting bored, basically. We are multi-talented, and I think to limit ourselves in that respect would be kind of a disservice to the band. There are definitely disadvantages with the live show, but I think it’s definitely something we like to do just because it adds that visual aspect. And honestly, the live show has to be something a little more than the record. You have to give the audience something else to hold on to.
AJM: It strikes me that the market is so saturated with lo-fi stuff that there’s a real yearning for clarity.
Rah Rah April 3 @ Amigos Cantina $10 @ Ticketedge.ca
EP: Well, I think you can definitely take from both schools of thought and make an interesting-sounding record. I think people nowadays are sort of crossing the lines; they’re not necessarily just taking from one pop sound or anything like that, which is really neat because when you combine the two
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