Plants and Animals don’t believe in quick fame. The Montreal-based indie rockers have been releasing music since 2005 with the goal of making the best music they can possibly make as artists. Sound cliché? Absolutely. Still, the band’s sincerity truly shines.
“We live in an era of quick fame and quick descent,” says guitarist/vocalist Nicolas Basque, in Toronto rehearsing for the latest Plants and Animals tour. “It’s always better to do things because you want to do them. Looking for prestige is the wrong way to go.”
The route to quick fame often seen in popular music is one Plants and Animals tries to avoid, opting instead for a very blue-collar work ethic.
“Things take time to build and a take lot of work,” says Basque, “and I think it’s more rewarding if you desire something and work for it.”
This has proven to be an approach that has, ironically enough, earned Plants and Animals a fair amount of prestige, with their first full-length album, 2008’s Parc Avenue, getting them nominations for the Polaris Prize and a Juno. 2010’s La La Land earned the band a second Polaris Prize nomination.
Which brings us to 2012 and their latest release, The End of That, a record that lives up to that old saying “third time’s a charm,” with its much more carefully crafted sound stemming from more preparation than previous efforts.
Rather than getting into the studio and trying to fill a record, this time the band went in with more music and chipped away at it until they were left with a unified sound.
What didn’t make the cut? Some of the stranger tracks, like an homage to Portishead that Basque says was just too weird for the album.
“There was this one old song, it had an old trip-hop beat and horns and we never finished it,” laughs Basque. “It was really too weird.”
At the end of the day, Plants and Animals just aim to make the best record they can and be the best artists they can be without making too many artistic compromises. It’s a style that has endeared them to their fans and audiences across Canada.
“We try to stay as sincere as we can,” says Basque. “It’s working for us.”
Plants and Animals
Tuesday, March 20, 8 pm
Lucky Bar (517 Yates), $20