Influenced by such post-punk notables as Pavement, Modest Mouse and Sonic Youth, Toronto's very own League Champs have been a rockin' three-guitar army since 2000. With one full-length disc under their wing and a Slaughterhouse Five-inspired sophomore release coming out in the near future, these champs are on their way to breaking hearts and scene boundaries all over Southern Ontario. aMy spoke to Kevin via email about, among other things: Vonnegut, dream line-ups and pimpin' riders.

Who are the League Champs and what do you do when you're not playing in the band? We are fun and we are sweaty. More specifically: Kevin (who I am) sparkles things on stage and then learns to become a teacher in the day. Brett looks down a lot and works with Andrew who bounces his head furiously and they both add colour to TV shows. Darren hits things with his grossly stained hat and cooks things in the day. Barry sits quietly, pushes a few white sticks, and then in the day, sleeps.

Talk a bit about the songwriting process for The New Move. Do you guys have a specific process as to how your songs are created? Are the lyrics and music written simultaneously or separately? On The New Move, the songwriting was primarily done by Brett and I. Brett brings in a lot of great parts that we all build upon, and I do the lyrics which usually have a lot to do with airplane crashes, heart smashes, and sifting through the ashes. We usually let a song create itself over time, we have a few different versions of some of our songs which is due to me not having created any solid lyrics, and making them up from show to show, someone hating a song and not wanting to play it anymore, or because a lounge version of 'œAirports are Deathtraps'? is just damn fun!

How easy/difficult would you say it is to get involved with the indie music community here in Toronto? How easy/difficult would you say it is to be successful in said community? Are there any obstacles (musically) that you (as a band) have had to face? How did you overcome them? We've been fortunate to have many great friends that come to our shows, and play shows with us. I do have complaints though about the current state of community in the music scene. Our current definition of community consists primarily of incestuous relationships among a handful of artists that are then called a 'œscene.'? It's boring to see the same bands on the same bill or different bands with the same people over and over again. I really believe the major 'œindie'? magazines need to support local independent music in Toronto much more, it's these outlets that help to recognize our local talent and foster communities. It's the locals that need the press, not friggin' Montell Jordan. Am I off topic? Who brought this soapbox?

What would be your dream line-up and what would be on your rider? Archers of Loaf (Vee Vee era), Guided by Voices, The Replacements, League Champs. Rider: three bags of sparkles, four navy blue T-shirts (two M, two L), one big bottle of white wine, 24 bottles of 50, band aids, peanut butter, bread, a copy of The Big Lebowski, lots of towels, four monkeys named Mojo wearing police hats.

What have you guys been up to recently? Any new recording? Shows? Up the shameless self-promotion in 3, 2, 1... GO! We have recorded seven new songs, three of which are Slaughterhouse Five-themed and were first played on my Vonnegut Inspires... night at the Gladstone back in April. I would like to get them mixed and mastered, ultimately by either Ian Blurton (give us a call, that would be awesome!) or someone else '” if you are interested, let us know!

Any questions? Final words of wisdom? Shout-outs?
Have fun. Check out the website www.leaguechamps.com. Go see Elliott Brood, Wayne Omaha, Action Makes, The Conversation, Frontier Index, smash things, read Vonnegut, listen to Waits, watch Jarmusch.