Jon McCann has already had an interesting career. He's been a drummer for hire, playing with locals like Blurtonia, John Critchley and Tangiers, and as a member of The American Flag, opened for Guided by Voices (an album by whom, by the way, recently sold for $20,000 on eBay). GbV's Robert Pollard loved the band so much that when their drummer left, they recruited McCann. He's now fronting a new project called Nassau. Jon and Ryan McLaren exchanged a few words about the band, and about playing with GbV.

WHO IS IN NASSAU AND WHAT DO THEY DO? We are: Brad Pallister (drums and voice), Scott Wilson (bass), Jon McCann (voice and guitar), and Chris McCann (guitar and voice).

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES WORKING WITH GUIDED BY VOICES. Those were amazing times. Being around someone as prolific and creative as Bob Pollard for months on end was inspiring, and often one of the only things that kept me sane. I have several fond memories of traveling the world in a weird sort of suspended reality, playing great music to amazing fans. Sadly, I was in the band at a time when some of the members were having trouble at home, so we toured endlessly for the entire time I was in the band, which burned me out.

YOU OPENED FOR GBV WITH YOUR OLD BAND THE AMERICAN FLAG A NUMBER OF TIMES. HOW'D THAT KINSHIP COME ABOUT? Evan Weisblott and Ayal Senior had known Bob prior to our opening for GbV on those tours. Bob loved the "Flag", and had put out their first record on his own Rockathon imprint.

DO YOU EVER GET SICK OF PEOPLE ASKING ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO PLAY WITH GBV? Occasionally. Talking to real hardcore GbV fanatics at this point sometimes makes me feel a bit, um, weird.

HOW WAS NASSAU CREATED? I started making this record, and as it started to take shape, I thought I should put together a band to play these songs. After a few different people coming and going, we settled on the line-up we have now, which I am very grateful for.

WHAT MAKES THIS PROJECT DIFFERENT FOR YOU? Playing guitar, singing, and writing most of the material is very different for me! I do like the sense of accomplishment being this close to the creative decisions. Although, if people think it's shit, it's more likely to land squarely on my shoulders, but you can't please everyone, so it's worth it.

SO YOU'VE PLAYED WITH A BUNCH OF BANDS IN TORONTO, LIKE BLURTONIA, TANGIERS AND JOHN CRITCHLEY. HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE TORONTO MUSIC SCENE NOW WITH THE TORONTO MUSIC SCENE, SAY, 10 YEARS AGO? It ultimately does not appear that different to me. Lots, in fact most, of those people still make music. I think there may be more variety now. However, 10 years ago I was pretty new to the whole Toronto music "scene" so I was probably oblivious to a lot of really interesting music.

WHAT'S THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR NASSAU? Great! We have several new songs that we will be preparing to take into the studio soon. As well, we have some very talented people doing re-mixes of the track "Sick Again" which will be released as a CD single/12" in January.