Dave MacKinnon of the Fembots was apparently not amused nor stimulated by Kate Carraway's delightful yet probing hard-news questions. Kate Carraway feels that it might be time for a less experimental journalism/alienating interviewing tactic. However, his band is still a tight, revered and evolving outfit involving bits and pieces of the Creeping Nobodies, Royal City and Lowest of the Low. This version of the Fembots has a new album called 'œThe City'? coming out in August on Paper Bag Records. Come out and clap along.

YOUR SECOND FULL LENGTH ALBUM WAS CALLED SMALL TOWN MURDER SCENE AND THE ONE SET TO GO IN AUGUST IS CALLED THE CITY... DUDES! EVIDENTLY YOU SUBSCRIBE TO A MELVILLE-IAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE IMPORT OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT IN NARRATIVE ART -- THOUGH HE WAS MORE INTO WRITING INSUFFERABLE, PLODDING TOMES THAN MUCH-APPRECIATED ROCK MUSIC. YES? NO?
In as much as I understand the question - yes. We relate to places more then people.

HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE TORONTO, SPECIFICALLY, IN TERMS OF INFLUENCE, IF IT IS ONE AT ALL?
It's a love hate/thing. Part of me loves the city, part of me hates what's happening to it. Toronto is going through some major growing pains at the moment. I'm pretty sure that it will only get better as it gets bigger (and more dense) but at the same time it's hard to watch your neighborhood being torn down and replaced with condos and not have a sadness for what's being lost. Also, we don't tend to put much value on our civic history. Not many people know that there was a massive race riot in Christie Pitts in the 1930's or that hospital row on University Ave. was once the site of a poor, mostly immigrant neighborhood called The Ward (the city bulldozed it at the turn of the last century). The only history that seems to survive in this city relates to big business and wealth.

YOUR WEBSITE TELLS ME THAT FEMBOTS LEFT CANADA FOR CALIFORNIA IN THE DEAD OF WINTER THIS YEAR. I DID THAT TOO -- AND FELT PRETTY SMUG ABOUT IT, BUT ALSO WEIRDED OUT, LIKE MY INTERNAL CLOCK WAS FUCKED UP. HOW STRESSFUL AND SURREAL DO YOU FIND TOURING?
It was very strange coming home to winter without being here for the fall. It's a little jarring to say the least.

Touring is great and horrible all at the same time. You feel like crap all the time but after a while your body adjusts to it, and feeling like crap becomes the new feeling good. The upside is that you get to meet all kinds of interesting people and go to all kinds of great places. The downside is that you only ever see the highway and the two blocks around the club.

DO YOU LIKE BEING IN THE US? ARE YOU AWARE OF YOUR CANADIAN-NESS WHEN YOU'RE THERE, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING HOW TONS OF YOUNG FOLKS ARE SO IN AWE OF CANADA RIGHT NOW?
We spent the last 2 months of 2004 touring the USA with the Weakerthans. Touring is always stressful/surreal but touring the USA is like entering bizzaro world. On the surface it seems like Canada, but under the surface it's completely different. To make matters worse, we started one leg of the tour the day of the US presidential election. There was a real sense that young people in the US have no say in what's happening to their country. We met lots of folks who were talking about moving to Canada.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SORT-OF-SUPERGROUPS LATELY? CAN'T PEOPLE JUST COMMIT TO ONE PROJECT INSTEAD OF BAND-HOPPING LIKE LITTLE, INDIVIDUAL LICES?
I think the era of the band as a self contained unit is over. It's way better to have one or two people at the core of the group and a large cast of players who can be called on when they're needed or available. Good musicians are very busy people. If you want to play with good musicians you have to be able to accommodate their schedules. Also, musicians become better by playing all kinds of different music in all kinds of different bands.

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 7 DREAM JEOPARDY CATEGORIES?
The day I dream about Jeopardy is the day it's all over.

By Kate Carraway