Boo Hoo is three dudes from Montreal who count grainy, four-minute rawk crunches among their favourite exercise routines. But wait, already it seems the loquaciousness of Boo Hoo band member Rob has left me scurrying to promptly conclude this blurb so as to not exceed my word limit. So without further ado, let us hark at Rob, as he explains to us, among other things, just what is wrong with "the kids" these days.

WHO ARE YOU, WHAT DO YOU DO AND WHY DO YOU DO IT?

Rob: I am Rob. I play instruments and sing part time in Boo Hoo. I do this because I have to. I hear lots of songs in my head, and I try to place them, but I can't remember where I know them from, and then I realize I don't know them, because they haven't been made yet. So I need to play in a band to help make and catalogue all those songs. If I didn't, I'd be going crazy all day thinking, "Where do I know that song from?"
Ben: I am Ben, I play guitar and sing some of the time in Boo Hoo. I do this mostly because I am an ego-maniac. My home is the stage. All must revere me.
Marc: I am Marc. I play drums in Boo Hoo. I work for a huge/evil corporation that makes cement. I am the angriest Boo Hoo.

ROB, YOU SAID YOU MET MARC OVER THE INTERNET, A FORTUNATE HAPPENING WHICH MIGHT NOT HAVE OCCURRED 15 YEARS AGO AS THERE WAS NO INTERNET. THAT BEING SAID, AS CITIZENS OF THE WESTERN WORLD ARE WE BECOMING OVER-RELIANT ON THIS MEDIUM AND FORGETTING HOW TO TRULY COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER? DO YOU THINK THE BENEFITS OF ONLINE NETWORKING OUTWEIGH ITS ILLS?

It's way too early to tell, in my opinion. It's all too user-relative. I can guess for myself that I'd say it's net positive: the increased ability to find things/people/ideas/answers is a huge benefit. On the flipside, if you are naive, or young, or a bit stupid, you could easily get yourself fucked over in the online age. And not just the obvious victimizations you read about. I work in a school full of kids whose capacity to understand nuance has been destroyed by communicating and reading only online. Not just the fact that their language has gotten truncated to the point that they communicate with a vocabulary of about 200 words, (or worse: emoticons), but also the fact that they have no ability to judge the credibility of anything they read. Everything seems equally valid. The net is a great equalizer. So who knows. Good thing/bad thing? This interview is being done by email so let's say good thing.

YOUR MUSIC SOUNDS AS THOUGH YOU MIGHT LISTEN TO UNWOUND OR LES SAVY FAV RECORDS, AND THAT YOU ARE KINDA PISSED AT A WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF. COMMENTS?

How could anyone be pissed off when listening to Les Savy Fav? We're not really pissy people, I don't think. I think we get vexed in the usual mundane ways, but that's not great lyrical material for the most part. I suppose maybe we have a tendency to come up with lyrics that are pretty dry, or dark sometimes, just to offset what might otherwise be too-happy sounding songs. It's like how we appreciate and value cheese more when it's old and musty and got mold growing that you have to cut around before eating. Something like that. I would use the word "ironic" in this analysis, but I heard somewhere that irony died after 9-11, so I will respect that.

WHY DID YOU GUYS SETTLE ON BOOHOO AS A BAND NAME? I HAVE TO SAY IT DOES HAVE A NICE SNAPPY RING TO IT; ALTHOUGH WHEN I FIRST HEARD THE NAME, I PICTURED A NOISE-ROCK OUTFIT WITH ASYMMETRICAL CLOTHING, WHICH ISN'T REALLY YOUR THING.

The story as to how we came to the name Boo Hoo is an okay one, but not nearly as good as that of our new myspace friend Bernhard, from Germany, who also has a band named Boo Hoo. His band is named after the ghost in Super Mario World. The one that when he looks at you, he puts his hands over his eyes, as if blindness equals invisibility... but then when you turn your back to him, he attacks. That's a way, way better story than ours. Plus, it serves as an awesome metaphor for our band. So, we named one of our songs "The German" in Bernhard's honour. Especially since we had the name Boo Hoo first, so he has to cease and desist.

By Pras Rajagopalan