Everyone can use a little more stargazing in their life and Bellevue seem to be firm adherents to this view. They've got the cutest astronomy-themed website, and a long-awaited debut album called Lost in Space. Allana Mayer got Brent Hough, the founder of the band, to detail all the basics for you right here in this very interview.

Wanna introduce yourselves and your roles in the band?

Okay. I am Brent Hough and I play guitar and sing. I also write the songs for now. Dan Snyder plays bass guitar. Julie Kendall plays keyboards. And Jordan Bruce plays the drums.

Give a basic five-sentence biography of Bellevue, please.

Bellevue, a Toronto based pop-rock band was formed in August 2003 when Brent Hough took his guitar-driven, keyboard-coloured home recordings and relocated to Toronto from his hometown of Kingston, Ontario. In the usual flux of rock 'n roll life, many music players have been a part of Bellevue for one reason or another, until the spring of 2005 when Dan Snyder, and Julie Kendall joined as full-time members. With the recent addition of Jordan Bruce on drums, Bellvue has some much-needed energy, which will serve well as they are about to release their debut album Lost In Space (Music Maul Industries) this November.

Tell us about your "seemingly endless" drummer search. Who is this charming Jordan fellow?

It started out with Jason Kift, whom I met from an ad in NOW; if it wasn't for him there would be no Bellevue. After two years and a somewhat solid group I kicked him out. He is one of my best friends still, despite the drama of it all. And then for the next 14 months we must have tried at least 15 different drummers, all of them crazy or criminals or shirtless racists. We managed to play a few shows with Jason, and our friend Matt Rubba filling in on drums until September of this year, when we met the charming Jordan Bruce, who is now our permanent drummer... until he reads this!

Were any of you in bands before this one? (Shameless name-dropping time)

I'm not sure about this one, but here goes... I played guitar in a band called the Hell Billys when I lived in Kingston. Dan was in a band called Tom Fenton Music. This is Julie's first band. And Jordan still plays with Purple Hill.

You kind of remind me of Of Montreal... you've got that happy, poppy thing going on, but also this depressive the-world-is-coming-to-its-end feel. Based on your music I can't really tell if you guys are cheerful or miserable. Comments?

I take that as a compliment. I really like music that has those two feelings going at the same time in one song. I used to try to do it consciously, but I gave up and just thought the songs were generally depressing and very negative. I'm trying to change that. We are relatively happy, optimistic people (time will tell with the new guy), but always open to cynicism and depression. I don't know Of Montreal, but I've heard about them for a long time now. I will definitely check them out.

Who designed all the snazzy MS Paint art on the website?

It was actually all hand-drawn and scanned by me. Morgan Grady-Smith did the telescope and stars sketch.

Write a stream-of-consciousness paragraph about the greatness of the new album. Writing, recording, album art, the production process, how you think it'll change the pop world and make you enough profit to buy a solid gold house, etc.

The songs were written over the last seven years in about twice as many different apartments in two different cities during the previously mentioned span of unemployment/unliving. Then in August of 2005 we recorded the drums and various tracks over one weekend in Mississauga at Julie's mum and dad's house. Then it took almost a year to get the rest of it recorded and mixed, which we did at my place and Julie's apartment. It was recorded all on a computer, but we didn't use any auto-tuning or cutting and pasting of parts. I think there is only one edit. It is very much a DIY album, minus the mastering. We actually went to a real mastering studio for that. The album art is basically like the website which is just all handwritten and scanned, the telescope on the cover, and a fancy photo that was taken with a real camera that uses film. Change the pop world? I don't think so. It would be nice to sell a bunch of copies and have people come to see us play, but the odds are it will just be another box of unsold indie CDs propping up a guitar amp in an overpriced, dirty, badly decorated rehearsal space. Maybe we'll get the solid gold house with the second album.

By Allana Mayer