Basement Arms
WL 351
Sunday, February 18 -- 12am
Purveyors of: Electric Mayhem.

Careful, now – if you get too wrapped up in Basement Arms loosey-goosey jams, you just might start distilling your own moonshine and hooting at attractive passers-by. Contrary to what their music may suggest, though, the Basement Arms are upstanding, productive citizens – amongst other things, they have recorded a brand spanking new album, due for release mere days after their upcoming visit with Wavelength. Singer Dwight Schenk provided A’s in exchange for Pras Rajagopalan’s Q’s, elaborating on -- amongst other things -- why he is not a drunk.

It's been a solid 10 months since your last Wavelength appearance. What's new?

The brand newest thing is our album is done. Besides that, we've been busy playing a great variety of shows. We're all doing a ton of other projects as well. Brian is recording a couple albums at his home studio, and plays with SuperstacK. Chris has been in Kingston going to Queen's, and plans on starting a musical education workshop. Jay plays bass in another band called Spacecraft 7, and is designing new ways to drive standard that doesn't require both hands. I'm part of a couple other bands (Spacecraft 7: drums, and Danger Bay with Brendan Howlett) and the main project I've been doing is called "An Ocean Called Owen". I wrote/illustrated a short graphic novel that is accompanied by a soundtrack. I put together an orchestra to do the soundtrack.

Your songs are generally birthed through the jam process. Have you guys considered experimenting with other methods of coming up with songs?

Jams only give birth to about half our songs. We use many methods to write. Lately, we don't have as much time to have jam sessions as we used to, so it's forced us to write more traditionally. The new stuff (which we haven't unleashed yet) was conceived by candlelight, rather than bonfire-light.

How did you find the sometimes rigid process of recording an album? Are you pleased with the outcome?

If you hear us live, you'll hear a jam aspect to us, but there's a lot of structure in our songs. The songs on the album were well established as far as arrangement. Recording them was tricky in that we didn't record it live off the floor. Everything was overdubbed. It was a lengthy process just to make sure that we got the right feel/groove, so that when everything was added to the bed tracks, it would sound as if we were all playing it together. We're damn extra pleased with the outcome.

When is the album out? What kind of hijinks do you plan on having upon its release?

The album release is being celebrated on February 22 at Lee's Palace. Hijinks? I don't know what you're talking about (unless you mean the muppet army that is going to bulldoze through that building and all its occupants). Many surprise guests. And I've got a loose tooth that I've been saving for this night. I'm gonna rip it out and play guitar with it.

Dwight, are you as much of a drunk as your grizzled baritone suggests you are?

I actually don't drink that much. Did you want me to lie? I drink gin and tonic almost exclusively. Not sure if it's that, or the Belmont milds I smoke religiously. I think the grizzled baritone was part of my realization that I didn't have a pretty voice. And I tried to sing pretty for years. But fuck it, there are enough pretty voices out there. I'm heavily influenced by the Muppet show, Sesame Street, and Jim Henson in general. A lot of the characters had very low, growly voices. I like that. My favorite song is "Moon River" sung by Louis Armstrong. And I started listening to Clutch a lot just before Basement Arms started. All these things brought it out of me.

There's a pretty crazy variety of Toronto music folk you've played and/or collaborated with. Are there any other dream Toronto collaborations that you'd like to be a part of?

Anyone not on our MySpace list. But Dan Werb (Woodhands), The Speaking Tongues, Dave Clark (Woodchoppers), Run With The Kittens, and The Creaking String Quartet are all artists that we've either talked with about collaborating, or really wish to at some point.