We Take Lovers!

WL 349

Sunday, February 4 - 10pm

Purveyors of: Shrewd and economical use of the Tanooki suit.  

We Take Lovers are a group of French immigrants looking to make it in the urban sprawl known as Toronto, Canada.  

“Real French, too,” adds singer Mark Meeks angrily. “Not that sissy Quebec kind of French.” 

Born, in part, out of the ashes of Rigor Mortis Got Me Down, the zombie musical which claimed the lives of a dozen people at Wavelength in October 2005, We Take Lovers! are stumbling about with outstretched arms and tattered shirts. They are muttering happy, vulgar couplets. They are staring in blankly through the window behind you.  Don’t turn around! 

The Wavelength show is going to be an introduction to the band for many in the audience.  Care to introduce the band?

There's Ben, Chris, Jesse, Mark, Shayna and Steph. Were we Voltron, Jesse and Ben would be the legs, Shayna and Steph would be the arms, Chris would be the pelvis and chest plate and Mark would be the pointy helmet.

As you’ve yet to make recordings of your songs, how would you describe the band’s sound to those who haven’t seen you play live yet?

It varies. For the most part what you'll hear is a poppy folksplosion. Our lead instrument is the tenor fantasticaphone.

If you had the chance to save Bryan Adams from a burning building, would you do it? No glory or blame will be assigned either way; nobody will find out if you do or don’t. It is completely secret.

Absolutely not. And we would go out of our way to make sure that people would find out about it. That's right. It was us. We did not save Bryan Adams. Please line up to kiss our rings.

Any plans made for demos or an EP, or are you focusing on shows for now?

For now, we will just be focusing on the live show aspect of the band. There have been demos made of a great deal of Mark's songs, and we'll work on learning as many of them as we can. Additionally, live shows are the perfect opportunity to find/bang groupies.

Have you set any particular goals for the band, or just seeing where it goes?

Our only goal currently is to have fun. And if that means making some other people miserable in the process, then so be it. Did I say miserable? I meant dead. Or happy.

I see you’ve got some melodicas and a glockenspiel there. Do they figure into every song or just once in a while? What was your basis for instrument choice when you were putting the songs together?

Those instruments are heavily featured in nearly every song. When we were arranging the songs, the rule was "Hey, play what you want to! I'm not gonna hold your goddamned hand, you baby!" For some reason, this arrangement led to a philosophy of "Hey, that's neat. What's that? I like that. Gimme that."

The evacuation is underway and you can take one instrument to bring with you in the escape pod. You will be floating in space for the foreseeable future with one instrument upon which to perfect your craft. Decide now, so there will be no hesitation or lingering regrets when the time comes.

The flute from Super Mario Bros 3. Because then we could go wherever the fuck we wanted. Provided that where we wanted to go was conveniently numbered and had some sort of "theme."

What’s your songwriting process like? Is it collaborative or does one person shoulder most of it? Are parts assigned to or written by each band member?

The songs are written by Mark, but the arrangements have included input from all members. Then Mark vetos said input and the practice continues at its standard, rigorous pace.

You can “steal” one member from one Canadian band to become part of your group, and you don’t have to give anyone up in return. Who do you take?

The charred remains of Bryan Adams. In a shaker. For spicy rhythms that can only cause one to exclaim: "Yowza! That cuts like a knife... but it feels so right!"

There is some pretty okay Sunday night TV.  Make me want to miss it to see We Take Lovers! play their set.

Alright. I just looked at the listings. And you're right. That's some great TV. I'm thinking about staying home. But I will say this: We Take Lovers! can offer you everything that these shows are offering you and more. Family Guy? American Dad? You know what? We've only been around for a few months, and our sense of humour is already stale and tired. Desperate Housewives? We're way more desperate than them! Beauty and the Geek? That's practically what our band is comprised of! We will concede that we do not have what Larry King and Larry King Live does. We are sorry. Come out anyway. We'll dance and drink some booze. I promise!