“I think the biggest Boats! fan would be Woody the Woodchuck, Uncle Joey’s puppet from Full House.”

Winnipeg is famous for bringing Canada the bitter taste of Russian winter. A failed NHL franchise, the oldest ballet company in Canada and the birth place of The Guess Who are just some of the attractions that make this cradle of civilization a tourist destination that the world should never see. But out of this frozen despair, comes a new sound and no, it’s not the voice of Keanu Reeves starring in a new play at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. Backed by the barking approval of the many walruses working at Great-West Life Assurance, Boats! front man Mat Klachefsky told Wavelength’s Alex Headley it’s “pretty much the best sound ever!” If only the Winnipeg General Strike was still going on in present day. The workers would have something worth listening to on their iPods.

Wavelength welcomes Boats! with their debut album, Intercontinental Champion. First off, where the heck have you guys been and who did you have to defeat to get here?!

We’ve been in Winnipeg being very cold!

Number one for weeks on end on radio stations in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Kingston; what’s the deal? Is this a case of unexpected success or self fulfilled prophesy?

We don’t know what happened there, this was a cheaply-made record that we put out and then sent to as many places as possible. I had done this before with friends’ records and got really excited when we just blipped on stations at # 25 or whatever, so it was pretty interesting when we kept climbing and kept appearing up high on different charts. We have no manager, label, publicist, or anything, just me and some postage stamps, so it’s pretty rewarding.

Emphatic drumming, high, fast paced vocals, a ringing bass line; how would you describe the sound that has made you number 16 nationally on Earshot?

Pretty much the best sound ever!

Your packed touring schedule is further fuelling Boats momentum. The Montreal House, the Casbah, the Drake Hotel and the Alex P. Keaton are all stops along the way to your much anticipated, often talked about March 2nd show at Sneaky Dee’s. Tell me, what’s your favourite part of touring, and which sitcom character is most likely to be the biggest Boats! fan?

My favourite part of touring would be meeting people along the way, seeing places I have never been and meeting up with old friends. I think the biggest Boats! fan would be Woody the Woodchuck, Uncle Joey’s puppet from Full House.

Uptown Magazine suggests that Intercontinental Champion connects its listeners to live performance with, “handclaps and sing-a-long chorus lines.” Is this a little bit of a modern day indie rock Sgt. Pepper? Did you try to take the road into the studio with you when recording?

When we recorded the album we had never toured before. In fact, none of the people on the record are on this trip except me. This is because they all have wives, kids, better bands, and jobs that they have to prioritize. So this touring thing is pretty new to us. We’re starting to get it – lots of sleep deprivation and money loss.

I listened to “Our New Contestants” on your MySpace page, and I think that in addition to your sound, your lyrics are fantastic. Some seem to have a message while others focus on creating strangely beautiful imagery in the listener’s mind. So which of the following is it; are you story, message or image based lyricists?

Image based. It usually starts out from a bunch of one liners that are strung together and I tell people that they make sense, but they don’t, really. Sometimes I’ll try and stick to a theme per song or, for example, “March of the Sandbaggers” is kind of a story about a guy who falls asleep beside a river and some people think he is dead so they build a dyke around him to protect him from the coming flood, and then they all die. Then the guy wakes up like nothing happened.

I’m certain that being from Winnipeg, that Manitoban landscape did much to inspire your creativity. Play the role of ambassador for a minute. As a twenty-seven year old man who has never travelled much within Canada beyond the Greater Toronto Area, the number one reason why I should make the trip to Winnipeg, Manitoba is...

I wouldn’t visit if I were you, unless you have friends there. If you are coming you might as well live there, it’s real cheap and the people are nice. I think there is kind of a Stockholm syndrome in regards to our winters, though. They are absolute torture, but when they are done you appreciate the warm months that much more.

Finally, your MySpace page seems to be an embassy and safe haven for professional wrestlers. What is the relationship between wrestling and music? Are they one and the same? And is Vince McMahon really as bad as Bret Hart says he is?

I think the best thing about wrestling is how unapologetically immature it is, like a big budget fart contest. Vince is not only evil but he’s actually quite incompetent at what he does. I think the WWE would be better off without him. That being said, there are some days I look at him like a father figure.

By Alex Headley