We interviewed Simone Schmidt from Fiver the night before Barack Obama’s relief-inducing re-election, when it still seemed possible that a coalition of right-wing sociopaths might start more useless foreign wars and reduce the American people to a horde of uninsured and underemployed zombies. As vocalist and lyricist for the acclaimed and deeply socially engaged Toronto country-rock band One Hundred Dollars, however, Simone has a different take on things. We’ve very excited to present the Wavelength debut – tonight at the Garrison with The Luyas and The Riderless – of Fiver, her new band project with people from $100 and Tropics...

Hey Simone, how's it going? Are you as scared shitless about U.S. Election Night tomorrow night as the rest of us? 

It is terrifying that the choices are so limited, that the empire's democracy is a sham, that it only took four years to pervert good people's notion of hope. It's terrifying the degree to which politics has become entertainment, how much people here seem to ignore the political on-goings in Canada because they're not as fun a spectator sport as American politics, as if the Enbridge pipeline and the ongoing genocide of indigenous people isn’t terrifying enough. Anyway, as they say, no matter who you vote for, the government always gets in.

Keeping things topical, how was your Hurricane Sandy experience last week? Did you lose power? Were you in touch with any American friends who were affected?

I lost power for about an hour in the middle of the night, and couldn't keep reading the book I was trying to read. I was in the midst of packing up the basement apartment I moved out of this week, and I couldn't recall which of the packed boxes contained my candles. I don't know, I went to Haiti in January and I feel like the infrastructure here is very strong and I wasn't so scared for myself. I mean, we know not the day nor the hour, right, ever? But the only American friend who I was in touch with was my sister and she just said she was fine. Then she posted this article about the effect of Hurricane Sandy on Haitians:  http://m.democracynow.org/stories/13200

First One Hundred Dollars, now Fiver. What currency-oriented band name will you think of next?

On account of inflation, I've decided this is the end of money-related acts. However, the newest unit is called The Highest Order, which is a term sometimes used in commerce.  

You've described Fiver as an outlet for songs you've written that might not work with $100. Can you describe your songwriting process? How do you know which band "parent" a baby song will belong to?

Throughout my day I write down fragments of verse, and I look over them all the time. Often I come up with an idea for story and turn it around and around till it's complete, and then I inhabit its narrator by journaling in their voice. Then I read over my journals and underline passages and phrases that sound the best and wrangle it all in to verse. My chorus always drives the structure of the song, drives the melody. The chorus' melody usually come to me in a flash along with the words. As far as verses go, I hear melody through the rhythm of the world, or through a chord progression or a lick I've written or one of my collaborators has given to me to run with. Ultimately, I write a lot of different ways, because I write perpetually, and the factors that determine where a song goes are: who else contributes to it, what tradition it's written in, and how I want to hear it produced.  Back in the day, Gene Clark was writing tons of songs, and the Byrds would play them, the Burrito Brothers would play them, they'd be covered, and he'd play them with the Gosdin Brothers. He'd record and re-record them in all different ways. I'd like to work like that - I'd like the songs to live in all different ways.  I’ll have two new records out in 2013, and that’ll be more clear.

One Hundred Dollars was started with Ian Russell, when I was just coming up and couldn't play guitar. Russ's guitar was entirely influential to the sound, and his playing formed a lot of what that band did, because he and I would write many of the songs together. He has a very unique style of finger picking and an ear for melody like no one else, and so those things informed my verse's meter, vocal melody, and so on. My favourite country songs are the ones that infer a story, like Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got To Memphis," or they develop a character through the telling of a story, like Dolly's "Down From Dover." One Hundred Dollars songs typically did one of those two things while updating country archetype — the worker, the cheater, the soldier were written about in country form, but within our current social context. Russ and I always tried to be true to tradition while being present and aware of the context in which we live.

Three years ago, I got hungry and started playing guitar with Chris Coole, a great bluegrass rhythm guitar player who plays with the Foggy Hogtown Boys, and who also plays a mean clawhammer banjo.  I'd always listened to tons of bluegrass on account of my brother being a bluegrass fiddle and mandolin player, and Coole taught me about old time music. Bluegrass and old time writing are quite different. Each has a particular lexicon, and makes room for a certain kind of singing. It came naturally to me to write songs within those traditions to play with Coole, so we formed a duo called Coole & Downes. 

Still there were songs I was writing that didn't fit into either unit, either because of the content or because of the instrumentation I wanted to hear serve them. I wanted to push things a bit meaner at times, or a bit more delicate, and I wanted to play outside of the country and American folk forms. Over the course of the past six years I've gained a taste for producing, and record quite a lot on my own at home. I'm pretty obsessed with music and don't have much else going on in my life as a result, whereas other members of One Hundred Dollars had other things going. I'd get antsy and feel restless in that unit, because I wanted to be tripping on music and touring much more than we were able to on account of people's time constraints and health concerns. Seemed like it was pragmatic to start a project where I had full freedom to play any song the way I wanted to, however I wanted to, and not be tied to particular collaborative relationships. So I've toured Fiver alone, with just myself and a guitar, and as a duo with Paul Mortimer, and a four piece, Mortimer, Kyle Porter and Simone TB. The four piece made the beds for the Fiver record I've got in the can, and I overdubbed a bunch of other stuff on it. It would all make more sense if you heard that record, but I don't know when that will be out, so so far I just have a 7" out, called Two Songs From Fiver and this EP called Home Wreckordings, which Paul and I made.

FIVER - "Oh Sienna" from Colin Medley on Vimeo.

Tell us about about your new band line-up and what makes them so awesome.

The four piece is Kyle Porter on bass, Simone TB on drums, Paul Mortimer on lead guitar, and me on guitar and voice. Paul Mortimer is my favourite electric guitar player, because he can bust out harmonics, chicken pick, and his rhythm is just always on. He also knows when to lay off, how to use tremolo really tastefully, and can dial up any tone. The band's got a big dynamic range — sometimes it's just me and Paul finger picking, and then it can get pretty heavy because the old one-two Kyle Porter / Simone TB is such a tight and heavy rhythm section. Anyway, the rhythm section came together at the end of the last One Hundred Dollars tour, about a year ago when Dave Clarke had to sit out on drums and we brought TB along. I had always wanted to play with her ever since I saw her in Tropics. If you've heard Tropics, which is a heavy art punk duo with Slim Twig, and if you've heard One Hundred Dollars fully exploit the country shuffle, this gives you a sense of the wide breadth of her ability. As for Kyle Porter, sometimes the best kind of bassist is the bassist you don't notice. But for his smile, Kyle Porter's presence is entirely unassuming. Solid, good tone, proper foundation, heavy sound, good backbone – he’s perfect. The whole band's on its feet and I can call changes as I want to, which gives the songs a way to live.

And we're in good shape, because we also play with each other in another project called The Highest Order — a country psych rock band which will be putting out a record in February on Idée Fixe records. Highest Order's a really collaborative outfit, where we're all contributing and generating content. It's home to a lot of country and rock songs Paul and I co-wrote. Paul’s also a great singer and he writes songs, and lets me play on them in the Highest Order. I love all these guys.

What are you most looking forward to about opening the Luyas' record release party on Wednesday night at the Garrison?

I'm a big fan of Animator. Maybe I'm not supposed to say it but Jessie gave me their record months ago and so I've been able to spend more time with it than most other people. It really moves me. I'm interested to see how it translates live. Apparently the whale on the record is actually just strings, which seems more reasonable than touring with a whale. I have a real admiration for Jessie's voice and her feel — she goes places melodically that I would never consider. Can't think of someone who is my musical friend and peer who makes something so entirely different from what I make, so The Luyas is this friendly window into an alien world. I find Pietro's playing to be riveting, and I'm interested to see what Bucky, the new drummer lends to the live vibe of the band.  Also, “Montuno” — well that song has a bassline I wanna hear live.

Any words of wisdom for aspiring singer/songwriters or band upstarts out there?

No, man.