Purveyors of: Drunken marching band rock'n'roll
File Next To: Shout Out Out Out Out, Henri Faberge & The Adorables, The Stranglers, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Playing: Night four of Wavelength Music Festival FOURTEEN, Sunday Feb. 16 @ The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.)

Some bands form from a sense of urgency or duty, as if the vision that they possess and the sound that they hear has to be recorded and presented and thrust into the larger, cultural dialogue to broaden the scope of how we perceive music, art, culture and humanity. The Wet Secrets are the antithesis of this band. They began on a drunken dare. They had a week to put together the band, write the songs and play their first show. Born from a couple of friends being drunk and having fun, this is what has translated to their live show. They’re urgent and dutiful, but cultural dialogue is outside their realm of concern. They just want you to party. They wear marching band uniforms and they cause a drunken, fun, chaotic scene. They hail from Edmonton, their song “Secret March” was named one of the “Best 20 Songs of the Decade” by CBC Radio 3, and they have a new album called Free Candy that was recently released. Brad Casey had the pleasure of discussing the Edmonton music scene, making music and being drunk with Wet Secrets member Lyle Bell.

Tell me about your band name. Why did you call yourselves The Wet Secrets? And why did you decide to perform as a marching band?

Our friend Fish took a photo of Trevor and I on the night we jokingly decided to start a band, and after we looked at the photo, Trevor said, "It looks like you're telling me a wet secret." This whole thing was not actually going to be a band, so we kind of ran with that as a name. We had drunkenly agreed to play a show though, and promptly forgot about it until a week before the debut when we saw the poster. We still managed to play the show, write and record 10 songs and be insufferably drunk the whole time.

It wasn’t until we were actually rolling as a band that we serendipitously acquired the outfits. Trevor played in the Red Deer Royals marching band as a kid, and when they were getting rid of their old uniforms, his Mom somehow found about it. She brokered the deal and we ended up with about 20 complete outfits for $100. We tried to get the remaining 180 outfits at one point, but they had all been destroyed in a flood. It ended up being a defining aesthetic for the band.

You formed, recorded your first album, and played your first show within a week. Your latest album, however, is coming after about a five year hiatus. Is the music more thought-out this time around? Or did you try and capture a sense of immediacy this time around, despite the break?

We were playing shows intermittently during the years between albums. We were all focused on other projects, however, and after grappling with personal issues, we found ourselves finally having fun again with this band. We had attempted to record in 2009, but we weren’t happy with the results. We took our five favourite songs from that session, wrote six new tracks, and banged them out in one quick session this last summer. So this new album is sort of an amalgam of slightly older tracks and brand new ones, all loosely tied together with the overriding themes of sex, death, disillusionment, sex and death. It isn’t a bummer album though. There is a healthy sense of triumph mixed in there, and even the songs about dying are more glib than bleak.

The new video for "Nightlife" features SCTV alum Joe Flaherty as a burnt-out vampire having trouble connecting with the youth. Where did the idea for the video come from? And how did Joe Flaherty become involved?

We were spitballing ideas for videos, and this concept was originally pitched for a different song. We reworked it for "Nightlife," which is a disco-tinged screed against the nighttime vampires of [Edmonton's] Whyte Ave. Trevor is a renowned filmmaker in his own right, so he ran with the idea, refined it, and set-up the whole production. Trevor simply called Joe and pitched the idea to him. He and Trevor had stayed friendly ever since Trevor directed him when he guest-starred with an Edmonton improv troupe he used to direct called Die Nasty.

From Cadence Weapon to Purity Ring to Shout Out Out Out Out, Edmonton has been coming out with some great, danceable, dark music in the past few years. How do The Wet Secrets fit into the landscape of the Edmonton music scene?

There is an amazing scene that has developed here, full of talented kids somewhat unconnected to the old guard. I think we straddle the line between old and new. I’m the grizzled vet, while Emma has been playing with us since she was a teenager, so we are a multigenerational unit. Anyway, I really love this town, its eternal underdog status, and criminally under-appreciated scene. Having toured everywhere, I can honestly say it’s cooler than most outsiders think.

From your video for "Get Your Own Apartment" to your performance at the McDougall Church, you guys seem to encourage people to be a drunken mess in relation to your music. What can we expect from the Wavelength show?

I can’t think of any show not made more memorable by a sweaty, drunken mess of an audience, at least from the band’s perspective. The Wet Secrets is a band best experienced right up front whilst juggling highballs / going nuts. For Wavelength, we’ll probably also trot out a healthy number of older tunes for those who haven’t seen us in six years — a.k.a. everyone east of Mundare.

The Wet Secrets play night four of Wavelength FOURTEEN, Sunday February 16 @ The Garrison (1197 Dundas St. W.).