Life has taken some interesting turns for The Arkells lately. And that's fine with frontman Max Kerman.
"I can definitely say I like the idea of having to go in one direction to wind up going in the other direction," says the 24-year-old singer-guitarist from his Hamilton home. "That agrees with me."
So should the last 18 months of his professional life. During that relatively brief span, his scrappy indie rockers have rounded a few big corners. In 2010, The Arkells -- named for the street where Kerman and guitarist Mike DeAngelis lived in their university days -- snagged the Juno for best new artist on the strength of their 2008 debut Jackson Square and their high-energy, R&B-fuelled live show. That boost helped pave the way for a deal with Universal Music Canada, a move that coincided nicely with the bigger, bolder sound of their brand-spanking sophomore CD Michigan Left. Titled after a convoluted manoeuvre required at a certain Detroit intersection, the self-produced disc marks a sonic and stylistic gear-shift, rewiring Kerman's finely detailed Steeltown anthems with everything from Motown harmonies to the '80s pop melodies of Hall & Oates.
It hasn't been a totally smooth ride: The band recently parted ways with a keyboardist who chose to return to school, and more concerningly, the rapid acceleration of both their career and their sound has sparked the inevitable cries of sellout. Before putting the pedal to the metal on their latest Canadian tour, Kerman called up to set the record straight.
The album's been out a week now. Were you nervous?
No, it was more excitement in our camp. We've been sitting on these recordings for the last six months. I had listened to them as many times as I possibly could. So to have other people finally hear them was really exciting for us. And the response has been really good so far.
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But you must have known that some people would accuse you of selling out simply because you've gone from an indie label to a major.
Yeah. I mean, we weren't really expecting that. I know there's always that kind of fan. But I don't think we foresaw some of the narratives people chose to take in writing about this new record.
Do you think winning the Juno factored in the whole equation?
I don't know. When you're writing a song, it's not like you're training on a sports team where the goal is to win a championship or a gold medal. An award is always the last thing on our mind. There's a million other things we worry about aside from picking up a Juno. With that said, it was definitely very exciting. I'd be lying if I said it didn't mean something to me.
But did all that attention add any pressure to the making of this album?
No. And if you asked me whether I would rather be a band no one has ever heard of and no one was waiting on a release from, or a band that people were excited about, I'd pick the latter every time. I have to be careful when I say that, though, because that can be twisted into: 'Band writes pop record and wants to be massively famous.' Which isn't not the truth. But there's a lot more to it.
So how did the more commercial and accessible sound on this album come about?
If you were to account for my last six years of musical taste, I've definitely gone through phases. Five years ago, I was obsessed with The Band and wanted everything to sound like The Band. Fast-forward to 2007 or 2008 and I wanted everything to sound like The Weakerthans or The Constantines or Wintersleep because I love those bands so much. Then fast-forward to 2009 and 2010, and we started listening to a lot of bands we had previously brushed aside, like Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne and Michael McDonald and Hall & Oates. In 2007, I would have said, 'Really? You think this is cool? This is awful!' But now I think there's a ton of great stuff you can take from that music. There's one song on our new record called Where U Goin, which definitely has a Maneater feel. And Maneater ripped off every other Motown song ... And if you've heard the first couple of Springsteen records, they sound like a Van Morrison record that sounds like a Stax record. I just think music is a lot more connected than people realize. Especially pop music. Whether it's Hall & Oates or Springsteen, they're all taking from the R&B of the '60s.
You're one of those bands people have to see live to fully appreciate. How much were you trying to capture that energy on this album, or do you see the stage and studio as distinct worlds?
We definitely wanted to capture some of the best parts of our live show on this record. We have a pretty rocking rhythm section, and wanted to make sure that was captured correctly, because that's really the engine that makes these songs go. Staying true to that was important. But saying that, I think they really are two different things. And we also wanted to make sure this record was fun to listen to with headphones on. So you can tell that the band's playing, but there are also really interesting studio sounds -- weird keyboards, experimenting with different guitar tones or different vocal delay effects. I think there's room for both.
Arkells tour dates
Nov. 2 | North Bay | Wall
Nov. 3 | Sault Ste. Marie | Speak Easy
Nov. 5 | Thunder Bay | Outpost
Nov. 7 | Regina | Distrikt
Nov. 8 | Edmonton | Starlite Room
Nov. 9 | Calgary | MacEwan Hall
Nov. 11 | Vancouver | Commodore Ballroom
Nov. 12 | Victoria | Sugar Nightclub
Nov. 15 | Kamloops | Blue Grotto
Nov. 16 | Banff | Wild Bill's
Nov. 18 | Saskatoon | Louis' Pub
Nov. 19 | Winnipeg | Pyramid Cabaret
Nov. 24 | St. Catharines | Barracuda Pretty
Dec. 3 | Toronto | Sound Academy
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