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Music

Los Campesinos! attack

LOS CAMPESINOS! with PARENTHETICAL GIRLS at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Saturday and Sunday (January 21 & 22), 8 pm. $20. TM, SS, RT. See listing.


There’s something quintessentially British rock about bands beefing with the NME.

Like when Gareth Campesinos!, lead singer and general spokesman for exuberant seven-piece Los Campesinos!, blasted the music rag on Twitter following a piece claming he admitted to be a “sell out” because his band liscended music to Budweiser.

It’s a rite of passage over there for UK groups.

We caught up with Gareth to follow up on fury as well as muse about his chance to become to Drake what Bon Iver is to Kanye, or something like that.

Looks like you’re upset with NME for their “news item” about your recent Pitchfork interview. You feel they took what you said out of context?

(Haha)… Yeah, well, they totally did take what I said out of context. The NME website is generally terrible though, so it came as no real surprise. I once did a piece for NME which fell under the word count, and so they bulked it out by making up insults, supposedly by me, aimed at other bands.

How is your relationship with that magazine? It seems they’ve always given your records positive reviews.

It’s fine. I like the magazine. It’s in a difficult situation where it has to put big name, often not very good bands on the cover to shift units, but there are a lot of really good writers at the magazine (as well as some pretty terrible ones). I buy it quite regularly, and yeah, as you say, they’ve shown us a fair amount of support in the past, which we’re obviously very grateful for.

Also in the interview you said: “I think the level of animosity that our band has seen in the UK is a little bit disproportionate because we came from this background of personal message boards.” Can you explain what you meant there? Has there been some kind of backlash in the UK towards Los Campesinos?

No backlash as such, just a little bit of envy on a small level. Like I say in the interview, I think in some instances there’s a case of us having seized upon opportunities that others have thought could have been theirs. Just your typical localized back-biting and that. It’s no big deal.

You’ve shown incredible admiration for Drake. Can you see any instance where Drake could collaborate with your group?

Well I’ve been thinking about this. We’re performing live on Letterman this week, and I figured if I wear my OVO sweatshirt word might get back to his people somehow. I reckon I could be to him what Chris Martin is to Jay-Z, or Bon Iver is to Kanye.

Do all Los members generally like the same kind of music? Do you guys spend time sharing and exposing each other to new stuff?

I think there are reference points that we can all say we enjoy, but as we’ve grown older our tastes have become more varied, which I think can only be a positive thing. When we tour the States we take it in turns to make Mix CDs to play in the van during the long drives, and that’s always enlightening.

With Hello Sadness being so well received, did it come as any surprise considering the changes in tone towards darker content? Were you nervous about its reception?

Not nervous at all. I think it’s futile to worry too much about other peoples’ perceptions of your music, it only leads to trying to second-guess people, and in my experiences that’s detrimental to the music that’s created. As long as you like what you’ve created yourself, that’s all you can strive for. I feel like a lot of our “fanbase” has grown up with us, so as the writing’s become more depressed and dark, people have become acclimatized to that, perhaps because that’s how they feel themselves.

Toronto is one of few cities you are playing two nights in. Have you enjoyed a larger than most fan base here?

I think it’s a matter of wishful thinking from the business side of things! I’d sooner play one packed out show than two half-full ones, but somebody clearly has a big plan. It’s cool though, because Toronto’s a city we really enjoy spending time in, and this means we get an extra night there.

If you did eventually move to theatres or arenas, would there be concerns about losing the band/audience dynamic and energy your shows are well-known for?

I don’t think so. I’ve been to big festival performances and seen bands like the Cribs and Arcade Fire play to huge, passionate, lively crowds, so it’s definitely something that can be maintained. I don’t expect us to reach that level of fame though, so it’ll not have to be a worry.

Did the Budweiser advert expand the group’s audience considerably? It was played here in Canada relentlessly for months.

You know, I don’t think it has, really. Not that I’ve noticed. Though we’ve not toured extensively since the advert’s become most prominent, so perhaps on this coming run of shows we’ll notice rush for the door once we’ve played that track.

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