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With eight music industry nominations this year to their name, including their latest album ‘Close To Paradise’ being a finalist in 2007’s Polaris Music Prize (the Canadian equivalent to the UK's Mercury Music Prize), it’s safe to say that things are going rather well for Canada’s Patrick Watson. And Gigwise couldn’t resist the opportunity to catch up with the frontman and man who lent his name to the band, Patrick Watson, at their one off gig at London’s Borderline.

As is often the case with many bands, the press have labelled their sound like music genres were going out of fashion. From cabaret-pop to classically influenced art rock, the list goes on. But to Patrick himself, their style is a lot more clear cut and easy to explain. “Its pop music in the traditional sense that pop music is music for the people and its full of stories. But we use a lot of different styles that help tell our stories”.

Not a band to plump for the easy option, their interest in experimenting with sound and style stands them apart from many of their peers; as Patrick is all too keen to point out: “We like to try and find new things and once you start exploring you get a bit crazy about it. It’s exciting when you have something to bring to the band and show the rest of the guys. And when you come to the live stage you still want to be able have an original sound design, but just having a keyboard and pressing a button doesn’t feel as exciting as finding different acoustic ways of finding those sounds”.

What began as a multimedia project with Patrick working with a photographer, soon saw other members of the group join and slowly but surely the project turned into a fully fledged band…it just so happened that Patrick’s name stuck. And the way they perform and present their live show is as equally important and interesting to them as the physical music itself. We started off as a cinematic band with visuals and slowly but surely we started getting better at being simple, which is definitely a task in itself”.

Patrick continues: “We don’t put on a show, we play music and it’ll be spontaneous with a lot of improvising. We have a good relationship with our audience and we just enjoy the fact that we can share music with people. The audience is kind of the fifth member of the band at our concerts because if they’re not with us it’s difficult to do this type of music”.

And as you would expect, their inventiveness goes beyond performance and far into the production process. And Patrick visibly enjoys talking about the groups methods. “We try to hand build everything and its kind of fun to watch and make those things, rather than just pressing buttons and making them happen,” says Patrick. “I think people have lost the sense of how much they enjoy the process…there’s something to be said about handmade things and sounds. People enjoy watching how you create things it’s a really fun experience to figure out how to make these really weird electronic sounds live”. 

The band’s drummer, Robbie Kuster joins the chat and interjects: “It's fun on stage.  Not only for us, but also for the audience to watch what you can do with different types of toys and broken little pieces of metal and things”.

Part of the reason that the band are in London tonight, prior to a two week European jaunt, is to promote the forthcoming release of ‘Close To Paradise’. Their debut album ‘Just Another Ordinary Day’ was well received but is expected to be surpassed by the follow up and having just been signed to V2, the band have set their sights firmly on the other side of the Atlantic. But the band has had to work hard at their craft to get to where they are today.

“‘Close To Paradise’ was our journey to establishing our sound as a band. ‘Just Another Ordinary Day’ was the beginning of that journey but this album is much more of a band album in my opinion”. explains Patrick. “Everybody’s learning their place in the sound that we’re trying to create and everybody is trying to find their way within that sound”.

Once more Robbie is keen to get the point across. The band might carry Patrick’s name but the working dynamic is an equal split: “It took about three years to record ‘Close To Paradise’ in total. We went down to New York for a month and recorded in a loft, partied together, rehearsed every day. We had a church for about a year in Montreal and that’s where we rehearsed and did a lot of recording as well, we just isolated ourselves and worked on the music”.

The album was finished two years ago and is well known in Canada but the band are extremely excited to see how it will be received in the UK and are desperate to share and build upon their musical vision. And Patrick’s enthusiasm is contagious. “It was a big process to build this record and it was kind of scary when we put all the tunes together…it was a little too much for one record almost because it’s just a thick sound design, but we’re aging and maturing as musicians so it’s great to get something done so you can move onto the next line. It’s a collection of short stories…‘Close To Paradise’…we’re close but not there yet”.

All things considered, Patrick Watson the band are artists in the truest sense of the word and music is undoubtedly their life. And this sentiment is summed up perfectly by Patrick Watson the man: “It’s not just my drug, it’s my language, it’s what I do, and it’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life.”