Features Braids

Braids have been playing in and around their native Canada for a few years now without finding their ways to our shores. Luckily for us, the band’s album ‘Native Speaker’ is due out in the UK this month. We quiz Raphaelle Standell-Preston to find out more.

Hello Raphaelle, how are you all?
Hello DIY. We’re good. Just in the van right now driving to Cincinnati. The sun is setting, a Cracker Barrel and Texas Roadhouse sign is sparkling in the distance.

You’ve been together for a few years, but you’ve not done much in the UK yet?
The UK has always seemed like a far off wonderful dream. It’s coming closer though and the dream becoming less on the clouds and more in front.


Your biog says you formed in the last year of high school, and spent a year practicing - you must have very understanding parents?
Some of them would allow us to practice in their homes and would feed us so that we could practice more. We’re very lucky. Taylor’s mother said to me the other day: ‘You four are doing what we read about in self help books, following your dreams. You’re an inspiration to all of us.’ If I said that didn’t make me tear up then I would be lying.


Did it feel a bit of a risk at the time, not going into further education or a full-time job?
No, we were still quite young, 17, none of us felt like, ‘Jeez I really want to go work for an oil exec, or at the Gap all day.’ There was a little bit of hesitation to not continue going to school, but it faded very quickly. For Katie [Lee, keys] it was a little different because her parents really wanted her to go to University. When she said no there were some hairs raised, but everything settled after a while.


Why did you move from Calgary to Montreal, rather than, say, Vancouver or Toronto? Is the music scene notably better there?
The music scene is quite different. In Vancouver it’s very noise and grunge focussed. In Toronto it’s like everyone is wearing a leather jacket. It has that kind of spin on it. As for why we chose Montreal, Austin [Tufts, drums], Katie and Taylor [Smith, bass] really wanted to go to McGill, I had been told by numerous people that it was magical, so with that we all packed up and moved away together. I think Montreal is the most fun.


You’ve self-recorded and self-produced your debut album, which is out now in Canada - how did you end up doing it all yourselves?
Before embarking on recording we discussed the desire to have as much control over the process as possible. Taylor and I were very interested in recording. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into. We went back to Calgary for the summer and had figured that we’d record the album there. By the end of the summer we’d recorded the drum beds for five tracks. It was a very steep learning curve! There were a lot of late nights.


How do you go about creating your music? What’s the process like?
It tends to vary a lot. A more common scenario is a member will have written a series of chords, or even just a lick and they’ll play it usually while setting up or poking around, and then one of us will fox our ears and say, ‘Ah, this is good, keep going,’ and we’ll jam on it for a long time and build something up, then rip it all apart, then build it up then rip it apart until we’re all happy with it. It usually takes quite a long while, it has to pass through everyone.


Do you each hold similar ideas as to how you want to sound?
Somewhat. We butt heads sometimes but for the most part we’re on the same page.


And finally: Have you shifted much musically since you first started out? Where can you see yourselves heading in the future?
Oh Yes. We used to be a folk band. Now we are experimental pop. We’re heading towards the horizons of minimal house. But only a little bit minimal house.

Single ‘Lemonade’ / ‘Plath Heart’ is out now through Kanine Records. Album ‘Native Speaker’ will be released on 4th April.

Taken from the April 2011 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.