An Interview With Woodhands

11 Feb 2010

I had the opportunity to sit down with one of Toronto’s hottest duo’s around–Woodhands. Hot off the release of their second album Remorsecapade, Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt had a few minutes to chat about nudity, slow jams and where 2010 is going to take them.

Pink Mafia: Let’s try to contextualize what’s happened with this album coming out. Trying to produce an album as (Paul’s side project) The Rural Alberta Advantage really blowing up, Dan you just finished your master’s if I’m not mistaken, a solo album …How did you guys manage to get your album out with all of this?

Paul Banwatt: I think it was just a lot of planning, to be honest. We just had to push it back once. It was difficult.

Dan Werb: Yeah, definitely. And I think that was reflected in the many different ways that we wrote songs for this album, you know? There were some things that we wrote on the road, there were some things that were made out of piano ballads, and some things that were just the result of being in a studio and just having the pressure of putting things together. I think that’s maybe why it’s such a diverse album, at least in our eyes.

Do you feel like there was a lot of pressure to get this album out, with how big Heart Attack ended up being?

PB: I think we put the pressure on ourselves to get it out. We really wanted to follow up Heart Attack with something awesome, and we wanted to do it as quickly as we can.

How are you guys feeling with the new album? Are you happy with it? Are you happy with the response you’re getting?

DW: You know, I think to be perfectly honest; Paul and I were not sure how it was going to be received. In our eyes, it wasn’t as dancey as Heart Attack. It was more complicated—I was worried about people listening to my lyrics and thinking it was stupid. I mean, we just didn’t know. The response has been so positive, and as we practice and rehearse these songs and learn to play them live I think we’ve come back to realize how awesome we think all of it is.

PB: Yeah, we really like the album a lot it’s just that we weren’t sure. It’s risky to do something different.

Do you guys have any favourite tracks off of the new record?

DW: Yeah, I think “I Should Have Gone With My Friends” is an amazing song.

PB: Yeah, I really love “Dissembler” but I think my favourite might be the second-last track, “I Want To Be Together”

DW: Really? It’s sweet.

PB: I really feel like that song, it takes you somewhere.

You guys just played a totally packed secret show in Toronto—is that indicative of an upcoming big North American tour in the works?

DW: In that no one will know that it’s happening? I think that a lot of people are going to be excited, and it’s always great going back to places that we’ve played because you get to see old friends, and you remember people from the last time, and I think we’re just really excited. You know, this show coming up this weekend is really our first show, and it’s going to be really exciting.

Paul, how are you finding things now that The Rural Alberta Advantage has also blown up into quite a big project as well? Are you finding it difficult to balance both?

PB: It was definitely hard at first, but we’ve taken a lot of steps to try and make everything work. We’re all friends, which really helps. Like, we were all friends before either band was really doing much, so it’s kind of awesome that we’ve managed to work it out. We have the same management now and we’re taking steps to consolidate things like booking agents and labels as much as we possibly can; everyone’s sort of on the same team.

Dan, are you interested in talking about your solo project that you’ve been working on?

DW: Well, it’s currently a solo-piano project, there’s some singing on it…it’s one of those things where I finished working on it and was super happy with it, and now—I actually finished working on it quite a while ago, like a year and a half ago—and every time I go back to it, I think of things I could add and make it better. It’s quite different. It comes out of a different music tradition. It’s a lot more…slow?

PB: Ah yes, it comes from the “slow music” tradition.

DW: Yes, you’ve heard of “slow music”, right?

Hm. I’ve heard of something in that “genre.”

DW: Well. You’re about to hear some more.

So it’s a throwback album. Throwing back to the good old days?

DW: Exactly. It’s a throwback album. Well, it’s called a “slow-back” album.

So will everything be filmed in sepia when you shoot the videos for it?

DW: Exactly.

Are there any immediate plans for releasing this?

DW: GAH. Yes, I’m going to release it. Everybody get off my back.

PB: Yeah. What are you doing? Get it together. People are waiting.

DW: I know, I know.

People are waiting to throw it back to slow music.

DW: Alright. I thought it was done, and I just recently got all of these ideas to make it better and I really want to go back and work on it.

PB: Well, if you break out a shovel and dig around the CBC website, you can find Dan Werb performing a lot of that album live with Laura Barrett. It’s spectacular. So, if you’re curious about what slow music sounds like—look up the Dan Werb solo-project on the CBC.

PB: Not to be confused with “slow jams”—this album is a very different thing from slow jams.

How do you feel about slow jams? Could you see yourself doing some?

DW: Fucking love ‘em.

PB: Slow jams are good, it’s just—this is slow music, it’s different.

DW: Yeah, you would not get down to this music. This music is for staring-through your loved one. People need to know what they’re listening to. I don’t want to be responsible to ruining relationships, or planned sexy nights, or anything like that.

PB: Yeah, people are about to get intimate and then it’s like—“Wait. These aren’t slow jams I mean, it’s definitely slow but it’s not a jam.”

DW: “I mean, it’s kinda jammy?”

PB: The worst part is that it will bring to the surface all kinds of emotional tension and basically accomplish the opposite goal. I mean, it might be emotional healing and even a more passionate evening than they expected.

That’s true also. You could bring people together.

DW: I don’t know if that’s the point. It’s supposed to make people feel alone. Let’s move on.

It’s a new decade for Woodhands. Do you have any big plans? Last year was crazy for you guys. What’s looming in the next few months?

DW: We’re doing the whole thing we did last year, again. We’re touring again, going to SXSW…

PB: We’re playing the Rolling Stones party down there, which we’re really excited about. We’re also going to get really on the music video thing with this album. We’re lucky that we have a bunch of directors who want to work with us. I feel like 2010 is the year of the music video revival. Well, not really. I think 2010 will be a good year for our music video revival. It will be a good way to show people another side of our music.

Absolutely. I think it’s become much more accessible and cheaper to produce music videos, so I think you’re right that there is a revival happening. I do have one burning question though. The last time I talked to you about what we could expect from Woodhands in the coming year, you mentioned that you intended to perform all of your shows naked.  How is that coming along?

DW: At this stage in our life, anything is possible.

PB: It’s definitely easier for me. I can like, hide behind my drums and I’m sitting down sideways to the crowd, so I’ll definitely expose myself less.

DW: The naked man sitting down—not the best naked man. Alternately, I have a guitar strapped to my junk.

PB: The real answer is you have to come to the show yourself and see. So far there’s been more audience nudity, which is always welcome.

DW: Overall, we’re just so excited.

PB: Before Remorsecapade finally came out, we were just at the very end of an album cycle, and at that moment you start to wonder if anyone is going to care when you put out another one because it’s been so long since you put out new material because you’ve been saving it for the next round of things. Just the response that people have given us has been really great.

I read in another interview that you guys had actually written a lot of this material just after Heart Attack was released.

DW: A lot of it was written on the road, because we were testing out material and touring all the time. A lot of these songs just evolved naturally out of it.

Woodhands new record Remorsecapade is available through Paperbag Records.