Despite winning accolades for its incredibly complex musicianship and intricate lyrics (as can be heard on the recent Vagrant Records release “Fortress,” a three-part, ten-song concept album based around the idea of “Goddess worship”), the Canadian-based PTH offers up a welcome, occasionally hilarious amount of relief from the new wave of oh-so-serious progressive rock bands. Start with Walker, who admits he’s doing the interview following a night of dollar beers and a forty of rum.
“I made a fool of myself last night,” says the singer. It’s a comment that, apparently, he might make after any night of his band’s tour, now hitting the U.S.
As a Canadian artist, are you finding more problems crossing the border?
When we started, it wasn’t as hard. Even a couple of years ago, it wasn’t bad. But we got fucked over for having a bit of pot on us at one point. It’s weird—every time we’re set to tour with an American band, we can’t get in.
You write incredibly complex albums. Ever wanted to be like, “Hey, I’ve got a song about a girl?”
If anyone in the band proposed that, they would be laughed out of the rehearsal space. We actually get a lot of flack for our supposed lack of song structure. But that is our structure, and it’s meticulous…it’s just not verse-chorus-verse.
You get a lot of complaints on your MySpace page, and you tend to have some pretty funny responses. A lot has to do with what you say on stage; are you always pissing people off?
I’m that way every night. I go nuts, but it’s in good fun. Well, some of it is—I sometimes lash out against the management, or the label, or that nonsense that every band feels obligated to do. You know, the whole “thank you very much, these are the best bands we’ve ever played with, we love you so much” thing. I’m like, “I don’t give a fuck.” I just try to make my friends laugh. But I remember telling all these kids at youth fest in Burlington about cigarettes and alcohol, and I got all these 14-year old girls writing in and yelling at me, using cuss words. I was quite scared.
Who would you say is your crowd?
It’s a diverse collection of people. There’s so many screamo and pop-punk tours and bands, and metal tours, and we’re just the beer-guzzling dudes who want to party, and, apparently, piss off 14-year-old girls.
You’re from Whitby, Ontario. What’s that like?
It’s like 20 minutes out of Toronto; it’s a fair-sized suburb. Actually, it was awful growing up there. Toronto’s alright. But I all I really do is get drunk there. Or here. Or wherever.
Does Canada still have that law where a certain number of artists played on the radio have to be Canadian?
Yep, and it’s still around—and they don’t play us! Our Lady Peace, the Tragically Hip, Alexisonfire, they’ll play. Us? We’re too fucking metal.
Was your first tour really called “Cock the Vote”?
Yeah, it was one of our first tours. It was basically a joke; we were going to do something for voter awareness, but it ended having nothing to do with anything.
I do hear a political edge to some of your songs.
Our politics are vague and metaphorical. Our first EP, however, is just chockfull of blatant politics. It’s all like “1998, Clinton administration, bombing the planet…” Total straight-up politics from a 16-year old. We will never play those songs again.
Do you think your fans dig the musicianship on the albums?
I think they’re starting to appreciate progressive music. I don’t know if they understand what’s going on, or if they’re under the impression they like it because their friends like it. I hope that as it becomes more acceptable and commercial, that people embrace technical music and musicianship, for the right reasons.
How’s your live show?
We used to go bananas and hurl our bodies around the stage. Then we got a reputation for lacking a quality live show, so we chilled out. Also, we’re getting older, and smoking and drinking more. We have to slow down. Now we sound just like the CD…but a lot faster. I think it’s because our drummer, Moe, gets nervous before shows, and plays at this hyper speed. We play way too quick, but you know what? It feels so goooood.
