Polaris Nominee Q&A: Malajube + Hey Rosetta!

September 21st, 2009

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Today’s the day! By the end of the night someone/some band will be awarded the 2009 Polaris Music Prize and take away $20,000 to show for their artistic efforts. The best news of all is that we’re streaming the full ceremony so you turkeys won’t miss a thing! Click HERE for your one-stop shop: watch the shindig later tonight and until then, listen to all of the albums in full!

If you missed our previous Q&A with nominees, courtesy of the fancy Polaris people, make sure you read:
Metric + Joel Plaskett
K’Naan + F**ked Up
Chad VanGaalen + Patrick Watson
Great Lake Swimmers + Elliott BROOD

And now for our last round: Malajube + Hey Rosetta!!

MALAJUBE

Where was the nominated album recorded? How long were you in the studio?
Studio Victor in Montreal, then an old house in Sainte-Ursule.

What’s your best memory about recording this album?
BBQ ribs while listening to basic tracks.

Who named the band and why?
We had to.

When was the current line-up created?
2004

What was your most embarrassing moment on stage?
False starts, unplugged instruments or pedals…

Favourite song of all time?
“Civil War” (G’N’R)

Favourite band of all time?
The Beatles

Favourite singer of all time?
Francis Cabrel

What band would you love to share a bill with?
The Wailers

What career other than music would be ‘you’?
Biologists.

What is something fans don’t know about you?
We play curling.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Curling.

How old were you when you started playing music?
11

Who was your first music teacher? At what school did she/he teach?
Pierre, at école Le Plateau

What instrument did you play in the school band?
Bass, drums

Who is your biggest inspiration?
Nature.

What five bands are you listening to now?
Offenbach, Rolling Stones, Wings, Weezer, Slayer

Do you think you can dance?
Safety dance only.

HEY ROSETTA! – TIM

Where was the nominated album recorded? How long were you in the studio?
We recorded this album over two weeks at the Sonic Temple in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

What’s your best memory about recording this album?
Doing all the gang vocal takes on the very last night. Passing around the flask with all our friends from Halifax and clapping and singing and laughing all red in the face.

Which is the album’s stand-out song and why?
Not really sure. Everybody picks a different one. Radio picked “Red Heart” cause it’s short, repetitive and easily digestible. Personally I like “New Goodbye” and “Open Arms” and “Black Heart” cause they aren’t. And I had to fight for them.

When did music become your ‘life’?
When we started being in the tour van more than at home. Around 2006.

Who named the band and why?
I named the band. It’s a reference to the Rosetta Stone (a stone tablet found in 1799 by Napoleonic soldiers in northeast Africa that lead to the translation of hieroglyphics and the discovery of ancient egyptian civilization… one piece of rock that uncovered an entire world view, a system of truths and laws and traditions… so our name is a calling to that idea… that we might find another in our troubled times.)

When was the current line-up created?
Erin is the latest to come out playing with us… she came on board just 6 months ago… but Adam and Josh and I have had this thing going since early ’05.

What was your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Once in london I said, far louder and more clearly than I even speak,”hello Barrie”, the town we’d played the night before. Then I covered it up by pretending my friend Barry was at the back of the bar. But I was laughing pretty hard and my cover was blown.

Who’s the funny one?
Phil. Funniest f***er I know. You wouldn’t know though. He shys up around strangers.

Who’s the serious one?
Adam. There’s a shell on that one.

Who’s the tyrant?
Guess that’d be me. But the lamest, nerdiest, softest tyrant of all time.

Favourite song of all time?
ohh too hard…

Favourite band of all time?
no way…

Favourite singer of all time?
Ok…. Freddie Mercury? John Prine? Paul Simon? Judee Sill? Paul Murphy? No no no, Ron Hynes.

What band would you love to share a bill with?
Wilco.

What career other than music would be ‘you’?
High school teacher.

What is your most treasured piece of your memorabilia – and why?
The original canvasses for the cover art of our last two albums. Cause they were visions I had, brought to life by incredibly skilled and imaginative friends, Michael Pittman and Sydney Smith.

What is something fans don’t know about you?
I have no idea. The concept of having fans still confuses me. Who is looking? How much is out there to know? I’m fairly boring. I mostly either tour or sit in my room and write songs. Perhaps it’s surprising that I rarely drink or do any drugs. People are sometimes surprised by that.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Lying in bed after I’ve woken up and letting the mind wander. That’s when you get the real good stuff coming in… realizations, images, inspirations… it’s hard to be open to ideas after you’ve begun your chores and socializing and routines of the day.

What was your first concert? What was your favourite concert?
Glass Tiger at Memorial Stadium in St Johns was the first. 89 maybe? 90? I was very young. and completely floored. I really loved seeing Pearl Jam when they came to St Johns a couple years ago. And any time I see the Tragically Hip I am changed for the better for days afterward.

How old were you when you started playing music?
I believe started piano around age 4.

Who was your first music teacher? At what school did she/he teach?
Susan Knight. Incredible woman. She taught at St Mary’s elementary near my parents house. And later founded the Newfoundland symphony youth choir.

What instrument did you play in the school band?
We didn’t have a school band in my high school. A neighbouring school had a small jazz band though, and I played piano with them.

Who is your biggest inspiration? Why?
No single person I don’t think. No academy award speech stuff really. I’m just inspired by other songwriters and performers: local, canadian, international, past, present, any genre, so long as it pushes and pulls and it moves.

What five bands are you listening to now?
Honestly I very rarely listen to music. It’s absurd. The last five bands I’ve listened to have probably been something like Okkervil River, Patrick Watson, Rod Stewart, Malajube, Land of Talk and The Shins.

Do you think you can dance?
Mostly funny dancing. You know the type …a hyperactive mishmash of moves that make people dancing around me laugh. Which I like.

Tags: Hey Rosetta!, Malajube, Polaris, polaris music prize 2009