SURVIVING POLARIS
Calgary- born band Braids knee deep in drama during controversy at a recent awards show
Raphaelle Standell laughs and completes the sentence: You know you’ve made it when …
“You’re staying at a two- and- ahalf star hotel in Lansing, Mich.,” she says, again, laughing brightly as she and her Calgary- born, Montrealbased band Braids are piling into the van just after checkout.
“It was actually a really nice twoandhalf stars — I was really surprised, it was great,” she says. “We give it really good reviews: comfy beds, good pillows.”
Does that mean she’ll be logging into TripAdvisor to make it offi cial, possibly upping it to three- or fourstar accommodations on the traveller’s site?
“I always want to. I always want to give them a piece of my mind when it’s horrible and then I want to tell them how great it is when it’s a good time. But I just never do either, so I feel like I’m not really properly contributing to TripAdvisor and the honesty of the Internet.”
That’s a somewhat timely and prescient comment, considering the society in which we live, and Standell’s thoughts and feelings about the web, which are, like many, confl icted and have caused her a little diffi culty over the past few months.
She notes that these days she often feels “like my phone is constantly screaming at me when I open up Twitter.”
“I think people want change right now and that’s one method of speaking about how you want that change,” she says. “But it just becomes overwhelming I guess when everybody’s doing it or when a whole night becomes about that.”
She is, of course, referring to the Polaris Music Prize Gala, which took place the past Monday in Toronto and was the source of a great deal of controversy and debate prior to and immediately following — for a number of reasons.
Braids were in attendance as the trio’s superlative third eff ort Deep In the Iris was deservedly shortlisted for the annual prize for a Canadian album. The prize is based entirely on artistic merit and voted upon by a jury of music writers and industry folks from across the country.
“It was very, very intense politically on a number of levels, which is wonderful, but there was defi nitely a vibe there that was a little heavy,” she says.
Most of that could be attributed to the presence of Calgary band and Standell’s friends and Flemish Eye labelmates Viet Cong, who were among the acts shortlisted for the $ 50,000 prize.
Their appearance, which, like all of the other nominees, also featured a performance, came days after the local quartet took to their Facebook page to announce that with their next release they would be changing their name, which had been increasingly criticized by many as being culturally insensitive at best, patently and knowingly racist at worst.
The band’s announcement, though, did little to quell the outrage, as Viet Cong were confronted by protesters and even had some of their peers booing them and wearing T- shirts featuring the slogan: Not your culture, not your name.
“It got pretty ugly,” Standell says, noting that she got into a “fi ghting match across the table,” with musician Katie Stelmanis, from the band Austra, who, awkwardly, was charged with introducing Braids before their performance.
“It’s so complicated because of what the main issue was with Viet Cong. Without potentially being labelled as a racist you don’t really want to take either side. But I guess I just felt that the amount of hatred in the room, that was really hard throughout the night …
“I just felt like they were being personally attacked more so than the idea of white appropriation and assimilation and these bigger issues. It just felt like they were directly attacking Viet Cong, who are my friends, so it was really hard to watch them be aff ected by that. And just to know that people felt so upset ( by the name), that’s also hard to watch, that they’re feeling hurt.”
That said, Standell also admits that aside from the controversy, there were “some really beautiful moments” throughout the course of the evening. She cites Viet Cong’s performance, as well as that of Jennifer Castle, and even Braids’ two songs onstage, including a truly stunning, jaw- dropping version of their anti- rape- culture and contemporary feminist anthem Miniskirt.
It just felt like they were directly attacking Viet Cong, who are my friends, so it was really hard to watch them be aff ected by that.
And while they didn’t walk away with the Polaris Prize — that went to Canadian icon Buffy Sainte-Marie and her album Power In the Blood — the artist says even being included in the awards show is a sign that they accomplished something with Deep In the Iris, which was released in April. Enough? “Yes and no,” she says. “I think people are really getting into it a lot more than they have our other records. When they come to our show, they know the lyrics, they know the melodies … and they get really excited about it. So people are obviously really getting into it.
“But I thought that Miniskirt, in particular, would have had a bit of a wider reach, just because it is such a pertinent issue and it’s such a great song. So I guess in that way I was a little surprised with just the smallness of the scope.
“But I think it’s a very important record for us to have made. We’re all just very, very proud of it and this is the first time I’ve really been super proud of a record …
“Now we know where it is we want to go next year.”
Actually, they’ve already further charted that course. Two weeks ago, they wrapped up recording a four- song EP, which they’ll release early into 2016.
The album will feature three tracks that came from the same songwriting retreat that produced some of Iris’s material but went unfinished because they didn’t fit the album, as well as a brand new tune they’ve written in the meantime.
Standell says the band, which also features Austin Tufts and Taylor Smith, are hoping to preview one song titled Companion — which she describes as “very spacious, very beautiful, kind of ambient” — on their current North American run which brings them back home for a Tuesday night show at Commonwealth Bar and Stage.
The visit, she says, will be a regrettably brief one, with Braids hitting town late afternoon, performing that night and then making the Rocky Mountain run first thing Wednesday morning.
And what accommodations will she be treated to while staying in Cowtown?
“My bedroom at my parents’ house,” she says and laughs.
As to what the current Trip Advi-sor rating is for the Standell Inn and Suites, she doesn’t hesitate.
“I think I’d probably give it a five- star, because my parent’s just bought a new bed for that room … We have really nice pillows, a nice bed, it’s up to their standards. “So, I’d give it five stars.” You know you’ve made it when. Braids perform Tuesday at Commonwealth Bar and Stage. For tickets go to Ticketfly. com.