We Love

We Love, sounds like an incomplete sentence, as in We love…ice cream? What’s the story behind your band name?

NICOLE: We Love is a complete statement and that’s exactly how it floated into my mind. I liked it because it implies unity, but I realize that there’s an urge to see a blank to fill in.

ARTHUR: But, I do love Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.

All three of you come from different geographic regions, how does this influence your music?

JAKE: I see this as being perfectly analogous to our different musical influences. We’ve managed to find the common ground and focus on what we all like, and then each individual can mix in a bit of the other stuff they’re into. Over time we’ve actually expanded each other’s cultural and musical tastes and it’s been a hugely positive thing. I’ve been in bands where everyone had such rigid musical ideals, and even though tastes were more similar than in this band, we were actually less compatible as band mates - the devil is in the details. It’s counter-intuitive, but being so diverse has forced us to really listen to each other’s ideas to try to understand; it’s forced us to be more open to new things. The flipside of that is having others unfamiliar or initially unimpressed with these ideas has forced the person presenting them to more closely examine the influences they bring forth to be able distil it for the other two.

NICOLE: I feel lucky that we, as people from 3 different continents, converged in the same city to create music.

ARTHUR: Jake doesn’t speak English properly so Nicole and I have no choice but to communicate with him through shredding guitars, vocal melodies and beat sampling.

In your bio, Arthur and Nicole “bond over all things pre-millennial UK”, such as?

NICOLE: We met at a house party and reminisced over the fact that one of the highlights of our adolescences was recording the Brit Awards, Glastonbury & Reading Festival concerts off Much Music and scouring Q and NME.

What previous bands have you all been in?

JAKE: Well, Arthur and I were both in a band called Crown - that’s how we met. Arthur has done his solo thing as Falling Line and I went by Slowhand. I’ve also been in The Corporation, Elektravision and a whole pile of groups that you’ve never heard of. When we met her, Nic was working it on stage with MC Texass at Big Primpin’, and singing overDJ sets. Before that… hey Nic, tell her about that Klezmer group you were in.

NICOLE: We sang songs about Bob Dylan, Moses and Betty Crocker.

Who would you most like to go on tour with?

ARTHUR: We would love to tour with a super band consisting of: Pharrell Williams (drums), Paula Abdul (pole), Michael Hutchence (groupie), Milli Vanilli (beat-box & wardrobe), Prince (everything), Souxsie (make-up), Cindy Lauper (keyboards), Black Box (roadies), Wilson Phillips (merch table), Jay-Z (catering), Vincent Gallo (bus driver), Bjork (DJ) and The Prodigy’s dancers.

What are you currently working on? What can we expect?

NICOLE: We’re excited to record the follow up to our debut disc, Low Noon. We plan to get back into the studio this summer.

JAKE: I’m really looking forward to playing more out-of-town shows. I think that’s one of the more important next steps for us.

ARTHUR: St. Jacobs, Cookstown – watch out!

What do you think a label would do you for you? What are your thoughts on the music industry?

JAKE: In this day and age, what does that even mean? “Label” can mean a major or some high school kid cranking out mix tapes. The same goes for “music industry.” Unlike the 50s, there’s so much more to it. Back then you were on RCA or nobody heard you outside of the local high school cover band circuit. There are so many more facets and niches now.

ARTHUR: All we know is that we want to make more music, and we are wiling to discuss options with any potential enabler.

- TorontoIndie.com - http://www.torontoindie.com/?p=269

This Friday I'm heading to The Gladstone to see my friend's band, We Love, again after seeing their show last month. In Toronto out of university it seems like all of my friends and their dogs were in an indie band at some time or another; I've had to attend so many shows of incoherent guitar strumming and mike lambasting that my compliments had dwindled down to "you seem to really feel it!" or "nice lighting".

I'm subjecting myself to this again because l saw We Love's show in April at the Velvet Underground where they in fact sounded horrible but only due to the venue's garage-like sound system. I'm most assuredly not an audio person but the speakers were so bass heavy it sounded like my neighbor's loud TV through the drywall yet the band ended up shining through the muddy beats, which was no small feat.

Crappy sound system aside the self-described "rocktronic"band had an alluring moody sensibility paired with bouts of electronica - maybe Hot Chip's depressed older cousin. Throughout the show my dwindling attention span was held in-check with the amusingly snapshot posing and dancing. Arthur's rocking Bowie-esque sequin jacket and Nicole's smokily translucent dress brought a quiet smile to my face and the show was all the better now that I have "nice costumes" to add to my list of fake compliments for my other band friends.

More at welovewelove.com or Facebook. Next show is at The Gladstone on May 2nd at a special midnight show.

- blogTO.com - www.blogto.com/music/2008/05/we_love_brings_the_love_tonight_at_the_gladstone/

http://shedoesthecity.com/scribble/2008/02/08/top_ten_for_v_day - SheDoesTheCity.com