Wolf Parade drives us crazy

Wolf Parade shot to indie prominence in a hurry in 2005 on the strength of one of that year’s best-reviewed albums (“Apologies to the Queen Mary”) and a mania in the press at the time for all things Canadian. As a group, they’ve kept a relatively low profile since, while chief songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner have each spent considerable time with other projects; most notably Krug with Sunset Rubdown and Swan Lake, and Boeckner leading the Handsome Furs.

Krug caught up with Metromix shortly after the release of Wolf Parade’s sophomore album, “At Mount Zoomer.” On the agenda: the secret meanings of his inscrutable songs, the hidden horror of umbrellas, and the band’s unlikely Fine Young Cannibals connection.

Wolf Parade fans like to try to find meaning in your songs. Do you pay attention to their detective work? 
I try not to—but that’s not to say that I haven’t read a review or read through a blog. A lot of times these bloggers or these kids will misinterpret the songs a little bit or try to assign them some sort of meaning that isn’t what the band is really about. [But] sometimes it’s cool to hear them talk about what it means to them on a personal level.

Do you have transparent songs in your past? Teenage ballads about girls who did you wrong, that sort of thing?
I’ve never written songs like that, no. But I think I might be moving more in that direction.

Come on now.
Seriously. It’s not going to be “Babe, you did me wrong.” But I think writing in that manner and not having everything be so obscure, but still to be poetic—that can be more of a challenge. Dan Bejar [of Destroyer; Krug’s bandmate in Swan Lake] is moving a little bit in that direction, I think, and his songs are still beautiful.

Shifting to the other Dan, Dan Boeckner—did he present any especially tasty riffs or lyrics while you were recording that really spoke to you?
I really like the song “Fine Young Cannibals”—it may be my favorite on the record. Dan brought in a riff and said “I’d like to do something with this,” and it was built very quickly from there. It reminded me of how we used to record.

And this is “Fine Young Cannibals” as in the band of the same name? Is there actually a connection or is that just a joke?
It was some little moment in the second verse that reminded us of them—like how the second track, “Call It a Ritual,” had the working title “Billy Joel,” but it doesn’t sound anything like Billy Joel. We actually wanted to call the album “Fine Young Cannibals”—that was our first title for the record, but the singer from that band protested. Apparently their first CD had been self-titled, so they didn’t want there to be any confusion.

Do you have a pet peeve?
Umbrella etiquette. They have those prongs, and I think people open them and then forget that they have them when they’re out on a city sidewalk. Umbrellas—they’re a circle of eye hooks.

You have the reputation of someone who is writing and playing music constantly. How do you like to kill time when you step away from music?
I’m not writing as much music as people think. In fact, [laughs] one of the things that I really enjoy doing in my free time is to write music, because I feel like I don’t always have enough time to do that—not to rehearse music, but to write music. I’ve also been writing fiction. But it’s summer and you don’t want to stay in all the time. And I quit smoking and when I stay inside and watch movies, that’s when I want to smoke. I’ve gotten into squash. I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie “Tron,” but it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being in the movie “Tron.” You’re in this glass cube and there aren’t really rules…it’s a bit chaotic.

Wolf Parade performs Friday (Nov. 14) at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair.

Photo by Meqo Sam Cecil