When Broken Social Scene played at Bumbershoot earlier this month, leader Kevin Drew told the crowd that it would be the band's last show "for a long time." The comment left us questioning whether the Toronto collective were breaking up, or maybe just going on a temporary hiatus. In a new interview, Drew clarified the group's plans.
"Endings have not really been something we've been good at, and letting go was always a scary notion for us," Drew told with Pitchfork. "While we were on the road, we kept saying we would stop, but we just kept going. But now's the time because there are other projects that people want to pursue, and we feel that we've done what we wanted to do. I think we've really gone as far as we can with playing these tunes. It comes down to Kenny Rogers: 'You got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.'"
Still, even with a hiatus looming, that doesn't mean that Broken Social Scene fans don't have any new music to look forward to. Drew revealed, "We have so much material -- songs, B-sides, different mixes, live shows -- all kinds of things we can release over the next few years to just keep the story going."
We can also expect many of the band members, including Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman and Justin Peroff, to release albums with different projects. Drew also said, "If I don't have a film out by 2013, then you have permission to come over and slap me around." And as he's shown on Exclaim! TV, if that doesn't pan out, maybe he can take up a career as an interviewer.
Even though the members of Broken Social Scene are now moving on to side-projects, don't be surprised if they reconvene before long. "You can only say we're going to disappear for a while, but when you want us to come back just give us a call," Drew said. "We'll pick up the phone."
In the meantime, BSS still have a chunk of live shows lined up, including a pair of BC stops. You can see their remaining dates here.
"Endings have not really been something we've been good at, and letting go was always a scary notion for us," Drew told with Pitchfork. "While we were on the road, we kept saying we would stop, but we just kept going. But now's the time because there are other projects that people want to pursue, and we feel that we've done what we wanted to do. I think we've really gone as far as we can with playing these tunes. It comes down to Kenny Rogers: 'You got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.'"
Still, even with a hiatus looming, that doesn't mean that Broken Social Scene fans don't have any new music to look forward to. Drew revealed, "We have so much material -- songs, B-sides, different mixes, live shows -- all kinds of things we can release over the next few years to just keep the story going."
We can also expect many of the band members, including Drew, Brendan Canning, Charles Spearin, Andrew Whiteman and Justin Peroff, to release albums with different projects. Drew also said, "If I don't have a film out by 2013, then you have permission to come over and slap me around." And as he's shown on Exclaim! TV, if that doesn't pan out, maybe he can take up a career as an interviewer.
Even though the members of Broken Social Scene are now moving on to side-projects, don't be surprised if they reconvene before long. "You can only say we're going to disappear for a while, but when you want us to come back just give us a call," Drew said. "We'll pick up the phone."
In the meantime, BSS still have a chunk of live shows lined up, including a pair of BC stops. You can see their remaining dates here.
