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We're a live band and that's how we think about ourselves. We write songs with the elements we have available to us. Our songs are written to be played by the five of us. They have to be songs you'd want to play live. That's the primary way we think about it. -Steve Lambke |
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Those who have witnessed the Constantines live can testify to their awesome presence. Even when playing a ballad, the group tears through with maximum intensity, never detracting from the original recording's sound, but merely distilling its impact into a more potent force. And with the rockers, the group is nothing short of a maelstrom. Whether intentional or not, that live experience informs their recorded output.
Constantines
"I think we're always both conscious and unconscious about how something translates live," Lambke says. "We're a live band and that's how we think about ourselves. We write songs with the elements we have available to us. Our songs are written to be played by the five of us. They have to be songs you'd want to play live. That's the primary way we think about it."
Keeping up the band's live intensity can be difficult, however, especially when presented with a roadblock such as a broken bone. Before SXSW, Lambke sustained an injury that found his arm wrapped in a cast during the Austin music conference. Even with this setback, he soldiered on, not content to let it become an obstacle to rocking out. "I had a broken bone in my left hand," Lambke recalls. "It was really frustrating. But I'm happy to be playing, and I can move normally now."
Constantines' previous two albums were issued on Sub Pop, and the Seattle indie giant also reissued the group's self-titled debut, originally released on Canadian label Three Gut. However, for album number four the Cons made the shift to Arts & Crafts, which operates on the band's home turf of Toronto and boasts a roster comprising Stars, Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos! and Feist.
"The deal with Sub Pop was up, and our relationship with them was really good," Lambke says. "But, we thought we'd see what was available. Our Canadian label, Three Gut, had folded. So, we met with Arts & Crafts, who are based out of Toronto, and they had started around the same time our band started. So, we were on parallel paths. There are some advantages to being on a Canadian label."
Many of the elements that defined the band from their humble Guelph, Ontario, beginnings are still firmly in place. Yet given the evolution from the first album to the fourth, it's clear that the Constantines have undergone a gradual but ongoing series of changes throughout their career. Lambke notes that while the band has progressed, some things feel very much the same as they were eight years ago.
"We're more or less doing this full time now," Lambke says. "When we started, we were all in school and had jobs. We were a scrappy punk rock band then, and we're kind of still a scrappy punk rock band now - just not as scrappy and with more guitar solos and a keyboard player. Things change in such small degrees that you don't even notice it. But I think we're a better band, and I feel good about the music we're making."
JamBase | Great White North
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