State of the Confederation Part III: Canadian Indie's New Wave

Spinner Canada is running an in-depth series on the Canadian indie music scene that's taken the world by storm in recent years. Part I explored the foundation laid in the '80s and '90s while Part II examined this decade's scenes in Toronto and Montreal. Now, Part III looks towards the future.

The success of Broken Social Scene, Feist and Arcade Fire may have killed Canadian music's international rep as a pop-culture punch line (see: Dion, Celine) but any viable scene needs fresh blood. As such, an eclectic new generation of musicians have picked up the proverbial torch and marched across the borders that the early-2000s Can-indie explosion blew apart.

Surprisingly, the charge is not being led by fresh-faced hipsters, but rather Toronto veterans Metric. Coming out of the Broken Social Scene stable almost a decade ago, the Emily Haines-fronted group was always the charmingly poppy sibling to BSS' sprawling indie rock. Regularly moving home bases while working on critically lauded but commercially disappointing albums, 'Fantasies,' their fourth full-length -- and first to be self-released internationally -- finally found a mainstream audience for the band's seductive brand of big room synth-rock. At home, lead single 'Help, I'm Alive' became their first No. 1 and the album remains in the Top 30 chart after four months. Abroad, they topped Billboard's Heatseekers chart, played 'Letterman' and conquered the European summer festival circuit.

"In the past we had to move to places like New York, London and L.A. in order to be on the cusp of an emerging scene," Haines tells Spinner. "But now you can launch a successful worldwide campaign from Toronto. In fact, we just moved our band's HQ back to Toronto and we're experiencing our biggest commercial success. ['Fantasies'] sold more in the United States in the first month than we did in the past four years. It's an incredible feeling."

Metric's newfound success is also helping to reshape the perception of what Canadian indie means. "In the past, people thought of Canadian musicians as lots of people with beards and violins, but these days, dance music and electro-rock is really what we're becoming known for -- and what [Metric has] been representing," she continues. "Not so much mandolins and violins, but rather synths and strobes."

Despite the previous prevalence of "organic" collectives, much of the current wave of artists play electronic-influenced music. Holy F--- and 2008 Polaris Prize-winner Caribou added a jam-band aesthetic to their beat-making while several other Canadian acts have become international dance-rock royalty.

"It would be impossible to discuss the current Canadian music scene without discussing electroclash," says Toronto-based Pitchfork scribe Stuart Berman. "Electroclash really broke as the 'hip' medium back at the start of the decade when mainstream dance audiences started gravitating to the dirty sounds of the genre, creating another mass audience for underground music. Jesse Keeler from [late bass'n'drum rock duo] Death From Above 1979 saw this happening and turned himself into MSTRKFT. Now you've got bands like Crystal Castles and Thunderheist representing the genre around the world."

Leaders of the pack Crystal Castles have transcended their lack of strong melody and a scenester backlash to become the face of new punk. In a cunning display of marketing acumen, the duo focused first on England, where NME hailed lead singer Alice Glass as the coolest person on the planet. Then they rode back to North America on the wave of hype.

"They spent a lot of time in Europe, and in the UK in particular," recalls Lenny Levine, president of Last Gang Records, home to Crystal Castles as well as Metric and MSTRKFT. "They put out underground, limited-edition seven-inches and ... all that viral s---."

"They're a savvy duo and they know how to play the game," admits NME writer Ben Patashnick. "A lot of people at the magazine genuinely love that band, that's why they've had so much coverage from us."

As have hardcore heroes F---ed Up, who, with their overdriven wall of sound and frequently bleeding, grizzly bear of a singer, make Crystal Castles seem rather tame in comparison. "The bands breaking out [of Canada now] are pretty abrasive compared to previous waves of bands from the first part of the decade," says Berman. "F---ed Up came from this basement hardcore scene and have somehow managed to reach a level of infamy which is quite impressive."

"In the early days, we just played squats and abandoned piers where it wasn't kosher to talk about what country you were from, let alone your real name," recalls F---ed Up's guitarist Gulag. "We never tried to make it. We just tried to avoid ever having to tour out to Newfoundland -- although Scotland kind of looks like Newfoundland."

Diversity is the sign of a healthy music scene and these bands -- along with the likes of Japandroids, Sunset Rubdown, Handsome Furs and many more we could name (see our recurring features Northern Exposure and You Oughta Know) -- continue to build on the foundation laid over the past 20 years. This acceptance has spread to other genres as well, with Drake and K'naan making worldwide waves in hip-hop while A-Trak, Tiga, Richie Hawtin and DeadMau5 are among clubland's most sought-after acts.

But the best evidence that the Canadian music scene has become self-sustaining comes from those who define what a 'scene' is in the first place. When new Canadian bands emerge, the international press now focuses more on their music than their postal code, proving just how strong our state of the confederation has become.

"I feel like perhaps the focus on Canadian-ness is passing," points out Josh Wells of Vancouver stoner-rock collective Black Mountain. "That is a good thing."