Chris Hannah:  Well, sort of, we actually finished it in late November.

SM:  Oh that’s right, yeah, but it was announced yesterday, the name and everything… *embarrassed me*

CH:  It always takes so long to be finishing the record, announcing it and releasing it, kind of a pain, but yeah.

SM:  True, but you guys like doing just that don’t you? Taking your time with your records, which is good, but how was this one like to put together? I mean, what are we in for basically?

CH:  Well, this one actually came together way quicker than any of the other ones probably because we had our new guitar player [Referring to David “The Beaver” Guillas], which really helped with the creative process and the moral was generally higher. I mean, were a four piece now, it came together easier, though it was a pain in the ass to record. It took us about three weeks – usually it takes us about three weeks, than another three weeks to correct all the mistakes we made, this time, it seemed to work out fast.

SM:  So how is it, working with a four piece, together with David – was it different the songwriting this time around, in the studio, and live?

CH:  It just better having… well first of all, theres more options available to you, when you have two guitars, especially the live show, which is more representative of the records. I mean, all the records we made as a three piece had two guitars, one on the left speaker one on the right speaker. The live show to me now is much more true to the intention of the recording. It’s improved the band in every respect actually.

SM:  So I’ve heard band references like Rush and Voivod being thrown around and stuff like that, how is that coming together to affect the new record?

CH:  Well, those are long time influences, those bands have stood the test of time and we look up to them still and we just wanna try to incorporate the things in those bands that we found inspiring and use it for what we do.

SM:  Does that mean you’re moving into a new direction? Especially with songs like Bringer Of Greater Things and Cut Into The Earth with slower more jazzy lines… in fact, last I heard, Todd was taking up jazz guitar lessons?

CH:  Haha, he was, but actually on this record, the songs that he wrote specifically are the opposite of those songs, much like the earlier, much faster, more raging. He kinds goes back and fourth on what he does, he like to do a lot of experimentation and find new sounds and stuff, but on these particular songs they just got heavier this time around.

SM:  Guitar wise, was it any easier to record with two players? Like, how was the songwriting split up between the both of you, or was it more of a collaborative effort?

CH:  It came together more or less by a song by song basis, like one guy will have an idea for a song, maybe a lyric I’m using, then he’ll come to the band, and we’ll all put it together and add our own things to it, so in that sense, it’s a pretty collaborative process, even though some of us will be like lighting fires more than others. But in terms of the recording process, it’s actually harder – I mean, if you have to play to a different guys guitar track, its harder than playing to your own and you hear your mistakes more, but we just wanted to have…. I mean, the records we used to like when we were kids, when you could hear two different guitar players, you could hear two different interpretations. You get to hear what the other guitar player thinks is happening, so we wanted to have that feel, sorta like a modern feel.

SM:  So are you building on what you had on City Limits or a bit further back to more ‘fun’ stuff or…?

CH:  I think there’s a combination. To me, this record when I try to explain to people in the context of our previous records it feels like Potemkin City Limits mixed with Less Talk with a little bit of Today’s Empires.

SM:  And I noticed you’re back working with [producer] Bill Stevenson [Black Flag, Descendents]… I guess he got over Todd? [Referring to when Bill thought that Todd couldn’t play bass as well as he wanted him to on Potemkin City Limits]

CH:  Haha, yeah, well, it was a pretty stressful experience – we thought that we were very well practiced but I think Bill thought we weren’t well practiced, which is funny, you just couldn’t bluff him sometimes… the songs we were trying to play were beyond our musical ability so it was a stressful time, but it was pretty funny now that I look back on it.

SM:  Well, do you guys see yourselves as a ‘technical’ band in that sense? Compared to a lot of other punk bands with just sorta power chords flying left and right you guys are pretty on the ball with what you guys do technically, with your actual songwriting skills and playing ability – I mean how do you see yourself in that sense?

CH:  I think we put a lot of effort into it, but its more perseverance than talent. We don’t have any… the only guy in the band that I think has any natural inclination in terms of musical talent is Beaver, which is pretty awesome. As a band we just try our hardest to make it sound like we can play and I think we do that… We get an A for effort, but in terms natural talent I don’t think we necessarily make the grade.

SM:  Really? I mean, you guys are pretty much veterans of the scene by now, you’ve been playing something like two decades now… How to Clean Everything came out way back in the early 90s, how does that feel? Like, do you feel like you’ve got where you want to be as a band… did you even expect to get this far as a band?

CH:  It’s hard to remember what we thought or envisioned, but I do know that the music we’re making now is close to what we had in mind when me and Jord were sixteen and talked about starting a band, incorporating influences like you mentioned,, Voivod, Rush, The Exploited, stuff like that. First couple of records we didn’t have the musical ability to even get close to that and it’s just evolved over the years and I think we’re closer to the original idea than we ever have been.

SM:  So does that mean you’re centered as a band and feel like you know what you’re doing, or is there a sense of everything as still being explored and being new?

CH:  Yeah, I think things are still new… we don’t feel confident that we have it all together now, I mean, were still trying to… we still have to try way beyond our limits to get the sound we want to have. Like I said, we don’t have any natural inclination so… we’re having fun.

SM:  And while you’re at it, how have outside influences affected your music? For one thing I think as of the middle of last year you stopped releasing records with the G7 Welcoming Committee [an independent label set up by Chris and Jord], what happened with that?

CH:  The guy who I set it up with, Jord, he moved to a different city and we tried to keep the label going for a bit across the distance, but it wasn’t fun, so we decided to put it into hibernation till he gets back, which is in about a year or two.

SM:  So it is gonna come back?

CH:  Yeah, eventually, but for the immediate future we probably won’t be putting out any releases.

SM:  And you guys recently split with Fat Wreck records, and I know there’s always been a bit of antagonism with Fat Mike [lead singer of NOFX, who runs Fat Wreck] but did anything really push it over the edge this time or did you just wanna go all out with Smallman [Propagandhi’s current label]?

SM:  So was this funded and recorded by yourselves or did you get outside help?

CH:  We applied for funding with some funding programs, but I don’t think we’re going to get it, so right now, it’s being funded on someone’s credit card.

SM:  And I guess you’re touring to make up for that – and you’ll be here in Australia for the first time in like ten years, what took so long!?

CH:  Well, for the past ten years, we were just working on G7 and our band typically doesn’t do a lot of touring or hasn’t in the past and adding G7 into the scenario it meant we couldn’t do a lot of things and it kinda snowballed over the years. It was like, where did the years go? I mean yeah, we haven’t toured Australia in ten years, it’s crazy to think of it now, but its just our disorganization.

SM:  Well I’ll be looking forward to that, seriously…. That aside though, and I guess this always comes back to you being Propagandhi, with the elections and Iraq and everything that’s still going on, has that affected you guys? Are you still as staunch activists as you guys once were? I mean, it’s been a while, how’s the idealism going there?

CH:  Well I like to think we haven’t changed in terms of relinquishing any progressive values we had when we were younger. In fact, it’s probably almost the opposite, I think we’re more engaged than we were than when were young. Perhaps were a little more pessimistic, but like I said, were more engaged, and that’s important.

SM:  So does that mean you’re buying into the whole ‘hope for the future thing’ that’s going on with a new president in the states?

CH:  No, not at all. First of all, recent events don’t give me any hope – preliminary comments on the Israeli invasion of Gaza don’t give me any hope. The fact that the democratic party is an institution that first and foremost serves the interests of corporate power and everything else is secondary to that. But at the same time, I will say that the night of the elections when I watched the televised acceptance speech in Chicago, the emotion was really palpable. I mean, we were witnessing the historic moment of a black president being elected into power in the American political system. But once the novelty of that wears off, people have to be realistic about the structures of power. You’re not going to get change form the political party that clearly, tragically serves corporate interests over anything else. That’s the way the system works. And I don’t say it just to be a grumpy old guy, I say it because that’s the way it is.

SM:  So does that mean you’re more involved now, especially after the release of Live From Occupied Territory, where those proceeds when to a couple of charities…?

CH:  Yep, the Middle Eastern Children’s alliance and the Grassy Narrows Blockade, which is like a first nations blockage against logging companies which try to stop people stealing land from first nations. And Jord [drums] does a lot of work with the Canada Haiti Action Network, which is an anti-imperialist, pro-democracy group in conjunction with activists in Haiti, against Canadian and French and American imperialism. And Todd [bass] does a lot of work downtown with the refugee centre, where they’re trying to help recent refuges adapt to our crazy winters and our crazy culture.

SM:  And what about outside the music and outside the politics… whats it like, just being Chris?

CH:  It’s fun if I don’t look in the mirror. Yeah, everything’s just cool, just watching the hockey, its pretty mundane. The weather here is unbelievable right now, it seems like its going to be the coldest winter on record, it’s actually dangerous to go outside.

SM:  Ouch, well, good luck with that! Well, I guess that about wraps it up, I’m really looking forward to the new record and I wish you the best of luck.

CH:  Thanks, appreciate it!

- Alex Silveri, Jan '09

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