Toronto rock outfit Wildlife pulls into Sneaky Dee’s Thursday (May 26) for one last local show before hitting the road for points south and west. The indie alt-rock quintet is touring behind Strike Hard, Young Diamond, a 12-track collection that’s being favourably compared to Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade, among others.
In fact, the comparisons are so pervasive I couldn’t not bring them up when I sat down for coffee with frontman Dean Povinsky, above centre, yesterday. But the singer and songwriter took the grilling in stride: “Sonically I don’t think we sound like Arcade Fire,” he says, “but the emotional space a lot of our songs fill is similar to the space their music fills.”
“We’re just so close to our music that I don’t really hear the similarity. I love Arcade Fire, everybody loves that band, they’re incredible. They write wicked songs and they sound really BIG, which is something we aspire to. I don’t always see or hear it but I’ll take it as a compliment, we could do a lot worse.”
Trying to get noticed in a crowded field has never been easy, which is one reason Povinsky, like so many rockers of his generation, doesn’t object more vociferously to file sharing and illegal downloading.
“It’s just a reality artists have to accept,” he concedes. “In some ways it doesn’t suck because making the music available that way means we’re getting emails from people in South America and Scandinavia, people who never would have found us otherwise. If it’s the difference between people hearing us and not hearing us, I’d rather have them hear us.
“In terms of money,” he adds, “does it even matter at this point in our career? People talk about how iTunes has really taken off but they don’t realize how many downloads you have to sell to make any money whatsoever, especially if you have five people in your band. If you’re doing millions and millions of downloads then sure, you’re making money, but if you’re selling thousands that’s not going to take you very far.”
Povinsky and his mates have been writing and jamming at the Rehearsal Factory near Queen and Tecumseth for about three years. With rents shooting up in the neighbourhood I’m a bit surprised space is still affordable but the singer says Wildlife shares its practice room with three other bands making it cost effective for everyone.
Being in a band, even in a good one like Wildlife, remains a money-losing proposition and the group’s upcoming tour is more likely to leave the boys in the red than in the black. It’s just part of the process.
“We have lofty ambitions,” says Povinsky, “so it’s important to us to get our music out to as many people as possible. We’re still in the process of growing the album which is actually doing quite well on its own. It would be nice to be able to make music for a living as opposed to just for fun, but it takes time and hard work.”
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