Interview: Caribou

July 30th, 2010

Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, is a man of many transitions. The artist formerly known as Manitoba has, over the course of his career, swapped names, locations and styles like some sort of Canadian Richard Kimble. Hailing from southern Ontario, but based out of London, England, the multi-instrumentalist just released his fifth LP, Swim. It’s a rhythmic, complicated, danceable album that sounds decades removed from the psychedelic headphone symphonies of 2007’s Andorra; yet, it is equally inspired and ambitious.

But with all the transitions he’s made, there’s still one that eludes Snaith. He has yet to trade the Earth’s confining grasp for the more luxurious expanses of outer space. Some background – prior to winning the 2008 Polaris Music Prize for Andorra, Snaith declared his intention that, if he won, he would use the $20,000 prize to go to space. Now, two years have passed and we thought it was high time someone held the man to account.

The Block reached Snaith over the phone from his home studio in London, where he was putting the finishing touches on his upcoming tour preparations. At the first mention of his space promise, Snaith laughs and admits that we’re the first to call him on his lack of follow-through. “Clearly I was being facetious at the time and thought I had no chance of winning,” he explains. He says he’d still love to go to space, but unfortunately the current price of interstellar tourism is still quite a bit higher than the $20,000 he won for his album Andorra. “Also,” admits Snaith, “the money’s been spent on making the album and various other things.”

Regardless of whether he eventually makes it to space, few could argue that the Dundas, Ontario native is anything but a high achiever. This is the guy, after all, who completed a mathematics PhD at the same time he was busy touring and recording music (“I was always sneaking out the back of class to go to France or wherever,” he says.) He’s also the meticulous experimenter who records hundreds of tracks for a new LP before settling on a more manageable nine.

On Swim, Snaith takes unconventional instruments like wood flutes and Tibetan singing bowls and blends them with synthetic, computer-generated elements. On paper, it sounds like it probably shouldn’t work. The fact that it does is a testament to Snaith’s innovative nature – his willingness to endlessly experiment and play with songs until they reach their final crystallized state.

For the new album, Snaith also chose to seek out a fresh pair of ears to help mix. The person he chose was longtime friend and collaborator, Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys. The two grew up in neighbouring Ontario towns and once even competed against each other in a high school battle of bands (sadly, no footage of the event exists on YouTube). Snaith says that mixing the tracks at Greenspan’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario “felt like a totally natural, perfect thing to do.”

So perhaps, given the quality of work Snaith has produced in the last two years, it’s unfair to fault him too much for not fulfilling this one goal. After all, even prominent ‘N Sync member Lance Bass was defeated in his own well-publicized space quest. “Right,” says Snaith, when we mention Bass’s failed attempt, “maybe I still have a chance [to be the first musician in space], you know?” When asked if he considers himself to be in the same echelon of musical artists as Bass, Snaith offers a rejoinder. “I don’t think space should be restricted only to former boy band members,” he says. He pauses for a second then adds, thoughtfully, “Let’s see it get democratized and get everybody up there.”

Interview Steven Evans Images Nitasha Kapoor (top) and Jason Evans (middle)

Caribou – Sun