So, what advice did you give?
K: Do your research.

I disagree. That's not important.
A: It's SO important. If a person has never heard your music, if they think it's your first album...
K: Radio interview and print interviews are different. Print interview, you don't have to ask a lot of stuff, you might just have it.
I guess so.
A: You're not being very cooperative. A lot of the interviews almost make the artist feel bad, and ask stupid questions like, "so do you know Sloan?"
There's a big difference between "journalists," people who've gone to journalism school and people who write zines.
K: That's why they need the tips.
A: Especially people who interview you and don't know anything about you. That really bothers me
sometimes. Like, "why are you doing this interview?" You have no idea what you're even interviewing about. It's almost irresponsible or something. I feel very strongly about it.
K: We also gave them tips like "make sure the microphone is turned on."
A: Make sure the batteries are not dying.
K: [shouting] I think we said you shouldn't do interviews in loud places.
[everyone laughs]
So, you're recording your debut album I hear? [laughs]
K: Yeah, with Sloan. They're sexy guys.
So, you're gonna take my beer ticket back now?
A: Not yet.

People that go through a lot of touring, playing, travelling, have a short life...
A: Especially bands from Halifax.
I've got used to the idea that bands have a short life. It's hard to keep four people happy forever.
Carla: That's true. We just get along well.
A: There's obviously bumps or whatever, but we all are pretty much reasonable people. We don't really bottle a lot of stuff up and harbour a lot of anxiety where all of a sudden one of us explodes and quits the band.
C: We're just sort of lucky that everyone's stayed commited to it. That's the main reason bands break up. Someone wants to go to school or someone wants to do this. We're all pretty committed to practicing. We're always touring.
A: And we *are* young.
C: And as a group it's really just getting better. Our personal relationships, it's like we're really growing up together in some ways.
A: We've been together for more than six years now.

 Are you getting dependent on each other? Can you imagine the band with one of you not in it?
C: No, I can't. We do a lot of the songwriting together. Someone could come along and help with the songwriting, but it might go in a direction I just can't perceive. I'm just so used to the four of us working together.
A: I think all of our personalities are different enough, and we're used to the sum total of them. If one left, another one came, you would really feel the loss of whatever that person contributed to the group. Even when Nina left, we felt that. It took us a while to consolidate Katriona into the group. You're used to what she does, and now Katriona has been in the band so long we're used to what she does.
Are you still "new"?
K: Someone asked me that last night: so you're the new one in the band?

So, tell me about your debut record.
A: Well, Mass Teen Fainting came out in 1995.
C: I think this album has a good title, and I think a lot o people will be able to read things into it. It's called This Day Won't Last At All. Do you have a cover for your magazine?
Well, this one is going to be Choke.
A: It should be *us*.
I already promised it, and they'll probably be jumping around and freaking out, doing the punk rock thing.
C: Is that a challenge? If we jump real high will you put us on the cover?
The last one had fire. I really like fire. How about blood? I like blood too.
A: I have a whole body full of blood.

So, tell me about your debut album...
C: The songwriting isn't really a huge leap in a different direction from what we're used to...
A: But I think it's more developed.
C: The lyrics are a little more cynical...
A: That's funny that you would say that, because I think the lyrics are less cynical.
C: It's not an angry, I-hate-the-world, cynical. It's more meaningful. I think our past albums had some
 songs with meaningless lyrics, you know, “buh-buh-buh buhh," whatever rhymed. This album is very honest. That could be good, that could be bad...
How was recording?
C: I had a great time recording.
A: Yeah. That was the biggest thing. All of our attention was focused on that. It takes up a lot of energy.
C: But it's so creative. You're in there and you're thinking about it 24 hours a day. Just trying to deal with every problem that comes up. It's really interesting. I love doing it.
A: And even before we recorded we were into some pretty intense songwriting and practicing. Touring's a bit different, cuz there's a lot of downtime. Lots of sitting around. No writing.
C: There's different types of work. Touring is physically more demanding, whereas recording is so much more mentally challenging.
A: You get just as tired. It's just mentally draining. You just go home and fall asleep.

So, which song that you wrote about me means the most to you personally?
A: That would be "Thrilled to Be Here." With you we're thrilled to be where we are.
C: So someone drove out from Vancouver to see the show and you just came from Edmonton. How do you plan on sticking out as a fan?
I actually drove to Winnipeg to see you there but I was too shy to say hello.
A: So, who's your favourite?
That would be "Posh Spice."
A: So, that would be all of us!

Is it ever an issue, like sorry, babe, I've got to practice tonight. I didn't get you anything for your birthday, I had to buy new strings.
C: It wasn't so much practice and small things like that but “you're never here on my birthday, every year you're on tour." Just stuff like that.
K: With me it's bitter, like "you're going on tour and I'm not." "Well, do something about it, I'm going on tour."
C: That's the thing when you're dating musicians. Two musicians is a terrible combination. It's supposed to be one of the worst.
A: I think it's really hard being in a relationship and being in a band because we're all pretty committed and we do go away and it's really hard to realize that there's a part of that person's life that you'll never be a part of. Like, if I'm dating somebody and they can't come on tour with me and I'm meeting all kinds of people that they don't know and don't know anything about, and you come back and say, I had a great time, I did this and I did that and... Well, it works both ways. They could be doing their own thing too and you miss out on that.
You're making the decision that the band is first?
A: Well, it's not like it's "the band" or "the boyfriend," and you can't have both.
K: I keep seeing cats and pictures of cats on this tour, and I find I'm really missing my cat. I miss my boyfriend too, but I really miss my cat a lot.
I miss one of my ex-girlfriend's dogs a lot.
A: Well, pets are so loyal... Oh, that sounds really bad.
K: We read something the other day that said before you get married you should date 100 different people. And it was saying between 16 and 35 that's 5 a year.
So, what's the Plumtree advice for keeping relationships together?
C: I don't think we're doing such a good job. I'm single, so ...
So, the relationship is each other...
K: Well, you don't break up with your friends in the same way you'd break up with a guy. Well, sometimes someone's girlfriend will make a guy quit the band so he doesn't go on tour and leave her again.
K: Well, hopefully if the person is right for you they can understand that it's an important part of your life.
C: And especially if you're doing something creative. I think when you're not doing something creative, for me anyway, I just start feeling depressed about my life. If I stopped for the person it wouldn't be good for either of us. You really have to do what you have to do.
Being creative is the key to life...
C: I think so. Well, maybe not for everybody. But people working 9 to 5, always doing the same thing, I think they're really depressed, deep down.
Unless they go see your shows.
A: I think you could work a 9 to 5 job and be happy if it's something you love, but a lot of people don't have that.
K: And I think, going on tour can be a great thing for the relationship. Giving the other person some time on their own. I think it's good for people to have periods of time where you do your own thing.You can't lose sight of what you are. But people do. It's just good to try not to.

What are you giving back to people in your art?
C: I think when we're on stage and having fun and working together as a group and really feeling good and have written songs we're proud of we're accomplishing something. And anytime you feel that way the energy goes out and makes other people feel good. If you're being true. Hopefully people come to your shows and they leave feeling good. I think a lot of people say, We were so happy after we say you guys play. That's good, since you sort of do it for yourself, but if other people get it that's fantastic.
So can a song change the world?
K: I saw the movie Hurricane and I told my boyfriend, that song couldn't get him out. But that doesn't answer your question.
C: I think it's great that a song can just come into the world and be a thing that people sing for years and years and years. Like a traditional song. It becomes a "thing." What is it? It's in the air, it's ethereal.
A: It's blowing in the wind.
K: I think the songs of the Civil War really helped people get through. I wrote a paper about it.
You should do a Civil War song. Do you do any historical...
C: I am with my solo album.
What are you doing?
C: Well, my family's from Cape Breton, and when I applied for this grant I said that I wanted to "bridge the distance between my modern pop sensibility and my traditional heritage." I think it would be interesting. My father is just this wealth of information. He knows all the folklore. Every time he plays a tune on the fiddle he knows stuff about who wrote it, what the song was about, and there's a lot of that in Cape Breton. Songs with tradition. I'm interest in taking some of those stories and incorporating them into pop songs.
K: When I was studying these Civil War songs I was pretty influenced while reading about them. I'm just starting out with songwriting, but there's certain images that have got stuck in my head that I think would be influencing on me. I'm really interesting in historical context.
A: It's funny, I used to think rock and roll was rock and roll and politics is politics and the two should be separate and to a large extent I still believe that. I think a lot of political rock is really bad. But I've become a little more left-wing in that sense. I've started to get into Billy Bragg and that stuff.
You don't really think of Plumtree as a political organ for anybody.
K: Well, if a song can't change the world, it's so true that a song can change someone's life. Someone wrote to us and said that our first cassette got them through high school. That's just one person, but when you think about it, that's pretty powerful stuff.