Q&A: Oh No Forest Fires

The first time I ever met Oh No Forest Fires was the day they released their first album, The War On Geometry, and I was lucky enough (or unlucky, depending on who’s transcribing) to speak with the entire band at the same time. I had the opportunity to relive the magic of our first meeting with another interview, but unfortunately, this one comes with some baggage – ONFF are calling it quits. The band announced earlier this month that they are going their separate ways, and will be playing their final show at The Horseshoe this weekend.

I had the privilege of going on tour with the four nutcases in Oh No Forest Fires, and over the course of the last year saw them evolve from a scrappy local band to one of the most energetic and entertaining live acts in the city. It will be very sad to see them go, but fans will be happy to know that the guys are making their final album, Wants To Try Something, available for free. I spoke with singer/guitarist Rajiv Thavanathan about the reason for the split, their swan song record, and his future musical endeavours.

I guess the first thing I should ask is, why are you guys breaking up?
Rajiv Thavanathan: We had known for a while before we announced it. I’ll give you the answer I think the other three guys would give. They would probably say that a big part of it was my going away for school. There’s commitments in our adult lives that are becoming more important, but I’m not sure why. Me, I would say I’m not as sure why, but I think it’s the right decision. I might be going to school, everyone’s busy with their lives. For me, the school thing is certainly an issue. That would be that explanation. The other, more sinister part of it is wanting to have time for more selfishly creative pursuits. You and I have even talked about a band being like a relationship, and it’s the most perfect analogy. We had a serious conversation when we decided to break up, and it was really emotional. As I was driving home, Brock [Swanek, guitars] texts me and says, “It was because I bought that flanger pedal, wasn’t it?”

What kind of relationship would you guys say you have?
We’re a pretty good couple. All four of us can hang out and be 100% ourselves. We all certainly have our flaws, I don’t need to list those. I don’t think anyone in this band could ever hate each other. You can fall out of love with someone and still not hate someone… Though I have yet to be as lucky with that [laughs].

You’re still releasing your next album, even though you’re breaking up. Why did you make the decision to do that?
A lot of these songs mean a lot to us, and we really love them. We’re really proud of them. It’s the first artistic work I’ve ever written lyrics for where one single word on it isn’t about my ex-girlfriend, whereas on the last record every word was about her.
If in 3000 years, some alien race comes down and finds our barren, desolate world, if they find my hard drive, they’ll at least be able to listen to my hard drive and hear Oh No Forest Fires one last time. Which is why we did it, to appease these otherworldly creatures. Don’t we want to do it for our fans? No. Aliens.

Think long term.
Yeah. When people ask if we’re in this for the long haul, they think five years, ten years, but we think fucking millennia. The liner notes come in English, French and Klingon.

I know these songs were written before you guys decided to break up, but what was the recording process like, given that you had already decided to disband before you went into the studio?
We did all the beds in pretty much one day. I tracked all my vocals on Tuesday and Thursday, and Matt did his yesterday. We were at home recording and I was sending it to be mixed pretty much right away. It was really fun, doing it piecemeal like that. I like making music that way. I’ve never really been in a band with a studio with a producer and everything is done in one room with the same person. That’s such a boring concept to me.

With the possibility of you going to med school, in what capacity do you see yourself continuing with music?
It’s really just for me. Not that we’re under any pressure in Oh No Forest Fires, but it’s freeing to not have any obligations in a way. Music is an expensive hobby. If I could spend a couple hundred dollars on making a record I like, for the sake of being creative and recording, that’s what I want. What I like about these new things I’m doing, there’s no end game. There’s no goals and there’s no expectations. I don’t have to be putting pressure on myself.

So, casual dating as opposed to a long term relationship.
That’s what it is. That’s the end of the interview, we tied it all together.

You are already playing the field, though, apparently. Tell me about your new bands.
One of the bands, we’ve been playing shows as All Day Driver. I play bass in this band. Brad Kilpatrick, who is my old roommate, drums in this band. He used to drum for Holy Fuck and is on tour with Hawksley Workman. John Hines is playing guitar and singing, and he’s a member of the Hidden Cameras. Another band is myself and my brother [Romesh Thavanathan, of Hey Rosetta!], called Wolfgang Bang. The third band is just Rajiv songs, but I don’t know what they’re going to end up sounding like, and if I release that, it would be under the banner of The Secret Connection.

You mentioned to me a while ago that you wanted to record things yourself and release it for free on the internet as soon as it was done. It’s interesting that the concept of a physical copy of an album is almost antiquated at this point, to an extent.
I agree with you for the most part. 90% of the time, I don’t care about having the CD. One headphone on my iPod is broken. I’m listening to Grizzly Bear and I only have one ear, and it’s compressed to 128 kilobytes per second, and there’s street noise, and I stole it, technically, and I’ve never seen the liner notes, but I still love that record. I don’t necessarily feel like they are two totally irreconcilable things.

Do you think that makes it disposable in a way?
Music, or that record in particular?

By extension, music in general.
I’m not sure you can extend it that far. I’m not convinced you can. That might turn out to be the case. A lot of people got mad at the Radiohead model because the one big argument was that they’re implying that the value of music can be nothing. Which is true…

Music isn’t worth very much to some people. Most people, really.
That’s why the radio is so great. There’s a real minority of people making a living in music, especially in our scene. Look at the bands we like.

If you guys were able to parlay your band into a sustainable career, would you still be together?
That’s a hard question to answer. I don’t think so. I think it still would have happened. The “What If?” game is kind of hard. I’m thinking about the reasons we’re stopping, and none of them are, ‘We’re tired, we’re poor.’ This year was the first year where we broke even and actually made money playing shows. We got flown out twice to play shows, once in Halifax, once in Newfoundland. It would be great to finance yourselves and do these fun things, but money wasn’t why we broke up. It was the reason we never bought a van; we drove to Montreal in a Civic. For us, I know that other bands quit for that reason, but I don’t know if that was necessarily the reason for us. I would love a career in music. That’s funny for me to say now, because in a couple of weeks, I’m going to sit in front of a panel of physicians, and they’re going to ask me why I think I’d be a good doctor. I’m going to miss going on stage and being able to say what I want, and I’m going to miss loud guitars. I’m going to miss volume. I’m going to miss that little bit of hearing loss.

What are you going to miss most about the band?
I’m going to miss seeing the guys. I’m afraid I might not see them as much. I have to keep tricking Adam to come down to Toronto. I’ll just tell him Moneen is doing a secret show at my house. Ask me again in a year, and I’ll tell you what I miss.

Oh No Forest Fires will be playing their final show this Saturday, January 23rd, at The Horseshoe Tavern with The Darcys, Songs From A Room and some band called Arietta. You can listen to the new song “Spontaneous Changes In Isolated Systems,” from their second and final album, Wants To Try Something, at the band’s MySpace.