Move over Polyphonic Spree; Bruce Peninsula are ready to take your place as the ensemble alt-gospel choir for the indie rock crowd. The nearly dozen-member band are set to invade the U.S. in 2010 as they tour down through the country making their way down for their debut SXSW performance. The band gave us a bit of a rundown on what to expect.

Describe your sound in your own words.

It's bastardized soul or gospel music with a prog-rock lean, as played by four dudes and a large female choir. It's tough to describe your own music and I think we're all reluctant to do so, but I guess it's a necessary evil.

How did your band form?

Matt [Cully] was digging into the Alan Lomax archives back in 2006 and he coaxed Misha [Bower] into singing some of those songs and a couple of originals for a variety night a friend of ours was throwing. I lived with Matt at the time and asked if I could join and slowly the idea behind the band began to expand. We slowly recruited more people to help us and we've been morphing ever since.

What are your musical influences?

This is the hardest question for us because we're all over the map. Sometimes there can be 10 or 12 people in this band and everyone has their own set of influences. I think that's why our band comes out the other end as such a mixed bag. Our touchstones have less to do with specific bands and more to do with musical tricks and techniques. We love a lot of syncopation, slightly askew rhythms and singing at the top of our lungs.

You have a pretty big collection of band members that isn't always constant. how does that work?

There are 5 of us that are always heavily invested in the band. We spend all of our time working out songs and doing the behind-the-scenes shit. At a certain point, we show what we've been working on to the other people that play with us and it evolves from there. It would be too hectic to have all 11 or 12 people involved in every aspect of the band, but we also have a pretty big sound in mind so we like having them around to accomplish it. It gets a little crazy to schedule sometimes but I do think the end result is worth the headaches.

How did you come up with your band name?

We stole it from a huge land mass in Ontario. It had a nice ring to it.

A lot of acts on the Canadian scene know each other and are really connected. What are some of the acts you feel close to up there?

Well, the nature of our band is a swinging door, so we feel connected to a lot of bands because we've aped their members at one point or another. Bands like Ohbijou, Timber Timbre, The Weather Station, Snowblink and singers like Isla Craig and Katie Stelmanis we'll always feel connected because we've utilized their talents to make Bruce Peninsula what it is.
Canadian bands like to stick together. We've played great shows with bands like The Acorn, Muskox and Attack In Black or songwriters like Alex Lukashevsky and Sandro Perri and we do feel a certain affinity with their projects. However, it's not like we have meetings or family dinner together.

What's your biggest vice?

Personally, food in pockets. As a band, probably over-thinking.

You guys are playing SXSW this year. Is this your first time? Aside from playing shows, what are your plans while your down in Austin? How about any plans on the way down?

This is our first time in the U.S. altogether. I've wanted to go to SXSW since I was a 16-year-old kid. I've heard so much about the crazy party it is and the electric atmosphere that surrounds the whole thing. When I was a kid, that sounded amazing. These days it sounds a little less appealing but I couldn't say no when we were offered the show. It's one of those things to check off the "things I want to do before I die" list.

We're also doing two shows in New York, which is pretty exciting. I have no idea what to expect from those shows. All I know is that I love being in the van with this band and I'm always waiting to get on the road again. It doesn't happen very often for us, so I get excited any time there's a tour on the horizon. I honestly can't wait.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Hopefully some beer tickets and as many free meals as we can find. I hear Austin is all about the BBQ.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Matt's a DJ and plays out at dance parties a lot. I often hear him getting prepared before a party and there are a lot of god-awful songs that come through the walls. Some I genuinely like though. How about "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie? When the crowd comes in around the middle, how can you deny that?

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Nobody believes this story but I swear it's true. On our last tour, we played a raging house party in St. John, New Brunswick that got shut down by cops during our last song. The whole place was yelling the song and banging drum sticks. The next night in Charlottetown I had absolutely no voice left and the show kinda sucked because of it. We were in Halifax the following night and, towards the end of our set, I felt something hard come out of my throat. I finished the song and then picked up the object from the ground. It was a shard of wood, about an inch long. It was a piece of drumstick from the St. John show from two days earlier.


Jason Glastetter is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.