Besnard Lakes Forsake Olympics to Record New Album

It's no secret that the Vancouver Olympic Games have been a great platform for musicians. Devo recently used their slot to launch their first new song in 19 years, Julie Doiron joined in on the Neil Young love-in, and even the XX have become semi-household names thanks to an AT&T commercial. But interestingly enough, bands have been performing for the Olympics for a year now in what sounds like a tryout scenario for the world stage.

Spinner recently caught up with Montreal's Besnard Lakes about their forthcoming album, 'The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night,' and lead singer/guitarist Jace Lasek explained that his band were chosen to play a year ago. "We played last February," he tells Spinner. "It was weird, actually. I was wondering why the Olympics were getting in touch with us. They flew out three or four bands for this and they were all Montreal bands. It's a sporting event but they call it the Cultural Olympiad. I guess music is a part of culture," he says laughing. They gigged, returned home and that was that.

It turns out that was really the only time they could give the Olympics anyway, as 'Roaring Night' got underway in May 2009 at Lasek's Breakglass Studios. Lasek, who also uses the space to record and produce other acts such as Wolf Parade and Islands, only had a short window of time where his bandmate and wife Olga Goreas could get in and knock some songs out.

Over the years, the Besnard Lakes have garnered positive praise within the spacey shoegaze circles, and this time around they've traded in a few of the more atmospheric tricks of the past for an admittedly more rock approach. "There seems to be more guitar on this," Lasek says. "It's a little more pointed, instrumentally. When we go into make records, we just try to shut ourselves out. "

'The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night' is out on March 9 on Jagjaguwar in the US -- and on Outside Music in Canada -- and if you preorder the album from the label, they'll give you the MP3's instantly. They'll kick off a spring tour on March 11 at Toronto's Horseshoe.