Bungalow Hate: Interview with Indian Wars

You know that band I was chomping on about the other day, Indian Wars? Well, so do I. They sing garage pop songs about girls and, basically, have a good time. They're like the Black Lips before they thought it would be a good idea to do a song with GZA...they're also Canadian, and not from Texas even though they sound a lot like they could be. This hateful bungalow caught up with Dave and Brad from the band the other day to shoot the shit in a rather confusing repete on instant messenger, and discovered a little more about a little more...because I really had no idea of anything about this band. Perhaps this is an exclusive??

How did Indian Wars get together?

Dave: We've all known each other for a long time. My brother and I met Fraser a while back through skateboarding. And same with brad, we all met through skateboarding really.

How many people in the band and how old are you all?

Dave: There’s four of us. I’m the oldest (28), John's 25, Frasers 24 and brads 22.

Had you all been in bands before? How long have Indian Wars been together?

Brad: I’m 23.
Dave: Sorry Brad.
Brad: I forget my own age sometimes haha
Brad: I’ve never been in a band before John and Dave were in an awesome band, though.
Dave: My brother and I had a band when we were 12 with our current roommate Tosh, who is a rad dude. Just stupid songs about space ships and shit. Then we had another band called Smash TV with our friends Pierce, Dave and Mike. We played a lot of talking heads and Iggy and the Stooges. It was fun.

Sick, and how long has Indian Wars been together?

Dave: We started jamming in our grandmas garage around 2 or 3 years ago. That was with all four of us. Then it was just Brad, John and I, because Fraser was too crazy. The band at that point was called Strange Hands, but we changed the name to Indian Wars because there's a rad band in France called strange hands. Now Fraser is back in the band.
Brad: September 21st 2008 is when we signed up on Myspace and at that time Frase wasn’t even in the band, so I guess we’ve been an actual band doing actual recordings for a year.

I was going to say - if you were a new band - your sound is so polished and loud! Definitely shows that you guys have been jamming for a while. Why did you choose the name Indian Wars then?

Dave: Do you wanna answer that one brad?
Brad: because Indians are badass. Haha not really , Dave had another Myspace page for odds and ends and ideas for songs that he called Indian Wars, then when we changed our name we were all stoked on that
Dave: Its kind of named after two things. There's a song called ‘Indian War Whoop’, an old time song played by John Hartford that we really like. Also, the Indian Wars that took place on the plains.

Sorry I'm British - what are they? I know like red indians and kevin Costner and land struggles and stuff…

Brad: Yeah red indians, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_wars - the band is named after this event. They were clashes between settlers and American indians over land and resources. I was really into the civil war, Custer, and this time period. A pretty interesting time in history.

What are the main influences for Indian Wars?

Dave: Sorry...lets get back on track. Brad, you wanna list yours?
Brad: Yes. I think The Band was a big influence, their style doesn’t really com across in our music but I think they are the reason that we wanted to start a band, , love those guys... Dead Ghosts... they’re pretty much the only reason that people listen to us, Drew records all of our songs…Ya, the Dead Ghosts are a huge influence, and have taught us tons of stuff, from recording to equipment we need to playing live. We owe them alot. They're rad.
Brad: i think that alot of our influences are not at all the style of music that we play, but we listen to alot of garage and stuff like that so I would imagine thats where the sound comes from.

And is that how you would classify your sound, Garage?

Brad: I guess so, thats what most people say , what do you think Dave?
Dave: I think the first two recordings that we did were definitely garage sounding. Some of the more recent stuff is a little more poppy, and we have some pretty heavily country influenced/sounding songs we are going to be recording as well.

Yeah, you definitely can hear some of the country influence coming through

Brad: yeah i was going to say, the new stuff is more countryish.
Dave: For sure. For influences we forgot George Jones. That's where the country in our sound comes from. It’s all George Jones.
Brad: And his perfect smile

OK, you mentioned Dead Ghosts earlier - what is the underground music scene like in Vancouver? Is it pretty tight? The reason that I ask is that is that when I went there a couple of years ago someone told me that the music community wasn't really there…

Brad: A couple of years ago we weren’t really in the scene haha, but I would agree there wasn’t much going on…now there’s lots of shows going on. Vancouver is no Austin or Florida, but its definitely cool.
Dave: I think it's getting pretty good right now. It definitely lagged for a while. A couple of bands that we really like right now are Time Copz and Student Teacher, along with Dead Ghosts.

Have you managed to put any tapes out or anything?

Brad: nope, we only had 2 songs recorded well up until last night, now we have 4.

Cool, and how will it work from here? Do you plan to put anything out? Would you put stuff out on a split with another band?

Brad: Dave, I am answering all the questions!
Dave: We've got a split planned with the Fungi Girls that we're looking forward to. That should be good. We have to get someone to put that out though. We've been talking with a couple of labels, maybe to put out a 7 or 10 inch...but we're always looking for opportunities. We're just excited to get some vinyl out there.



So, I take it that gigs are where the fan base is coming from? What are your favourite kinds of shows to play?

Brad: HOUSE PARTIES!!!!
Dave: House parties are the best.

Yeah, some of the pictures on your Myspace are so rad! They all seem to be in someones bedroom.

Brad: Haha i believe youre refering to johns bedroom / our jam space?

I like the summer soltice picture especially with one of you wearing the face paint (at top)

Dave: Ya, that was the first time we played live in front of anyone. We were all so drunk. We couldnt remember how to play any of the songs. Haha.
Brad: Thanks, I think I should do that more often, yeah thats the first time we played in front of more people than just our girlfriends, the Dead Ghosts just showed up with their gear and made us do it. It was a good time.

Amazing. The picture that actually made me have to write a blog on your guys this morning was the picture of someone doing a huge air with a beer in his hand - that is the raddest fucking thing I've seen in so long!

Dave: That’s our friend Parm. He shreds. Such an awesome guy.
Brad: Yeah we are cheersing two cans of beer.

So good. So what would you say would have to be Indian Wars ultimate Top 5 records?

Brad: I think it would be different for each dude
Dave: Can we do our own top 5's?
Brad: Sure.
Dave: You go first.
Brad:
• The Band - Music From Big Pink
• 13th Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds of..
• The Seeds - The Seeds
• Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
• Then I would say some blues album, im not sure this is really hard actually, maybe Otis Redding - Otis Blue.

Dave:
• The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and the Band
• Fats Waller and his Rhythm by Fats Waller
• Best of George Jones by George Jones
• The upcoming unreleased Dead Ghosts Album
• Purple Rain by Prince. (fuck, prince sucks now).


Yeah, how the symbol has fallen.