Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com has been threatening to move to Canada down as the 75th thing white people like the most. Basically the thinking goes that if my government does something I do not like or passes a law that isn’t in my personal best interests I will threaten to move to Canada. Not that any of these (white) people will ever move to Canada... it’s symbolic. “It shows that their dedication to their lifestyle and beliefs are so strong that they would consider packing up their entire lives and moving to a country that is only slightly different to the one they live in now (only colder)."

Another reason white people (or any people) talk about moving to Canada is because everybody thinks that when Skynet starts the nuclear war nobody will bother bombing Canada because they are so liberal and talk funny. Another reason is the fact that you can get as stoned as you like over there (but you can’t stone women), and yet another is the sheer amount of amazing music acts coming out of Canada right now - our favourite being latest Warp signing Luke la-la-la-LaLonde, Mitch de-de-de-DeRosier and Steve ha-ha-ha-Hamelin otherwise known as Born Ruffians. 

We asked where Luke was and got told that he had gone back to Canada and not to ask any more questions.  

Music has long been at the forefront of Canada’s cultural heritage. Given the sheer amount of cultures that came together and fought and fucked it out to make the Canada we all now know and love, it’s no surprise that the Canadian youth are so busy mashing together disparate influences from all over the shop and making guitar-music interesting again, taking alternative music and alternative scenes to dizzying new heights. The alt music scene has risen to become one of the most fully developed expressions of Canadian identity after saying ‘oot’ a lot and doing that thing where you punch a hole in the bottom of a beer can and let it all spray into your mouth and shit.

Maybe the rhythm section, incensed at Luke’s always being the centre or attention, ‘offed’ him before all the publicity started. 

With their tight-as-the-proverbial-12-year-old rhythm section, tortured vocals and catchy, disjointed guitar licks, punctuated by machine gun drum fills and chanting harmonies, the band sound like the sum of Warp label-mates Battles (jerky, math-rock), Grizzly Bear (riotous folk rock) and the infectious stage energy of  Paul Smith (Maximo Park) doing the double splits (ouch).

Born Ruffians are the sort of act that instead of using the pop angle as an excuse to rip off impressionable children to get rich quick, exploit it to express the sort of real and not necessarily comfortable emotions and ideas you need to hide in a Trojan horse made of catchy melodies, vocal harmonies and a pumping back-rhythm. When Luke asks if it’s “Back to mine or yours” during the deceptively lulling One of those girls, the answer is obvious... without things ever getting into ‘emo’ territory.

“You wanna know where Luke is so much, maybe we show you capiche?” 

DP: "How long are you guys over here for? Have you had a chance to hang out, I mean ‘oot’, in London yet?" 

STEVE: “It’s been gigs pretty much everyday. We got the chance to hang out on Saturday; we went down to a club called The End. It was pretty cool and they had a really good line up of dance acts. Today we’ve got loads of interviews and are doing some filming. It gives us the chance to check out the area [Camden]. There are a lot of cool shops here. We’re heading to a comic store after we’re done here.” 

DP: "There are so many cool bands coming out of Canada at the moment."  

STEVE: “There is a good music scene back in Canada right now. There has always been a tradition with Canada and music. There is the odd Avril Lavigne popping up every now and again but for the most part it’s good, credible acts. There isn’t such a massive infrastructure like with the US and the bigger markets.” 

DP: "It’s like you guys have gone totally against the all Canadian bands must have 10,000 members / bizarre outfits / weird instruments / something bizarre happening on stage rule. Was this a conscious decision? Is the rest of Canada pissed at you guys for ruining their aesthetic?" 

MITCH: “We were never really concerned with things like aesthetics. We’re not supposed to be a pretty band. It just worked out the three of us worked well as a unit together.” 

DP: "Your rhythm section sounds like 50 people playing at once anyway. The drumming was particularly impressive. Steven really sounds like he’s suicide-attacking the drums the whole time when you guys play live. Did any of you have a background in HC or anything before you started the Ruffians?" 

STEVE: “No, none of us were ever in any other bands before this one. I actually learned to play drums just to be in this band. I wouldn’t recommend not taking music lessons but I never did. It can work out either way though and it’s always going to be a lot of work getting to a professional standard either way.” 

DP: "We heard about how crack-heads broke into your van and stole all your snares. We spent ages trying to find some crack-heads in Camden for a feature we did a while back but couldn’t find any. What is it with crack-heads? They’re so damn unreliable." 

MITCH: “Yeah, class A drug users usually are. We did some work with a programme called Skins a few days back. Lots of chemicals at play there. It seemed like a British version of the OC or something.” 

DP: "Skins is more OD than the OC tbh…" 

STEVE: “Haha, they should use that as the tagline."

DP: *Calls up channel 4*