Interview: Justin Peroff of Broken Social Scene @ Pitchfork Music Festival

Posted By Ian on Jul 21, 2010

Justin Peroff has crafted some of the catchiest drum parts of the new millenium with Broken Social Scene.  Survey the past few years of indie music, and then go back and listen to You Forgot It In People.  See what I mean?  Some very influential grooves on that record.  The excellence continues on their latest, Forgiveness Rock Record. He cuts through the wall-of-sound guitars and swirling vocals with crunchy hi-hats (“Forced to Love”), punching-bag bass drums (“Art House Director”), well-thought-out beats (“Romance to the Grave”) and good old-fashioned epic drum fills (“Water in Hell”). Justin opens up about working with one of his biggest influences, John McEntire of Tortoise, and his anchoring role in the Noah’s-Ark-like ensemble. Transcipt is below the video if the audio is too dodgy for you.  –Paul Goodenough TBDITW:  Thanks for joining us.  A big thank you to Jusitn Peroff of Broken Social Scene.  Thanks for coming on, Justin.  How long have you been playing with Broken Social Scene? JP:  Since the beginning, which was, I would say, 10 years ago. TBDITW:  And what is your main instrument? JP:  My main instrument is the drums. TBDITW:  What drummers who are playing now have really impressed you? JP:  I had the honor of working with John McEntire on this last record.  And for us to even be in correspondence with him is a really big thing.  And now I consider him a friend.  That was massive for me since he is actually one of my favorite drummers.  I’ve been heavily influenced by him.  And he’s going to be playing with us tonight.  That was like dream come true. TBDITW:  I noticed a lot of tracks on the album feature him on drums as well.  How’d that work out?  Was it at the same time or layered? JP:  Some of the parts are doubled – he doubled me on World Sick.  He doubled me on some parts to beef it up a little bit.  He recorded his drums in a different room, in a different way, with a different set up.  On one song, “Ungrateful Little Father,” he’s playing the main drum part on that. He’s playing the main part on the Andrew Whiteman song,  “Art House Director.”  So on some songs it’s doubled, some are not, some have separate parts that complement each other. TBDITW:  Was there any tricks, any techniques of his that you really picked up on? JP:  If I did, it wasn’t anything specific, it was more subliminal.  ‘Cause if I did, its not like I knew the guy when I was growing up listening to his records to be like “How’d you...