In this bonus podcast interview, 2004: The Year Indie Rock Broke executive producer Courtney E. Smith sits down with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene.
Kevin looks back on the moment everything changed for the band, with a Pitchfork review in February 2003 that ricocheted from their South by Southwest appearance that spring and just kept going while they toured Europe.
Then there's the part you won't hear anywhere else. Courtney, who was working in MTV's music programming department in 2004, digs into Broken Social Scene's music videos, and none of this made it into the podcast. Kevin walks her through shooting "Cause = Time" in his parents' backyard with 65 people, army gear, and bags over everyone's heads as the Iraq war was on the precipice of starting, at a time when very few musicians were getting involved in politics. That video led to conversation with two solders at a Dallas show, and it was the night he decided to change how he talked about politics. He also talks about the video for "I'm Still Your Fag," which was banned by MTV and Much Music.
The conversation ends on love songs, because as his friend Torquil Campbell once told him, that's all there is.
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