Riding (lo-fi) high

>> Fly Pan Am's tricky take-off

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

With aviation disasters all the rage lately, you may be best to stay grounded with Montreal's own Fly Pan Am. They're an instrumental rock quartet whose epic pop-prog suggests everything from French pop to art-punk, all under the heavy blanket of minimalist experimentalism. The Mirror spoke to Fly Pan Am (and godspeed you black emperor!) guitarist Roger Tellier-Craig about dissonance, the absurdity of fame and his record store day job.

Mirror: So why the name Fly Pan Am?

Roger Tellier-Craig: We picked it up from a poster we saw in an old '70s movie. It's ironic in a sense, using product advertising. Pop art influenced us a lot on aesthetic levels. The music doesn't have the dayglo, happy vibe of the title, but I like the idea of things not functioning well. Our recordings are like products that don't work, they've got stops and things in them that don't fit in a normal musical progression. It's not to frustrate people with that stupid "we're not gonna give you what you want" attitude. This sounds so fucking corny and pretentious, but we want to make people more conscious of what they're consuming.

M: What's it like being in two bands and working at l'Oblique?

RT: It's strange when somebody comes up and asks, 'What's Fly Pan Am like?' I ask my co-worker to tell them. I'm not gonna sell this record--I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that, it's like signing an autograph.

M: Have you been hounded for autographs?

RT: It's happened to everyone in godspeed in Europe. It's not that we feel the people asking are stupid, but we feel ridiculous doing it. I'm not better than anybody else, why should I give you a piece of paper with my name on it? I've seen people like Sonic Youth feeding off stuff like that. I interviewed Thurston Moore and he's really comfortable with the hierarchy that's been created and all the praise they've had. Yeah, I like their stuff but they're not geniuses. I find it disturbing the way people are presented as models. It makes them look like they're better people, like they entertain the workers. :

Opening for Do Make Say Think on August 5 at the Darling Foundry (735 Ottawa), 9pm, $8