Actual Water makes Big Mac music

Actual Water’s new album The Paisley Orchard opens with a sample of Bill Cosby and ends with singer Anthony Price howling, “That’s a fuckin’ tune!” In between, the Toronto four-piece lays down some seriously catchy jangle pop in the tradition of Flying Nun Records, Swell Maps messthetics, and even a whiff of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” While edging away from the caveman garage rock and sound collage experiments of earlier recordings, they still gleefully fuck with the formula, tossing in Black Sabbath bong coughs, weirdo interludes, and a smudge of lo-fi scum.

Check the video for “La Violence sur Les Champs-Élysées”:

La Violence sur Les Champs-Élysées - Actual Water from Danielle Nemet on Vimeo.

“A lot of bands make inaccessible music because they don’t how to fuckin’ play,” says drummer Gary Arthurs in a frenzied three-way conference call. “We all know how to play because we grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and shit. We might be getting more accessible, but at the same time it’s just an evolution of our songwriting. We’re naturally mainstream accessible people.”

“I think we finally became able to actually start perfecting something, rather than just learning or dabbling,” Anthony jumps in. “But even with our first two cassettes, we were interested in making a product and a small experience like McDonald’s. The albums are 30 minutes long with all of these short songs, and even the ambient tracks are two minutes. It’s something you can consume quickly and just feel good. We make Big Mac music.”

Whether or not that sounds appetizing, they’re clearly committed to the slogan. The band’s upcoming 7” A-side “She’s A Priest” is also devoted to local Queen St. East hangover specialists, The Burger’s Priest. Less an ode to “The Vatican City” (two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns) than a tribute to their city, Actual Water give it up for the T-Dot like Kardinal Offishall. Check out the tune:

“When we got into music, all the Brit Pop bands were writing about London,” laughs Anthony. “Lots of people talk shit about Toronto, saying New York is better and making a myth about it, but I don’t get that. We’re not gonna write about a chip shop in Piccadilly fuckin’ Circus, we’re gonna write about Burger’s Priest. We go there and eat it and it’s in our bodies while we write the fuckin’ song. I’m also not gonna walk out in a Canada flag parka or anything, but we definitely rep our city.”

Since their shambling 2008 debut, Double Negatives, Actual Water have purposefully spaced out releases rather than rushing out demos or shaky home jams. Still, they weren’t quite obsessing over the craft like a batshit Brian Wilson in the sandbox.

“We write a lot of songs and record constantly, so we’re not Brian Wilson by any means,” says Gary. “We’re also not perfectionists, but it’s more of a quality control thing. We love Bob Pollard, but what percentage of the stuff that guy’s done is any good? There’s a lot of shit, and we don’t want to be a band with lots of shit.”

Throughout this slow trickle, they’ve also maintained far more anonymity than most artists with Internet access. While they don’t share every detail of their personal lives or write Tiger Beat band bios, they’ve also been baffled by other articles describing them as “mysterious.”

“It honestly comes from growing up and being major Led Zeppelin fans,” says Anthony. “That sounds kind of ridiculous, but my email address in high school was Led-Anthony-Zeppelin at Hotmail. It’s just this thing we’ve always been obsessed with. We didn’t do it intentionally, but it’s cool to not know everything, especially in a day and age where people make so much information available.”

“Every band has a blog with a tour diary and shit, but we’ll never do that,” says Gary. “We just put out our tunes, play our shows out and that’s it. We’re not gonna go on Twitter and post about actual shit we’re doing. I’m not going to post a picture of my lunch or whatever, I think that’s fuckin’ stupid. Quote that shit — fuck Instagram!”

“Joy Division, great band, whatever,” Anthony concludes. “But the mythologies built up around Ian Curtis… what was he, a singer who liked glam rock and had depression problems and suddenly he’s a fuckin’ hero? Someone like Nick Lowe from the same era who puts a stamp on music and changes sound — that’s what we’re into. Of course personality and being silly or whatever is important, but we don’t like when people get built up for nothing.”

Follow Jesse at @wipeoutbeat

Previously - Lowlife