May. 12, 2010 - Issue #760: The Meat Issue

Prevue

Damian comes to life

Fucked Up lead singer isn't afraid to let his opinions be known

Punk rock seems to be populated entirely by the kind of people who aren't afraid to tell you exactly how they feel, so it should come as no surprise that one of Canada's best-known punk bands has recently found itself in the spotlight not for its music but for its opinions. For some of the members of Toronto-based band Fucked Up, winner of the 2009 Polaris Music Prize, free expression has lately been earning them some attention for reasons other than the band's chaotic live show and increasingly cerebral recordings.

Following Arizona's controversial implementation of a law which allows police officers to demand proof of immigration status from any individual they believe could potentially be an illegal immigrant, Fucked Up lead singer Damian Abraham found himself embroiled in a well-publicized "Twitter fight" with fellow Toronto-based band Stars over the best course of action to take in fighting the racist legislation.

"I think because I was new to Twitter and didn't really know how quickly things could get blown out of proportion and become huge issues, I didn't realize how quickly it was going to go from a difference of opinion to a beef," Abraham says to explain how the issue seemed to spiral out of control on Canadian music blogs. "Stars said that they were going to boycott playing Arizona and I just felt, and I still feel, that boycotting in this case is not the correct course of action. From my perspective the best course of action is to keep playing Arizona and encouraging groups and organizations to come out to your show, to engage people at the show to get involved in activism. That, I think, is the way to effect change.

"Here we are agreeing about the root cause of our argument but disagreeing vocally with each other on the correct course of action," Abraham continues, reflecting on the absurdity of the attention the disagreement garnered. "At the end of the day it's like, 'Well, we actually do agree, but ...' I guess it's the nuance we disagree on."

Fucked Up is no stranger to political action by any means: a Christmas single financed by the prize money awarded to the band from the Polaris win went to support three different non-profit organizations working to alleviate the plight of aboriginal women in Canada. The band's 2007 single, "Year of the Pig" is written about the same subject. Though it's not unusual for a punk band to take a stand on social issues, for a band like Fucked Up—notorious for not getting along—it certainly could be. Abraham is philosophical about the group's somewhat legendary ability to remain intact while at the same time not being able to decide where to go for breakfast, as well as the fact that Fucked Up is able to agree on the big things if not the little ones.

"We disagree on little things, like where to eat, that turn into big things—that's a huge fight for us normally. Or what band we like more, we disagree about that stuff but I think on the big issues, the real issues that actually count, we're all on similar pages or the same page," he says. "Especially once we all talked about it, shared some emails and some literature about it—the plight of aboriginal women in Canada is horrendous, especially for poor aboriginal women in Canada—it was really easy for all of us to try and get involved and it was a really easy decision for us to make that that's where the money should go from the next benefit single we were going to do."

With the summer festival season approaching, Abraham says that the band is looking forward to a busy season of touring, but will be relieved when it is over and Fucked Up can concentrate on creating a follow-up to the band's much-acclaimed second full-length album, The Chemistry of Common Life. Just prior to that, however, the band has one more tour planned.

"When festival season is over we're gonna do one more crazy tour with Public Enemy—and it's really weird to say that but it looks like it's going to happen in September—and then we're going to make the record in October," he says, becoming nearly giddy at the prospect. "Their management reached out to us and then Chuck D reached out to us and said he enjoyed the band and would like to do some stuff with us and it just went from there. Now we're trying to work out the details of doing some shows together on the East Coast of the United States and maybe working on some sort of collaboration in the near future. It still seems so unreal that I don't want to talk about it too much and jinx it.
"It's living proof that anything can happen. Literally, anything can happen." V

Fri, Mar 14 (8 pm)
Fucked Up
With Grown Ups, No Problem
Avenue Theatre (9030 - 118 Ave), $16
 

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