Blake Sennett talk about touring with Coldplay

THE ELECTED'S BLAKE SENNETT CASTS A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE FOR CANADIAN INDIE ROCK

TYSON KABAN / [email protected]

After spending last year touring with half of the roster of Arts & Crafts (the Canadian indie label that is home to luminaries Broken Social Scene and Apostle of Hustle, among others), Blake Sennett has come to the conclusion that Canadian indie-rockers are “super-awesome”.

“We’ve toured with Stars and Feist and both of those acts proved to be the nicest people ever,” he enthuses. “I have high hopes for when we hit the road with Metric.”

Sennett, co-founder and co-songwriter of American indie-darlings Rilo Kiley, will be supporting Emily Haines and company on their latest tour of Western Canada with his side project, The Elected. And although he has nothing but good things to say about his indie counterparts to the North, he can’t really say that he enjoyed playing with a certain British band—you know, the one that is bent on world domination and, um, making trade fair, apparently.

“We did some dates opening for Coldplay with Rilo Kiley, but, in the case of ColdpLay, you don’t really see them. If you do, it’s at a distance because you’re not allowed in their ‘area,’” he says. “There wasn’t a whole lot of hanging out and being friends on that tour. They seemed like nice guys, but we never really found out.”

Still, Sennett is looking forward to hitting the prairies for the first time, and recognizes that, while being exposed to an audience as large as Coldplay’s had its benefits, he still prefers playing with bands on his own level.

“Metric and Stars and Feist, they’re part of the greater indie-rock contingent—I feel more of an affinity with bands like them,” he says. “In my mind, Coldplay are a pop band. I think Stars and Metric are much bigger in Canada than they are in the States: they may be a pop act in Canada, but in the States they’re still indie-rockers.

“And so far,” he adds, “they’ve been just so damned nice to us.” V

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