PS. I Love You - interview

WHAT'S ON

Paul Saulnier, one half of Canadian band PS. I Love You answers our questions about their debut album, stage personas and small-town college life.

Your debut album Meet Me at the Muster Station has received some pretty hot reviews—how has it changed your life, for instance, have you been able to give up the day jobs yet?

I gave up my day job and I tour a lot but we still don't make a lot of money. There's a lot of costs involved with touring. My life is forever changed for the better though. I love being on the road and I've got to see so many cities that I probably would never have had the chance to visit.

When reviewing your album on Amazon, someone compared Paul's vocals to sounding like a fight between a sheep and a puppy - is that an accurate description, do you think? They are pretty unique sounding!

I'm an aries. I think aries are puppy-sheeps. This makes sense.

Many people bring up Japandroids when writing about you guys—have they been an inspiration and if not, who have?

Japandroids are awesome dudes and are totally inspiring. I think our music is really different though. We are both Canadian rock duos but we're trying for different sounds. I like them a lot and we've learned a lot about touring by hitting the road with them.

Will the frequently worn cloud face mask be making an appearance in Barcelona or is that just for local gigs where I've read you're looking for a stage personality?

It will stay at home i think.

When researching you, I read a lot of copy about you and not a lot about Benjamin, why's that? Are you, as vocalist the natural frontman?

Benjamin is a little bit more quiet and private than I am. Some things you should know about him is that he designs all our t-shirts and album artwork. He's an accomplished graphic designer. Check out his work here.

Muster Station lasts just 30 minutes. Was it hard to make such a compact album and are you going to be showcasing any new material on the tour?

There are a few new unreleased songs that we sometimes play on tour. I really love that our album is just under 30 minutes. It's also the same amount of time as a Wolfe Island ferry ride. The Wolfe Island ferry is in my hometown, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and the album is kind of all about that boat.

Your sound is massive—layering guitar over guitar, how do you replicate that live?

We have a pretty full sounding live show. It sounds big because my guitar is so loud and the pedal bass is really huge and bottom-endy. Ben drums really hard.

Kingston is, I hear, a pretty small college town not known for producing that many stand-out bands. What's the music scene like there and how does it compare with the bigger cities like Toronto or Montreal?

Things are more casual and friendly in Kingston. In the bigger cities you get a lot of people who are trying to "make it" to hard and they seem disingenuous.

How do you like touring? How have you been received so far?

I love it. Benjamin really misses his girlfriend and his cats. I love the adventure and seeing new cities and meeting cool people and hopefully playing really good shows. So far, we've been received positively. I think a lot of people think our live show will not stack up next to our album but live, I think we sound even more epic than on record.

What's next for PS I Love You?

More touring and writing new songs for our second album.