The past nine months have been anything but serene for The Most Serene Republic.
Hailing from modest Milton, Ont., these six friends are Canada's newest indie rock darlings -- largely due to being the most recent addition to the indie-rock-darling machine, also known as Broken Social Scene's homegrown label, Arts & Crafts.
Despite having only been officially a band for about a year now, the shaggy sweater-vest set have already been touted as Canada's most exciting emerging band, and have been widely compared to national treasures Arcade Fire and, of course, Broken Social Scene.
"We're very honoured to be compared to those fine groups of artists from Canada who are out there travelling the world, spreading what they have to say from a Canadian viewpoint," says 20-year-old lead singer Adrian Jewett. "I don't actually hear the similarities, but I enjoy them a lot."
After being the first non-BSS offshoot band to sign to Arts & Crafts (label mates include Stars, Feist, Jason Collett and Apostle Of Hustle, all of which host former or current members of the BSS collective), The Most Serene Republic released their debut album, Underwater Cinematographer, in June.
Since then, it's been non-stop touring for the group, including dates with Stars, Metric, and currently, BSS., They're booked at Lee's Palace Saturday night.
"Everything's going by so quickly -- we've been travelling from town to town, living a very un-normal lifestyle, like nomads," Jewett says. "It's a great feeling knowing that our music has gotten this far. I was in Kentucky and saw us on the cover of this magazine in a store and I thought, 'Wow, this is Kentucky. I've never even been here before in all my life and there I am on the front of a magazine!'"
When asked if all the BSS-related buzz and comparisons ever get under his skin, Jewett offers an honest "not yet."
"It will get under our skin when we release our second album, but not at the moment because this is kind of our introduction to everybody," he says. "We're enjoying it all a lot, but to get a fully reflective and sentimental answer out of me, I would have to finish this tour first and be looking back on it to make sense of it all."
It simply hasn't hit them yet.
"When we get back from tour I'll be able to think about what we've actually done," Jewett says. "I'll pull out a map and be like, 'Did we really come this far? Did we really travel the map with Broken Social Scene?'"
After their Toronto stop this week, BSS cart their proteges to Europe, then back home for the holidays, then ship them out on the road again come spring.
Jewett says all the touring has noticeably strengthened the group dynamic. "Our relationships have become so much stronger now that we've toured together in a van for two months," he says. "To put it in the roughest terms possible, we've seen everyone have emotional diarrhea and we've had to hold out our hands and take it -- it's been that raw. We're a lot more comfortable with one another now."
But Jewett leaves the impression the comfort ends there and that the band's leap to hype-ville has left them a tad overwhelmed.
"This is new and exciting and odd. The whole music scene is a fishbowl and we're definitely tapping on the glass," he says. "But when you're an artist, you don't really have a choice. I mean, I know I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't be a teacher or a physicist -- I can only do this.
"We are happy doing this and it makes us happy to know we are entertaining people. You've got to keep advancing and Canadian music is doing just that."
