Music

Broken Social Scene’s Justin Peroff: “Stephen Harper looks like he could kill somebody”

by Rob Duffy

Broken Social Scene spent this past Canada Day playing a mega-expensive, decidedly non-Canadian feeling outdoor show at Toronto’s Downsview Park alongside The Tragically Hip and Weezer, and just prior to the band’s set, we caught up backstage with drummer (and fervent political observer) Justin Peroff to get his thoughts on the state of Canada’s union.

He mentioned how pleased he was to see the NDP installed as Canada’s Official Opposition, but his remarks about our Prime Minister were blunt, to say the least. When asked if he feels a sense of two-faced deceit from Stephen Harper, Peroff said:

“He looks like the type of person that could actually physically kill somebody. I’m actually serious. This is on the record. And that’s all I really wanna say. He does seem to be that type of person.”

The drummer went on to express a general distrust for our political systems, based largely on the character of the people who control them.

“It takes a certain type of person to be a politician in the first place,” Peroff said. “They’re just able to be many different people at any given time. There’s a lot of people that we probably aren’t even aware of that actually write the design of politics in Canada and America. Overall, [I’m] very happy to be Canadian.”

Peroff added that having spent time living in Los Angeles of late, he feels that Canada is in a much better position than the United States with respect to the global economic crisis.

“As far as our nation is concerned, I don’t have a lot to complain about. I feel that our nation is very strong. We recovered from the 2008 crash very quickly; I know people [in the US] who are selling their homes for half the [original] price. And based on my American news sources, I feel like [their] recovery is not going to happen any time soon.”

Broken Social Scene decamped to Chicago to record their 2010 album Forgiveness Rock Record with producer John McEntire. Whether the economic recovery south of the border will affect BSS’s musical process once again, only time will tell.