On this episode of In Conversation, I spoke with Jeremy Gaudet, the lead singer and songwriter of the Toronto indie rock band Kiwi Jr.
The band recently released their third album Chopper on Sub Pop Records. While it’s filled with songs that exemplify Kiwi Jr.’s winning combination of infectious jangle-pop and Gaudet’s witty wordplay, the record is also a turning point for the band.
Linking up with Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner to produce, the album takes a much more serious tone with synths that create a thick atmosphere that was not there on the band’s previous records, Football Money and last year’s Cooler Returns.
Chopper also contains some of Gaudet’s best lyrics to date as the album is rich in themes that revolve around characters struggling with “main character syndrome” in a world where it’s increasingly difficult to get noticed.
In this conversation, we discuss those lyrical themes on Chopper, the influence of film and TV on his writing, the head wound Dan Boeckner suffered while recording the album and so much more.