For close to 10 years, the Deadly Snakes have been one of Toronto’s favourite gangs of garage-reared rivet heads. Quick to champion their love of fuzzy guitars, Parkdale and closed caskets, the Snakes will shed album number four, Porcella, this fall on local indie upstart Paper Bag Records. This will be the initial Snakes’ long player to be available domestically, the previous three having been released by Los Angeles-based In The Red Records.

“It’s long overdue and we’re all really happy about it,” says Snakes vocalist and keyboardist Age of Danger (henceforth referred to as AOD for the sake of brevity and good taste). “I’ve seen our records selling for $28 in Toronto on import—it’s ridiculous. Most people just figured that when we signed to an American label, we weren’t interested in Canada anymore, which definitely wasn’t the case. I think that comes from the idea of Canadians selling themselves short, at least in terms of music.”

There are six Snakes in total aside from AOD: Andre Ethier (Guitar, Vocals), Matt Carlson (Trumpet, Bass), Andrew Gunn (Drums), Jeremi Madsen (Saxophone) and Chad Ross (Bass, Guitar). Each brings a different skronk to the stew but collectively, Porcella will continue on the path beget by 1999’s Love Undone. The last Snakes’ album, 2003’s Ode to Joy, boned up on the brass as the boys turned ever so slightly closer to their prevailing Motown and soul fixations. But AOD confirms that Porcella will still maintain all the bite marks of classic Deadly Snakes.


“It takes a cue from the last album; everything that was implied with Ode to Joy is taken the logical next step. And in terms of tempo, you could say that Porcella isn’t much of a garage record at all. Yeah, there’s a couple of ‘rockers’ on there but mostly, it’s mellow and weird—there’s a lot of strange sounds on there. We basically locked ourselves up in this cabin with a bunch of weird instruments and did the album. One of the songs is just toy piano and mellotron; another song is totally percussion free and we used a string section on a few tracks too. But overall, it’s not really that far out because it doesn’t sound all that different from our other albums.”

As mentioned, Canadian fans looking to eschew the import bin will finally get their wish due to the Snakes’ new association with Paper Bag Records. Trevor LaRocque from the label approached the band about working together. A quick deal was reached and this rest is/will be history.

“It was pretty casual; it’s not like our lawyers were talking with their lawyers or anything,” says AOD. “I never thought I’d ever be on a label with somebody like [techno beatmaster] Richie Hawtin or Jake Fairley. I grew up with him and he’s now living in Berlin, playing the fucking Love-fest or whatever. I really like how Paper Bag is picky about choosing bands on their label and they’re committed to focusing on different kinds of stuff.”

After a one-off performance as part of Paper Bag’s showcase at this year’s NXNE festival, the Snakes will take the summer off before concentrating in earnest on promoting the new record with a new series of shows, both in Canada and beyond. Yet for a band that’s garnered a bellyful of acclaim for their wiry garage spew, AOD and his bandmates are pretty damn pragmatic about what makes the Snakes click.

“The Deadly Snakes all have lives outside the band and that’s really important to all of us. That bloodthirsty drive for success is something that bothers me about a lot of younger bands. For us, it would be really nice if we could make a full-time living off it but we’ve never aimed to sign with Vice Records or make the band our one and only focus. We’re more hobbyists about the music and that’s totally fine.”

The Deadly Snakes play June 10th at the Gladstone Hotel as part of Paper Bag Records’ NXNE Showcase. For information about the band, please visit www.paperbagrecords.com.