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 the unicorns interview
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Enigmatic avant-pop from Canada’s newest and possibly finest. Nick Diamonds, Alden Ginger and J’aime Tambeur are The Unicorns, three analogue pop visionaries. Nick and J’aime are dissecting last night’s show while Alden remains silent. “We were asked to leave in the middle of our set. By asked we mean forcibly ejected – a classic arm-behind-the-back takedown manoeuvre.” It’s a surprisingly rock‘n’roll tale for such a beguiling band.The Unicorns don’t see themselves as part of a Canadian “scene”. “We’re coming from somewhere else altogether,” says Alden. “Hot Hot Heat are 10,000 miles away from where we’re from. It’s a really big, empty place.” Then Nick adds elliptically, “I’ll acknowledge that I’m from Canada but I don’t think I’ll acknowledge that I’m Canadian.”  This dislocation extends to the band’s circumstances, as Nick explains. “Alden and I used to live on opposite ends of the country. We would reconvene for very brief periods of time and share ideas, stories, songs, chords and melodies, and sometimes fuse them together.” This approach is evident in the record, a collection of complex, genre-bending pop, reminiscent of The Flaming Lips and bursting with spontaneity. The album stubbornly resists classification. “I wasn’t premeditating, I was kind of purging. We weren’t trying to make a dance punk record or an indie pop record. To me it’s like breathing,” says Nick, adding disturbingly, “If you find a serial killer you can find them by the patterns they kill with. From our songs you’re going to be able to find patterns and certain consistencies.” It’s left to Jamie to sum things up: “It’s vaguely psychedelic, a sort of spinning-round-a-bunch-of-times kind of psychedelia, a childlike form.” An idea that fits squarely with Nick’s surreal sleeve art.  The record has been out for a year in North America, which begs the question, what next? Nick suddenly becomes animated. “All brass, no percussion, no singing, acoustic… We’re going to come in to 6 Music and do an acoustic session. We’ve got one song, it’s like six French horns and a baritone, that’s pretty good. We’re trying to get our hands on a tuba.” But it’s J’aime who has the last word: “We’re just doing our laundry. The next album will be called Who Will Wash Our Clothes When We’re Dirty?” Judging by their dazzlingly white stage suits it may take some time, but it promises to be every bit as intoxicating as their first.
Paul Jones
The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, released 22 November 04 on Rough Trade.
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