Supporting Caste, the latest effort by Winnipeg’s Propagandhi was positively received by fans and critics when it was released early March of 2009 – a long wait from 2005’s Potemkin City Limits. Some changes were made between the recording of the two albums, namely the inclusion of second guitarist David "The Beaver" Guillas and parting with longtime friends Fat Wreck Chords. Propagandhi would find their latest release on Smallman Records and G7 Welcoming Committee, the label founded by members Chris Hannah and Jordan Samolesky with a loan from Fat Wreck Chords.
A portion of their sales have gone towards organizations in support of issues that they are vocal about including sexism, racism, capitalism, religion, human rights, and animal rights. The band has strong connections with veganism and organizations such as PETA2, The Welcome Place, and Haiti Action Network among others.
Ultimate-Guitar correspondent Evan Greenblo chatted with Propagandhi bassist and backup vocalist Todd Kowalski.
UG: I’ve noticed that everyone in the band does interviews. Is it a conscious effort to not have one person speak for the band?
Todd Kowalski: We all do interviews for the band because we want to function as a band in the best sense of the word. I think it's more interesting than hearing from one or two people all the time. We work as a little unit.
You allowed fans to download two songs off the album prior to release date if they donated $1 or more, yet the album still leaked – I’m sure you aren’t happy. Are these people assholes or just huge fans of Propagandhi?
Someone went on to the website where "media" was supposed to download the songs for review and they decided to spread the password around to everybody and somebody ripped it. It hurts a bit and probably hindered our donation idea a bit but there's nothing we can do about it so I don't lose any sleep over it. That sure takes a bit of the fun out of it for the band, though. We'd way rather have people get the CD with the art and everything. Maybe those days are coming to an end?
Do you think the current music industry model is still appropriate in this day and age? Are downloaders ever going to cease to exist? What is the solution?
Downloaders will always exist. I don't know what the solution is besides just asking people to buy the record if they can and if they respect the work and money you put into it. Downloading helps in some way and lets a lot of people hear the band, so there's an upside as well.
Can you explain the song title Potemkim City Limits on your new record? Was it sort of like a throwback to the last release?
We were hoping to do a little bit of record to record crossover. We had that song recorded for the last record and then decided we'd work on it more for this record. I'm glad we did. It actually wasn't titled before so we titled it that as a nod to its heritage [laugh].
"We want to function as a band in the best sense of the word."
Beave's a great guy. I liked having him around in the studio. He's pretty supportive and really into playing music and improving. That drives me as well. He added a lot of input and music on this record. It's nice to have four people instead of just 3. It makes a big, big difference even in terms of everything gelling together musically and personality-wise.
There’s a lot of awesome riffage on the new record. Were there any recent influences to spark the change, or was it just the inclusion of a second guitarist?
Beave has a lot of great riffage on the record but we all practiced like crazy and worked hard. Beave, Chris, and I all contribute guitar riffs. Mostly we just wanted to play the best we could and make sure it rocked. The influences remain the similar to before with the addition of a few new and interesting bands. I like a lot of Death Metal bands like Necrophagist, Krisiun and Immolation. None of them sound like us though [laugh] Why copy, eh?
What happened with G7 Welcoming Committee Records? Will the label return sometime in the future?
I'm not sure what will happen with G7. Only time will tell. Right now we're all focused on the band a few other things. Derek from G7 records moved to Halifax. At that point it became boring for Chris to sit alone in the G7 office stewing in his juices.
Now that the label will no longer release new material, will more time be devoted to Propagandhi? Can we expect studio releases to come out sooner than the usual 3 to 5 years?
I have no idea. We’re working hard but we keep ending up on the receiving end of strange curve balls, which is O.K. but we have to work through it all. We're hoping to record sooner than later. We already have a bunch of music on the go. We're starting to practice new songs this week while we're between tours. I'm really excited about the new riffs that are floating around!
What happened between the band and Fat Wreck Chords? I believe there were certain ideological differences between Propagandhi and the label.
Yeah, we weren't seeing eye-to-eye a little bit but in reality we never really did. We like everybody at Fat we just decided we'd try to do this instead. Smallman seemed really excited about helping us out so we might as well hang ourselves with our own rope than someone else’s if it goes bad. So far it all seems to be going really well. We're happy about it.
You’ll be in Europe soon to support the new album. Being a band of your nature, do you have any trouble travelling?
Sometimes we get some trouble at the border and get put through the gears a bit but really we're just speaking our minds which in the end has not been a crime punishable by being sent home to mommy.
"Downloaders will always exist. I don't know what the solution is besides just asking people to buy the record if they can."
Australia was great! Everybody was going nuts and was really nice. But also in New York and parts of the U.S. east coast it was the same so I'd say everyone is pretty cool. The people who like us really treat us well, for the most part. Sometimes people bring gifts and stuff. We really appreciate all that. Everywhere we go people have been great I have no preference for the people.
Are there any places you’d like to tour which you haven’t been to?
Yeah, there are millions of places that would be great. Africa, China, Some more places in South America, even some smaller places in our province of Manitoba would be awesome to play!
Propagandhi lyrics speak about both political and social issues, yet you guys still remain humorous. Is this something all bands need in order to keep going for a long time? You know, just some times where things don’t have to be all serious.
Our personalities are just sort of humor seeking so it's impossible not to have that get into our music and stage show. I can't imagine us standing beside each other trying to look tough or cool. I can't believe bands can do that.
What do you think of the continuous bashing PETA and PETA2 receives?
Well, if some of the bashing is in regards to some of the sexist output of PETA then it is well deserved. In many other cases though, lot of the bashing is just knee-jerk, unthought out nonsense try to dismiss PETA because people do not want to think about animal cruelty, or changing anything about their diets or their lives. I prefer PETA2's approach to PETA's approach.
Interview by Evan Greenblo
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2009
/ my profile 
