Interview: Krief

When I had sat down with Krief, it was back in April. Patrick Krief and his band were in Toronto to celebrate the release of Hundred Thousand Pieces. Midway through our chat, the opening band hit the stage and Krief was yelling into the recorder, so I thought I’d spare his voice and keep the chat brief.

The night before, Krief had his official release party, which he says was quite intimate, at O Patro Vys in his hometown of Montreal. After a long drive, he admits to being “a bit hungover.” Can’t blame a guy for enjoying his release party, right?

Krief may be known as a guitarist for The Dears. He says, “I played about a thousand, five hundred shows with The Dears and written songs with The Dears and… it’s part of who I am. It’s going to affect everything. The Dears affect me as much as I affect them. I’m a common denominator.”

Previously Krief had been releasing music as Black Diamond Bay, but Krief indicated that his latest music was a continuation of his old project.

As far as how the music has evolved, Krief says, “Everybody is playing a part that’s gonna be heard because it’s arranged that way. Things kind of jump out at me now, it’s not a flat lined wall of sound. My singing has come up a notch too, after playing about three hundred shows.”

Krief jokes that his state of mind at the time of writing the songs was “a drunken haze.”
But his mood when recording the album was not good. He says, “When it came time to actually put it together, I was in a dark place. Not so much depressed, but a lot of anxiety. A bad kind of anxiety.” Knowing this, the album’s moody feel makes a lot more sense.

Krief actually recorded all the instruments himself, with the exception of keyboards. Roberto Piccioni, who was also part of Black Diamond Bay, recorded keys. Krief describes how the live show comes together as “synergy” and continues to say, “I hate that word, but I’m using it. It’s one of those words that douchebags use a lot, you know? So I guess I’m a doucebag.”

At this point, Piccioni chimes in, “I can confirm.”

We all have a good laugh and then Krief continues, “People [are] playing off each other and it does something. I’m overwhelmed by the feeling of these songs when we start playing them live. I’m always feeling like ‘wow, these songs are better than I thought they were.’ But every once in a while you get one that doesn’t really work that way.”

When I press for a drunken story, Krief asks Piccioni, “Can I tell them about the time you fell down the stairs?” Piccioni says yes and Krief then tells the short story.

“We were in Toronto sleeping at a friend’s place. We were on a fire escape drinking and Roberto fell down the stairs and he smashed his head. He was bleeding and when he got up, he was talking like our drummer.”

At this point, Krief does an impression of Piccioni, which has Krief doing his best to lose his Montreal accent, sounding almost American.

He presses on. “He had a concussion. We were like, ‘Just go to sleep, man. You’ll be fine.’ Which is like the worst thing you can do when you have a concussion.”

Well, Piccioni is fine, so I suppose it all worked out okay, but at least Krief realizes it was terrible advise!

As for the band’s shot of choice, it’s vodka. In fact, just after our chat started, the bassist came in with a bottle of vodka from the LCBO. Krief and Piccioni called him a good kid.

You can find Hundred Thousand Pieces on iTunes. And while I don’t see any upcoming shows just yet, I recommend you see him live when you get the chance.