Mississauga four-piece The Paint Movement are part of the "Broken Social Scene 2.0", um, scene. You can tell they have worn out copies of You Forgot It In People on their shelves. Every time I listen to "Faults" I picture Kevin Drew giving them the song in their dreams like when David Bowie gave Bret all that advice in Flight of the Conchords.

Like a lot of young indie bands, The Paint Movement made a home studio to make their dreams come alive on record. The end result is a jazzy, experimental pop collection called Our Eurythmy (out very soon on new local label Nevado Records).

The Paint Movement play The Silver Dollar Friday night. I spoke with bassist Jason Haberman about their influences, recording at home, and the lack of cool stuff in the 905.

blogTO: Why are you called The Paint Movement?

Jason Haberman: Our music has momentum and textures, it's our way of making art with our instruments and voices.

You made your album in Kevin's basement studio. What's the studio set-up like? How long did it take to put the studio together?

The studio took months to set up and a couple years to make it feel like home. It's equipped with your basic live room/production room and a plethora of instruments that we have gathered over the years.

Was Our Eurythmy the first recording your band made together? How much trial and error went on during the recording process? Did you already have a clear idea of how you wanted your album to sound like or did you experiment with sounds as you went along?

Yes, it was the first album we have made as a group. Lots and lots of trial and error went on. We got to know a lot of good/bad recording techniques and really came together as a band during this process. We had a pretty clear idea of what we imagined the album sounding like in our heads before we started. As the months went on in the studio we started hearing the sounds we wanted to hear from the start and a lot of different ones that came from things like recording sax in the kitchen, drums in the laundry room, hitting lighters against coat hooks, and recording thunder storms and room tones.

Will you keep recording at home or are you curious about working in a professional recording studio?

Recording at home is great because we have already done it and learned so much from it. We have the equipment and love the fact of having time and freedom to experiment. On the other hand working in a professional studio you have another set of ears and someone with a lot more experience. It all depends on whether we want to keep going with the sound we have or try something different. We have always wanted to take our gear up north for the summer and make music with nature surrounding us.

Listening to your record, it sounds like you're fans of Broken Social Scene (one of my favourite bands) and jazz. What would you say are your major rock and jazz influences?

BSS definitely changed our perspective of new music. Jazz influences us to break out of the traditional borders and improvise each time we jam or play a show. a lot of influences these days come from the amazing local talent spreading fast like Still Life Still, Dinosaur Bones, The Junction, Fox Jaws, and more.

I like hearing the saxophone in most of your songs. Do you guys have an instrumental band background?

Our saxophonist Loftman is musically trained, he brings a lot to the songs.

You had lots of guests on your record. Do guests also join you on stage or is it just the four of you?

It will always be the four of us as the core group. All the other people that join us on stage are all good friends that either have their own bands or own commitments in life, so when they are free to join us on stage it really means the world and always feels great to have that added energy and sound.

What's cool in the 905 these days?

Cool in the 905...that's a hard one...can I get back to you?

What do you like best and least about living in the suburbs?

The best part would have to be the fact that it's where we grew up and started jammin' in the first place, it's home. It's just a little too far from the city where all the music is. Next year we plan on moving downtown together!

What can people expect to see/hear/feel at the Silver Dollar this Friday?

Joining us on stage this Friday will be Jeremy Panda (the Dunes), Dee Planche, Chuck Markham, and Braeden Craig. We will be playing tracks from the record and will also try a new song that no one has heard before.

The D'Urbervilles with Still Life Still, The Paint Movement
Friday, February 27
The Silver Dollar Room
486 Spadina Ave
Doors 9pm
Cover $6

Call & Response is a series of Q&A's with bands from or playing in Toronto. Photo: Sarah Wright.