it was a really really cold thursday evening, roger and i sat at miami bar (st-laurent) to drink a beer and warm our mind a little. i often say that the only danger for me in going to the miami is if i were to get hit by a car while crossing the street, which would be very unlucky since i live (well... used to at that time) right across the street.

so after getting there safely once again, efrim, dave and thierry, from montreal's own mystic collective band godspeed you black emperor!, joined us around the table. we recorded the conversation. - marie-douce

marie-douce: since you guys all seem different, i'd be curious to know how you met?

efrim: there were three of us at first. we met a friend who is a horn player who isn't playing with us anymore. i'd already played with dave. dave started playing with the three of us and i knew thierry so thierry started playing with us. dave knew our cellist so she started playing. it was like if anyone knew anybody who played an instrument and seemed like an okay person, they would sort of join up. last year around this time, we got up to 15 people or something and that was horrible and so we went back down to nine and have sort of been around nine ever since then.

m: so the idea was really a collective project?

e: no at first it wasn't 'cause it was a smaller group.

m: i mean after when people started to add on?

e: yeah. now it's more of a collective for sure.

r: but it just kind of happened like that, it wasn't something that you planned...

e: no no no. the plan was always to get more people involved and then the band was always changing. that was always something we wanted. lately it has become a lot more solid than it ever was. we used to change line-ups at every show. there would be two or three different people...

dave: playing different instruments...

r: that must be hard for rehearsals?

e: at that point, we were only practising a week before the show. it was always a big nightmare.

r: rehearsing just for the show?

e: yeah and writing just for the show.

r: how do you write, you're such a large group?

d: yeah it's a really hard thing to try and break down.

r: you kind of improvise?

d: oh yeah, of course. someone has a really skeletal little riff and someone might start playing and then people start building on it and there is probably too much saturation and too much noise and it just sounds like mud and crap. you go home and think about it and come back and less people play and people are more subtle and it just turns into something, you know.

r: all of this is recorded i guess, when you rehearse at the beginning?

d: no, we just remember it; we recorded it once or twice but it's rare and it's a really smart thing to do. we've done that in the past but chances are we've recorded just times we've played and then never played those things again. it's funny because you go back and listen to some of those tapes and they're really good. at the time you think, ah this is crap, you know. then you go back and listen to it and you can't remember how to play it.

r: you need to be objective towards what you've done.

e: yeah. but i mean, the stuff that's on the record and the bulk of what were playing now, it's taken us a year to write, like over a year, maybe 14 months of going through the process of like...

r: ...constantly changing...

e: yeah. now it's at the point where most of it's done and that's why we're tired of it now 'cause its more locked in now. at the beginning all we had were the changes and the basic riffs and maybe a couple things that someone always did, and then we got more things like that and they became parts and then... maybe last spring i think, we were all really into it and reached this perfect level of like being chaotic but together, and then after going on tour especially and playing the same thing every night, it became what we didn't want it to be... it never used to be that, people would go: "y