TWO HOURS TRAFFIC
The SiS Interview by Dany Sloan

Canada's Maritime provinces have a long history of birthing great bands,
most notably Nova Scotia's Sloan. The past few years have seen a crop of
younger performers carrying on with this tradition, including Mardeen, Joel
Plaskett and the quartet we're putting under the microscope this week,
Prince Edward Island's Two Hours Traffic.

We spoke with bass player Andy MacDonald over e-mail recently and he shed
some light on the intricacies of living in Canada's smallest province, but not before we got a little fanboyish at the mention of Joel Plaskett.

SIS: Tell us about the area in Canada where you're from. Did all of you guys grow up there? How did the band form? Who are some of the other good local bands?

AM: We all grew up in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. It’s Canada’s smallest province and is located on the East Coast. It’s small but strong, not unlike Mighty Mouse. Liam and Alec started playing guitar together in high school and then recruited Derek and myself (Andy) during the first year of university to make things a bit louder. We’ve been practicing in Alec’s parent’s basement ever since. Despite being so small, Charlottetown’s music scene can go toe-to-toe with any other in Canada. Smothered in Hugs and The Danks are two of the best bands around, PEI or anywhere. They’ll both be putting out records this summer.

SIS: What was it like working with Joel Plaskett? How did that come about?

AM: We were all fans of Joel and when he played here in 2004. Alec managed to get him a copy of our April Storm EP. It was pretty scrappy sounding but it caught Joel’s ear and we’ve been working together ever since. He shares a lot of the same influences as us and has a similar mentality about writing pop music so it’s been a good fit. He’s also like seven feet tall, so that can be handy from time to time.

SIS: What have you guys been up to this year? What does the rest of 2008 hold for the band?

AM: We did a CBC Radio 3 sponsored cross-Canada tour in the dead of winter, which seemed foolish on paper but actually ended up working out really well. When we’re not playing shows we’re writing songs for our next record, which we’ll hopefully get working on by the end of the year. Traveling south of the border or across the Atlantic would be nice too if the opportunity came along.

SIS: Name some of your influences...

AM: Right now there’s a good amount of Teenage Fanclub, Nick Lowe and Magnetic Fields spinning in the Two Hours Traffic walkman.

SIS: If any member of the band were to appear on the cover of a tabloid, who would it be and why?

AM: Likely Alec for getting a little unruly, or Derek for crashing his motorcycle/scooter.

SIS: When family members ask you what your band sounds like, what do you tell them?

AM: The phrase “Rock n Roll” tends to scare my older relatives so I’ll usually mention The Beach Boys or someone else to help soften the blow.

SIS: What's the best thing about being in THT?

AM: I like how we live in a city that’s pretty removed from the big music industry machine. We’ve been all over Canada and while bigger places like Montreal and Toronto can be cool, there seems to be more of a “make or break” feeling to every show. It’s nice being able to relax, write songs and play them for your friends without having to worry about a writer from Rolling Stone standing in the crowd. Although, I guess that couldn’t hurt from time to time.