Broken Social Scene

Starting as an instrumental project by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning in 1999, Broken Social Scene has grown into a psychedelic, prog rock beast of an orchestra featuring the cream of Toronto's music scene. Their 2001 debut album Feel Good Lost was essentially an atmospheric studio creation by the two protagonists, but when it came to taking the album out on the road they started gathering local musicians to help them on their way. By their second album You Forgot It in People released in 2003, the collective had swelled to 16 members, including Leslie Feist, Emily Haines and Amy Millan, and the sound had become a big sprawling mass of graceful, baroque indie. Their 2005 eponymous third album continued that theme winning a Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year, before the band stripped back to a mere seven members for their US breakthrough Forgiveness Rock Record in 2009. After recording tracks for a new album, the band decided to take a break, which ended up lasting until 2013 when they launched a competition in partnership with book publisher House of Anansi to get authors to write short stories based on the tracks from You Forgot It in People. They chose 13 winners, one for each track on the album, and published the stories in an anthology book. After renewing people's perception of them through the competition, Broken Social Scene started touring the festival circuit in 2015 and released a brand new single in 2017 called "Halfway Home". The single, off their 2017 album Hug of Thunder, featured singer Leslie Feist on vocals. After the releases of EPs Let's Try the After, Vol. 1 and Let's Try the After, Vol. 2 in 2019, the band returned seven years later with their sixth full-length, Remember the Humans.