Biography

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock group formed in 1999 in Toronto, Canada.

The band’s core members are Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. This duo recorded and released the band’s ambient debut album, Feel Good Lost, in 2001, with contributions by Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin and Bill Priddle. However, when they played shows to support the album, Drew and Canning found it difficult to put together an entertaining show based on Feel Good Lost, which was an almost entirely instrumental album.

As a result, they brought in a number of friends from the Toronto indie scene — Andrew Whiteman, Jason Collett, Metric’s Emily Haines, and Leslie Feist — to flesh out their live show with lyrics and vocals. Over time, the band also came to include contributions from James Shaw, Evan Cranley, John Crossingham, Lisa Lobsinger and Stars’ Amy Millan.

All of the later guest musicians joined with Drew, Canning, Peroff and Spearin to record the band’s second album, You Forgot It in People, in 2002 on the label Arts & Crafts. This album, an eclectic, restlessly creative collection of experimental yet accessible pop songs, became the band’s critical and commercial breakthrough — it was greeted with ecstatic reviews, and landed on many music critics’ year-end Best-Of lists. More notably it won the Alternative Album of the Year Juno Award in 2003.

The album also included musical contributions by Priddle, Jessica Moss, Brodie West, Susannah Brady and Ohad Benchetrit, but these were credited as supporting musicians rather than band members. On the supporting tour, the band consisted of Drew, Canning, Peroff, Whiteman and Jason Collett, along with whoever else was available to attend any individual show. Amy Millan and Gentleman Reg also joined for some shows.

In 2004, the B-sides and remix collection Bee Hives was released.

Broken Social Scene released their third full-length, self-titled album on October 4, 2005, with new contributors including k-os, Jason Tait and Murray Lightburn. The inside booklet accompanying album also noted several new faces as part of Broken Social Scene. A limited edition EP, To Be You And Me was also printed along with the album. For the first time David Newfeld, who had produced Broken Social Scene’s albums, was listed as a band member.

The group appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on January 31, 2006 performing ‘7/4 (Shoreline)’.