At the end of 2004 at the height of their popularity, the young, Montreal-based Unicorns devastated their rising fan base by announcing they were calling it quits. Last month, however, Unicorns’ drummer J’aime Tambeur and front man Nick Diamonds returned to the music scene as Islands.
The band just released their first album, Return to the Sea, Islands diverge from the haphazard style of the Unicorns, and the album Return to the Sea is more carefully composed and mature than the Unicorns’ catalogue. However, with fantastical lyrics, Diamonds has salvaged his lighthearted playfulness. In anticipation of their show at the Black Cat on April 25, The Voice recently spoke with Diamonds about the Islands album and the stigma that comes in the wake of breaking up a band as beloved as the Unicorns.
After the sudden end of the Unicorns and the subsequent forming of Islands, do you feel eager to shed the label of “former Unicorns” attached to the new album?
I mean, I understand that it’s inevitable in this stage of Islands’ existence. Still, I have to draw the line somewhere, and I give it a six-month grace period before I get really agitated and violent when I hear people mention the name. I’m really not the kind of guy who’s out starting bands and projects—I like to concentrate on one thing. I really don’t think of it as a project but as an extension of myself.
A lot of artists dislike the constant categorization and labeling of their sound by critics. Though the broad styles and varied instruments of Return to the Sea allow the album to avoid such simple classification, does that aspect of the press still agitate you?
Well, I understand that people, as human beings, try to classify and categorize in order to identify things—it’s a completely rational reaction. But I think this is just a result of us liking various sounds and not being turned on by one in particular. In experimenting, we might say, “Hey, let’s try a calypso beat over that,” or something, but it’s not like it’s completely forced.
A couple members of the Arcade Fire played on the album, which presents a nice picture of the Montreal music scene as an actual interactive community, rather than just a hot-spot for upcoming bands. What is the nature of the musical community from your perspective?
Well, it’s a really natural thing. Montreal’s a good city to live in Canada, where you can be creative. It happens to be rather small, so you can hang out with these other artists, and it’s cheap to live.
What do you have planned in the future for Islands?
We’ve got a bunch of new songs. We’re probably going to do the standard thing: tour for a little longer and then go back to the studio and record these new songs. Now that we have a full band, we have a different sound, and it’s getting a bit heavier.
