AVC: Given its chorus, the song "Monster Hospital" would seem to be a pretty direct anti-war song, but you've stated in other interviews that it isn't so straightforward.
EH: One of the rules for me as a writer is that no lyric gets through if it only has one meaning. I remember finding that written on a scrap of paper somewhere when we were making the record, and I have no idea when I wrote down "I fought the war and the war won," but I know that I wasn't talking about Baghdad.
AVC: The image of a "monster hospital" is weirdly intriguing as well.
EH: I don't know where the hell that came from. I remember those guys were working on that song and they had it in their heads that the music sounded like a Puerto Rican street fight. I came into the studio and they were playing and all wrapped up in this imagery. And I was like, "All right, Puerto Rican street fight! Wow!" And then I opened my mouth and "monster hospital" came out, and I completely started cracking up. There were multiple scenarios constructed around it. Is it monsters in a hospital? Is it monsters running a hospital for humans? Is it somehow related to the Muppets or Sesame Street? I owe it to the gods of words for putting those two words next to each other for me.
AVC: A lot of Canadian bands receive financial assistance from their government. Can you compare your situation to bands in the United States?
EH: Canada is going to have a difficult time competing with America, for obvious reasons. The population is a fraction of America's, and American culture is pretty pervasive. But I think more of note—in fact, go ahead and disregard everything I just said—it's just good business. It's like helping small businesses get off the ground. It's definitely the case for bands, I think that if you can just get past that first hump of being able to get on the road and not come back in debt, then you can carry yourself. So it's really just the people of Canada making a preliminary investment in small enterprise and then seeing the results magnified. This has put a lot of revenue back into the country, with minimal investment. But I think also, if you suck, it's not going to do anything for you at all. There are loads of people who've done really well without it, and people who've had it and haven't done anything. It's definitely not a make-or-break factor, but I think it's nice. It's modern and civilized.
AVC: The climate in America has been moving dramatically away from that kind of support of the arts, and yet it's still strong in Canada.
EH: I think the reason that it's blatant right now is that your tax dollars in America are going to the fucking missile, and tax dollars in Canada are going to the music program in an elementary school. Or helping a band like Broken Social Scene subsidize their tour to Germany. [Musicians] end up being like diplomatic representatives of Canada, and I think everyone takes that very seriously. But I think that both countries have a lot in common culturally. Independent labels in America have lived by those same principles forever, as what we're seeing come out of Canada. We're not at odds, really.
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