Pointing, groping, dancing — if Woodhands are not the world’s sexiest band, then the world has the wrong definition of sexy
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Watching Dan Werb and Paul Banwatt (a.k.a. Woodhands), you’d think the pair had known each other for ages. Even walking into a Toronto pub for a bit of lunch, they seem almost like an old married couple. They finish each other’s sentences when the waitress takes their orders. They discuss the merits of tomato sauce over ketchup. They fret over the tip, and they split the tab. Onstage, with Werb working the synths and keytar sequencer and Banwatt on drums, they are tighter than Tom Jones’s pants and continually feed off each other to electrify audiences with their analogue dance party.
In reality, Werb and Banwatt have been working together for just over a year. They met in September 2006 at a CD release party for one of Werb’s many side projects, Henri Faberge and the Adorables, and quickly felt a connection. Before he hooked up with Banwatt, B.C. native Werb had taken Woodhands through a number of different forms during his stays in Vancouver, Paris and, most recently, Montreal. Back then, though, it was a much more subdued sound. “It’s gone up and down,” Werb says of the progression of a very personal project. “We like to think of it as two distinct phases.”
After meeting, Werb and Banwatt began playing shows together and by the new year realized they had chemistry. “[Woodhands’ sound] was always shifting before that time,” Werb says, “and then when we met, a really clear sound and approach presented itself to us. It was like a clarity.”
Werb had been looking for a drummer for years to bring what he calls a “rawness” to the drum-machine beats of Woodhands. In Banwatt he found a drummer that can play to the click — follow sequenced beats live — and a drummer who feels as passionate about the intersection of rock and electronic music.
“I’ve always loved electronic music. I’ve always tried to push the sensibilities of electronic music into the rock music that I’ve played,” says Banwatt, who had played with a number of indie rock bands in Toronto before joining Woodhands. “When I listened to Dan’s drum beats specifically, it was so free. Forget where snares and bass drums and hi-hats are supposed to go, it was about putting it together to make the most powerful effect.
“Woodhands is combining those two sides of me,” Banwatt adds. “Sometimes I feel like I’m bringing the acoustic side of it, and sometimes I feel like I’m part of the electronics as well.”
After playing a string of impressive live shows over a period of months, Woodhands caught the ear of Toronto-based Paper Bag Records with an especially raucous showcase at Pop Montreal last October. They signed with the label, known for breaking bands like Broken Social Scene, Stars and Tokyo Police Club, and hit the studio with producer Roger Leavens.
“So much of this project for me is about immediate emotion, so the songs that we have been writing have occurred spontaneously in rehearsal,” Werb says of the 10-song debut album Heart Attack (out this week). With its frenetic pacing and the raw emotion of Werb’s lyrics, Heart Attack successfully captures the sound of their live shows, while touching on Woodhands’ meditative past — a past that Werb and Banwatt are constantly moving beyond.
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