Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) created Broken Social Scene in 1999, with as few as six and as many as nineteen members. Justin Peroff (drums), Andrew Whiteman (guitar), and Charles Spearin (guitar) round out the band’s main lineup.
The majority of its members are active in other bands and solo projects, primarily in Toronto. Among the associated acts are Metric, Feist, Stars, Apostle of Hustle, Do Make Say Think, KC Accidental, Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Amy Millan, and Jason Collett.
The group’s sound combines elements from each of its members’ previous musical endeavors and is frequently referred to as baroque pop. Large orchestrations featuring guitars, horns, woodwinds, and violins, strange song structures, and an experimental, and at times chaotic, production style from David Newfeld, who also produced the band’s second and third albums, characterize the album.
Stuart Berman’s This Book Is Broken (2009) chronicles the band from its inception through critical acclaim. In 2010, Bruce McDonald directed This Movie Is Broken, a documentary about the band’s Harbourfront performance during the 2009 Toronto strike.
The collective and their different projects had a significant impact on alternative music and indie rock in the early twenty-first century; in 2021, Pitchfork named the band one of the “most important artists” of the previous 25 years.
