No matter how deep the United States sinks into corruption, cruelty or outright fascism, you can't say Propagandhi didn't warn us.
"My worry is that people aren't connecting the dots — that a corporate oligarchy already existed in North American politics," vocalist and guitarist Chris Hannah tells Exclaim! "It just didn't come out of nowhere."
While the release of At Peace (out May 2 via Epitaph Records) might seem like business as usual for the anarchist punk quartet, its message will undoubtedly resonate with anyone anxious about their own safety during these unsettling times.
"There is like this weird thing where [our] records have come out at the inauguration of a new idiot, but it definitely wasn't intentional," clarifies Hannah. "The Democratic administration was presiding over a livestream genocide as we were making the record, so there's no conscious decision to be making or releasing a record at the same time the more egregious authoritarian takes power in an unbelievably outrageous way."
Tracks like "Benito's Earlier Work," "Vampires Are Real" and "Something Needs to Die but Maybe It's Not You" can be interpreted as cautionary tales of authoritarianism, the encroaching threat of junta rule, and the relentless fear-mongering driven by social media kingpins. It's music that resonates powerfully with our current moment. But Hannah sees it differently: "I really chafe at the idea that political conditions are good for art — or specifically punk music. I don't like that idea as if having high-quality consumables is a good trade-off for living under a fascist regime."
Although the Winnipeg quartet comes from a long line of Canadian artists unafraid to challenge the fallout of Western exceptionalism — like Neil Young, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Lido Pimienta — Hannah delivers a surprising revelation, one few fans would expect to hear: "I have no interest in politics," he claims.
He continues, "I'd rather be like Judas Priest, singing about victory and some unnamed force and just having fun ripping guitar solos. If we lived in a more egalitarian society, I would be singing about pyramids and dragons and fun stuff."
What sets Propagandhi apart from their punk forebears — bands like Dead Kennedys, Subhumans and Bad Religion — is the sheer audaciousness of their sound. Bassist Todd Kowalski and drummer Jord Samolesky lock into tight, propulsive grooves that push beyond the traditional three-chord punk formula, creating space for the guitars to soar across vast sonic landscapes on songs like "Cat Guy," "Stargazing" and "Day by Day."
"Relative to our previous records, we've tried to simplify things a bit," says Hannah. "Within that simplification, there's still some diversity in tempos and a lot of moving around."
Arriving nearly eight years after the critically acclaimed Victory Lap, the writing and recording of Propaghandi's eighth LP was hampered by COVID-19 safety measures. Reuniting with longtime producer John Paul Peters and returning to their trusted studios — Private Ear Recording in Winnipeg and the Blasting Room in Colorado — offered a sense of stability.
Of writing in isolation during lockdown, Hannah says, "You can't take the bits and pieces you have, like the riffs or the few sentences you have, and go into a jam space with other musicians and then try them out in real life; they don't really go anywhere. With other musicians, things sort of morph into something different than you expected."
The only piece out of place during the recording of the album's 13 tracks was the guitar work of Sulynn Hago, who has been a permanent band member since the Victory Lap sessions. "Sulynn only played some background sounds on one song because they were in the middle of making their own record," clarifies Hannah. "When I was making the second guitar parts, I was thinking to myself, 'What would Sulynn play here?'"
While crafting a guitar interplay that fuses his dynamic style with Hago's, Hannah matches it with a lyrical intensity that showcases his deep insight with razor-sharp humour. Nowhere is this more evident than on the album's title track, "At Peace" — a meditation on maintaining calm amid chaos. "Motherfucker, I'm resourceful, resilient. I power through the waves of disappointment / Maybe not quite thriving, but I'm buoyant / I am at peace these days," Hannah sings on the track.
"I suppose the title is earnest and sardonic at the same time," Hannah points out. "The desire is to be at peace, and that could be either throwing up your hands and saying, 'Fuck it, I'm just gonna get what's mine,' or it could be through a militant and meaningful way of life. Do you go Ted Kaczynski on society, or do you go Eckhart Tolle?"
If art is a mirror of lived experience, At Peace reflects four musicians confronting a world overwhelmed by greed, hate and apathy — in the only way they know how. "I don't really have any meaningful power," concludes Hannah. "The one place I do is through this band, and it's the one place I can express myself and tell the world what I really think of it."