Mat Klachefsky (front, right) and his band Boats! are currently on tour and are putting out their second album in May || provided

Mat Klachefsky and his band Boats! recently found themselves in a position not uncommon for musicians: tired, dirty, broke and with no place to stay. However, the gods of pop music shone on the band that night and presented them with what seemed to be a perfect fix to their situation.

After finishing a set, a woman presented the band her keys and told the members to crash in her apartment, Klachefsky says, the lead singer and songwriter for the band.

“So we went to her apartment and fell into bed and around 3 a.m. she came in on all kinds of drugs, but we’re not really down with that whole thing and we were tired. Then she started demanding that we watch with TV with her. It was really awkward. My biggest fear was that she would not remember that she lent us her keys and start beating us with a frying pan,” he says. “We don’t have crazy followers, but we have seen crazy people.”

Sometimes when you’re a band trying to make it in Canada you got to do what you got to do.

“We live in a van all day, we stink and we haven’t been able to change our clothes,” Klachefsky says.

It’s dirty, smelly and hard, but someone has to provide Canada with “obnoxious pop music with broken instruments,” and Boats! has taken up the job.

Boats! is a five-member pop band from Winnipeg. It released its first album Intercontinental Champion in 2007. Since then they have journeyed outside Winnipeg on four Canadian tours.

Their second full-length album entitled Cannonballs, Cannonballs is scheduled to be released in May.

“It has upbeat pop songs with lyrics, and majesty. Majesty. I like that word,” says Klachefsky.

“We don’t really like the first album. When it came out we didn’t know what we were doing, we just put it out and hoped people would listen to it. It took off and did better then we expected. This time it’s nice to sit back and make sure everything is being done correctly.”

With a new album comes a new tour. Boats! will be bringing their “weird, pop music” to cities across Canada and the United States, including New York City.

“Life on the road is fun, we put on a Nintendo, and we have a cool van. We’ve had some less cool vans, but we love it. It’s great that I don’t have to see people I don’t really like. It’s kind of dirty; it’s nice when you get around to showering. You definitely miss the people back home, but we’ve never been gone too long.”

“Touring  — like in the movies — is made-up. We stink. Maybe in the States it’s different because you drive one hour to the next town, but in Canada all the touring bands have driven eight hours to be there to play for 20 people and then we want to go to bed afterwards.”

“The first tour we had I had huge sleeping problems so as soon as we’d get to the show I’d be cranky. I wouldn’t want to talk to anyone I just wanted to sleep in the bar, but they won’t let you do that. The bartender comes and wakes you up. It’s terrible.”

If struggling musicians in Canada need a poster boy to represent the challenges facing Canadian bands, Klachefsky is their man.

“I just got fired today, so that’s a challenge. You have to take a lot of silly, minimum-wage jobs, because employers don’t like it when you take off for weeks at a time, which is understandable. . . . On top of that you have to find band mates who can also have these jobs that let them take off, so it’s tough.” 

Klachefsky says he’s lucky to live in Manitoba where there is funding for music and bands such as Boats!.

“CBC 3 is like gold for bands. People who listen to that station want to find a new Canadian band. The fact that that sort of motivation exists is a big plus for Canada. Whenever I turn it on I’m not interested in hearing another Metric song, I want to hear bands that I don’t know yet. I think it’s a good spot for Canadians and Canadian bands.”

Despite the unwashed clothes and sleep-deprived band mates, Klachefsky says Boats! loves to tour and play for people.

“You get to see all kinds of new places. It doesn’t work well when the audience is expecting Nickelback and they get us. Then they get angry, but we still have a good time. Our audience is thin, not body wise but amount of people wise, but often they’re excited. The good shows outweigh the bad.”

Klachefsky may be self-deprecating and forthcoming about details of his band’s, sometimes, small audience (“We’ve had to play to Peterborough bar staff before”), but it’s not all about being the underrated band from the Peg.

“We like money. We’re OK making it in Toronto.”