Now, the band stands before both the completion and assumption of a lot of hard work and reward. Having completed their debut full length Native Speaker, out in the fall, they are about to embark on a summer-long tour, including their first-ever American dates along with hopes for a European voyage in the near future. The interview below is an extensive look at the mindset regarding their album, their history together, and their hopes for a future.

Enjoy, this is one of Montreal's finest:

On their new, debut album, Native Speaker…

Raph: It’s done. Finished. Really finished. Mastered.

Austin: It sounds great. We’ve been holding it for quite a while. We’ve been holding it for the past couple months. We’re just shopping it around to American labels right now, going down to New York to play some showcase shows. A good man in Brooklyn named Kip Curry from Tell All Your Friends Promotion, he’s helped us get in contact with a bunch of labels. Now it’s like, they’ve heard it, now they want to see us play live. Now it’s like, we’re just waiting to get down there and play live and see how people like it, how they receive it.

On learning how to record in order to self-produce the album…

Raph: For sure [it was an artistic decision]. We wanted to have as much control over it as we possibly could

Austin: We had a bunch of offers from people saying, “Hey, can we help you do all the post-production on the record, all the mixing,” and we said, “No, we really want to do it all ourselves. We really want to learn how to do it, and now for next time, we’re that much further ahead.”

Raph: It’s just good to know how do something new.

On how learning the recording process affected writing new music…

Austin: We learned a lot about the actual creating process of music, as well. You can tell because we’ve been writing a few new songs since we finished the record where, after having gone through the process of recording, our live writing is very different.

We were always trying to push the boundaries of what we were doing in the live environment, but now we’ve tapped into the recording environment, which is literally limitless. You can tell because it took us 9 months to record our record.

Raph: It took as long as a baby [laughter].

Austin: Yeah it’s actually interesting because the gestation period was perfectly nine months.

Raph: There’s always this problem with people doing something that they don’t know much about and not doing it well. We’ve always heard, “Oh, you should just leave the mixing to the people who actually know how to mix,” But I think, because we took so much time to learn how to do it well, we avoided that problem.

A lot of people were coming up to us and being like, “where did you get this recorded?” and we were like, “oh, in our house [laughter], in our back room that has a laundry machine.” But we really pushed ourselves to make it amazing.

Austin: We didn’t have to constrain ourselves by asking, “how are we going to play this live?”

Raph: We already have songs that we really enjoy playing live and that we’re really proud of live, so we just took it a step further for the record.

Austin: If we head something in our head while we were recording we thought, “I’m not going to do this live, but I don’t care because it’s going to sound really good on the record.”

On evolving musically through their years of playing together…

Austin: Yes [this record is a progression of Braids’ earlier sound], very much so. Especially from our last record, which was the Set Pieces EP, and this is like a complete removal from that.

Raph: I didn’t even have effects on my vocals when we did Set Pieces. I didn’t even know how to go “AHHH.” I didn’t know how to do that.  It’s a total evolution, especially from older songs like ‘M is for Matrioshka,’ where all of us were trying learn how to play together in time and I didn’t know how to play guitar yet.

Austin: That was a different time in our lives.

Katie: We were very excited. We’re not jaded now, we’re just very used to everything.

Raph: It was like, I’m going to play the guitar as fast as I can, but now it’s different.

Austin: I guess we have a little bit more restraint and maturity in our writing now. There’s been a continual progression where we realize that we write really long songs, like a 7 or 8-minute average track length. For working on things past Native Speaker, we’re trying to make things even more poignant. We try to write, like, let’s keep it down to a one or two-minute track and now it’s like, 4, but still, that’s short for us.

On their extensive tour schedule, including their first ever American dates in New York and Boston…

Austin: We’re very excited. We’ve got basically two months on the road in Canada throughout the whole summer through August and then, after that, there’s not even one show in place but we’re hoping to just tour as much as we can.

All of us through our friends, like the band Women, that have toured Europe have instilled this “GO TO EUROPE” vibe in us. So we really want to go to Europe. We’ve been getting emails from people and little bit of interest saying, “your music would be well-received here,” and all our friends that have toured Europe say that our music would suit audiences in Europe. Hopefully in the spring or something like that we can go to Europe.

Raph: Say Europe again.

Austin. Europe. Europe.

Katie: We’re up in Europe!

On influences…

Raph: For sure, Animal Collective is a huge one for all of us. That one was big for us. I think Animal Collective was huge for us last year, definitely. It changed the way we think about how to make music, for sure. We started out varied in terms of musical taste, with everyone showing each other music and we came together with Animal Collective. Now we’re spreading out again. Like Katie’s really into New Wave, like New York No Wave, New Wave. Taylor’s starting to get into a lot more electronic based stuff.

Austin: Every once in a while, Taylor and I throw out the idea of starting a micro-house band, with live drums and effects.

On life after the album:

Austin: It’s kind of nice to be done with the album. We’re starting to listen to so much music. I found that when I was recording the album I was forgetting to listen to music. I became so saturated with my own music.

Raph: I didn’t listen to any music.

Austin: I just don’t want to hear that album for a while. Now it’s like I’m listening to a lot more new stuff and it’s nice.

Raph: This was the first time [that we got so immersed in the recording process]. We had only done one day recording before, like live to 2-track at a radio station.

On integrating new material into the band’s fluid live show…

Raph: For sure, we have a couple new songs

Austin: and a couple tweaks to our old songs

Raph: There are tweaks with the endings and I have different ways of singing the songs now. Still, the album is very fluid and the live show is very fluid. All the songs that are on the album, we’ve played live a million times and we’re very happy with them. It’s pretty similar, but you know, the album is like nine months of playing the same songs over and over again, so it’s just a little different.

Katie: I know that most of us really want to kind of move past the album a bit. We want to write as much new material as possible and really try new things. We want to try new sounds and not just do new things like Native Speaker was.

Austin: For sure, to keep pushing the boundaries on what we can do physically and emotionally and as friends, in terms of how much we can beg of ourselves. We’ve spent some time already sitting down and thinking, “How do we want to progress?”

We found that it was best to not talk about it so much (Laughing).

Raph: Yeah, you just dig yourself a hole when you do that.

Austin: we got kind of heated a couple nights talking. Now it’s kind of like, let’s just see where it’s going and it’s going in a nice direction. I think we’re going to come back to it and speak a little more about it. It’s just a balance of how can we remove ourselves from what we’ve done before without losing our cohesive sound.

Raph: It still sounds like Braids. We just want to challenge ourselves because we’re 19, 20, and 21 years old and we’re full of energy.

Katie: We get bored easily.

In addition to the new album, Braids will be releasing a split cassette with Raph's other group Blue Hawaii to promote their tour. For a full list of tour dates, check Braids' myspace. They will be playing in Montreal on May 21 at the Savoy with the Holly Miranda.

LOOKOUT: How did The Pop Winds get started?

Devon: Austin and myself were roommates at school when we first came to Montreal. Kyle and I knew each other from Uxbridge, Ontario,  and he moved to Montreal, liked playing music and then we all got together.

Where does the band name the Pop Winds come from?

It’s the name of a song that Kyle had written the summer we started playing music together, the summer of 2008. I’m not sure the significance of it… I don’t think it was meant to have any specific meaning.

You’re all originally from Ontario. Do you think the Montreal vibe has influenced how you make music or how you approach making music? Would you have made the same music anywhere in the world?

We probably would’ve made the same music anywhere. How we approach music has more to do with interest and various technologies and what we were good at initially. And what we could contribute in terms of what instruments we played. The city affected the way we would approach how or where we would play or music, and how we would release it and stuff like that. The ability to put something out yourself, I guess, was probably an idea from people who were playing music in Montreal.

What are some of your musical influences?

I would say, I don’t know… When I think about that question, it’s as if it implies some conscious decision to make music in a certain way. We’re not trying to do music a certain way, and we all listen to music in different ways. Maybe any kind of music that uses the same approach.

What kind of approach?

Maybe say, like using electronic equipment, writing music that doesn’t necessarily always have a pop song structure. I don't know, that’s really broad.

Is it important to you to give out free music? Or is it something you had to do because that’s the way music is heading these days?

We sort of had to do this. After a certain point, it’s going to be easier and more effective to get people to hear your music if you give it to them for free. And it’s pretty easy to do that nowadays. I expect music to be out there for free sometime or another. A couple weeks after an album comes out, it’s everywhere on the Internet. It seems like the natural thing to do.

How has the band grown over the last year, from the release of Understory to The Turquoise? First as bandmates, but also musically?

What you would expect, we’ve gotten a lot better at writing cooperatively. We make a song less and less based off of ideas that were fully developed by one of us. Now it’s much more cooperative and more of a mutual writing experience. Musically, we’ve made more interesting songs that we’re more excited about playing.

What can readers/listeners expect from a live Pop Winds show?

We will always focus on doing the best we can for a set. And have at least some new things, new ideas, and new ways of playing specific songs. We would hope to do a performance that is engaging and makes people want to pay attention and listen attentively.

LOOKOUT: It’s been four years since you attended the Academy. Do you ever still think about it?

SL: Each year around this time, RBMA contacts me to speak at the info session or to do an interview, etc. So this season ends up being a time when I reminisce about my experience. Usually when people find out that I attended RBMA they ask me to tell them about it. I also think about the academy every time RB [Red Bull] throws an event in town 'cause I end up seeing all the Canadian RB guys, which is always great!

Why did you decide to apply?

It's funny, I wasn't going to apply 'cause I thought I wouldn't get in. I was actually contemplating letting go of my musical aspirations at the time. However one of my close friends, Scott C aka The Incubator, who was a RB Mr. X at the time, pushed me to apply. It's really thanks to him for being so encouraging!

What was the most challenging part of RBMA?

The challenging parts for me were allowing myself to enjoy the experience without doubting my talent and feeling scattered by wanting to do everything all at once. At that time, I was still unsure of myself and wasn't fully able to assert myself in the way I would now. I knew that I had something interesting to offer musically, but I wasn't able to fully embrace the depth of my ability and uniqueness. I was still discovering my own voice. I also felt this strange pressure to do too many things at once. I wanted to write and sing on so many collaborations that I think my efforts were slightly scattered. In retrospect, I would have chosen only a couple songs to work on and would have enjoyed just being there more.

You've since collaborated with other RBMA grads, like David Ryshpan, Aklimatize, Camplaix, and Sikh Knowledge, on Messages from the Future. What is it like doing collaborations with other Academy participants?

Honestly, I love working with RBMA participants 'cause they are mad talented producers, musicians, and DJs with really unique musical worldviews. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have met and collaborated with all of them. I’m still look forward to working with more of them!

David Ryshpan and I became friends because we both live in Montreal and did radio together before the academy. Now, he's my go-to pianist in town. We continue to enjoy working together as he's part of the band that is currently reinterpreting my upcoming album in a live setting. I had the pleasure of meeting Aklimatize in Montreal when he was on tour and we hit it off right away. We spent a very fun day in the studio recording together. Camplaix is my Portuguese brother that I connected with at the Academy. He's amazing to work with. He sends me these incredible beats that instantly inspire me and then we go back and forth sharing ideas and building the tracks. We have two songs together on my upcoming release and I think they are very strong songs. Sikh Knowledge is another talented Montreal friend that I love working with. We get along like a house on fire. We have a couple tracks together on the album and we are working on building a live show together using our laptops, drum machines, percussion, and a loop pedal. We are going to work on an EP together in the summer.

Aside from collaborations, how did the experience help your musical career?

The experience marked a major turning point in my musical career. I think if I hadn't gotten accepted I might have given up on my musical dreams. It was a big confidence boost at a time when I really needed one. Being there inspired me to keep on dreaming and allowed me to begin envisioning my future album project. It also allowed me to meet and be inspired by all kinds of people in the business. It encouraged me to tap into an extensive group of amazing music people that are forever to be a part of my network. It continues to allow me to connect instantly with these folks whenever I meet them. Being a part of the RBMA family allows me to share my projects with a massive international audience that I wouldn't have had contact with otherwise.

Do you have any advice for this year’s RBMA applicants?

All I can say is make sure you apply! The application is long, challenging, and can be daunting 'cause it asks you to really examine yourself and express things that aren't often asked of you. However, it is one of the most incredible musical experiences you can have.  When applying, just be honest about who you are musically and personally. Don't waste your time trying to prove something or trying to be something that you think will please them. The application is an opportunity to get to know yourself better—so enjoy it!

LOOKOUT: How did you decide to apply to 2007's RBMA in Toronto? Did your decision have anything to do with Toronto as the place where you began to study music?

DR: I'm friends with Scott C (The Incubator), who served as one of Montreal's "Mr. X"s that year. He urged me to apply. It was the first year I had ever heard of RBMA, so I applied without really knowing that much about it. The decision didn't have anything to do with Toronto being my hometown; it was, however, a really different experience of the city for me. I moved to Montreal when I was 16 so I never went clubbing in Toronto, and I wasn't really ever immersed in Toronto's electronic or hip-hop scenes. It was like being a tourist at home, considering the majority of my musical experiences in Toronto happened at The Rex and the Top o' the Senator (which doesn't exist anymore).

Did all of the members of Indigone Trio apply for RBMA? How did you take your personal experience and translate it into something that the entire band could benefit from?

I was the only member of Indigone that applied to RBMA. Being able to work closely alongside engineers and producers, I got enough of the technical language of recording and mixing to make the recording of our album, Cycles, a much more fluid process. The awareness of music as sound, and how to deal with different kinds of sound, has definitely influenced my composition since RBMA.

How was RBMA different from other workshops you’ve participated in like the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop and the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music?

It's pretty remarkable how similar they all are, actually. I often refer to RBMA to my jazz-inclined friends as the "Banff Centre for electronic production." They're quite similar in the sense that they foster immense amounts of creativity in a short timespan. In all of the workshops, there's an expectation that you're in a creative, artistic headspace the whole time. That phenomenon of having the artistic impulse always turned "on" is really refreshing, something I still find hard to replicate in my daily life. The only major difference I can think of was that for BMI, there were concrete deadlines - we had a reading session with a real live big band every two months, and we were expected to bring in significant amounts of new material to the reading. At Banff, too, there were concerts and shows to prepare for. RBMA wasn't structured around deadlines but there was definitely an awareness of the fact that we only had two weeks to make the most amount of music possible.

Having studied jazz performance at McGill, did you learn anything unexpected from artists who had never gone to school for music?

I was blown away by the inherent musicality of people that had little or no formal training. Our ears are our guide, anyway. One thing I took away was this sense of being able to break the rules – if it sounds like it works, then it does, regardless if it's theoretically totally correct.

What kind of relationships – friendly or work-related – did you make during RBMA? Have you kept any of them?

Sarah Linhares and I have been working together since RBMA. We knew each other through radio and didn't actually know that the other had applied, or that the other played music, before RBMA! I'm still in touch with some of the RBMA alumni from our term. Heliponto, a house producer from Belo Horizonte, Brasil, produced a track with me during RBMA that came out on her record, Eletronia, and we have another project together on a back burner. I'm still in touch with Mara TK, Kez YM, and Camplaix, among others, and I hope to work with them all again soon.

Do you have any advice for this year’s RBMA applicants?

Take your time with the application and be honest. I know the 17-page questionnaire can be daunting, but the reality is that the answers given throughout the 17 pages is how RBMA creates an instant 30-person family.

I want to re-iterate something I said at the info session. It may appear that RBMA is geared strictly towards "electronic music." It's not. It's a balance of electronic music production, and music creation of all kinds. I encourage anyone who's remotely interested in learning any element of electronic music production – from improvising with Live or Max/MSP to recording their own albums to producing hip-hop, electro, or whatever – to apply.