Alvvays Eater’s Digest Interview by Scientiffic on Mixcloud

I chatted with Molly from Alvvays about how the band eats on tour, their new grilled cheese maker, and restaurant picks in Toronto.

Tiff [T]: This is Tiffany from WMBR, and I’m here with Molly of Alvvays. How are you?

Molly [M]: I’m doing very well. How are you?

T: I’m doing good!

You guys have been in Boston for a day. How has the food scene treated you so far? What have you had since you got here?

M: On this tour [with The Decemberists], they have a lot of catering, with a lot of vegetarian options. I’m not sure which member of their band is a vegetarian, but we’ve reaped all the benefits of their food perks. They get pizza a lot after the show. They also usually have dessert every night, which we don’t usually take part in, which is a nice treat.

Today we got pho. It was the first time where it wasn’t part of the food that they provide.

T: Where did you go?

M: We got Vietnamese food.

T: In Chinatown?

M: I think so, yeah.

T: Do you remember the name of the place?

M: Xinh Xinh

Xinh Xinh in Boston, MA (Photo: Phos Across America)

T: That’s my favorite Vietnamese place! You guys picked a really good one.

M: The guy that we did a session with told us to go. It was great.

T: Xinh Xinh is right next to another place called Pho Pasteur, which usually gets a lot of the non-Asians. It’s more authentic to go to Xinh Xinh. You guys made a good choice.

I showed up a little bit early and saw you guys have a t-shirt that has a TV dinner on it. Is there a story behind that design?

M: We usually do a lot of our art from old Life or National Geographic magazines. National Geographic is where we got the cover to our record. The TV dinner was the only thing that we saw that we thought would look good on a t-shirt. Everything has some kind of reference, but to me, the TV dinner meant nothing. We are all vegetarian, so a lot of people will say, “I can’t buy that because I’m vegetarian,” and we’re like, “We’re all vegetarians!”

T: I could tell it was old school because it was on an aluminum tray, and that would not fly with our microwave era.

M: That’s a toaster oven kind of thing.

T: Definitely.

T: You guys have been on a tour for a long time - I saw you in July, and it seems like you’ve been touring this entire time. Have you had any time off?

M: We had two weeks and a little bit of time over Christmas, but other than that it’s been steady. Which is good. We intended to be busy - that’s the ideal situation. You can’t complain about it.

T: Not burnt out or anything.

M: I’m probably burnt out, but you’re oblivious to your own state of mind, aren’t you?

In your travels over the past year, have there been any stand-out restaurants that you’ve been to or countries that you really enjoyed eating in?

M: Good question. Brooklyn is good. There’s a place called Wild Ginger that we all really liked going to for lunch. I’m sure that’s a cliche though.

Wild Ginger in Brooklyn, NY (Photo: Green Menu)

T: Why is that?

M: Brooklyn is like the land of everything. In New York City, you can get whatever you want, so you don’t really have to work to find things. Whereas if you’re in a place like Boston, you have to do some serious Yelping. Yelping has been really helpful.

T: Is Yelp big in Canada?

M: Yelp is good for Toronto and Montreal. I haven’t spent any length of time in Vancouver, so I don’t know. In Europe, they do Trip Advisor. But Yelp is very helpful. It helps you find a hole-in-the-wall when you don’t have time to strike out, or you don’t have the emotional capacity to handle a really terrible meal.

Have there been any restaurants in other countries that you would recommend?

M: We’ve had some really good Indian food in London at a place called Tayyabs. That was amazing. It was one of the only times our label took us to dinner.

Tayyabs in London, UK (Photo: EET)

T: Oh, so they had to impress you [laughs].

M: Yeah, and it was BYOB, so people brought wine, and that was nice.

We try to get Pho everywhere we go because it’s the opposite of eating chips in the band. You get chips when you’re bored. It’s just something to kill time.

T: I think that’s a trend that I’ve discovered. Almost every band I interview gets Asian on tour. I don’t know if it’s because I’m interviewing them, but they always talk about Pho. It seems like that’s a big trend right now.

Pho (Photo; Running with Tweezers)

M: Yeah. Asia is obviously a gigantic place that has a variety of kinds of cuisines, but if I can generalize, it seems like they have a handle on the vegetable. They understand that it doesn’t need to be completely destroyed before you consume it. So you’re usually getting some sort of crunchy, steamed vegetable in whatever you order. We always make fun of Guy Fieri because he’s always like, “I love Asian food.” It’s just like, “Oh really, they’re all the same?” [laughs]

T: I’m not vegetarian, and when I think of Pho, I think of really rich pork broth. But it seems like there are good vegetarian options for it?

M: Yes, they always have at least one veggie something, with broth and you can put in whatever flavor you want to make it spicy or whatever. It’s the opposite of everything you get at a gas station. You just want some vegetables.

Also, Southern food or typical North American food caters to the meat realm. If you’re getting collard greens, they’re going to–

T: Have meat.

M: Yeah, totally. There’s no nutritional value for the things we would order. So we end up just getting a grilled cheese sandwich and begging the server to put tomato in it for us.

T: Did you have a bad experience touring in the South in terms of finding vegetarian food?

M: We’ve had a lot of experiences with all-you-can-eat buffets on highways on our ways to things like SXSW. Mexican food is great. We all love Mexican food because they have really good breakfast, like migas and huevos rancheros. We all eat eggs and fish sometimes.

You’ve been touring with a lot of different bands over the past year. Would you say any of those bands have particularly good taste in food?

M: We’ve been pretty lucky with The Decemberists because they have a wide range of things available for supper. I think they have lunch too. We never make it on time for it.

But we toured with Absolutely Free, and they actually make dinner every night in a rice cooker.

Absolutely Free (Photo: Lefse)

T: So they throw it all into one pot? How does that work?

M: They do things in different stages. I think they’ll cook the rice or noodles first, and then start doing the curry. They made a lot of curry, and they made chili, and when we were in Austin, they bought a ton of stuff to make tacos. And it was all vegan. It was crazy because we’d walk into the venue, and we’d be like, “Oh, I guess they’re having curry tonight.” Every night they’d have something.

T: That’s so impressive that we are able to get produce and cook it on the road.

M: Yeah, they’re pretty strict DIY. They screen print all of their merch, and they’re really hands on guys. All of their gear is very much in their own hands, so no random sound guy can turn their set into a trainwreck. They also only have 3 people, so when it’s more contained like that, doing a dinner is much easier. We have 5, and it wouldn’t work.

They made oatmeal in their rice cooker too with peanut butter and bananas…

Did you guys pick up on any tips from them [Absolutely Free] in terms of cooking or eating healthier on tour?

M: Actually, this isn’t healthy at all, but we got a grilled cheese maker.

Grilled Cheese Maker (Photo: Amazon)

T: Wow, what is that, a griddle?

M: Keri had one when she was young. It just has two places to make two grilled cheese sandwiches.

T: I’m imagining a foreman grill…

M: Yeah, it’s very similar to that. And it has a diagonal line going through each sandwich so it melds it all into two halves.

So we get cheese on our rider and whole wheat bread and tapenade. It’s good really late at night, right before you go to bed to have a crazy grilled cheese sandwich.

You can make eggs in it too. We’ve made egg sandwiches in it.

T: Eggs are hard to transport.

M: Yeah, we would get a carton of egg whites. You can get it for $2.

We bring an aeropress and get ground coffee beans and do our own coffee. Because at Holiday Inn Express, you’re not even really drinking coffee. You’re just drinking caffeine.

T: I see here [on table] that you have chips and dip. Is that a typical rider request?

M: At this venue [HOB], they provide their own brand of chips. It’s nice to get a sealed bag with a label on it so you know what’s happening. We usually get everything whole wheat and maybe hummus. We usually get olives and blue cheese. It all depends on what they’re willing to do for you. We have to take bananas off because we get a thing of bananas every night and they just turn brown.

T: In past interviews, people have mentioned that they’ll get food and bring it in the van afterward, and you have to be really careful that it’s not going to be something that goes bad. It sounds like that’s a similar situation.

M: Yeah. Peanut butter transports really well. That’s the one thing where if you’re in a terrible situation, you can just whip peanut butter on whatever you have.

T: I interviewed A Sunny Day in Glasgow, and Ben Daniels, who leads the band, makes his own peanut butter and brings it on the road with them.

M: That’s crazy. I would love to be able to do that. Almond butter is a whole other beast. Almond butter is really expensive though.

T: Yeah, it’s twice as much. But you can always buy it by the pound if you go to Whole Foods.

M: Oh yeah. Tips. We need those tips.

Cape Breton (Photo: Wikipedia)

I saw that you’re from Cape Breton. I looked up pictures of it, and it looks really beautiful and somewhat remote. I’m guessing it doesn’t have a lot of really big supermarket chains or anything like that. What’s the food culture like there?

M: It’s a pretty Scottish climate, so turnips are big there. Turnips, potatoes, beets…a lot of root vegetables because the soil isn’t super fertile. Traditionally, they cooked everything for a really long time to make sure it didn’t have any disease in it, because there’s no city, so everyone’s doing it themselves. A lot of farming and stuff like that.

As far as cuisine, to be honest, I hadn’t eaten an avocado until I was 19 years old.

T: Wow, so just turnips. [laughs]

M: Just straight turnips. My mom is a good cook. It’s pretty Scottish Canadian food.

T: When you say Scottish, what do you mean?

M: Boiled potatoes, cottage cheese, some kind of meat. Vegetables with not a whole lot of thought behind how they’re prepared. They could be boiled even. Like, after the broccoli has been boiled past its most vivid green, it becomes really sad.

T: Did you grow up vegetarian?

M: No, I ate a lot of meat as a kid. And obviously a lot of seafood because that’s a huge thing in Cape Breton as well, like lobsters, crabs, haddock, trout, mackerel and fish like that. But eight years ago, I started, and I’m a pescetarian. We all are. Sometimes it’s just nice to have a piece of fish.

We’re also not really snobby when it comes to the vegetarian thing. Because if you’re going to your grandma’s house for Thanksgiving, you can’t be a jerk or tell her that your morals are higher than hers.

T: Your band is based in Toronto. How long have you been living there?

M: About 3 years. We all love Toronto. We have a good situation there where we know where to get the things that we want.

If you had a friend that was visiting you in Toronto, where would you recommend they go for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

M: There’s a place that Brian works and I worked at for a while called Auntie’s and Uncles. It’s a really great diner if you’re not afraid of butter and cheese. The inside is beautiful, and he’s always playing great 60s music. It’s a really great vibe, and it’s always extremely busy.

Aunties and Uncles in Toronto, ON (Photo: Food Will Never Break My Heart)

There’s a Mexican restaurant on Bloor Street called Tacos El Asador, and they have an amazing breakfast as well.

Tacos El Asador in Toronto, ON (Photo: Yelp)

For lunch, there’s a strip around where we live on Ossington street, and there’s a place called Bazara, and they have a really great lunch prix fixe. It’s Japanese fusion. It’s pretty cheap, and you can get a whole whack of food.

Bazara in Toronto, ON (Photo: Bazara)

For dinner, I would go somewhere like Anh Dao, which is probably my favorite place for pho in Toronto. We’re all pretty in sushi and pho.

Ahn Dao in Toronto, ON (Photo: BlogTO)

There’s a lot of great vegetarian restaurant. I work at a pizzeria in Toronto called Libretto, and it’s Naples-style thin-crust pizza.

Pizzeria Libretto in Toronto, CA (photo: Notes on a Meal)

T: Do you have a history of working a restaurants then?

M: We all do. Brian and I predominantly, but everyone has. I’ve been a server for a long time. It’s a great job, and a lot of bosses are used to people having to leave and come back. And that’s why it’s normal for people to work at bars and restaurants when they’re in bands.

T: On your record, you have a song called Atop a Cake.

If you were to order a cake that was called Alvvays, what sort of cake would that be?

M: If I were speaking for the band, I would probably say carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Because I think we can all agree that carrot cake is amazing.

Carrot Cake (Photo: Fashion Basket)

If it were me, I would say blueberry cake with lemon curd. That’s my favorite thing ever. I’m into it. Upside-down cake is good too.

T: Fruit cake.

M: Yeah, something with fruit in it.

T: That’s it for all my questions - did you have any final thoughts about food?

M: Oh, yes, I have a thing that I want to create for McDonalds because they don’t have a veggie burger. I want it to be called the Big Mock, and I want it to be exactly like the Big Mac except for veggie patties. If you want to pitch that, it’s all yours, but I feel like they’d screw you over if you pitch that idea and they took it.

T: Thank you so much Molly. I’ve been so happy about all the success you guys have had in the last year. Clearly the best indie pop record of last year, hands down.

M: Thank you so much. That’s really nice of you to say.

T: Thank you so much again.

M: Nice to meet you!

Check out Alvvays Toronto picks on our Food Map