The Little Red Umbrella: Meet The Band: Stella Ella Ola

Tomorrow night, Stella Ella Ola will be playing what promises to be one of the most awesome shows of the entire summer. It'll be on a boat. On the lake. Two other fantastic Toronto bands will be playing: Dwayne Gretzky and July Talk. And the rest of night will be DJed by Andy freaking Rourke. Yeah, the same Andy Rourke who played bass in The Smiths. So, uh, to put it mildly, we're a little bit excited.

Plenty of that has to do with getting to see Stella Ella Ola play live. The band — which shares members with Hollerado — have put together a sound that's part garage rock, part surf rock, part indie, part country and alllll something you'd like to dance along to while drunkenly cruising the high seas. So we figured we'd catch up with the group's Anne Douris and get her to answer some of our silly questions. Which you'll find below.

Tickets for the event are apparently going pretty quickly, but you might still be able to get some at Soundscapes or Rotate This — or online by clicking through the link from the Facebook invite, which has all of the event info here. The whole thing is yet another party put together by the fine folks over at the Young Lions Music Club.

MP3: "Hypersleep" by Stella Ella Ola

How do you describe your music to someone who hasn't heard you before?

Ever seen that movie, “Degrassi High: School’s Out”? (1992). It’s like “YEAH, summertime party go go” But then shit gets real. Somebody dies. We try to make fun music for your free time, but also tell good stories and talk about the tough stuff.

Alternatively, you could say garage-surf-pop?

If you could play one venue you've never played before, what would it be?

One day I really really really would like to play at the Kee to Bala. Duke Ellington, Glen Miller AND David Wilcox AND Drake have all graced that stage. Not at the same time, obviously.

Your all-time, all-star supergroup?

You mean, if I could put one together? All the members of Can, Liquid Liquid and Herbie Hancock. George Gershwin would do all the writing.

What's the worst album you own?

I have so many embarrassing albums, but I could never hate on any of them. That list might include the soundtrack to “Cats”, which I listened to every single day (not exaggerating) in 1999. Or maybe the album of John Lithgow singing songs for children - “Singing in the Bathtub”, which I purchased as a young adult. From Mastermind. Which, by the way, is a great place to buy CDs... you just have to know what you’re looking for.

If you could switch places with another musician in some type of "Freaky Friday" type incident, who would you want it to be?

Tough one, because a lot of my favourite musicians are sort of dead. I would switch with Trish Keenan of Broadcast. But if they need to be alive... James Murphy.

If you absolutely had to get a face tattoo of album art from one record, which record would you want to have on your face for the rest of your life?

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s album “Architecture & Morality” is one of my favourite album covers out there. Plus it wouldn’t look bad on a face. Otherwise, the pepsi symbol from “Gordon”.

What’s your favorite solo ever on your favourite instrument ever?

The Beatles, “For No One” has an amazing French Horn solo - it always stood out to me. It was one of the reasons I played French Horn in middle school. The other reason was that all the other, easier instruments were taken.

If you were going to be a roadie for one band, who would it be?

Oh oh oh. The Flaming Lips. I want to take that human-sized hamster ball for a joyride so badly.