By: Xanthe Couture (Edmonton Correspondent - Canada)

Success for any band is about being able to morph and adapt to the times. When your band has 16 listed members who come and go to do other projects, as is the case of Broken Social Scene, it matters even more. Luckily, Brendan Canning is well aware of the collaborative feel of the group and takes things as they come with Zen-like calmness and acceptance "Change is inevitable, life changes, the world changes, we'll see what happens," he says. Yet, the musical collective has been going for nine years now and winning a Juno has only added to their credibility. Broken Social Scene are hard to define as the band is based in collaborative efforts, so the best way to describe their sound is experimental, from all walks of life.

Their rambunctious smorgasbord of musicians performed on three occasions at this year's Edmonton Folk Music Festival. They had the younger crowds entranced in their music, thrilled to be able to see one of today's most influential Canadian bands on the Festival stage.  The older, more low-key festival-goers had a bit of a different reaction. Depending on their knowledge of the band, some watched in enjoyment and got into the music while others appeared slightly confused at the wall of sound that came at them. 

During Broken Social Scene's Main stage 6 p.m. set on Sunday they expanded the band even more by adding a trumpeter and a flutist as well as other Festival performers such as Serena Ryder. The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is part of Broken Social Scene's Something for All of Us Tour, which features songs from the recently released Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning album, the follow-up to Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew.

Canning has a laidback response when asked if this album format is part of an ongoing process for the group, and if they had planned to have such a large number of artists involved with the group who have gone off to have other successful projects "It's a very open door policy, who knows. It was ten years ago. I can't even remember what I was thinking ten years ago to be honest," Canning says.

The same goes for future Festivals. "I don't think towards the next Festival. We are a very day by day band. We're in the moment," he says. That spontaneity has made for some interesting music over the years and has deemed Broken Social Scene one of Canada's most innovative bands.

Canning is light-hearted about the mix of Festival goers at their shows over the weekend, where younger fans were engrossed in their sets while others sat in their fold up chairs and showed less outward enthusiasm, "This is very different to a normal gig we would play. It's different than playing a club gig where the kids are going bananas," he quips.

"It wasn't too bad for a dinnertime crowd, wolfing down noodles type of crowd. It's kind of funny more than anything," he jokes. "Not that we didn't have fun here today. Every Festival is different and people love it on their own terms here," he observes, adding, "I'm here to spread the gospel."

And what if spreading the gospel involves more chance of commercial success and compromising the loyalty of fans that have been around from day one?

"Whatever comes our way, comes our way, comes our way, people will probably say "aww, they are too commercial" and then some people will say "who is this band? I have never heard of this band before, they don't have any songs I have heard"," Canning says. Broken Social Scene's philosophy hasn't changed much since Canning and co-founder Kevin Drew started the group back in 1999. Canning explains the band's goals quite simply.

"Are we looking for anything? I don't know, looking to be happy, looking to be comfortable, to make some good music," he says.

The full spectrum of what Broken Social Scene has done for the Canadian music industry will probably not be completely understood or acknowledged until the rock music scene has gone through one of its uncontrollable metamorphoses "Our band propelled what is a lot of these other bands for sure whether its Apostles, Stars or Jason Collett. We were sort of the push that pushed it forward," Canning says.

"I worry about the stuff I can change myself and try not to worry too much about what I can't change; certain things are just going to be out of my control." In life, many things usually are....