"I'm playing shows and getting free drinks and staying in hotels and riding on the train, it's not like working in a coal mine, you know," says Geoff Berner from a crowded bus ripping through tunnels in the mountains of Norway. "I've heard people complain about it and it's like, wow, you've got high-class problems."
It's the end of another European tour for the Vancouver-based musician known for his dark-humoured, politically-charged, punk-infused klezmer. Despite the pending blizzard that's forced Berner and his bandmates off the train and onto a bus, when we chat he's en route to Oslo where he'll play to an arena crowd of 10,000 in support of Norway's Kaizers Orchestra.
It's a climactic close to the European leg of his Victory Party tour, during which he's been commanding crowds of "odd, bookish people who like to drink" at synagogues, university pubs, punk bars and even a protestant church. But now it's Canada's turn to party.
For his fifth full-length album, Berner was a man with a plan. He wanted Victory Party to be a fuller-sounding record that dug deeper into klezmer tradition and to make it happen he knew needed wizardry in the form of Montreal's Josh Dolgin (AKA Socalled).
"He's this combination of mastery in the studio and super-knowledge of Jewish music," says Berner of the producer, composer, musician, filmmaker and visual artist celebrated for his fusion of klezmer and hip-hop.
"I needed somebody who knew more about these things than I did to guide the record to where I wanted it to go. And I needed somebody that was going to come up with crazy ideas of their own that I would never think of. I can't think of anybody besides Josh that could do that---in the world."
The result of this pairing of frenetic klezmer masterminds is what Berner calls "a bloody-minded celebration," an album that welcomes back his chaotic yet precise instrumentation, but tops it up with the welcomed addition of bass and clarinet. Dolgin's experimental rhythm-style rings through, adding extra punch to the record and specifically standing out in the track "Oh My Golem."
"We sort of revved each other up on this idea of, like, horrifying '80s Israeli disco," says Berner of his collaboration. "He makes everything tasty."
Lyrically, Victory Party weaves together Berner's usual clever and witty narratives with songs that rework traditional lyrics and poetry.
"I just admire people like Bob Dylan, or Jerry Lee Lewis or...other people that play fast and loose with the old songs," says Berner. "Taking those songs and making them live again."
Songs like "Laughing Jackie the Pimp," "Mayn Rue Platz" and "Dolloy Polizei" revisit Yiddish poetry and early 20th-century Jewish radical songs that jab at issues that are still incredibly relevant, like police brutality and sweatshop work.
Just like his past albums, Berner's thought-provoking messages ring loud and clear in Victory Party.
"For better or worse," he says, "I don't want to treat people like idiots, I want to throw stuff at them and make them feel something. Even if you're making them feel pissed off, that's something," he says. "I want it to be immediate, I don't like music that just washes over people."
But when it comes from the mouth of Geoff Berner, you've got no choice but to soak it up.