PS I Love You's Paul Saulnier on Kingston, Ontario and guitar prowess.

Vanessa Heins

PS I Love You is Paul Sauliner (left) on guitar and vocals and Benjamin Nelson on drums. The duo play Sunday night at the hi-dive.

​Last year, PS I Love You, from the university town of Kingston, Ontario, made some waves beyond its immediate environs with the release of a split 7-inch with Diamond Rings. The energy and spiky sound of the duo's songs are at times reminiscent of Hüsker Dü and Pavement. Singer and guitarist Paul Saulnier's musical prowess has drawn comparison to guitar virtuosos of the past because of his ability to play technically proficient leads. But Saulnier's greater strength is in making that kind of thing relevant in a pop song. We recently spoke with Saulnier about the town he's from, the imagery in the band's music, as well as his supposed status as an indie rock guitar hero.

What is Muster Station, and what is its significance to this record?

Paul Saulnier: Muster Station is a place on a boat where passengers meet to get on lifeboats when the boat is sinking. It's kind of how I feel most of the time. There's a lot of anxiety in my songs. I try to organize myself while everything is sinking is kind of what it's like. In my hometown of Kingston, Ontario, there's an island attached to it called Wolf Island. There's a free ferry, and I go there a lot. The ferry would take half an hour, and the album is a half hour long. That's kind of where I go to clear my head and write my songs. The album is dedicated to that.

How does a two piece make such a huge sound?

When we play live, I play a bass keyboard that sits on the floor. It's kind of like the bottom of an organ. I play it while I play guitar and sing and throwing in bass notes is what gives us a big sound live. The guitar, of course, is screaming loud, and Ben is pretty hard-hitting drummer. On the album I also throw in electric organ.

You're from Kingston, Ontario? What is it like living there, and what kind of climate exists there as it relates to you being in a band and being creative?

There's a pretty big university in Kingston so there's always a couple thousand young people moving to that town every year. I end up making a lot of new friends all the time, because, for every few thousand kids, there are a few really good musicians and pretty good artists. Because I'm a local and I do what I do, I end up meeting them. I get inspired by some of the people I meet.

It's a small town, and I can walk everywhere. You get so familiar with everything, it becomes a part of you. Everything that happens to me on an emotional level affects my songs. And there's a song connection between my emotional well-being and a physical place that I'm at. I can walk down any street in Kingston and give you a life history.

There's a couple of good bands we're friends with and even though we're different genres, we support each other. There's a band called the Gertrudes and another in which I play drums called False Face. It's a noise, pop sort of band. I think it's a pretty nice place to live, and it's small and not too crazy.

The Eye Weekly said that you shred "like Yngwie Malmsteen." Is there a classical music underpinning to your songwriting, and was that guy at all an influence?

I think that was just a random thing that they said. I have the album Rising Force on vinyl, and I've listened to it maybe three times in my life. I think he's amazing, but I don't writing guitar solos anywhere near the way he does. No classical undertones. If you want to get technical, my guitar soloing is rooted in my obsession with a major scale. It's pretty simple and not all that complex.