“I’ve watched so many interviews over the last five years but it’s definitely weird, especially when you feel like you’re speaking for three other people as well,” says Rococode co-leader Andrew Braun. “I try to think about it as talking about a band as opposed to myself.”

The band is Rococode, a Mother Mother-esque four-piece rounded out by Laura Smith, Johnny Andrews and Shaun Huberts.

If all of these names sound familiar, it’s because they are. Andrews and Huberts have backed Tegan and Sara, while Smith used to be in Said the Whale and Braun is Hannah Georgas’s guitarist.

Understandably, it’s a little jarring for the band to be thrust into its own spotlight after its collective members have been hired guns for big name acts.

“This is turning into more of a full-time project for all of us,” says the Altona-born Braun, 28, over the phone from his home in B.C. “We’ve never had our own band before. Our rhythm section has basically made their whole living just playing music, which is pretty rad. It’s totally a different ride and sense of accomplishment.”

When Braun and Smith decided to make a record, they booked the same studio producer Ryan Guldemond and his band Mother Mother were using to record this year’s blistering pop masterpiece, Eureka.

“It happened that Ryan was doing their record at the same time and the same place,” he says. “We hadn’t spent a lot of time together, but we run in the same circles. He had just produced the Hannah Georgas album, which I was in the process of learning.

“It turned into this really, really great thing on all levels. Ryan’s amazingly dedicated, it was pretty crazy how much time and effort he put into the thing.”

With the full-length (Guns, Sex & Glory, co-produced by Braun and Guldemond) set for release in February, a double A-side (Weapon/Empire), a single on Bandcamp and a busy touring schedule, it would seem like that would be enough for a new band - but, no.

The group is a top 20 finalist in Vancouver’s Peak Performance Project, a music business boot camp with a $100,000 prize at stake.

“I was just on my way this morning to hand in the final report that we had to write,” he says. “I think I cracked the 55-page mark on this document, so it was quite an endeavour. It’s like a giant grant application.”

Locked away in the mountains for a week with 19 other bands, Rococode was put through daily eight-hour classroom sessions, as well as nightly showcases and recording sessions.

“Every band does a showcase for judging, which is kind of strange - sort of American Idol style,” he says.

“There is so much you can do with a record once it’s done. All the touring, manufacturing things and publicity and advertising, you can become your own label. You have the perks of not having to answer to anybody, but you have the crazy budget to do whatever you want.”

Published in Volume 66, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 19, 2011)