You know how that should go: Why this pop-punk Drake cover band is the real deal

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The night is almost upon us: OVO Fest, Drake's annual Toronto homecoming concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. The event showcases Drake not just as a rapper, but a curator of cool; in years past, he's brought surprise guests as wide-ranging as Lauryn Hill, Kanye West and Stevie Wonder. It's a weekend-long ticket nowadays, and the final night, headlined by Drake himself, sold out in minutes this year.

Thousands of Drake fans will seethe with jealousy Monday night, when the Internet will undoubtedly explode with news of secret guests they're missing out on. But for the sub-section of fans that also embrace the frenzied, teenage energy of pop punk, there is some reprieve: On Friday, for one night only, Toronto's Junior Battles will transform into Thirst Behaviour, a pop-punk cover band that renders Drake covers as faithfully as their instruments allow. It's the second year of OVO Fest-inspired covers for the band, whose lineup expands for the event to include extra guitar from Old English's Daniel Halyburton.

The Globe and Mail caught up with Thirst Behaviour vocalist-guitarist Aaron Zorgel to talk about fandom, beefs and Drake having more in common with pop punk than people might think.

When did you first get the idea of doing a whole set of Drake covers?

We've been a band for a while, but as we got a little older, we were getting jobs and decided to scale it back and do fun projects to keep us busy. We're all massive Drake fans and we all had tickets to OVO Fest last year, and we thought, let's do a preparty in conjunction with promoting our new record. We were going to do a DJ party on the Friday before OVO Fest, then it slowly evolved into, why don't we do a few Drake covers?

We put a lot of practice into it because we were having so much fun with it. We wanted to treat the Drake songs with a certain amount of care, because we're huge fans and we didn't want it to be a novelty or parody thing. When you think of a pop-punk cover set, your mind instantly goes to Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, bands that do pop-punk covers with a wink and a smile, sarcastically. That was the biggest concern approaching Drake – we didn't want anyone to look at it as anything but an extremely sincere tribute to Drake, because we're huge fans.

Would you say, then, that Drake and The 6 raised you right, or that you're just trying to stay alive and take care of your people?

Those are both good Drake words to live by. There's such enthusiasm for Drake in the city. He made it a cool place to live for one of the first times. I think it's an interesting moment in music in the city beyond the scope of just hip hop – with punk, with indie, with electronic music. It's really a creative place to be and there's a community here. It just so happens that Drake is at the centre of it all.

Do you think Drake and pop punk have anything in common ideologically?

I grew up listening to a lot of emo punk bands: The Get Up Kids, Sunny Day Real Estate, Rites of Spring, early emo. Drake is one of the first rappers to hang himself out there and put it out on the line: Marvin's Room, all the Take Care era, emotionally in-touch lyrics. Bands like Bad Religion, the Get Up Kids and Jawbreaker were really important for us growing up. They gave me that feeling of being a part of something that the punk community gives you – a feeling of belonging as a young person. In hip hop, Drake is doing the exact same thing. He put Toronto on the map, made it cool. That feeling of community and belonging – there's a kinship there between the punk community and the hip-hop community.

How did the audience react last year?

Everyone was super enthusiastic to the point where we didn't really have to sing. It was a big singalong. There's such a melodic element to what Drake does, even in his rapping. It translates in an interesting way. I would never say we're doing it proper justice, because I put Drake on such a high pedestal. We actually joked that we should call the band Less than Drake – an inside-pop-punk reference to Less than Jake, and because it's definitely sub-standard when you compare it to Drake's music. But I think the spirit is there, and the energy. We put the songs in a context that they would take on the impact that Drake's songs do.

Can we expect new material from If You're Reading This It's Too Late?

I've spent no less than two to three hours listening to the sample from Know Yourself on repeat so that I can learn to play it on a loop on guitar. That's how committed we are to translating the hits.

There are certain songs that, if we can't do them justice, we just strike them. We call the band Thirst Behaviour, but we don't even play Worst Behavior. If you listen to the song, melodically, it's insane – swelling synths, droney atmosphere, twisted vocal samples. It sounds like insane, drugged-out free jazz if you try to play it on guitar.

What are the chances of a collaboration?

Do you remember recently when a Spoon cover band played right next door to a Spoon set, and then the band came in and jumped on stage for a song? That is the main reason we started this silly idea – on the very miniscule chance that Drake will hear about it on Twitter and come through. If you're reading this, Drake: come through.

Thirst Behaviour plays at Handlebar in Kensington Market on Friday, July 31, in conjunction with The Art Of dance party. Free.

Read Josh O'Kane's 2013 interview with Drake here.

This interview has been edited and condensed.