Thick Specs - Classic Indie Rock

Interview with Bill Priddle

2010-03-07T18:23:07-05:00

On a frigid, gloomy monday afternoon, the ever-enchanting and

insightful Bill Priddle (of Treble Charger, Broken Social Scene) gave

up a half an hour of his time to chat with little, old me. Filled with

witticisms and industry-underbelly depictions, Bill talked with me

about his solo project 'The Priddle Concern (2007)', early days of

BSS, latter days of TC and much more.

Have a listen!

(Click the play button below to listen - enjoy optimal,

skip-free listening by letting the whole progress bar load

first before clicking play)

Dale Morningstar - Sleeping Under The Stars - The Documentary Movie

2010-03-02T13:17:52-05:00

I first met Dale Morningstar in 1993 playing with The Inbreds. At the time we were starting to work quite a bit with the Rheostatics' drummer, Dave Clark. We had just recently released our first CD, Hilario, and Dave had worked on a few tracks with us for that collection. For our next album Kombinator, Dave was to be the full meal deal producer and we needed a studio to match. The Rheos had recently done some demos at a place called the Gas Station and Dave thought it would be a great option for us. We dropped by to meet the studio co-owner (along with Don Kerr) and engineer, Dale Morningstar. He was infamous in his own right for playing with The Dinner is Ruined, who were notable for a) having a pretty wild sound b) having a real honest-to-goodness indie record deal. Dale was an underground hero then much as he is today.

Flash forward to 2008 and I've got access to a fancy new HD video camera courtesy of Zunior.tv. I'm looking to do my first real indie documentary movie and I need a good subject. Dale immediately came to mind as someone that has a great story, a great legacy in Canadian indie rock culture and a great sense of comedy. Over the years we had recorded two full Inbreds albums with Dale (Kombinator and Winning Hearts) and a CD with our Kingston friends The Caspers. I worked with Dale putting out the last Dinner is Ruined album on the Zunior Label, and played many shows together over the years.

I decided the focus of the movie would be based around three key locations including the studio on Toronto Island, the old 90's-era studio home in Parkdale and his bus-cottage in the Niagara region. It was admittedly the bus-on-blocks that got me most excited because it was so unique. Dale had told me the story in earlier years of how he got an old bus and parked in the middle of the woods on some land owned by a friend. He then insulated it, put in a wood stove and powered it using a single solar panel. He's able to live in it, record in it and generally get away from everything. This was real self-sufficiency and real ingenuity. Upon actually seeing it in the summer of 2008, I was not disappointed. I'm pretty big on solar power and that was perhaps the coolest thing about this bus as he runs everything using a single used solar panel linked into two marine batteries with a simple inverter. Watch as he records the new song 'Birdland Bus' in a single take, right in the bus and the recording is fully solar-powered.

For the movie as a whole, I filmed several hours of footage which was skillfully edited down to a 30 minute movie by Kevin Lynn. Paul Watson added some additional footage of Dale recording in the studio with a reunited Dinner is Ruined in 2009. Jenny San Martin created the awesome Flash intro which imagines an illustrated version of Dale floating off on an ice flow, recording all the way. There have been so many great artists that have met and recorded with Dale over the years and I hope they all get a chance to see this movie. Dale really has some wise words to say about the recording process, the need for levity and the reasons why musicians are the way they are. Check out the movie in three parts below, or simply send this link to your friends that already know Dale, or those that should get to know him: http://morningstar.zunior.com.

Dale Morningstar - Sleeping Under The Stars - Part One

Dale Morningstar - Sleeping Under The Stars - Part Two

Dale Morningstar - Sleeping Under The Stars - Part Three

- Dave Ullrich

Interview with Julie Doiron

2010-02-20T14:32:18-05:00

Over the span of a week and a half, I conducted two parts of an interview with Julie Doiron – recently pegged as 'the first lady of Canadian Indie music'. Due to bad phone reception in the prairies, Julie and I got cut off several times. Also, due to her crazy tour schedule and a cold/sinus sickness which is still lingering in my head-nodes today, we weren't able to re-connect for another 10 days or so. Needless to say, she was very friendly and super-intuitive in discussing music, life, kids and lots more.

MattMcKech/ThickSpecs: Thanks for your time today, Julie!

JulieDoiron: yeah! You're welcome.

MM: This is a question I always ask to give the reader some context – thinking back to your early years, what made you want to pursue music, in your earliest memories?

JD:(laughs) My earliest memories of wanting to do music? Ohhh. I mean, I remember the really early ones of fantasizing all the time. I was 6 or 7 and I was really into Olivia Newton John and Blondie. I had a tape-deck and I would sing into this tape-deck. I used to tell EVERYONE I wanted to be a singer. They'd say 'What do you want to do when you grow up? And I'd say 'I want to be a SINGER!' Then I sort of outgrew it for a while and went to school for photography and all that stuff but – this idea of pursuing music was still there. I taught myself how to play guitar when I was 10. Then it kinda stopped, then I started playing piano and saxophone, and then when I was 15, I found the same guitar in the basement that I originally played when I was 10 and I re-learned things again. And from there, I actually stuck with it. My parents told me if I was actually into playing guitar that they'd get me guitar lessons. They brought me a Yamaha acoustic guitar instead of the one from the basement with the craziest action ever! (laughs) But I still had no inclination to actually truthfully pursue it as a career until i was actually in it. When we started Eric's Trip, it was just supposed to be a band that would just...rock out in the basement, ya know? I had no intentions of getting on a stage with music – at all. But uh...then all of a sudden, I was doing it and ET broke up and I didn't know what else to do so I just kept doing it. I liked it – so I kept doing it. But yeah – my earliest memories would be Olivia Newton John and Blondie – two very different styles but I guess they were important influences. K- tel records were also a huge thing for me. One of the coolest gifts I ever got was a toy record player from Sears, or whatever, a portable one -

MM: I remember those. My brother had one, I think.

JD: (laughs) They were so cool. Anyways, he would always give me K-tel records for my birthday and Christmas and stuff so...I guess I have my whole family to thank. My grandmother and mother helped me learn how to sing. My mother was very vigilant about making me harmonize with her when she was cooking supper. For fun, ya know (laughs). To make cooking more fun. But she used a lot of choir training on me that she learned from the nuns.

MM:You've been called 'the first lady of Canadian Indie music' – how does that resonate with you?

JD: (laughs) First lady of Canadian Indie Music? Wow. Well, I guess...I...I guess...I feel pretty good about being called that, I guess! I mean, I don't know. I um...it's a pretty cute thing to say. I don't know – there are a lot of great musicians in Canada. I guess the ego in me thinks it's awesome (laughs).

MM: Does hearing something like that freak you out at all? Or do you take it all in stride?

JD: Well...it could freak me out a little bit if I thought about it more but, I get freaked out a lot – several times a day, in day to day life (laughs), so there are many things that freak me out. For example, if a show is sold out, that spooks me. That freaks me. That's hard to get used to, I find. Um...but...on the other hand, I get really excited about stuff like that because it means I can keep doing this so...and have it make sense...to keep getting into a car and driving across the country. Because God knows I did it enough times where NO one was coming to shows. (laughs). But I just kept getting in the car and 6 months later be hoping for the best! I don't know if that title freaks me. I'm just happy that people seem to like what I'm doing. And that's really nice. It's really nice to get that kind of response. Today is a funny day – it's funny we should be talking about this today because I've been going within a lot in my thoughts today – for better or for worse – and so – I don't know how I'm gonna answer these questions (laughs).

MM: I like that, though – it's less rehearsed and more off the cuff.

JD: Chances are, my interviews are always way more off the cuff. I've said some things much to my own detriment, at times. I'm a little too candid at times. Hey – that's my personality.

MM: 'I can wonder what you did with your day' was and is still in high rotation in my music player – and I'm sure many others would feel the same way. How did the process of forming that whole unique album come into play?

JD: Well, hmm...for starters, there are 2 songs on that record that I didn't write. So that's the first time I've ever put anybody else's songs on my own record. That was a big step for me. I just thought they were really good songs and I had started playing them live while I was doing my solo tour and I thought they were really good songs – so I wanted people to hear them - Other than the 50 people who had a cd burn or record of Shotgun and Jaybird – and then there were 2 other songs on the album that were written for S&JB when I was in their band, years ago. So those other 2 songs I had written, but then the band broke up so I felt they were good songs and I really wanted them to live on beyond a limited run of albums. Ya know what I'm saying? So I already had those 4 songs in mind and I started writing all of these other songs that centered around feeling really good and being grateful for all the people in my life. And all the things I get to do – ya know – so I started writing about that and realizing that I had it pretty good, ya know? I had nothing to really be sad about when I was writing the record. So it was kinda about that – a little bit of a concept to the whole thing. (laughs) The concept of being happy! And then I also wanted to make an album that was as close as possible to what we were doing in our live shows, finally. So that's why it's pretty stripped down. That's the way we were touring – so I'd never made a record that so closely resembled the tour. Usually, I'd make a record and then have a completely different touring band – so this was as close as I ever got to doing that. I was pretty happy with that. I wanted to do that and I just wanted to show my gratitude for being alive as well, I guess.

MM: Do you ever take any flack for your love of distorted bass and heavy guitar sounds as opposed to just being a generic, female folker?

JD: I don't think anyone has ever said that to me. The last thing I would want would be to compromise what I do in any way. So if someone actually did say 'You're a female singer-songwriter – why don't you be more like that?', I would say 'Well, that's actually not who I am at all'. I'm Julie Doiron – and I kinda just want to do whatever I want, ya know? I would never want to be labeled. That's why I've chosen to rock out more – I mean, it's super fun but I was sort of getting tired of people assuming I was just a quiet singer making quiet music. Because I love rocking out – I love guitar solos. I've never NOT loved that stuff. I just started making quieter more peaceful music because I didn't know what to do after Eric's Trip broke up. And I didn't want to try and re-create what I had been doing with Eric's Trip. I wanted to be free to do whatever I wanted to do in the future. It was just time. I like the option to either rock out or be quiet in the same show. I think that ultimately for whoever is on stage or making a record, they should be having fun and really believing in what they do. I like to feel things out – I'm not one for strategy. Maybe if I had been better at strategy, I'd have a house and a car by now. My heart does most of the thinking, I guess.

MM: That's cool.

JD: Actually, that sounds really corny now that I said that (laughs).

MM: You've made some pretty unconventional connections over the years in your performance mates – Gord Downie, Wooden Stars, the Daniel, Fred and Julie album – how have some of those happened?

JD: Well ya know, I've always been really lucky – I don't know. The way the Wooden Stars collaboration came to be was because I've known Mike from The Wooden Stars since I was 16 so I've known him for a long time. And so, when I was running Sappy records, I really liked their record so I put out their second and then I organized a bit of a Sappy tour, so we toured together but we weren't actually playing together. Towards the end of the tour, they started coming on stage for one or two songs with us and it sounded so good. So when Lonely From The Morning was about to come out, Joyce from Sub-Pop said 'Why don't you take Wooden Stars with you?' And I thought 'That would be weird'. I didn't think it would work. Originally, it was just supposed to be a few members but then they all ended up wanting to come. So I got the whole band! It was awesome. With Gord...Gord, Gord – he just called me one day and asked me to sing on a Tragically Hip record because he wanted to hear how our voices would sound together. And so after that, he sort of invited me to do some of his solo stuff and he just invited me to be in the band. I felt pretty lucky. He's awesome – I love hangin' out with him. I think he's a great songwriter.

MM: When the Gord Downie thing happened, were you pretty blown back?

JD: To be honest, I was really shocked. I was taken aback that they would think of me. There are so many people they could have asked so I felt pretty honoured. I mean now, I know Gord really well - we're friends - but at the time, it was pretty surreal.

MM: How did you start collaborating with Fred and Daniel?

JD: Oh, Fred and I go way back from the Shotgun and Jaybird days. He was quite persistent and I moved to Sackville in 2004 and then I met Fred at a Christmas party – Dec 17th 2004. I still remember the invitation in my head. And I met him and we got in an argument about one musician versus another musician – I won't say who but we obviously had different opinions. But every time I saw those guys in town, they were pretty persistent about having a jam session and I was super-shy – I'm not a real jammer. I don't know how to jam. So after a while, he finally wrote out his phone number and I went and jammed with them and it was so fun. So then, we started playing together. Dan, though, I've only recently got to know and Dan made that happen. He told me he wanted to make a record with me and he booked a ticket down to Sackville and we spent a week in my garage and it turned out great. It was a fun week.

MM: How does having young kids and playing music work for you as a mom?

JD: I wouldn't say that's an ideal situation for me as a mom, ya know? I would always rather spend time with my kids. It's been a really busy year for me and we were all psychologically prepared for it – we knew the record was coming out in March – and I had 3 months off before that. I hung out with the kids a lot but I've been basically touring ever since and it doesn't feel like it's ever really gonna end for a while. And so I've had a lot of emotions when it comes to thinking about the kids. I mean, I'm basically missing a whole year of their lives, pretty much, and...I'd rather not talk about it too much more or else I'll kinda get down. I think they have a really great dad who is an amazing father and his girlfriend is basically like a stepmom and she is great with the kids, too. They're really loved. They spend a lot of time with my parents. They're older now – I mean, I didn't used to tour this much. They're doing fine, I mean they're in school all the time. If they didn't have school, I would bring them. I'm gonna try to do that this summer. But logistically, it's pretty heart-breaking for me – you kinda feel like you've abandoned your children. But they're super into what I do, so that's awesome. And every time I talk to them on the phone, they're totally fine – but I'm sure there are times when they wish I was home. Just as much as I wish they were here.

MM: Have you heard about Eric's Trip being judged in as the first winners of the Zunior Independent Music Hall of Fame? And how has the legacy of Eric's Trip affected your music today?

JD: Oh really! Well, that's cool. Well I think it's affected my career as a music. It affected me in a lot of ways because it made me realize kids from a small city in Canada could do what they wanted to do and actually be a real band. It made me realize I could maintain that philosophy of doing things the way I want to do them.

MM: So you feel comfortable doing music the way you want without any pressure to be a certain way?

JD: Yeah, totally. And that would explain why it's been such a long, slow road (laughs). But I think it's a worthwhile way to do it.

MM: Talk a bit about Sappyfest – Sappy has changed through the years from the early days doing 7" singles, to Shotgun and Jaybird CDs, to the now Sappyfest proper. How did some of that occur?

JD: Well, it was over time. I started doing Sappy in the early 90' and I stopped it a couple times – I didn't do it straight through. I had kids and got too busy to answer mail and all that stuff. And I didn't have that much money anymore so I kinda took a break and started again in 2000 to put out the Julie Doiron and Wooden Stars record. Then I took another break because I realized I couldn't really properly run a record label. Then my friend Paul (who is the main organizers of Sappy fest) was gonna start a record label for Shotgun and Jaybird and all that stuff. But then we decided to start Sappy again and make Paul an equal partner. And Paul does most of the work – Paul and John. I'm a co-owner and I have some say but I kinda let them be guided by their vision. But we all have the same vision so it's good that way. Paul's pretty motivated in that way. The festival started as a way of celebrating that we started up Sappy again – but then the festival sort of took on a life of its own and it became way more work than we realized so we focus more on the festival than the actual record label. But we are planning on putting out more records on Sappy so it's not over.

MM: You've got a ton of different collabs and projects on the go – what's the next project we can expect from you?

JD: Well I'm actually going to be recording a brand new Julie album soon and my friend Will who I'm on tour with, he's making a record as well that I'm gonna be a part of...in some way. We're gonna make a record together. And we have a project in mind and it's gonna be awesome. So as soon as we have some time, we're gonna start working on that. Other than that, I'll be touring theoretically this summer with Gord Downie for his new solo record, so there's a few things on the go (laughs). There are some things in mind, for the future.

MM: Thanks for your time, Julie. Have a great rest of your tour.

JD: Thanks to you too, Matt – and I hope you feel better soon.

- Matt McKechnie

Interview With Ben Gunning

2010-01-15T13:06:32-05:00

On an icy tuesday afternoon, the cunning & avant-garde Ben Gunning and I got a hold of each other and chatted about music, Halifax, the 'scene' and his newest album Mal De Mer that is releasing on January 19th on The Zunior Label (with a smattering of support shows over the next few weeks in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa - check out more at his site). In an effort to be more 'intranet-wizardly', the interview was recorded live and can be listened to by clicking the play button below this paragraph (for optimum listening, press play - then pause it to let it load - and when the progress bar is fully blue, hit play again - otherwise, it gets a little choppy). Check it out - Ben has some very witty, insightful and truthful things to say.

- Matt McKechnie

Top 10 Zunior Albums for 2009 - Paul Watson

2010-01-04T13:44:46-05:00

Andrew Vincent - Rotten Pear
About as unpretentious and casual as it gets. It's full of the sort of follies that a lot of us can relate to, but articulated more eloquently than any of us could hope for.

Black Hat Brigade - Fathers
"Zombie City Shake" is my alarm clock every morning (usually several times, depending on how often I hit "snooze"). It's the only song that can get me out of bed. The rest of the album doesn't slouch either.

The CFL Sessions - The CFL Sessions
Amazing concept. Excellent songwriting. Perfect delivery. I wish I made this album.

Grand Analog - Metropolis Is Burning
A genre-bending firecracker that is the perfect party album. Hip hop for the indie rocker.

The Rest - Everyone All At Once
Lush, full and ethereal. There are many moments of reverberated and transcendental greatness on this one.

Richard Laviolette & The Hollow Hooves - All of Your Raw Materials
This whole album is a hootenanny--a real barn burner that let's each player shine. Not to mention that "Funeral Song" is the most uplifting death march around.

Shotgun Jimmie - Still Jimmie
Same sort of unpretentiousness as Andrew Vincent, but with a fuzz pedal. Jimmie is a real character with a knack for a melody and that comes through in spades on this album.

Think About Life - Family
Every time I play this album people ask me who it is and where they can get it. It doesn't get much more fun and upbeat than this. It makes me want to pop a ghetto blaster on my shoulder and run around the neighbourhood spreading the joy.

Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre
Haunting and imbued with a somber agelessness, this is the sound of black magic vying for your soul.

Wax Mannequin - Saxon
The most intense and mutably insane persona in Canadian indie rock became the elder-statesman and created his best work to date.

- Paul Watson

Interview with Wax Mannequin

2009-12-31T13:48:13-05:00

On a yawny, gray tuesday, I connected via phone (after a few no service zones kept us apart) with Chris Adeney who is better known as 'Wax Mannequin'. While on tour in support of his new album 'Saxon (released on Zunior records), Wax gave me some interesting and funny insights into his stage shtick, creative process and image-heavy art.

MattMcKech/ThickSpecs: How did you know you wanted to do music?

Wax: I don't think I did know. I was writing songs, weird little songs, and I would play them at parties in high school. I was always writing music but I didn't think I'd be taking it as a career path. I went to art school and I was playing bass with an art rock band in Hamilton - 'Golden Lake Diner'. I was playing with them for the last year of their existence. Through that, I got opportunity to perform my own music a lot more, opening up shows, etc. My friend Brodie started booking me in as support for a lot of bands travelling through town and I got it into my head that I could be traveling with my music too. At the time, I played a lot locally at this place called the Raven - the kind of trashy club with lots of character that only stayed in business because of the excellent shows being put on there.

MM: A lot of people ask 'In your artistry, are you joking'?

WM: No, no - I'm not joking. In other kinds of art, you don’t see that hard line between humor and sincerity that’s usually expected in music – it’s blurred more often and people are pretty comfortable with this. So that’s what I bring to my songs. Any good humorist is saying something serious. The opposite is also true. It’s a lot more impactful to say serious things when it’s done with a sense of whimsy. It’s a bit of a taboo to ride this line in music... so naturally, I think it’s a very good idea.

MM: There's such a massive volume range in your music - some say you're either too quiet or too loud. What are you trying to say with the noise range there?

WM: Well, sometimes I'd get sick as a kid. When I was under the weather, I’d have this recurring dream - it was like something oscillating between being very heavy and hash, and light and smooth - sometimes all at the same time. It was a point of tranquil calm in the midst of total destruction, or a moment of whimsy in the darkest time. That’s what my music is about -- by going from loud to quiet and back.

MM: You seem to change your character/persona (especially live) with every album - can you explain the significance of that?

WM: No I don't (pauses - laughs). I do what feels right at any given time.

MM: Talk a bit about your videos - specifically 'A message from the Queen' and 'The Price'. What inspired those mega-interesting videos and was the filming process of those like?

WM: Well, I actually have a new video. 'Message' is a few years old. My new one is called 'End Of Me' - we just put it on youtube. But yeah – for ‘The Price’ This guy Jesse approached me at a show and said he and his friends wanted to make an animated video for me. I always wanted an animated video. I had this idea that I could be playing my weird song to a bunch of kindergarten kids in a thrift store - The old Family Thift Store in Guelph - then one of the kids steals something from the shelf and runs and I’d chase after all threatening, but the whole thing would get pretty silly. Jesse took this loose concept and changed it all around in an awesome way. They were working on it while I was doing a ramshackle tour in Australia. I'd get notes about how the video was going now and then. I never really thought it would be finished. But when I got home from my trip Jesse handed me the finished video at one of my shows. It seemed like something in my dreams. Jesse is amazing. As for 'Message', it was Scott Cudmore’s idea. I like that it features an all-powerful, healing lady - she is kind of an ambiguous but slightly threatening lady who heals my wounded head.

TS: People are huge fans of your signature yelps and meows - is there a reason you love to do that or is it a trait that is just inherent to you now?

WM: Sometimes I just feel like doing stuff in the moment. Maybe it’s a bit tourettes-like. The meowing started when I was performing solo. I would 'meow' the lines of different instruments that I thought should go in the song. Lou Barlow has a cover of Bryan Adams 'Run To You’ and the guitar solo sounds a bit like a sick cat so my highschool friends and I used to meow along with the guitar solo. (Meows in tune) 'meow, meow, meow, meeeoooowww'. I guess that’s where it started. It also came from the Mr. Dressup cat who only meows when she speaks.

TS: On 'Saxon', you've finally identified your band as Black Blood - is that partially inspired by Evil Dead 2?

WM: Yeah. You’ve done your homework! When things really go south in Evil Dead 2, Black Blood starts spraying all over the place. Then Ash puts a chainsaw on his stump-hand and starts sawing up all the demons. That’s where I’m at with this music. I feel like I’m at the point of no return. The guys who recorded with me - we all got to know each other well and began to really speak with each other through the music. The ‘Black Blood’ suffix is also how I identify whether it’s a band show or a solo show.

TS: You tend to tour like a demon - what's one the most bizarre experiences you've had on the road?

WM: There are always a lot of interesting and traumatic things that happen when I'm travelling. I tend to block a lot of that stuff out. Let's see... When I was touring in Germany I couldn’t figure out how to put my rented car in reverse... I’d just put the thing in neutral and push back with my foot. When I joked about this at a show in Hamburg, a friendly member of the crowd helped me figure out the car after the show. It turns out there was an almost invisible lever on the stick that I had to pull up. Later then the car reversed itself into a parked transport truck when I wasn’t in it.

TS: Where are you heading now on this current tour?

WM: We've got 3 shows in St John’s and I’ll be touring back across the Maritimes; Moncton, Fredericton, Quebec. We'll be playing in Montreal, and then I'll be off for a few weeks. It’s been a long run, but it’s been going well. In March, I’ll be heading west with The Burning Hell... Mathias and I will be in each others bands, and we will share a drummer and other musicians. I’m looking forward to touring as a collective like this, and it’s not as lonely when I’m sharing the road with others.
I like travelling plenty, and I like being lazy at home too, but too much of either makes me crazy. I suppose my ideal life is where I can tour as much as I want, and be at home playing video games as much as I want. I'm pretty close to having this perfect balance in my life right now.

TS: Thanks for your time today Wax!

WM: Thank you, Matt.

Interview with Christine Bougie

2009-11-30T13:17:33-05:00

(Photo by Ali Eisner)

On a dark November wednesday afternoon, I had a chance to speakerphone it up with the uber-talented Christine Bougie; the texture guitarist/drummer/steel player extraordinaire for Amy Millan and purveyor of her own artistically engaging albums 'Hammy's Secret Life' (2006) and 'This is Awesome' (2008) featuring Dafydd Hughes. Christine has been called 'the busiest steel player in Canada' so I was very glad to flag her down for a few moments.

MattMcKech/ThickSpecs: What started you down the road of music?

Christine: Well, I grew up with a piano in the house and I took lessons for a year but I quit – I really didn't like it. I wanted to memorize everything but my teacher wasn't really into that. But having access to a piano and a guitar was a big motivator for me. My dad taught me to play a few chords when I was young – A few CCR tunes and a few Beatles songs. I also remember vividly him showing me 'secret agent man' on guitar. That memory really sticks out. He then taught me how to play a few basic chords and I got a book of Beatles tunes so I guess it kinda went on from there.

TS: I read an interview in which you were described as the busiest steel player/session musician in Toronto – would you say that's accurate?

CB: Oh man – I don't know. The busiest? That's hard to define, I guess. But for sure, I'm one of the busier guitar players and it helps that I mainly play lap steel. So I do get a lot of session work doing steel. I guess I would say I'm 'one of' the busiest – Toronto feels like a very small scene, sometimes. But of course, I like that because I want to work - I have to work to make money and everything else. But I do like the variety of playing with a lot of different musicians. I just got off tour with Amy (Millan) and that's a very different feel than doing session stuff because you're playing the same tunes every night. But that's a nice fun, thing to do. You really get to know the songs well. But being off tour and back home brings variety with different sessions – so I like that, too.

TS: How have you managed to get so involved with folks like Amy Millan and other arts & crafts musicians over the years?

CB: You know, it always seems to happen through other musicians because as different people know what you do, word starts to travel. But I met Amy at Hillside – I was playing with Darcy Yates at the time as we were backing up Aengus Finnan @ hillside and Amy saw us play – or actually, I think it was Evan Cranley – and he suggested to Amy that she hire me. If you start playing with one person in one different scene, it all sorta spills out from there.

TS: Your style is very improvisational on guitar and you even wrote a blog on your site about playing the same tune for 30 minutes with your guitar teacher and taking turns soloing. Can you talk a bit about how that influenced your style?

CB: (laughs) I haven't done that in a long time. But it's funny because I was teaching a student of my own, recently – and that memory popped into my head. I had an idea to create a melody and got them to solo on one string. But yeah, I dont think I'd ever played a song for 30 minutes straight. That's about 50 choruses or so. I would look up in the lesson – playing, playing, playing, and my teacher would be like 'yeah, yeah! keep going!' As a player, you don't think you have things you repeat like licks. I'm not the player who learned 2-5-1 licks but everyone has their little things they repeat. It's kinda like stream of consciousness. Sometimes, I would get into 3 pages of straight writing and I would see some of the same thoughts and concerns repeating. Now when I write, I'll record myself on a loop station and loop it forever and record myself improvising over it – edit it, and listen to it for things that pop out like bits of melodies that come out and become a major part of the tune. Back then, I was always into jazz – and really, for me, it's all about jazz and soloing. In my world now, though, it can tend to always be 4 or 8 bar solos but I really do love doing the longer form stuff – when I can.

TS: You play an array of instruments: steels, guitars, drums – what's your favourite thing to create on?

CB: Oh man - they're so different – but I do love drums. When you play an instrument that's not really yours, it always feels kinda fun. With the guitar, I’ve been playing so long that feel like I should be pretty good by now! There's a freedom in playing your secondary instrument. I started playing lapsteel in 04 or 05 and now it's become a big thing for me. I should be pretty good at that too by now. I'm also really picky with drum gigs. There are certain things that I'm not afraid to admit I don't have the chops for.

TS: What inspired the concept for 'Hammy's Secret Life' – the music is so interesting instrumentally but I'm just wondering if there's more that I'm missing?

CB: Well, the title actually came from a story that involved a friend of mine. And that friend, her Korean name sounds like 'hammy or himey'. Anyway, I wrote a tune about her and sort of wrote it with her in mind. She sort of had a bit of a secret life going on and was hiding stuff from her parents. So it just became the title of my first record and making that record showed me a whole different side of myself that I think I had been hiding too, ya know. I had all these songs but I just wasn't doing anything with them.

TS: In the video for 'Think From The End' with the starfish dancing together – was that inspired by you or was that someone else?

CB: No, actually – that whole idea happened through my friend Peg and it was her husband - Dean Holmes – it was his idea. He came up with the whole starfish thing and he basically had the whole video put together. But he was trying to work it in with a lot of different indie music in Toronto but none of it seemed to be working and he said 'Christine – I want to try it with your music'. And it worked. My record had just come out so it was pretty awesome timing.

TS: Do you enjoy more being a background player who adds such huge texture or do you like being a headliner and promoting your own work?

CB: It's funny -they differently feel like 2 totally separate worlds. I'm not the type of person to be the headlining artist – but I still do need to make music of my own. It puts me in kind of a good position because I can survive as an artist. I can take my time and do it on the side.

TS: Talk a bit about 'This is Awesome' with Dafydd Hughes – what was that whole creation process like?

CB: Well he played on Hammy – and we've been playing together for a while. We started playing together every Monday at the Tranzac almost over a year ago, now. A year and a half ago, maybe. Anyway, our combined music evolved into something new and we wanted to record it. It became a weekly thing. So we composed a few songs together – but it's mostly half his stuff and half mine. We played the front room of Tranzac and had a cd release in the main hall. It was awesome. And honestly, now - we get weird when we can't play at the Tranzac. It's become our place. We're gonna play with Jason Collett in a variety show at the Dakota with a whole bunch of writers and comedians and other artists so that should be pretty cool.

TS: What was recording with Jon Brooks like?

CB: Oh man – I'm tryin to remember where we did that. I think it was in someone's house. But yeah, I remember them as being very heavy, passionate songs. He just sort of let me loose and let me get expressive. It was very cool.

TS: You played with Margaret O'Hara this past friday @ Hugh's Room for a Tom Waits tribute – how did that connection surface and what makes you so giddy about Margaret O'Hara?

CB: (chuckles) Well regarding the gig, it was a variety night and there were whole bunch of different singers - The Andrew Downing trio, Paul Mathew and lots of folks. So Andrew got an email with Don Rooke saying she wanted us to play on 'Big In Japan' with her. Andrew, Paul and I sat in with her. And actually, it was weird – I was playing a gig with another band I play with (Tuxedo, with Joey Wright) and we do a lot of weird, novelty country stuff (the whole idea for the name of the band came from the fact that I have a black tele and a white suit and Joey Wright has a white tely and a black suit. Anyways, we were in Dunedin -

TS: Florida?

CB: No – Dunedin ONTARIO! It's basically in the middle of nowhere but we were playing a really small gig there and Mary Margaret was there. It was so bizarre and it actually made me super-nervous. But yeah – I'm just a big fan of her so I'm honoured about the tribute gig.

TS: When can we expect a new album from Christine Bougie?

CB: Well, I have the songs to do it. I just need some grant money! (laughs).

TS: Thanks for your time today, Christine.

CB: No worries, Matt.

-Matt McKechnie

Top 5 Zunior Albums for 2009 - Dave Ullrich

2009-11-05T11:33:38-05:00

The music business continued to twist and turn in 2009 with non-stop digital upheaval. There were new ways to stream digital music, new ways to buy digital music, Apple vs Blackberry, Android vs everyone. At Zunior things just keep getting better with some amazing breakout releases from Zunior-friendly artists like Dan Mangan.

One of the best things about being involved with Zunior is getting the chance to work with so many great artists, and listen to so much great music. So when it comes time to make my top releases list every year, the key criteria is simply 'I listen to it all the time'. These are the album that have a treasured home on my digital musical shelf:

1. Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre

I've heard the term 'spooky' applied to this album quite a few times with good reason. The recording is quiet, intimate and eerie. The mood of this album is consistently downbeat and thoughtful. You might even say that it is the perfect album for the 'great recession'.

2. André Ethier - Born of Blue Fog

André Ethier is like the Canadian spawn of Bob Dylan, Nick Drake and Pete Townshend. The music can be tender and sad or sprawling and wild. A solid album that feels fresh every time I hear it.

3. Wax Mannequin - Saxon

Wax Mannequin tries on a folk-rock persona for his latest release. The style perfects suits his artistic development because it allows him to cool it down musically and show a softer side, while subverting the genre with some of his patented unpredictable oddities. This album allows him to get his freak on, while still using the tried and true tools of a classical guitar and progressive arrangements.

4. Luxury Pond - Luxury Pond

A quiet and subtle album that uses the recognizable sound of Owen Pallet's string arrangements to draw the listener into a magical musical world. The record bursts with musical colour and lush vocals. A recommended listen for the fireside this holiday season.

5. The Weather Station - The Line

This album has mystery. Mystery brings out the best in musical imagination and The Weather Station deliver. Listening to this album always brings me images of swirling arctic tundras, creaky barn floors and sweltering bayou jungles. NPR absolutely loves this band and I do too.

- Dave Ullrich

Interview with Andrew Whiteman of 'Apostle Of Hustle' and 'Broken Social Scene'

2009-11-02T11:11:50-05:00

On a grey afternoon in my bedroom, after several failed attempts by both of us, I finally got a hold of the super-friendly, ever-interesting Andrew Whiteman (guitarist, singer, songwriter for BSS and AOH) on the phone as he was trekking across the country (Somewhere in Colorado) with Gogol Bordello.

Matt McKech: Even before the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, take me back to your younger years - What started you down the road of music?

Andrew Whiteman: Well, actually it all started at one of the first birthday parties I ever went to – and it was in the days where they handed out those loot bags – and it was at a rich kid's house. Anyways, in the loot bag was a little handheld plastic AM radio. Mine was purple. And I took that thing everywhere and even slept with it under my pillow - and as a kid, I wasn't allowed to listen to loud music, so I took revenge on my mom and cranked it up under my pillow so she couldn't hear it.

MM: How did Apostle of Hustle begin with the whole Broken Social attachment?

AW: Well, they're separate entities, really. But yeah – it was all pretty organic. I remember coming back to town after visiting my godmother in Havana and that was when I first started getting together with Julian and Dean. And at that time, me and Feist organized a show with Kevin (Drew), Brendan (Canning), Justin (Peroff) and it all started there. And for a long time, every tuesday, myself, Julian and Dean would play the same dirty bar with AOH. And believe me – this bar was nothing special. It was just a sleazy, dirty bar.

MM: You've self-described Apostle Of Hustle music as 'indie exotica' or 'minor key mood music' – is that still true today?

AW: Absolutely. (laughs) I mean – we do have some songs in major keys, but not many. But yeah - minor key mood music is pretty accurate. But I don't know – we're a little different now because Apostle of Hustle is playing as a duo now (me and Dean) and on this particular run, we've been opening for Gogol Bordello so I don't know – there's been a little bit of punk rock in our set too.

MM: I've seen you guys play live a few times (once at wolfe island, another at zaphods in ottawa) when you were touring with national anthem – how do you get your albums to translate into the live performance?

AW: I try and get more theatrical and more themed as time goes on – so basically, what we have going on now is a very much 'eats darkness' performance. But I don't like to tell people everything. They should decide for themselves, ya know? We don't want to give things away and we don't want to spoil everything.

MM: What's the significance of the string you often raise up on stage and feel across blindfolded?

AW: My theme is usually always death – so, I'm very interested in the idea of passing through to different threshholds. But yeah, I'm always fascinated with death and everything that comes along with that. I mean – with the stage thing and the string - you could take it a bunch of different ways. Maybe you see it as death is the end of life and the beginning of something else. I'm also interested in ancestors and ancestor worship – lots of stuff like that. I mean – death and life are the two main locations in someone's timeline. But I don't like to give it away or interpret everything.

MM: So...maybe the string represented life and you were feeling your way along, between the birth and death points on the line?

AW: (laughs) There ya go, man. You're doing it, right there. You're taking your own interpretation. That's the important thing.

MM: Amy Millan said in an interview that Stars are her main deal – is BSS your main deal?

AW: Absolutely. (Broken) Social Scene is my number one – Apostle (Of Hustle) is like my child. It's sort of my spirit guide, ya know what I mean? It constantly reminds me of what's important to me and I love doing it. But yeah - when BSS hits the road and needs to record a record, that's my first priority always. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

MM: How is the recording of the new Broken Social Scene record going, by the way?

AW: Um – I've been on the road, here out west a lot – so I'm sort of out of the loop. But yeah – there is a lot of music recorded. We did it with John McIntyre from Chicago and that was a f*cking amazing experience. He's recorded and produced amazing bands like Tortoise and many more. And uh – it's a mash up. I'm not sure what I can say – it's a real BSS record. It's great guitar record, as far as I've heard.

MM: I watched an interview where you openly bashed the concept of the book that was written about Broken Social Scene ('This Book Is Broken') – how do you get away with that?

AW: Well, ya know, my band is used to me, man. They're my family. I say what I want. But I'm never afraid to admit that my opinions change. In fact, we were in Houston, Texas, touring a while back, and someone in Houston read the book and told me about how it changed his whole perspective and really opened up his eyes to the fact that a specific music scene can start anywhere. You don't have to be in a 'cool' place. Houston is a cool town, man – we loved playing there. And they're just trying to get a scene going there. So the fact that this one guy got off on the book and it helped him – I think that's awesome. I still think the concept was f*cking stupid, though and way too early. I mean, come on – we're not even ten years old as a band.

MM: What was the story about the fan accusing you of uttering a death threat against Stephen Harper?

AW: (laughs) Ohh. Yeah – no, that guy wasn't a fan. He was some ex-army guy who was passing by the show. And as I was introducing Fast Pony for Victor Jara, I did this thing on stage where I talked about the decapitated, bleeding head of George Bush making love to the decapitated, bleeding head of Stephen Harper. But this ex-military guy said I was making a death threat and he told the cops about it. Anyways, there were cops backstage, after the show, asking me these questions, but they were really nice and basically told me I had done nothing wrong but that they just had to verify that I wasn't making a death threat against anyone.

MM: Can you talk a bit about the alchemical process as it relates to your new album (Eats Darkness) and 'Eating Darkness and sh*tting out sunlight'?

AW: Well, ya know - If a person tapped their eye about them, I would say that there is a lot of heavy sh*t going on right now in the world. A lot of superfluous sh*t. Our society behaves as if everything is infinite. But all the while, the darkness surrounds us, and you need a way to transform all that stuff around you. You have to be able to make peace with it somehow. It's more than that, though– it involves acknowledging evil, in the first place, and then making your peace.

MM: There are a lot of soundbytes between songs on the record (I love the one about the snake having both male and female sex parts) – how do those play into the whole cohesive work of 'Eats Darkness'?

AW: That's a good question. We actually experimented a lot with different sequences and stuff. But for all the clips - they have clues in each of them. So in each clip that precedes a song, it has a clue in it about the song that follows it. For example, the clip you mentioned about snakes – that's right before 'Easy Speaks' which is sort of what that song is about. And the one 'Signs' has a bunch of clues about 'Perfect Fit'. But I think what I'm going to do when I get home is – I have a mix that's about thirteen minutes long of all of them – and I'm going to post the whole thing online. I had a really amazing time creating those things.

MM: Gear question: How do you get that amazing sound from your guitar and amp that can be super clear and clean one second and ultra-distorted, thick and heavy the next?

AW: It's all in the fingers, man. It really is.

MM: Are you into much effects?

AW: Oh yeah, I love effects, don't get me wrong – and pedals are fun but, fundamentally, it has to be simple.

MM: Thanks so much for your time today, Andrew.

AW: No worries Matt. I'm sure I'll see you around.

- Matt McKechnie

Zunior Independent Music Hall of Fame 2009 Inductee: Rheostatics

2009-10-26T15:37:02-04:00

The official Zunior Independent Music Hall of Fame tribute is complete and you can see it right here. It features a commemorative illustration of the band, provided by the official illustrator Trevor Waurechen, and a retrosprective feature article/interview, provided by our own Chuck Molgat.

Go to the site and add your own comments/tributes as part of a timeless shrine to one of Canada's finest independent artists.

- Dave Ullrich