We didn't choose this life/This life chose us long ago.
I have to start updating more frequently, I have far too much to write about from last week. The big plan was to hunker down and get on top of my school work. Instead I went out for 4 days straight.
Tuesday - The Urban well for a documentary about... The Urban Well. They filmed an evening (specifically the evening Canada won the World Hockey Tournament and the evening I began dating Claudia (Backstory: Claudia Tavernese. A girl who developed a crush on me over frosh week. Loads of fun and very knowledgeable about music. We dated for about 6 weeks before she dumped me for Dave Moscrop. (see Jan. 26 entry for backstory) First time I have ever been dumped for someone else, which I suppose is better than being dumped for your inherent qualities. We now have what I would characterize as a tentative friendship.)) of open-mic performances with interviews interspliced. They showed the whole thing on the same stage where the events originally took place, lending the whole thing a rather post-modern feel. People felt they needed to clap for the DVD.
Wednesday - The Oak for drinks and The Urban Well (again) for kareoke. A weekly occurrence that has never ceased being worthwhile. Free Pitas with Sticky.
Thursday - A landmine benefit at Mavericks. Or should I say anti-landmine benefit? Anyway Rehana (Backstory: Rehana Tejpar was in my theater 1201 class. She is as gorgeous as she is politically aware and ambitious. She is very upbeat for someone who thinks constantly of the problems of the world.) invited me out and she introduced me to this guy who is working on a possible theatre production that she pegged me for. It has a character known as “The Man”, so that’s intriguing. Then Chun Sai and I went upstairs to Café Deckuf and saw the best bass player I have ever seen! (www.thescreamingmonkeys.com) It was just him and a drummer but he fuckin’ laid it out.
Friday - Adam’s party. Wicked times as usual. I drank a lot and me and Sticky hucked icicles at cars. “Insubstantial!” “Ominous!”
So yeah, long week. I decided not to go out on Saturday, even with ample opportunity, mostly because I hurt everywhere. Sunday I interviewed Steve Rawles from Belvedere (www.belvederepunk.com) and he’s putting me on the guest list for Wednesday’s sold out show. Caaan’t wait.
Word of the Day - Pettifogger (thank you Rob Roy) - 1. A legal practitioner of inferior status, who gets up or conducts petty cases; esp. in an opprobrious sense, one who employs mean, sharp, cavilling practices; a ‘rascally attorney’.
b. Sometimes app. a professional name. Obs. 2. transf. A petty practitioner in any department; a tyro; an empiric, pretender. 3. Nailmaking. 3. 4. A local name of a fish, the rockling. 5. Comb., as pettifogger-like adj.
Linkworthy
http://www.sinzar.net/The_Hitman_Diaries-Episode1.wmv I have recently sold my Playstation but I still retain a deep love of GTA: San Andreas. This guy made a short film using the game's engine.
http://www.iparklikeanidiot.com I want some of these stickers!!
http://lelombrik.free.fr/LoMBriK/Ascenseur/ funny stuff.
And now My Belvedere interview. Read on if you're interested. If not, don't
Belvedere Interview - Steve Rawles
Is being a Canadian band an obstacle for punk bands or does it have its pros and cons?
I’m not really sure, I mean there was maybe a novelty going down to the States in the mid-90’s. But you know, there are so many Canadian bands out there touring now, that I don’t think it really hinders you. I think that being from Canada -- it sort of is what it is.
You received some government funding for Fast Forward Eats The Tape. Did you receive funding on any of your other albums? And what do you have to say about programs like this? Oh yeah, that was the first album that we got assistance for. People kind of think that they just give you money, but as you sell albums you have to pay it back, so I think we’ve pretty much paid them back. So it’s nice that they can front you some cash and you can put out a better sounding record. It’s great that they have that available and hopefully it will continue.
Over the past 2 years Belvedere has toured on 4 continents (North and South America, Europe and the Japanese Islands) including this one, and yet you haven’t been to the States in as much time. About two years, yeah almost two years. Why is that? It’s nothing personal (laughs). It’s just that things are a little different down there. People don’t realize that is costs almost $2500 U.S. to get a proper P1 work Visa to go down there. And $2500 U.S. is a lot of money. I can go to Europe for cheaper than that. That’s part of it. Also, just because we’ve had all these opportunities recently; we toured the States for like, six years straight. And now these opportunities to go to Japan and Europe and South America came up, and we thought yeah let’s try it. And it’s been going great for us. No diss to Americans at all, I want to back down there again and I’ve received a lot of E-mails from people in the states that want us to come down again. So hopefully we can, it just has to be the right time because, obviously investing so much money into a work visa (…) and the whole thing. So yeah we’d definitely like to go back down there again.
Speaking of touring, you guys have been touring a lot lately. How do you maintain the level of energy that goes into your stage shows? Um, by being complete bummers the other 23 hours of the day! No, it’s like it worked when I was 20, but now that I’m 28 I kind of feel like the energy level is not quite there. I generally do a lot of napping and sitting around. And then you know, people are paying to come see your band, so for that forty-five minutes or an hour you gotta give it.
Why do all of your albums have five word titles? Five words and six syllables. That wasn’t on purpose until the third album, (‘Twas Hell, Said Former Child) we kind of realized when we were about to do the third album that all these titles had six syllables and five words so we should probably just keep going with it.
Where was your best show in Europe?
Our biggest one was at The Astoria in London, with the Mad Caddies, there were 2000 people there. We played a festival in Austria for about 5000 people. I’d say a lot of Italy shows were great, we do really well there, in Italy, Spain and Holland, and there are various shows from those place that were really memorable. But there were a lot of Italy shows that really stand out.
Which of your songs, would you say, is the pit song? Or at least the pit song of the moment? The pit song? Probably “Slaves to the Pavement. Probably because it means so much to people that are in bands, because it talks about the trials and tribulations of being in a band. It’s kind of a mid-pace song that’s fun to dance to.
Would you like to share your opinions on file sharing? I think it’s important that people share our music because, like I was saying in another interview, it’s what has helped us explode (overseas). The whole reason that things are going so well for us overseas is almost one hundred percent because of the internet. Before we toured over there people hadn’t heard of us, and all of the sudden they could download our music, so when we went to Europe for the first time we were blown away that people already knew our music. So I back it.
Which do you prefer: pie or cake? I’m a cake guy. I like those deep n’delicious moist McCain cakes. Those are delicious.