YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!
INTERVIEW BY ASHLEIGH BALL
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR BRADY
ASSISTED BY BENJAMIN LUK
STYLING BY DEANNA PALKOWSKI
MAKE UP & HAIR BY NEGAR AT (THEYrep.com)
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You Say Party! We Say Die!, a name so frenetically urgent you’re not sure whether to charge the nearest frat boy or break out in spastic dance. Luckily, when it comes to this band, either will do. Hailing from Abbotsford, BC, this dance-punk quintet was formed in Vancouver’s “off season” (aka too wet for biking) and released their first EP, “Danskwad”, to much regional acclaim. After a few member changes, they released their break out “Hit The Floor” in 2005, and “Lose All Time” in 2007, touring internationally to such success that even my Grandma in England knew who they were. Now, with their latest album “XXXX”, produced by Howard Reddekop, (Tegan and Sara, New Pornographers) the band of many !’s finds itself in a niche of a richer, more mature sound with an impressive focus on songwriting. There are also hints of The B-52’s and Siouxsie and the Banshees, paying homage to their New Wave roots. We had the chance to pick the brain of singer Becky Ninkovic amidst her crazy schedule. Here is what the songstress had to say…
ASHLEIGH—Hi Becky Ninkovic. So, where is Ninkovic from? What is your background?
BECKY—Hi Ashleigh. My dad is Ninkovic, that’s Croatian, and my mom is from California, but German background.
A—Do you have relatives in Croatia?
B—Far off relatives live there. I went there when I was fresh out of high school and my friend and I decided to go to Europe for… forever, really. When we left we were like,“Let’s never come home…” [laughs] So we ended up only going for three and a half weeks. I got to meet with some of my family and reconnect with the language, because my dad never really talked much Croatian at home. It was more the language used between my Baba and him when they didn’t want us to understand what they were talking about.
A—How did you respond to the language when you were visiting?
B—It came really easily, even though I’m not even close to being fluent, it felt really familiar. I remember just a sense of feeling at home there, in a way that I hadn’t felt anywhere else before. So, that’s the blood in me speaking.
A—Can you say something in it? I’d love to hear Croatian.
B—Um, “volim te,” That’s “I love you”.
A—volim te?
B—Yeah, volim te.
A—That’s nice.
B—Thanks.
A—Okay, so you are the front woman of You Say Party!, We Say Die!. You are obviously in the band full time but when you’re not touring or recording what do you do?
B—I work in a group home, supporting six ladies with various disabilities and mental illnesses. They need a lot of support with their daily needs. Mostly a lot of it comes down to just helping them understand what they’re feeling, how to engage with each other, how to have relationships with one another, just helping them understand their dynamics and working alongside them. It’s always interesting, it’s always new, there is no routine, you know? Specific things like autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, you have to make certain things repetitive, but they’re very intricate, complex, unique individuals that go through changes and change throughout their life too, so in that way things stay interesting.
A—That must be extremely rewarding work.
B—Yeah. I love it.
A—You were on the front of the Georgia Straight not too long ago… in the article you talked about touring, getting super exhausted and how you got to a point where you were kind of…
B—…burning the candle at both ends? Pretty much.
A—Yeah.
B—I definitely survived this last tour a lot better. I mean, the fact that I’m here right now… [laughs] Usually I crash and burn at the end of tours and I don’t leave my house for a week or two, or however long. I kind of hit the ground running this time and I haven’t stopped yet.
A—Mm hmm…
B—I can definitely feel a need to take some time out and just get some proper sleep, proper nutrition and all of that going again, but it’s hard on the road, because everything’s working against you. You’re dehydrated from the very act of traveling, movement in vehicles and then you add booze and whatever else into the mix…
A—…No Sleep Club.
B—Yeah, no sleep, and we’re playing at like, midnight, one o’clock, most nights. We’re not even out of the venue until three or four and then the long drives in Canada require you to wake up super early.
A—I hate that. It’s the worst, isn’t it? Why can’t all the cities in Canada just be super close together?
B—Totally.