YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE!

A—Wow, that must have been cool. Hanging out with Sonic Youth… crazy.

B—It’s always funny, when you run into people like that, it’s like, “This is my golden chance!”.

A—Was that your biggest star struck moment?

B—Probably.

A—Yeah?

B—Definitely.

A—Who is someone that you’d see and you probably wouldn’t be able to talk at all?

B—I got to meet Martha of Martha and the Muffins when I was in Toronto.

A—…ummm?

B—They’re like, this eighties New Wave band that had the hit single “Echo Beach” back in the eighties.

A—Oh, okay.

B—I discovered their vinyl and got really into them, and then realized that they lived in Toronto. So I mentioned it to our manager and was like “What are the odds of getting to meet Martha?” and so they called up Martha’s people, or whatever, and gave them the album. She listened to it, her and Mark, who are a couple in the band. I think that’s why it means even more, because they made it work somehow being a couple, in the same band. She did a kids’ album that won a Juno, and has been really successful. We got to have a this little conversation and she shared with me, what it was like back then. It was so cool [laughs].  She then mailed me a signed copy of  ‘From The Treehouse’, the kids’ album.

A—Oh yeah.

B—She sent me a copy to give to my nieces and nephew and signed it, “To Gabe, Sadie and Lilo, Love Martha,”

A—That’s so cool. Were they excited?

B—Yeah, I mean, they had no idea who she was, but they loved the music.

A—Would you ever make a kids’ album?

B—I would really like to…one day. It would be a fun tour, getting to play for kids and go around elementary schools. You’d be guaranteed to have a good crowd. Even if they’re not all that pumped, it’s like, whatever, they’re kids [laughs]. Maybe that’s how I need to change my attitude for shows.   Just imagine everybody in the crowd as their childlike selves.

A—Do you feel sometimes on stage that you try to embody your child self?

B—I do, a lot. It has really been so liberating to get into that place inside of myself for shows.  It allows you to be uninhibited and just have a truly positive experience for yourself, no matter what.

A—Yeah. I find sometimes, I let the crowds really intimidate me, like when you’re on stage performing and looking at the audience. Sometimes people can be really into it and other people just stand there, arms crossed, kinda judging… does that ever get to you?

B—Yeah, there’s so much variety in crowds. If you are tapped into a part of yourself that is insecure, then you’re going to see all of those people with negative judgmental faces, and they’re going to steal your power away.

A—Yeah.

B—If you go into it with the attitude, “I want to be cool, and I want to look cool” then you’re going to see the catty, judgmental girls, or whatever, you know what I mean?  You call that kind of attention to yourself by how your own attitude is, and I’ve just learned that when I can be as true to myself as I am, which is my child self, I don’t think we change all that much, deep inside we’re still kids. I know when I was a kid, all I wanted was to sing, dance, be free, love and be loved. Those basics are all that I ever want…

A—It must be so nice to be in that place on stage where you’re just being totally true to that part of you.

B—Yeah, we’ve had terrible shows, sound stuff goes wrong, electricity goes out or whatever, things happen, and I might have had the best time of my life [laughs] ‘cause I was in that place inside of myself where I just got to run free, like a child. I try really hard to remember to strive for that every time, which is hard when you’re on tour, all of those values, principles, ethics, morals and everything that you believe in can go out the window in the face of exhaustion.

A—Forced to play a show…

B—Yeah, I think for a lot of people, when they feel the pressure of having to do something and there’s no way out of it, the feeling of a lack of freedom can turn you into less than who you want to be. It’s just because you don’t feel free.

I observe that in a home that I work in all the time. If the women feel like the staff want them to do something, and need them to do something, they will refuse.

I observe people being like that all the time.

A—So, now I have to admit something to you! [laughs]

B—[laughs] Ok…

A—I saw you guys play, it was probably over a year and a half ago at the Legion in Tofino.

B—That was such a fun show! Was that with Gang Violence?

A—I don’t know, maybe Gang Violence played after, but we had a brief conversation.

B—Mm hmm.

A—I remember you telling me that I reminded you of a girl that you went to elementary school with named Lori Teal.

B—Yeah!

A—And… [laughs] then I said, “Oh, you kind of remind me of this boy that I had a crush on in Grade Three named Kevin Alkire,” He had kind of a mop of curls and he was just really cute…

B—Aww…[laughs]

A—Anyway, after I had that conversation with you, I remember going for a walk through my neighborhood and this little melody came up in my head, and we wrote a song around it. The line is, um, “I… [laughs] I could be the one you want, if you’d be the one that I desire, I will be your Lori Teal, if you be my Kevin Alkire.”

B—[laughs] …Aw, that’s so cute…

A—It’s kind of about your first love in elementary school, and how that feeling of really just being so excited about someone you just want to make up a dance about them …

B—[laughs]

A—Yeah, so I just wanted to get that off my chest, I totally wrote a love song about you [laughs]

B—That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. [laughs]

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