(Cord Magazine's questions are in blue. Artist responses are in grey.)


Okay now we have ten questions that we ask every band, so let's roll through that.

JOEL PASSMORE (BASS) : All right.

What do you do on your downtime between recording and touring, or when you have downtime while you're on tour?

DAGAN HARDING (VOCALS/GUITARS) : Skateboard, drink, socialize.

That was easy.

LEIF THORSETH (GUITARS) : Walk work talk.

D : And write.

L : Make fun of each other. Inside jokes.

D : Yeah.

L : Really bad… or lately now we've been doing this really awesome hoedown. We sing this song and it's just a super-big hoedown.

J : A Despistado song. It's actually Dagan's brother that started it. He had a big hoedown in Victoria. So good.

(laughter)

L : (sings) Oooooo-wa-hoooo-wooooo…

D : He should be in a country band.

BRENNAN SCHWARTZ (DRUMS) : He's got a good voice for it, holy shit.

(chuckling and agreement)

What's your vice of choice?

B : Vice?

L : Smoking. Right now.

I can see that.

L : Yeah.

D : Smoking right now for me definitely. But it's just a temporary thing.

B : Yeah, just for the time being.

L : (sung) It's just a temporary thing…

Favourite venue or city to play in.

D : Favourite venue? I would have to say… my favourite venue - it's not my best show, and the city is definitely not my favourite city - but the Peterborough venue was the best one.

(laughter)

L : Oh my God.

What venue was that? What happened?

D : Oh, it's just this guy that lives above the venue and it's split in half and…

J : Oh whoa whoa Dag… that was Brantford.

D : Brantford!

B : Brantford!

J : Brantford was awesome, yeah.

D : Super-cool, the guy owns the place and the room's split in half and there's couches and a foosball table and just a little room that holds like a hundred people. You play on the floor, it's awesome.

L : And like their downtown is literally like the most destroyed downtown I have ever seen in my life. Where's there's absolutely… the real effect of suburban box cut stores. It's like, you go down ten blocks, there's not one - there's not one in a ten block radius - store except for like an army salvation or whatever and then there's a magician shop.

D : A coffee-magician shop.

J : KFC on the corner and then the venue.

L : And literally nothing for ten blocks, and they've drawn shadows of people pretending to walk downtown.

J : Yeah, and you're just like tripped out.

L : You could do a great zombie movie there.

J : We watched 28 Days Later going in there.

L : Yeah!

J : But it was a great place.

D : It was a great place, yeah.

Okay, so we touched on this, but let's go into it deeper. Issues and aspects of the world that most concern you these days?

B : Downloading music.

(laughter)

D : What people are doing with their hair these days.

Aw crap.

D : Obviously the war…

B : Wars.

D : …the growing tension.

B : The growing disparity in the first world between the rich and the poor.

L : Us joining the… Uh… whatever that stupid shit's called. Missile defense system. That makes me kinda mad. Paul Martin's just [indecipherable muttering…].

(everyone laughs slightly nervously)

Okay now aside from anything to do with the Regina scene, cuz I know I asked that and I'm a dumbass for it, but one interview question you could care less to hear again.

J : Where does the name come from? Thank you by the way.

Oh, okay no problem.

D : Where does the name come from, and I guess… not the question but the angle that some people choose. I haven't read a ton of the new press or whatever but some of the first stuff that came out was like, '[Regina is] the coldest place on the planet,' and stuff like that…

Oh really? Isn't that in your bio though too?

D : Yeah... well it's cold, but it's not like the coldest place on the planet.

Haha… like you're in the arctic tundra or whatever.

D : And we're not a good band because it's cold in Regina or whatever. But I mean, I guess you do like to write music when it's cold out. Just the angle.

J : The whole 'snowcaps in Canada.' A lot of the US press right when we first got signed was like, you know, we got off the combines and only when it was summertime, when we're done shoveling the walks because it snows like all day every day and like made some music…

B : It's like... the village of Regina.

D : Yeah that's like the... it is a small town but it's urban.

Okay moving right along. What was your favourite Saturday morning cartoon?

L : Mmm. Visionaries. Visionaries was good.

D : I'd say Spiderman.

B : I got pretty hooked on Gummi Bears.

I don't know if I've ever heard of Visionaries.

L : They were these dudes, and they were given these powers with like this stick and they'd go like this (stomps imaginary stick on ground) and they'd be able to turn into wolves or bears or… depending on their leadership.

(simultaneous conversation about Gummi Bears…)

J : Gummi Bears? Gummi Bears had a cartoon?

B : They were like these little bouncing bears! (sings) Gummi Bears, bouncing here and there and everywhere. Daaaa da da da da da daaaa daaaa.

(Want to hear this for yourself? Download an Mp3 of the Gummi Bears theme song : Despistado version. It's about 35 seconds of joy.)

J : I used to… I liked Spiderman.

Who else started singing the Gummi Bears theme song? The Engine Down guys.

B : Oh really.

They broke into it, like all of them just going off.

(Want the comparison? Here's an Mp3 of the Gummi Bears theme song : Engine Down version. 23 seconds.)

B : Gummi Bears.

It's come up a few times. I'd forgotten about it til somebody mentioned it.

L : We knew somebody… oh sorry, doesn't matter.

What?

L : Dagan and I walked into the hotel where they were doing Canadian Idol. And you met that guy who said he just finished singing the Gummi Bear song.

D : Oh, he did ummm…

L : Anyways, um, it's a really dumb story. Sorry.

D : I didn't meet him. I thought you said I met him.

L : No your friend. He got totally canned.

(laughter)

L : Not your friend, but like the guy you went to high school with. You're like, 'oh cool, you're singing?' and he's like, 'yeah I did the Gummi Bears song.' And you're like, 'ohhh cooool….' (quizzical look)

D : Oh Josh Lemieux yeah yeah!

(laughter)

So besides musician, what other aspirations did you have growing up? What did you want to be?

L : Biologist. I still will be a biologist. I'm just taking a few years off.

J : Start after 30.

That's it, you're the only… no one else wanted to be anything?

J : I was gonna do some mad balling. That's about it.

B : I wanna get my fucking degree.

L : You don't?

B : I'm so close.

J : I dunno. It's changed like a million times for me. Even the last two years.

D : Everything I've wanted to do has been like based on the same thing kind of. Just like I'd like to teach I think, or … yeah. Something like that.

Okay cool. If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be and what would you hope to accomplish?

D : George Bush. Suicide.

(more escalating nervous laughter)

J : Peter North for one full day of filming.

L : Ohhh my God.

D : There's a juxtaposition, yeah.

J : Of course I'm kidding.

B : Damn I don't know. Marilyn Manson. That'd be a fun tour.

D : Yeah, that'd be cool. To just say whatever the fuck you wanted.

B : Just go crazy.

L : You! I don't know what I'd like to accomplish being you.

B : Leif's thinking…

L : No no…

If you think of anything you can chime in.

L : Who do I wanna be?

B : Wolverine!

L : I don't know, I think… (laughter)

L : I'm just like, "yeah… no that'd be boring. Yeah… what'd I do…. Okay." Maybe Kim Anderson, I don't know.

(laughter)

B : For one day (lewdly spoken).

L : Awww not like that!

B : Yeah right.

L : But I'd get to try on clothes!

(laughter)

B : Leif loves trying girls' clothes on! He just can't do it enough!

Okay a shark and a bear fight. Here are the rules. There's just enough water for the shark to exist. Swim around a bit, keep himself slightly alive. There's a small rock in the middle of this pool of water that the bear is standing on, just big enough for him to hang out on. Neither's been trained, neith…

L : What kind of… shark?

We'll get to that. Neither's been trained and neither's been fed for a few days. It's the baddest of great white sharks against the baddest of grizzly bears. Fight to the death. Who wins?

J : Shark.

B : Yeah shark.

D : I say grizzly bear.

B : The grizzly bear's gonna get impatient, he's gonna get in the water. He's hungry and pissed and he's the worst like you just said…

Yeah. They all are.

L : (Leif kicks me) Sorry.

B : It's hard to say. But I'd sure like to watch.

They're both pretty bad, pretty big, pretty hungry.

D : Grizzly bears are fucking huge.

B : Grizzly bears… the grizzly bear, one swipe, it takes out the whole face.

D : But mind you in their own element - the shark's element is the water. The chances of the grizzly bear falling into the water are greater than the chances of the shark falling into the air. So if the grizzly bear gets in the home of the shark, he'll probably get his ass kicked.

L : Great white.

D : But I think if the grizzly stuck it out long enough, he could do some serious eye damage to the shark and stuff. So that might kill the shark. And then…

L : The third party would be just like a really skinny dude …

(laughter)

B : …named Leif??

J : …with a gun.

B : No guns!

J : With a gun.

B : All you get is two bread knives.

L : Still lose badly.

J : Or it could be like a grade school fight where they just duke it out til they're both really tired and then they're just best friends. 'You wanna come walk?' 'No. You wanna go for a swim?' 'No.' 'Oh.'

D : Grizzly all the way.

L : No shark's totally gonna win.

J : We'll ask everyone tonight. Okay hands up for shark?

That'd be great, the on stage poll.

L : Okay raptors…

(band's manager Tara Macdonald shows up, not realizing there's an interview… she dashes off after some hellos)

L : Ten raptors…. You got the game in me out.

J : Tara versus the shark.

B : Tara on a bad date versus….

Somebody suggested we should set this up and actually do it at the Commodore. Bring in a pool, shark… go for it. So the final question is if you could ask me one question, what would that be?

L : How do you like interviewing bands?

I've actually come to enjoy it. I used to not want to do it, but now I like it.

D : What bands do you…. Oh no no. Yeah we each get a question.

B : [something incoherent mumbled that ends in the word 'sex']

What was that??

B : Nothing…

(laughter)

Maybe that'll pick up. I'll email my answer to you maybe.

D : The interview should be just that… whatever he said, that you should put in the …

That'll be the title.

B : Do you like group sex?

Oh, okay there we go. Sure why not?

D : You blew it man!

D : Do you like ummmm… what's your craziest interview?

The moneen guys.

D : The moneen guys?

Yeah.

B : We're crazy like that.

Hands down. They were pretty nuts. That was here too on the other balcony. Upstairs. Over there.(pointing)

D : That's weird that they're so nuts, their live show is so reserved and like… conservative.

Well not really reserved…

D : Yeah, I don't know where they come from…

L : Those guys don't really move that much on stage though.

No no. Not at all. They're pretty stationary. Yeah, it was fucking boring man.

L : Next time you interview them you should probably be like, 'you know what, maybe you guys should move some more.'

D : 'Have you guys ever thought of stepping up your stage show?'

J : Where's a good place to dance?

B : Yeah yeah, where's a good place to dance?

J : If we were gonna go dancing, where would we go?

Like tonight? On a Monday? Oh Christ I don't know.

L : Or anything. Reggae night. Reggae night?

I don't know what goes on on Mondays actually. Tuesdays there's Brit nights downtown (Ed. note - it's actually Thursdays)

D : How old are you?

23. (silence) Anything else?

D : Noooo. I think that's more than enough questions.

J : How often do you get your hair done?

Like once every couple months. I do it myself.

B : Oh nice!

J : How often do I get my hair done?

(laughter)

D : Oh wait we're not doing that yet!

(more laughing).

J : Sorry.

We'll just fade out the laughter here.

B : Pcheeeooow.

Okay I guess that is all.

??? : Awwwwwhhhh! (I don't know who screamed here)

J : Thanks.

Thanks for that.

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : June 24, 2004.