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


Okay that does it for the dedicated questions. Now we have a little ten question segment that we do with every band.

PATRICK DION (DRUMS) : Good! Go ahead. We’re ready.

What do you do when you’re on downtime, between recording, touring, playing… just to relax.

P : Relax? Listen to music (laughs). I dunno maybe trying to discover some new bands. Yeah. Some new talent. Bands that we can play with.

MATHEW LACOURSE (KEYS/VOCALS) : I try to get in touch with the Canadian scene and the UK scene. I wanna be informed, I wanna know the bands, listen to new songs, see the shows in Montreal, watch movies, go to university. Also have a girlfriend. Basically that’s it.

P : And a job.

M : Yeah, and a job.

Okay, what is your vice of choice?

P : My vice of choice. What do you mean by vice?

Ummm…

M : An addict.

Cigarettes and alcohol. Well it doesn’t have to be that, but you know… that type of thing.

P : Well we don’t smoke.

Your weakness. Your weakness basically.

P : Our weakness.

M : To me it would be uh, expensive imported beers. From England. And too much tea.

Yeah?

M : Too much tea yeah. Tea and beer.

P : For me uh I’d say probably going out and probably friends. Even if I’m completely broke, if a good friend is like, ‘hey what are you doing tonight? We’re going out…’ I can’t say no. I just really love going out, especially over here in Montreal in the summertime. It’s really great.

There’s a lot going on out here.

P : Yeah. Well now you know why people from Toronto just really love to go to Montreal. Like, ‘oh let’s go to Montreal!’

What’s your favourite venue – I would say city, but you haven’t played a lot of cities yet - so, what’s your favourite venue?

M : Favourite venue? To play in?

Yeah.

M : One we did?

Yeah.

P : Metropolis.

M : Yeah in Montreal.

P : Montreal. It’s got a capacity of I don’t know, maybe 2500, maybe 3000 people. And it’s real nice, the acoustics are really good. The stage is excellent you know… just awesome place, awesome venue.

What issues and aspects of the world most concern you these days?

P : Uh, politics. Haha.

M : Music for me. Obviously music and arts. Yeah I’m not really interested in politics.

P : I am, I am. I’m really interested in politics, history...

What’s one interview question you could care less to ever hear again?

P : Whoa. (laughs) Oh my god.

Not including that one, and not anything that I asked.

P : Just a boring question. Any boring question.

M : Maybe questions about um… how would you explain your success… some questions are asked so much.

P : What makes you so different. Like musically-wise. I mean, if you’re giving us an interview and you listened to our CD you should know the answer so…

M : Like how would you explain your success? Well… because it sounds that good.

(laughter)

What was your favourite Saturday morning cartoon?

P : Transformers. Transformers and probably GI Joe. But Transformers were cooler 'cause they were like science fiction. That was pretty cool. I was a big Star Wars fan.

M : I never did, I never watched a lot of cartoons when I was young.

No? Any kids’ show at all? Anything related?

P : He’s never been a kid.

Show in general? Board game?

M : Maybe the Simpsons.

Okay that works. That counts. Aside from musician, what kind of other aspirations did you have when you were growing up? What did you want to be when you were a kid?

M : Astronaut.

P : I wanted to be a pilot. Like a jet fighter. And then I find out how hard it is getting in the army and getting yelled at and everything and I said, 'ooh no I’m gonna change.'

(laughter)

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

P : Dammit! I would probably change with George Bush and I’d probably… just blow myself up or, I dunno. Do something good for a change.

(laughter)

M : Yeah do something good. For me, I’d be Liam Gallagher and I’ll try to go to all the pubs around London and drink a lot of beers. Just try to catch up.

Lovely. All right this is the fun one. Listen carefully.

M : The fun one!

Yup. A shark and a bear get into a fight.

M : Oh my god. How could this happen?

I know, it’s amazing. Here’s the rules. There’s just enough water for the shark to exist, and there’s a small rock in the middle of the water that the bear is standing on, just big enough for him to stand on. Neither one has been trained, neither one has been fed for a few days. They fight to the death, baddest of great white sharks and baddest of grizzly bears. Who wins?

M : Good question!

(Dion takes the paper)

You get a preview of the next question there…

M : I would say the bear.

P : I would probably say… I probably say the shark. But I dunno. I was always amazed by sharks. I dunno why.

M : But the bear is standing on a rock.

P : I don’t care about the bear. (laughter)

Is there and action plan? What are they gonna do? Why do they win?

M : The bear he will just stand on the rock until the shark…

P : Until the water dries out?

Yeah.

P : He’ll eat him then.

Did you just change your answer?

M : Yeah he does it all the time.

Can’t make up your mind. And finally if you could ask me one question, what would that be?

P : Uh, do you like your job?

I love it!

P : Why? [We're already on to two questions...]

Why? I get to meet a lot of people. I get to hear a lot of music that I might not hear otherwise. Like yourselves. And I get to ask them stuff. It’s interesting. Peoples’ perspectives are so varied. And to get insight on what people feel, what makes them tick, what makes the music the way it is.

M : What’s your favourite kind of music?

My favourite kind of music…

P : Favourite band?

I cannot answer the favourite band question 'cause it changes all the time!

P : Oh yes you can!

It changes all the time, it really does.

P : Are you sure there… there's gotta be like one band…

There’s a couple bands that I always go back to a fair bit. Like the Dandy Warhols I like a lot.

P : Just one.

Just one?

P : Just one. Every time you put in this CD you just can't do anything else except listen to the music. Just can’t. You need to look at the sleeve, you know.

M : Look at the sleeve (laughs).

Ohhhh eh. David Bowie.

M : David Bowie?

P : See, that wasn’t so hard.

M : The old David Bowie or the new stuff?

I kinda like a bit of both. I mean there was a hazy period in the middle there…

M : Is it still good?

Which was fun but. Noooo… like Ziggy Stardust.

P : Classic David Bowie.

Yeah. But I do like the new stuff. Like the uh… somewhere in the middle 90's, like Earthling… A lot of times I find I pick up the newer albums because I find I hear a song which is like a new single or something like that, and I pick up an album, and I think hey this is really great, and then I go backwards. I kind of work it the other way around.

M : And what is the band you would like the most to interview?

P : Like in the future you just would love to get that band.

Well, this will probably happ… something that I… is kind of a lofty goal? Like that I might not be able to get, or just anybody who’s…

P : Anyone.

Okay. Because this one will probably happen whenever he comes to Vancouver again, but Bright Eyes.

M : Who?

Bright Eyes.

P : Why?

'Cause I’m just a really big bright eyes fan, and I think he’s really really interesting. And um, I want to dig into his brain. Conor Oberst is the singer and kind of main songwriter.

M : See what’s going on?

Yeah. Pick his brain. Find out what’s going on up there.

P : Did you ever like… why am I still going… this is so…

It’s okay, go on.

P : Did you ever like get intimidated when you do some interviews? Like with a really big band?

Do I ever get... oh intimidated. Ummm…

P : Yeah like, 'oh shit, am I gonna sound stupid?'

A little bit with Muse. I got pretty worried about that.

M : With Muse?

With Muse, yeah.

P : It was difficult?

It wasn’t difficult at all! It was just with Chris [Wolstenholme, which you can look at here], just me and him in the back room before they soundchecked, and it was so relaxed! But I mean I’d been waiting for that for about five years you know, and then... wahhh!

M : You asked them good questions?

Yeah, I tried to.

P : What did he say about the bear?

What did he say about the bear? I haven’t transcribed that part yet. I think it was the bear. I think he went for the bear. 'Cause it’s got the claws and the jaws and the teeth and everything.

M : And you and your shark! (directed at pat)

I think that’s what he… I’ll look into that. I’ll send you an email. Well that’s all.

P : Well thank you!

[That was definitely more than one question...]

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : August 10, 2004.