Peter Elkas claims to hate hanging out by himself. So it's surprising or ironic to note that he's named his album Party Of One, that he's touring on his own and playing solo shows, and that even as I arrive at the Commodore in the afternoon for our interview, he's sitting upstairs by himself in his dressing room, rather than watching K-OS' soundcheck or wandering around the city or something. I mean, I suppose he was waiting for me, but still. He'd already spent part of the day on his own at the movie theatre watching Team America, which he launched into an amused anecdote about as I set up and asked him if he'd had a nice time in Vancouver so far.

Party Of One indeed, I rarely meet such instantly-personable people for an interview, particularly those who are going it individually. Often when removed from the band-comfort-zone, solitary musicians will climb into this awkward shell that makes me think of gangly outcast high school students, but Elkas was nothing of the sort. He tossed in the most ordinary conversation topics as if we'd been pals for years. So he's off on his own plateau as far as that's concerned too. Elkas was formerly part of the Local Rabbits, a Montreal-based collective that saw itself caught up in that crashing, raging wave of late-90's Canrock that young fans, myself included, across the country enthusiastically followed every breath of. Yeah, I stood at Elkas' feet one EDGEfest long ago, in the audience, as a teenage psychotic music fan who thought nothing of being crushed into one tiny spot amidst sweaty, pushy people for nine hours without so much as a bathroom break or a bite of food. Those days are behind me, and behind him as well, as Elkas' newer, gentler, saucier solo effort is gaining momentum chip by chip every time he straps on a guitar.

After discussing movie prices and his approaching soundcheck time for a while, I suddenly realize I should probably be asking the guy some questions. Where else to start but that bane of every blossoming musician, the day job. Elkas expresses mild concern over becoming boring by talking about work, but hey, his album theme touches on it at times, he talks about it on his own website, and honestly, music fans love to hear about the everyday lives of their musician heroes. Anyhow, on said website, he'd made mention of quitting his job, which is of course something anyone who wants to play music absolutely aims to do. He explains now what actually occured. "I just sort of scaled back my hours. I was a permanent employee of a company and I just sort of convinced them… like I was gonna quit, and then they said, you can just be super-part time. This is really quite boring but anyway, I can still go to work there, if I want. Which is sort of the ultimate thing you know, so I can take a couple months and not go in, and tour and shit and then I can go back. I don’t know how long that will last. You know at one point they're gonna realize it’s too much of a good deal for me." It's nice to see some companies are willing to deal with this sort of thing. Otherwise we'd never see the guy outside of his hometown.

"I certainly didn’t quit because a bunch of money fell on my head. You know you really only get a small window at my level to focus on promoting a record so I wanted to be able to do that. Because the whole idea with this one is that there’s no radio push or anything like that... we’ve thought about doing a video but we don’t have one yet so it’s very much just going out there and playing it in front of people. So I have to be able to do that and be very much readily available, so working is not very conducive to taking off at the drop of a hat and coming to Vancouver and opening for K-OS."

He brings up the record launch related to all this taking-time-off stuff, which was going to be my next question anyhow. CD Release parties can either be incredible because everyone wants to support an artist on the 'really important' days, or they can be horrible when an artist realizes there is no support. But Elkas says his was amazing and fun. We keep talking about other shows then. I'd gotten hints about some of his antics from his on-site Blog, which is something he enjoys writing on a lot. So one incredible entry (the whole thing is hilarious and you'd do well to go take a look) he projects this scenario :

So me, Doug, Gavin, and Jeff are going to open for Colin James on Sunday in Bala. I know what you're thinking: "Pete, why don't you challenge him to a guitar duel?" Well, fine. I will.

Now for some reason the mere thought of Colin James fills me with some weird Canadian-pride glee, even though I don't own a single one of his albums and probably really only know like four of his songs. Either way, I have to find out if anything like this actually happened. "I tried to [challenge him to a duel]... it was very much like me being super drunk at the end of the night and through a big… after the encore, through like a big sort of a broken telephone, to him through his band, I was like ‘Pete Elkas wants to jam… Pete Elkas wants to jam... Pete Elkas wants to jam!' and then it got to him and he was just like, ‘No.’"

Keeping on with the Blog and his message board, I ask him about how "super-cool" it is to connect with fans online all the time. "I don’t find it super cool. Super cool is not the word I would use to describe the internet but I think it’s really kind of amazing as far as reading and accessability and knowing just sort of what you're doing and for people to keep up with it and like.. It’s so hard to keep people interested so if theres sort of like a daily kind of information place, it’s kind of fun. I like the website for that. And I dunno, I’ve been kind of lazy about it. I’d like to use it for other things you know, like putting up little clips of whatever. With a video of us playing or... I like to draw a lot, cartoons, and it might be kind of fun to put some of those on there. It is kind of exciting though - it’s your little forum. We never used to have that. I mean I played in the band the Local Rabbits for years and we existed very much in a time where tapes were still a thing and when we made our first album there wasn’t much opportunity to make it on CD, so you know it wasn’t really a thing back then. When I was in university we talked about the internet as being a new idea, you know. So I’m still getting used to it."

He still has that mentality of it being good for people to hear his songs no matter how they get them, but he's got a lukewarm viewpoint on downloading. "I can't even imagine making money off of selling music, so the internet to me is just spreading the word and sharing music. It’s just a great thing overall I think. And it's a nice way also to share live stuff. Cuz I mean I made this recording quite a while ago and a lot of people heard it before it came out and playing live, it really developed the songs and it gave me a chance to kind of post some of that stuff and share some of the songs for people who may be interested but don’t live anywhere near who can come see a show. So I find that to be incredibly exciting. I mean it’s good all the way really. I just want people to hear it. I’m sure my tune will change." He laughs at the last comment before giving the thought a broader scope. "I like to believe that within the lifespan of my career that there will be a way for musicians to make money off distributing their music and I’m sure the internet will have a lot to do with that and it’s probably right around the corner so I don’t really bother thinking about it. It doesn't really affect me. I’ve never been part of a major label, I’ve never noticed it being a problem. I know it is, but I don’t think about it."

He brings up an interesting factoid there though. Party Of One was finished quite a long time ago. Why the huge wait before putting it out? "Oh only because it took a long time to sort of get around to anyone who was interested in putting it out, for them to actually put it out... well here’s what happened. We made the EP, sort of a delay in generating interest and then I had the opportunity to play live quite a bit so I peddled a bunch of these EPs just off stage. So that was the only way you could get it, or you could order it from me. And then the idea was hopefully somebody would approach me and say ‘hey this is good. Why don’t you make it into a full-length, either rerecord it or add some new material, and we’ll put it out.’ And that’s what happened with Maple Music Recordings. But it just took, even after they offered me the deal, it took like six or seven months before they were able to have it. So I just had to wait. At one point I thought it was coming out in two months and it was still ten months away you know?"

Elkas, like so many musicians, decided at some point that his best option would be to move to the bustling city of Toronto - land of opportunity. Being from Montreal, which has a pretty intense artist community anyhow, this may seem to be almost a superfluous move. "As far as moving from Montreal to Toronto, I definitely felt like at least for me there wasn’t really anywhere I could fit in very well in Montreal and I didn’t really have… I had just made a lot of friends, hooked up with a lot of people from playing in the Local Rabbits, and most of those people were living in Toronto. So it just seemed like a logical move. I didn’t want to move from Montreal to tell you the truth. Like I really loved it and I still love it. But I think it was time to go and I had a nice little sort of cushion of friends and music friends in Toronto so it was very welcoming and a really quick adjustment. Just I've been able to spread my wings a lot better. And I think it’s sad to say there’s something to be said about moving away from your family or… I don’t mean to sound bad or anything. I just mean moving away from your roots a little bit. And I think that kind of allows you to figure out a bit more who you are and spread your wings a little bit more. I think that happened to me."

I think I managed to stir a bit of a blush out of Elkas when I mention that Party Of One, no matter what it's actually saying, sounds pretty darn saucy, and that he may be up to bat as one of the next Canadian sex symbols. He laughs and fidgets nervously for a moment before shooting the idea right out of the sky. "Shit, I dunno… that seems like the kind of thing that would bug me probably. If it ever were to come true - it just seems sort of silly to me right now... but I write songs and I play guitar and I’d much rather be known as a guitar player than anything else, you know. But hey, I just want people to listen you know. I want an audience." I'm not trying to imply that he's aiming to be a devastating heartbreaker, but I do think it sounds very much like a make-out record, and I mention this to Elkas. "Oh okay. Well that’s awesome! I love that, I want people to be making out all the time, so if I can contribute to people making out, then yeah, sure."

Party Of One does contain the same songs that were found on that EP he mentioned earlier, plus a few more. He claims no one's come to him upset that they don't even get remixed versions of those songs on the new record. "Anyone who bought it from me got warning and the only way to get the EP originally was from me or through my site. It was very much like “be made aware that when this record comes out…” I think I posted that a few times on the website. Cuz I would get messages like “hey what’s this new material gonna be like?” and I’d say once again, be forewarned, six of the songs are exactly the same…" So why not even add a new flavour to the existing songs? "We thought about it... we listened to it and were like, you know what, let’s not fuck with the mojo and let’s just leave it. People like it, it sounds good, and we like it so let’s just add to it... I find it’s a different experience listening to the full length as opposed to the EP. And there was a review somewhere that said that you wouldn’t be disappointed if you had the EP to pick up the new one. So I hope that’s the general consensus."

This gig I was sitting down with Elkas before was the first of a bunch of dates opening for K-OS, which is just a plain-out weird match up on the outside. But Elkas views it as somehow fitting. "I played at his record release party in Toronto and really, I mean… I was scared. I felt like this is a really different crowd for me, and I know Kevin’s highly intelligent and a cool guy and so it wouldn’t surprise me... I knew he would be open-minded and stuff but I was nervous that some of his crowd might not get why we’re doing it. And I started to think quite honestly in the hours preceding the show that, ‘this fucking guy’s just throwing me to the dogs and he just wants to show people that he likes something different.' But then as soon as I got out there I remembered that, noooo he knows his crowd and I should trust him and sure enough it went off very well. I’m still nervous for tonight, only because, well mostly because I’m playing purely alone and trying to captivate like whatever it is, a thousand people that fit in here. But that’s always frightening. I’ve played a lot by myself but that’s always the biggest hurdle, is just captivating the chatters. You know, there’s so many of them. And they just don’t know. They think you can’t tell that they're talking, that you can’t hear them. I don’t think people are rude but they just don’t understand. But I promise to never ever be the asshole who alienates the crowd by telling them to shut up. I never ever want to tell them that. I’ll try a different way."

On the home stretch, I just toss him a few silly questions. We're in a pretty relaxed state anyhow, why not let him run with a few? Enjoy...

We’ve got a couple silly questions now.

More sex symbol questions!

What?

More sex symbol questions.

More sex symbol questions? Well I don’t know it could be.

(laughter)

Peter elkas, party of one. Would you dine alone in a sitdown restaurant?

Uh yes. I’ve done it.

Peter elkas, party of one. You need appetizers QUICK. What do you grab?

Kalamari and bruschetta.

Peter elkas, party of one. Do you get out the fine china?

Uh, so this is me dining alone at home?

Sure.

Uh no. no um out of the pot.

Peter elkas, party of one. You go to get a new place with room to grow. Do you choose a one-bedroom and den, or a two bedroom?

Two bedroom, double bed.

Ah. I guess that wont apply anymore than.

I just like to have a lot of room while I’m sleeping. And the room to uh…

Hahah the bordello for the sex symbol status?

Yeah it’d be way better to be a party of two. Who wants to hang out by themselves all the time? It’s funny though…

Is that going to be the title of the next record then? Party of two. Yeah. I it’s funny, ironically I don’t like hanging out by myself at all. And so rarely do I hang out alone. I always look for friends and I’m constantly… if I’m home for more than five minutes I’m on the horn like trying to find anybody to hang out.

So there you go. Give the man some company so he can go beyond a party of one.

For some reason, the 10 Questions page has gone belly-up, so in the meantime, the PE!)Q will reside here.

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


What do you do when you’re on your downtime between recording and touring and whatnot?

Um that being what I do most of the time? Hahah. Well, working. Working either in the call centre or… working in the call centre or... Is there just one answer to this question?

You can talk as long as you want about it!

Okay. So it would be working in the call centre, eating. And then pretty much drinking, unfortunately, most of the time.

Not by yourself though.

Not by myself.

Not as a party of one.

No no. And uh, drawing. Thinking about my place in the world and at the same time trying to avoid thinking about myself. You know. And it seems like also breaking up. Breaking up seems to be more like a hobby, like a little bit of a job. But it’s the same person so yeah, we’re pretty good at it.

Um, any more to add to that?

Well that pretty much takes up a whole day I would think! Working at the call centre, that should be part of it.

What is your vice of choice?

Um, vodka-soda. And cigarettes I guess. Too bad. Coffee too. Yeah that’s the thing my ex or current … perpetually ex girlfriend introduced me to coffee and cigarettes when I was 25. Who starts smoking when they're 25??

Not many. I just know someone who was I think 18 or 19 and started in university cuz they were nerve wracked.

Yeah.

What is your favourite venue or city to play in?

Favourite venue?

Yeah.

I gotta think, there’s a lot of really good ones. We did a record launch at Revival in Toronto which is sort of untapped by rock bands and it was an awesome venue to play in. Besides that, there’s a place called the Cabaret in Montreal that I haven't played in years, but it’s just amazing. I guess I’d kinda have to say the Cabaret.

Okay we’ll go with that. City?

Favourite city… Montreal... Well. Montreal. It seems like it’s so lame to say Toronto but I actually really like Toronto now.

There’s so much going on in Toronto!

Yeah um where else do I really love? Halifax has always been quite an awesome spot. I used to play there a lot in the old days. The label (of the Local Rabbits, Elkas' previous band), Murderecords, is based out of Halifax so I spent a lot of time there. Aaaaaaaand New York. Always say New York.

I’ve never been to New York.

You gotta check it out man! Saskatoon’s another one. I think Saskatoon…

What’s up with that? Everyone says Saskatoon’s such a party town!

It’s something that rivals Halifax actually as far as far as highly-cultured youth. Just people that are totally on the money and smart and yeah, I mean, I love it. I don’t know if it has something to do with the university or whatever, I don’t know. But I love that, I think it’s great. I love Saskatoon. It varies man, it’s rockin'.

I haven't been up there either, and I guess I should one day.

Saskatoon, it’s not a typical prairie town. Like when you’re driving there, we were driving there, you really notice this too because there’s more rolling hills and stuff.

Oh right. So not like Regina at all.

Yeah I dunno, Regina has yet to prove itself to me. And I’ve given it many shots.

My greatest memory is of the grasshoppers. In your hair, following you into the hotel…

They have grasshoppers there?

Yeah they’re huge! And everywhere! Have you been there in like July, August…?

No... well maybe I guess. Maybe I just didn’t notice or something.

How can you not notice??

Oh really?

It was something I noticed right away, I mean, we always had these stopovers... I used to take the bus through Regina…

Are you from Regina?

No no but I just like... You stop off in Regina for like a couple hours in the middle of the day for dinner, I mean what do you do in Regina??

Oh okay, right.

There’s a Robin’s Donuts and a Subway and grasshoppers everywhere. (we continue to discuss insects for a while). Anyhow... What issues and aspects of the world most concern you these days?

Uh loneliness, unfulfilled aspirations, probably finite resources and working to get to… a stupid way to live. Hahaha I dunno, yeah that’s stupid but whatever.

What was your favourite Saturday morning cartoon?

Um there was a few there for a while. Superfriends, um… Saturday mornings... I was more of an after school cartoons… I watched all the cartoons like Bugs Bunny on Saturday mornings. It was kinda bittersweet to watch Bugs Bunny on Saturday morning because that was the last cartoon before I went into like normal TV. So I remember that but GI Joe and Transformers were huge for me after school. Yeah so I was more excited about getting home after school and watching cartoons. What was your favourite?

Nobody’s ever turned around and asked me right off the bat like that!

Well why would you ask me that if you don’t have one?

Oh I do have some! I do like the Warner Brothers cartoons too. I used to have like a schedule for after school and Saturdays. It’s like I knew what channels to turn to when just for hours. I remember I liked Animaniacs a lot.

Animaniacs!

Do you know that one?

Yeah I do! I think that the subtle differences are showing… how old are you?

I’m 23.

You're 23. See I’m only 28 but the subtle thing that shows up between the ages. Like that small… cuz Animaniacs was like … I knew of it, but it was just sort of after...

It was already a bit too taboo for you to watch wasn't it?

No I just wasn’t that into cartoons anymore. Yeah. That’s interesting. It’s like uh… oh I can’t remember.

You know there’s so many cartoons that, just from asking people this question, that I completely forgot about them and they just come crashing back. Like Eek the Cat, did you ever know that one?

Eek the Cat? No.

Oh man that was great.

There was um... Like I loved the old Spiderman cartoons but that’s even like way... That’s really old. It seemed like when I was young there was so much… there were a lot of violent cartoons and all action cartoons, like Spiderman and Superfriends which had like Superman, Batman and Firestorm… whatever her name was. Like there was a lot of 'team up and kill the bad guys.' There seemed to be more good guys versus bad guys in cartoons than now on the news.

Yeah I guess we get enough of that.

Like I would have thought that like, GI Joe… okay the opening spiel at the beginning of GI Joe is like - it's the whole song and I guess it's like a new country song if you think about it. If you look at the end it’s very much a new country song. But there’s a breakdown in the middle and it says "GI Joe is the code name for America’s highly trained special mission force. Its purpose is to defend humans against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world" - and that’s like so relevant right now. I’m just so surprised that you don’t see those… I’ve seen that they’ve reissued the GI Joes on DVD but it’s seen as more of like a kitsch item in a cool movie store. But I’m surprised that they don’t show it anymore. Scooby-doo.

Aside from a musician, when you were growing up what did you want to be?

I always wanted to be an artist. Like when I was very small I wanted to be a painter and then I really wanted to be a cartoonist . I was obsessed with Magnum PI between the ages of 10 to 19. So I had like every episode of Magnum PI on tape. So I think I told myself I wanted to be a private investigator for a while. I think I just wanted to be Magnum PI. But everything else, it was always something a little artsy fartsy whether I was drawing or… I picked up a guitar, well I picked up a harmonica and a guitar really early. I was like fourt.. Well I mean really, lots of guys start when they’re six. I was fourteen so it was pretty quick that I wanted to be a musician. But I never wanted to be like a rock star you know, that never appealed to me. It was always like blues man, or… I don’t know., I’m more into like, more interested in martial music I suppose. It’s kind of a little bit daunting to be persuing a career in pop music or commercial music. I actually don’t really think that it’s gonna go that way. I know I’ll always write songs and music but I can't say that I'm interested in tapping in to any kind of formula for hit songs. I’m not trying to write a hit song so it doesn’t shock me that we’re not pushing for a radio single and that there’s no identifiable quote-unquote single that jumps off the record to anybody. But people like the record and… I probably would have fit better in the 70’s when there was AOR you know, album-oriented radio. Springsteen is my hero and you know the guy never had a fucking hit until like "Hungry Heart." He made like four records before that! And they were amazing. Like he had Born to Run and that was… he always wanted that to be a hit and it just never was. I don’t know, I thought I would fit better into an era where people were listening to entire albums, or like an entire side of a record could be played on the radio. And all in a row. Like you just don’t do that anymore. But who knows! Who knows. Yeah I don’t even try to bother about which way the wind’s blowing. I don’t care. Just fuckin’ find an audience and that’s amazing. So I’m really really trying to do that right now. And hopefully that’ll happen sooner rather than later. And in the meantime I go back to the call centre.

It’s amazing what that question turned into. “what did you wanna be when you grew up?” “Well, if I was alive in the 70’s…”

(laughter)

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

Um I would trade places with… see that’s a really good question. What would I hope to accomplish… two pretty big ones. Uhhhhhhhhhhhh maybe I would trade places with the Pope and I would make priests allowed to get married and make women priests. I feel like the Catholics are struggling a little bit. Or... I don’t know. That’s probably not what I would do at all. I don’t think I would be the Pope. That would be lame. I just tried that, I was just seeing if… I was just trying that, that’s me thinking out loud. Uh I could be George Bush and kill myself. Or… that’s too obvious and lame.

Hah yeah George Bush is definitely on top of the list.

See I’d want to do… I’d want to be somebody that’s completely out of my current scope. Like I wouldn’t choose to be another musician. You know what, that’s too heavy, I can’t answer that.

We can come back to that. Tentatively the Pope until further notice.

Yeah, tentatively the Pope until further notice.

What, if anything, is an interview question you could care less to hear again?

Uh, what do you think… yeah there is a question and it has to do with the fact that, do I ever get mistaken for Sam Roberts. That’s just sort of for now. I’d just say… the guy’s like one of my, you know, I’ve known that guy forever and he’s done a lot for me in the time that I’ve been doing the Pete Elkas thing and you know he could also be compared to other people. But... That’s probably not it. Um oh yeah I know what it is! It’s why do you always talk about wanting to be the Pope? That’s what it is. Yeah. Hahah.

Okay now we’ve got a little bit of a scenario here. There's a bear and there’s a shark. And they're gonna fight. There's a pool just big enough for the shark to fit in, swim around a bit, keep himself alive.

What what did you call it? A pool?

A pool.

Okay.

Pool, tub, tank.. Vestibule, I don’t know. Something with water in it. And in the middle of that pool of water there is a small rock that the bear is standing on, just big enough for him to fit on. Neither have been fed for a few days, neither have been trained. It’s a grizzly bear and a great white.

Great white. It’s a grizzly and a great white?

Yeah. Who wins? What do they do?

Uh it’s like that could really go either way. That could go either way. People are talking about the Yankees versus the Red Sox as being the greatest rivalry in sports. That’s the greatest rivalry in sports. You know I’m completely freaked out by sharks and by fucking bears so it’s neat that you asked me that question because...

Does it make you nervous?

No no! I’m totally fascinated by and scared of sharks even though I will never come in contact with one. But bears too. I think that bears would have an advantage in that he’s got more limbs… or has limbs. And a shark might just not know what to do. Like it seems like the bear would probably tear the shark up. The bear would win. Also that the bear would have an advantage of height. But you know what maybe the shark would just kind of bite the bear on the balls or something… no I don’t know. I think it could be a draw, it could go either way, it just depends. Whoever gets the first bite in I guess. Yeah. Good one. It’s a better question than an answer.

Finally if you could ask me one question, what would that be?

It would be… um… no that question’s funny… my question would be, what do you hope to be when you grow up?

Aren’t I grown up?? (laughter) Well I wanna keep doing what I’m doing… (ie : photography, design)

Okay here’s my other question… really? Okay so my other question is what’s your favourite design program on the computer?

(geeked out Illustrator/CorelDraw debate)

I like Illustrator. I did all my own album artwork with Illustrator. Okay here’s my other question. Is... do you think uh… oh forget it.

At this point, it looks like it's time for soundcheck for Mr. Elkas, so I let him on his merry way for the time being.

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