(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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