He Said, She Said: The Best Interview Lines on PeteHatesMusic in 2012

PeteHatesMusic had many interesting interviews this year – most of them were with myself when I was drunk, however. These solo interview aside, below are some of the best lines from our interviews in 2012, from bands such as Stars, Wintersleep, and Great Lake Swimmers.

Torquil Campbell, Stars, on discussing lyrics about love and writing in character: “You have to be pretty heartless in some way to use your own experiences because you’re going to be talking directly to people who you love, and who know what you’re talking about. So to me, I would rather write about other people.”

Zachary Gray, the Zolas, on why there are shirtless promo pics of the band: “To be fair, we had lots of shirts-on shots initially. Our mistake in retrospect was letting a panel of women from the nearby penitentiary select which photos to send to our publicists.”

Don’t you hate shirts?

Dave Maclean, Django Django, on how the media describes their wacky sound: “I love reading this kind of thing. Polyphonic rockabilly was my favourite. Just don’t call it ‘folktronica’ or ‘art rock’. Actually, I don’t mind what people call it but the word ‘music’ describes it best.”

Leol Campbell, Wintersleep, on drinking too much before a show: “By the time our set came around, at least I had been drinking heavily for a good 3 hours, beer after beer, swig after swig. Such excitement filled our conference room backstage with the buzz of the show and the access to all of this booze for the drinking. I brought the large bottle of gin on stage with us, it was promptly dusted, loads of beers were there to join us for the rest of the show, digging into them between songs, in rests, whenever you could fit a swill, it must have looked disgusting. At one point, I blacked out, fallen from my stool and came to somewhere near the end of us covering Enjoy the Silence. What an awful feeling.”

Jack Goldstein, Fixers, on releasing a single on cassette tape: “The whole backlash against the viability of cassette tapes were that they deteriorate easily over time but I think thats the main appeal, you can release a cassette tape and three years later it will sound completely different. I became obsessed when I found a Vangelis tape in my parents attic, I already knew the music well but it sounded so different after all the years of being neglected, cassettes take their lives into the music that exists on them.

Tony Dekker, Great Lake Swimmers, on how his small town upbringing affects his lyrics: “Having grown up in a rural farming community, things like weather systems and seasonal cycles were taken very seriously and often meant the success or failure of a farm. I think that I was very much in tune with those things from a very young age on my parents’ farm. When I take a step back and think about what I can offer in terms of a unique perspective, it’s that relationship with the natural world. I feel it in my bones.”

Marshall Burns, Rah Rah, on the craziest thing to happen at a show: “I can’t guarantee that it’s the craziest, but one time Kristina put a confetti canon through the mouth of a cardboard cutout Robin Williams dressed as Patch Adams and fired it point blank into somebody’s face. We all felt really bad.”

Guy Henderson, Zulu Winter, on his thoughts on the Canadian music scene: “I can honestly say our impression of the Canadian music scene is very favourable and I think there’s a lot to be very proud of for you guys. For myself personally, Holy Fuck have been one of my biggest influences and I think they’re one of the most exciting and explosive live bands around right now. Their show at the Breeders ATP a couple of years ago was in my top 5 gigs. We’ve also all been huge fan’s of Arcade Fire since their pre-Funeral EP…again a formidable live band. We were very fortunate to do a few dates with Braids in Europe in November who really blew us away with their show. We chatted with them a lot about the Canadian music scene, which has always felt very healthy and flourishing to me. They told us about the support there is from the government and community for young artists in Canada and I feel like it really shows. There’s a lot exciting music coming out of Canada for sure.”