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GEORGIE
musician
SEAN NICHOLAS SAVAGE
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Roland Pemberton
PHOTOGRAPHY
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Sam Moukhaiber
GEORGIE
musician
I set a pretty serious tone. If you do anything kinda crazy, people just kinda scream and laugh at you and call you a joke. That usually means you’re onto something.
“It’s a dramatic zone for me,” the singer-songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage told me via Skype from a flat in London, England. The zone in question is Montreal, the incubating environment that houses his label Arbutus Records and the now defunct loft venue Lab Synthèse, the Mile End melting pot that helped spawn such artists as Grimes, Braids, Blue Hawaii and TOPS. It’s also the city that has inspired the many tales of romantic despair and joy that reside in Savage’s prolific musical catalogue (he has released 11 albums since 2008). His songs can occasionally be read as misremembered AM radio classics, an alternate reality hit parade where his reedy, delicate voice is the clarion call for a generation. His greatest skill is his ability to convey universal truths in profound yet eminently understandable ways. Many of his choruses could be mantras or maxims for today’s lovelorn youth. That’s part of what has made Edmontonborn Savage an underground legend in Canada’s independent music community. He’s nobody’s secret now. In the past two years, Savage’s fame has grown exponentially. 2014’s Bermuda Waterfall and 2013’s Other Life are his first albums to receive major media attention, garnering positive reviews from publications such as Exclaim, Pitchfork and NME. He performed at Maison Martin Margiela’s MM6 Fall 2014 fashion show in New York. He’s played over 60 shows mostly in Europe this year, culminating in an opening slot with Blood Orange in NYC’s Central Park on August 16th. Mature, confident and austere, Bermuda Waterfall is Savage’s strongest record to date. Recorded in a manner
that somehow translates as both shaggy and polished, it’s a stark affair with touches of bossa nova, blue-eyed soul and louche Euro disco. “It could’ve been a little more hi-fi but I needed to get away with some things,” says Savage. “Not like cover anything up but just have an angle on certain things. I think that there’s stronger singles [on this album], regardless of how they were recorded.” His voice is as consistently dynamic and colourful as the music, which is produced in Berlin with German electro pop artist Touchy Mob. Electronic drums and wispy synths cut through the mix like light cascading through a stained glass window. These songs are his most direct and passionate yet, eschewing the willfully obtuse nature of his earlier efforts and performances. His raucous, unpredictable live shows have occasionally confused audiences as to how seriously his shows and his music should be taken. “I went on a campaign of guaranteeing sincerity for like all of last year,” he said with a laugh. “I set a pretty serious tone. If you do anything kinda crazy, people just kinda scream and laugh at you and call you a joke. That usually means you’re onto something.” Across his vast discography, recurring themes present themselves: the heart (“Heartwish”, “Heartless”, “Gemini Heart”), pastoral concerns (“Naturally”, “The Natural Rhythm”), the astral plane (“Dreamers Die Hard”, “In My Dream”, “We Used To Live In A Dream”). Often there is a theme of mistaken identity, such as on Other Life standout, “She Looks Like You”.
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I’m not gonna call something a record until it’s my best. My best is beyond my own abilities. It’s catching as many flukes as I can, miracles and things. If it’s all full of stuff that’s beyond me and I’m my own teacher or my own reviewer, anytime I stamp something with a title and call it an album, it’s gonna be more than 100% to me.
As his fame has grown, he’s even taken to performing with face paint and masks, reminiscent of Kanye West’s use of bejeweled Maison Martin Margiela masks on his Yeezus tour. This seems to represent a way of obscuring himself just as people finally want to watch. “The mask is amazing. It feels great. Every song relates to the mask. One show I had face paint on under the mask and I started sweating and the paint burned my face and I started screaming under the mask.” In an interview with Liz Pelly for Dazed & Confused, when referring to journalists reviewing his albums, Savage responded by saying, “I think it’s rich that some websites now want to grade my work. Sorry, but I get 100 percent on everything I do.” Rather than being the ramblings of a nascent megalomaniac, he clarified that to me as being more a statement on his personal creative standards. “I’m not gonna call something a record until it’s my best,” he said. “My best is beyond my own abilities. It’s catching as many flukes as I can, miracles and things. If it’s all full of stuff that’s beyond me and I’m my own teacher or my own reviewer, any time I stamp something with a title and call it an album, it’s gonna be more than 100% to me.”
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Omar Reyes
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Simon Proctor
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GEORGIE
musician
It has been five years since we heard La Roux’s emotionally charged synthpop. With indisputable hits like “In for the Kill” and “Bulletproof”, along with a 2011 Grammy win for Best Electronic/Dance Album, some wonder why it’s taken the UK duo so long to follow up on their success. Setbacks like the controversial departure of long-time producer/collaborator Ben Langmaid and frontwoman Elly Jackson’s stress-induced vocal troubles help explain the delay. Now a solo act, La Roux is poised for a new horizon with the 2014 release of its new album, Trouble in Paradise. We caught up with Elly Jackson in Montreal to hear more about where she’s been, why she’s been gone and the process of her new album.
G—Welcome back to Montreal. Elly Jackson—Thank you. It’s nice to be back in Canada. I love being here. It feels very homey for some reason. G—How does it feel to be back from your hiatus? Do you want to call it a “hiatus”? EJ—Everyone keeps calling it a hiatus, but I didn’t go anywhere. It definitely wasn’t an intentional hiatus. It was just to make sure the record is right. G—Five years. EJ—Everyone keeps saying that, but I didn’t start making it until two and a half years ago. Everyone is counting from 2009, but I didn’t go into a studio until 2011 because we were touring. For me it’s more like three years. I can’t make music on tour. I hate it. G—How does it feel that this is all you, and that the new album is mostly your writing? EJ—It’s always been me. Everything La Roux that you see is my doing. G—So you could say you are pretty hands-on?
EJ—There’s not a single thing I don’t oversee. Oversee is putting it lightly. I’m at my artwork guy’s house for days on end. I have books of images that we’ve referenced and I sketch things. We’ve been working out the stage stuff for a year. There’s nothing you see that I haven’t approved or done. I’m a massive control freak. I wouldn’t let anyone else do it. G—Is it difficult controlling everything? EJ—I think you have to otherwise it looks like a label has done it. I’m not a fan of things looking like a company has done it, PR stunts or anything like that. That’s why I won’t go on Twitter anymore, unless it’s purely about creating a better visual or it’s creative. If it’s not enhancing the visual or musical aspect, I’m not interested in doing it. G—You’ve said you won’t do any of the social media but do you feel any kind of pressure to have a presence on there? EJ—Yeah, of course, I have arguments constantly. In meetings I get people just looking at me like, “You’re a fucking nightmare.” I don’t really give a shit. Only you know what’s right for you. When I was on Twitter I got allot of, “You do a tweet, you haven’t done a tweet for two weeks.” If I’m not tweeting naturally, what’s the point of doing it?
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GEORGIE
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It’s like I’m just doing it to remind people that I’m there. I don’t understand it. I never will. I think it’s what’s ruining pop stars.
singing because I couldn’t. Now I can sing and have been able to for a couple of years. I’m really enjoying singing again.
G—What’s it like being back on stage? I read that your voice suffered from performance anxiety.
G—Now that you are back, do you feel any pressure to continue where you left off?
EJ—Yeah, it’s hard to describe because I was never anxious about going on stage. I never had stage fright as it were. Over time, I was doing dates in the US and noticed there was something really wrong with me. I didn’t understand it. Later found out I had pharyngitis. I had been letting all kinds of pressures and expectactions get on top of me. I basically just got worse and worse and, without going into too much detail, a muscle in my throat became paralyzed. There’s nothing you can do about it until you sort out the issues of why you’re so stressed. So it just took a while. I wasn’t scared of going on stage, I was just scared of
EJ—Definitely not. G—Does it feel like a new beginning? EJ—I can’t say that it’s like a new beginning because that would feel like I’m somehow shitting on what I did before. There is a gap, whether it was intentional or not or whether it was a hiatus or not there still was a gap. In that time a lot has changed in me and in the music, what I like and the kind of performer I want to be. The best way to describe it is that I don’t want to completely change from what I did before, but more so add to it. The shows will hopefully be a journey from the beginning to wherever I am at that time.
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designer
MALORIE URBANOVITCH Normally, at this time of year, I would be sewing 16 hours a day, sleeping at the studio, frantically working to get my spring collection complete.
WORDS
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Janis Galloway P H O T O G R A P H Y
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Pedersen
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GEORGIE
“Normally, at this time of year, I would be sewing 16 hours a day, sleeping at the studio, frantically working to get my spring collection complete.” But Malorie Urbanovitch doesn’t look the least bit in panic mode. The women’s wear designer is delicately perched on a stool across from me in her Edmonton studio, looking calm, composed and confident. She has just returned from a trip to Europe with her business partner where she handed off the sewing reigns to manufacturers in Romania and Italy, who will expertly construct her Spring 2015 samples to debut on the runway at World MasterCard Fashion Week this October. As Urbanovitch tells me about Capsule, a buyer’s tradeshow she’ll be attending in Paris this September, it’s apparent to me how far she’s come over the last three years. I reminisce about the film studies graduate’s Fall 2011 collection at Edmonton’s humble Western Canada Fashion Week. It was a richly hued vision, hand sewn by Urbanovitch with many more bells and whistles than the label’s now refined aesthetic, which has become her signature and what led to her win of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz Start Up competition (a Canadawide competition for emerging designers). Urbanovitch’s swift momentum since that win is undeniable. Earlier this year, the designer secured meetings with buyers from some of Canada’s largest department stores, and highend retailer Gravity Pope has picked up the ready to wear line for a second season – not surprising, since the label was one of Gravity Pope’s top selling brands last year. The Malorie Urbanovitch line is streamlined and feminine, the focus on rich, indulgent fabrics. With each collection, the brand becomes more synonymous with luxury thanks to standout pieces like the floor sweeping hand-knit skirts of Fall 2013; the elegant grey silk dresses of Summer 2014; and a personal favourite Urbanovitch conception: white buffalo leather mini backpacks accessorized with oversized handpounded silver pins from Fall 2014. “I’m really inspired by fabrics when I design. I think about what I would want to wear. I’m naturally drawn to something soft and comfortable.” I prod her for Spring 2015 spoilers. “This season is so different than any other season we’ve done. It’s inspired by the emancipated woman, and it’s a —20—
designer
This season is so different than any other season we’ve done. It’s inspired by the emancipated woman, and it’s a strange mix of very recognizable eras in fashion.
strange mix of very recognizable eras in fashion. The mood is a very free, kind of sporty woman. It’s very moody. It’s a little witchy. The colours are very unusual for spring and for the brand in general.” And after this collection makes its debut down the runway, what’s next? I inquire about Urbanovitch’s five-year plan. “I hope having a presence at World MasterCard Fashion Week in Toronto will elevate the awareness of the brand in Canada, at least. We’re hoping to get some major buyers – we want the big department stores. That’s really the goal. This next little while is about sales and keeping our image strong and making a mark in Canadian fashion.”
GEORGIE
musician
MAC DEMARCO I like people to be confused, first and foremost. – Mac Demarco WORDS
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Ben Sir I N T E R V I E W
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Sadeeq Hudda P H O T O G R A P H Y
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Pedersen
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musician
GEORGIE
Is Mac DeMarco a child of Edmonton? No. While yes, we could unearth facts detailing his upbringing in our city’s limits the more poignant question is whether he is artistically a product of Edmonton. The answer remains the same. No. It’s not just his scattered geography (Brooklyn-based, via Montreal via Vancouver via Edmonton) or his constant tour schedule, it’s in his own words. When asked if he felt at home on a recent stop in Edmonton, in an expectedly non-committal answer, he shrugged, “No. Sort of. Not really.” It’s the kind of answer that people and press have been leaping on to try and pin down a discernible identity for DeMarco. But it’s not a rejection of the city he grew up in; it’s actually our desire that The 780 has some claim over his talents and accomplishments. And furthermore, it’s a localized example of just how perplexing DeMarco has been for people to digest. By inching the Rubik’s cube of ‘who is he’ closer to completion, people may come to understand how such a non-descript, socalled “slacker” ascended through the music industry so casually. At the beginning of 2011, DeMarco was a mostlyunknown Canadian artist, having found some success with his former Vancouver-based band, Makeout Videotape. It wasn’t until he moved to Montreal that he emerged as an artist to take notice of, recording and performing under his own name. His 2012 selfproduced four song EP, Rock and Roll Nightclub, a slow and fuzzy endeavour, impressed the likes of Brooklynbased indie label Captured Tracks, as well as online kingmakers like Pitchfork Media. Backed by Captured Tracks, 2012 also saw the release of his first full-length record, 2, which received both critical and commercial acclaim, and garnered speculation as to what type of music he actually plays, coining new terms such as “slacker wave” and his own creation: “jizz jazz.” The intervening time between then and the release of his 2014 album, Salad Days, was spent on the road with his band, an assembly of musician friends he accumulated during his time in Edmonton and Montreal (guitarist Peter Sagar, drummer Joe McMurray and
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bassist Pierce McGarry). Salad Days, his best received release to date, earned him the cover of Canada’s Exclaim! Magazine, features in Rolling Stone and Vice Magazine. “I was in the Country edition of Rolling Stone,” DeMarco states. “That’s fucked up.” The album’s reception is perhaps most notably exemplified by its inclusion on the Polaris Prize shortlist, a $30,000 battle royale between Canadian artists, rewarding who did our Country proudest with their record in the last year. Duking it out against heavyweights like Drake and the egomaniacal Arcade Fire is truly a coming out party for Mac DeMarco, and one not so characteristic of an indifferent slacker. On the strength of his consistent album releases, and a globe-trotting tour schedule that has taken his music all the way from humble Canadian venues to countries such as Brazil, China and Russia, you wonder how the slacker stigma was attached in the first place. The defining characteristic of a slacker is a lack of motivation and accomplishment. This comes in stark contrast to DeMarco’s hyper-productive output. He is aware and clearly confused by the label: “What the fuck does that mean? Fuck, I’m always on tour.” Perhaps it’s his style of dress. If one hundred people walked past DeMarco on the street, not a single head would turn. His slightly-dishevelled-though-not-sloppy appearance would appear just like twenty others you’d seen in the last six blocks. But throw him in a half-hour Pitchfork tour documentary, or on stage playing a soldout show, and the cogs in people’s brains start turning. ‘Why is he wearing that hat? What’s he trying to say with that hat? I’m going to buy that hat!’ In reality, his hair might have been messy, or he just wanted to wear a hat. But the fixation with his attire is symptomatic of a desire to figure out all the moving parts that have contributed to his success. And it’s a success he’s comfortable with, regardless of what path it takes. “I don’t really have a goal or anything. If people want to keep paying me for this then that’s great,” says DeMarco. And there it shows itself – that casual attitude that has been misconstrued as indifference. Whenever the term ‘slacker’ is thrown around in the musical arena, the name Kurt Cobain is never too far from mention. And DeMarco and Cobain share
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White Chocolate was my first endeavor into producing rap music. Just making some beats for the man (Tyler). We really hit it off when we did his TV show together.
similarities. Both commonly recognized the absurdity of their situation, including the scrutiny and observation placed on their actions, appearances and personalities. Exemplifying his confusion regarding the importance placed on every moving part of his passion, Cobain once said, “If I went to jail, at least I wouldn’t have to sign autographs.” Similarly, DeMarco is conscious of how bizarre this growth has been, saying, “People are very strange, and make strange assumptions.” As speculation often is, some about Demarco has become ridiculous: “People think I’m stinky. Everyone is stinky sometimes. I am generally not stinky.” Also, much of what is discussed about Cobain and Demarco, this article included, is inferred. Unlike Cobain, there has been no dynamic story of a tortured mind or drug abuse accompanying DeMarco. Without a bold narrative, people aren’t sure what to make of an artist who in all likelihood is just a guy who knows he’s not saving lives with his music, but is doing what he’s good at, and it happens to come quite naturally to him. His next release sees him teaming up with similarly nihilistic rap artist, Tyler the Creator. “White Chocolate was my first endeavor into producing rap music. Just making some beats for the man (Tyler). We really hit it off when we did his TV show together,” says DeMarco, referencing his guest appearance on Tyler’s Adult Swim sketch show, Loiter Squad. In the episode, DeMarco noodles on his guitar while Tyler pines over his desire for geriatric love in the song “Granny, Tyler, More.” The meeting came through a mutual friend, who like others (if you check online, a surprising number)
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has a Mac DeMarco tattoo. They connected via social media, and soon plans percolated to work together on a project. Though the initial release date of August 16th has been pushed back, White Chocolate is scheduled to be musically consumable in the early fall. The modern, technological way in which Tyler the Creator and Mac DeMarco became connected, and consequently redefined their own musical trajectories and opportunities, stands as a mirror of DeMarco’s ascent. Before the digital and online age, Mac DeMarco’s model of success wouldn’t have worked. There were no streaming sites for him to casually upload his music, thereby intriguing his label Captured Tracks, and in turn exciting reputable forum’s like Pitchfork which helped turn the buzz into a roar. In an industry in which acts are so easily or happily defined and labelled, DeMarco is able to seemingly coast through, doing what his gut and talents compel him to, waiting for the world to relax. As he says himself, he just wants people to hear his music “and feel jacked up.” And that’s all it is.
GEORGIE
artist
ALMA HASER
Cosmic Surgery Yes, those are origami sculptures hiding the faces of photographer Alma Haser’s subjects in her latest photo series, Cosmic Surgery. The Cosmic Surgery photos are created in two stages. First, Haser takes a photo of her subject and prints it. She folds that printed photo into an origami ball (known in Japanese as a kusudama or “medicine ball” structure). She then takes a second portrait with the paper kusudama suspended in front of her subject’s face, concealing the subject’s identity. The result is unsettling and strange.
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Glen Leavitt
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What is art or photography if you can’t use your hands?! I am very hands on, and always have been. I don’t see the point of spending hours on the computer, when you can perfect everything before you even look at it on Photoshop.
Why go to all that trouble to achieve an effect which could probably be closely imitated in Photoshop? Haser enjoys the process. “What is art or photography if you can’t use your hands?! That’s my initial thought. The best part of my work, and the bit I enjoy the most is the ‘making.’ I am very hands on, and always have been. I don’t see the point of spending hours on the computer, when you can perfect everything before you even look at it on Photoshop.” Much of Haser’s work involves labour-intensive manipulation of physical materials. She cuts and pastes her photos (IRL), folds them, and presents them in odd little pop-up books. Her work is a hybrid of photography, sculpture, and publishing. It suggests a DIY ethos and an anachronistic fascination with real things. Cosmic Surgery grew out of Haser’s earlier Ten Seconds project. “I started doing self-portraits to realize some ideas and also because I knew very [few] people in the small town we lived in. That’s when I started the Ten Seconds project, where I hid from the camera in the time the ten seconds timer went off. I would always conceal my face. I then thought of other ways of hiding the face, and started making paper flowers, tied them together and made a mask using rubber bands pulled around my ears to secure it. But I found it too painful to wear for long, so [I] figured no one else would want to wear it in a photograph. I then came up with the idea of putting the origami on the face after printing the portrait. And from
there on I began photographing friends and folding their faces.” Alma Haser grew up in a bilingual English and German family, and she traveled throughout Europe and the South Pacific. It is a background that she believes contributed to a more “fluid imagination.” She graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2010 and was named by the British Journal of Photography as one of the four best graduates that year. She has won several awards since then and was shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Haser’s preoccupations have evolved as she has moved away from early influences. “I used to try and create more story-led pictures like the work of Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall. Now I find myself zooming into people’s faces and finding the posture, pose, and facial expressions more interesting.” Most of Haser’s work now takes photographic portraiture as its starting point and spirals out from there. Her work is an exploration of the ways in which portraits both hide and reveal their subjects. “The story behind the person fascinates me so much. What their lives are like, what they are thinking at the time the photograph/ painting is being made and what their secrets are. You can never really find that out just from a picture, but you can imagine and create your own stories behind the person.”
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Haser is drawn to faces, and particularly eyes. She was haunted by the eyes of the subjects in the art galleries she visited as a child. “Their eyes always look so vacant and lost. You want to know more, so you create your own perception of who they are. That is what I try to do in my own portraits.” Finding subjects for the Cosmic Surgery series posed a unique challenge. While these were technically photo portraits, most of the subject’s faces would be concealed. Haser needed to find people with something more than an interesting face going for them. “I would normally use friends and people I know, or people I meet at a party and think they have an interesting style. And, for Cosmic Surgery, I’d look for interesting hair, because after their face has been covered they need to almost express themselves with their hair and clothes.” It is a remarkable effect of Haser’s work that so much of her subject’s personality vibrates through the photos, despite the fact that the face is concealed. In general Haser finds it easier and more rewarding to work with subjects who are not conventionally attractive, but possess some other quality that captures the viewer’s attention. Beauty can be an obstacle. “I sometimes think that beauty isn’t always a good thing, because it all comes down to how they photograph. I find I prefer to take
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pictures of people who don’t know their own beauty, who are a little shy and hidden. They often make great subjects because you can direct them well – there’s no unnecessary pouting or arguments about which side of their face they think photographs better. I also look for unusual people, strange features, amazing coloured hair, and tattoos.” Photography is such a powerfully literal medium; why does Haser disrupt that directness with the distancing intrusion of the kusudama sculptures? “I feel that you can never get as close as you want with a camera…[Y]ou will never be able to truly understand [the subject], not from just taking their picture anyway. I am also very interested in the idea of concealment and hiding the face. The eyes hold the truth, and it’s where people look first to understand what the person is thinking. But by hiding them, I am making the viewer look at the subject with a different perspective.” Haser prefers not to predetermine how her work should be viewed. She enjoys the surprise of a response she hadn’t anticipated. “I never know what people’s reactions will be, but love to see everyone making up their own interpretations. I feel it’s best not to say too much about the theme or story, as the viewers will often have their own brilliant concept about the pictures they see.”
I feel that you can never get as close as you want with a camera…The eyes hold the truth, and it’s where people look first to understand what the person is thinking. But by hiding them, I am making the viewer look at the subject with a different perspective.
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BRODY DALLE INTERVIEW PHOTOGRAPHY WORDS
BY
BY
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Felix Fung
Chapman Baehler Amy Dillon
It has been five long years since we’ve heard from Brody Dalle. In 2000 she crashed onto the scene fronting Aussie punk band The Distillers. A brief go-around with her second band, Spinerette, followed in the late 2000’s and that’s the last we heard. Until now. In April of this year she broke the silence with her first solo album, Diploid Love.
G—What did you take from punk? BD—The energy and intensity. It’s dirty, loud and it doesn’t give a fuck. There’s just something about it that got me from the start. G—I think the “just don’t give a fuck” is what comes across most. As a woman in punk you almost have to give a little less of a fuck because you’re kind of marginalized and seen as something to look at rather than someone who contributes. BD—Yeah, or you’re not given a chance. But honestly, I have not felt that way for so long. In the early days we’d get up and play, but I’d get off on people giving me that kind of look. It would fuel the fire. These days I don’t really experience that too much. G—With you branching out solo on your own, do you find that people want to keep you in a place that’s convenient for them stylistically?
period in their lives. It may be ten years later, but when they listen to me or see me they want to hear what got them through the hard times. G—I can see how people who were into the Distillers or Spinnerette have maybe gone through similar things you have. BD—Totally. G—From what I’m hearing on Diploid Love, it sounds like you didn’t try to bring something back but allowed yourself to grow. BD—I don’t think about what other people want. I just write songs and they turn out how they turn out. When you’re in the studio, you go down very many different avenues until you come to the right place. I just write songs and they become what they become. G—You can hear that, especially on your first single on the album.
BD—Yeah, I think people get attached to a time
BD—“Meet the Foetus”?
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“Most punk rockers I know have a pretty outward view of the world. A different perspective on life. There’s a lot of acceptance.”
G—Yeah. You’re just being yourself, with no outside influence. It didn’t chase after a particular sound. It felt fearless, which is a lot more interesting to me as a listener.
BD—My daughter (who’s eight) just got into Siouxsie and the Banshees. G—That’s awesome. I think punk rockers make the best parents. How do you feel about being a punk rock parent? I’m sorry to keep bringing up punk.
BD—It’s so fun. G—I read one comment in an interview that said the influence of your husband (Josh Homme) could be heard in your record. But I didn’t hear that in your music. BD—I’m not influenced by my husband. I’ve also heard that I sound like Trent Reznor or Garbage. G—Guilty by association.
BD—No, I love punk. I would agree with that, but I don’t want to generalize. Most punk rockers I know have a pretty outward view of the world. A different perspective on life. There’s a lot of acceptance. That said, I’m sure there’s some punk rock parents out there who are shitty. G—Let’s talk about your video with the baby. You stumble into the room with a child. The baby hops on a fucking dragon and flies around Japan…
BD—It’s just stupid, lazy journalism. I could say that maybe the first Distillers’ record was influenced. I got sick of being compared all the time, so I started to forge my own way.
BD—Well, the baby goes to a conference where he chooses all the foetuses being born in the future. He shows the babies of the future what the current state of the world is. Then they have a conference to figure out what they could do to make it better.
G—The path of every musician. The new record feels punk. Saying, “Fuck what’s going on around me, I’m doing this for myself.” I’ve always seen you as kind of on the outside.
G—So the baby becomes the hero, and at the end you and Shirley are set free. You guys freak out, jumping around and singing.
BD—Yeah, I’ve always felt that way.
BD—They’re not connected.
G—Like Siouxsie and the Banshees. Siouxsie started off pretty much on the top of the scene. But when that scene dies, the real artist emerges.
G—They’re not connected?
BD—I love her. I had dinner with her once. It was the coolest dinner I ever had. She was just a ball of fire and also so sweet. I opened for her in Orange County, and she was so loving with me. I was about 20. G—That’s amazing meeting her at 20.
BD—No, that was a live-action thing. It was just tacked on the end because I couldn’t honestly afford another minute of animation. G—So there it is, it comes down to money. Well, those are all the questions I had. Good luck on the rest of your tour. BD—Thanks.
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GEORGIE
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musician
GEORGIE
musician
CHAD VAN GAALEN WORDS
BY
Andrea Ross P H O T O G R A P H Y
BY
Pedersen
I’ve been doing it for a decade now and I’m pretty surprised that people still want me to do it. On one of the first warm days in June, Chad VanGaalen is spending the morning making a birdhouse with his six-year-old daughter, Ezzy. It’s a meticulous process — planning, measuring, sanding, nailing. With a little bit of focus and foresight, carpentry can take a raw product and turn it into something special. Kind of like making music, he says. “All those worlds kind of come together in a similar way, at least in my mind,” he says. “Especially when you’re engineering it, it becomes pretty architectural as far as finding sounds and finding textures, building up a foundation like some sort of skeleton, working
at it in the same way as you would build a tree house or something.” VanGaalen has always liked doing things his own way. He recorded his debut album, Infiniheart, in his own home studio in Calgary. He drew the illustrations for the music videos that accompanied the album — absurd cartoons of shape shifting plants and animals inspired by The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Mad Magazine and other things that probably would have been best kept away from an impressionable five-year-old boy from Calgary. He’s a one-man band, strumming, drumming, sound mixing and buzzing away on a harmonica while belting out typical themes of life and love, with atypical track names like
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GEORGIE
musician
It becomes pretty architectural as far as finding sounds and finding textures, building up a foundation like some sort of skeleton, working at it in the same way as you would build a tree house or something.
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GEORGIE
“Cut Off My Hands,” “Hangman’s Son” and “Cosmic Destroyer.” But it’s not all about him anymore. Now 36 years old, the musician and illustrator is trying to narrow down his focus — a tough job for the scatterbrained man with a love of science fiction, woodworking and basketball. Oh yeah, and films, which he’s trying to produce now. He’s keeping mum on that though, only saying he’s finished a film but is hesitant to release it. Being a father of two has prioritized his creative adventures. “I feel like it’s made me into a more productive human as far as planning out what I’m going to do with my day,” he says. “I’m not dilly-dallying as much.” He’s not even sure why anyone’s interested in seeing any more of his creative output. “I’ve been doing it for a decade now and I’m pretty surprised that people still want me to do it,” he says.
musician
album — the product of losing his friend Chris Reimer and dog Lila. A track named for the 12-yearold hound exudes VanGaalen’s heartbreak, proclaiming a more carefree time with lyrics like “Just like the river we parted / Where all these ends got started / We were so young / The time just hung / on Lila.” Despite the misery behind it, it’s an emotionally concise and calculated work — a new side of VanGaalen we haven’t seen before, with all the eccentricities we know and love. On this sunny day in June, VanGaalen is relaxing after finishing up a tour of the Maritimes with Cousins. His summer is filled with stops across the U.S. and Canada before heading to Europe in September, but he’s already anxious about leaving. With the city growing green around him after a long winter, touring means he’s sacrificing the few precious warm months he has with his family. Life on the road is a stark contrast to the carefree days of summer at home, he says. It’s hard being away from his girls.
Whereas his twenties were used for mastering his recording equipment and software to create five albums, he’s into illustration these days — his true passion, he says. Unlike recording an album by himself, it’s effortless.
“There’s always that kind of depressurization you go through when you get back,” he says. “You do feel strange and you have kind of turned into an alcoholic from drinking every night and playing dirty rock clubs. That kind of turns you into this pirate a little bit, so you kind of have to get out of that.”
“Illustration is just like, I pop the lid off my pen and just hang out,” he says. “If I had to pick one thing it would definitely be illustration. That would be a dream come true, but at the end of the day I gotta pay the bills, and music pays the bills.
He’s still not sure if he’ll slow down as his daughters grow older, though. If touring a month and a half of the year is the main sacrifice that goes with creating art, he’s okay with it.
“But music is just a pain in the ass.” VanGaalen’s been on the road for a while now, promoting his fifth album, Shrink Dust. Released in April, it’s a darker
“I get to be around my kids more than probably 90 percent of other parents. I’m working out of my home; I get to see them grow up,” he says. “So I’d like to maintain that as long as I can. I kinda feel like the luckiest person in the world every morning when I wake up.”
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GEORGIE
fashion
INFIELD
(left) coat, sweatshirt, shoes - DKNY (right) sweatshirt, shoes, bag DKNY hat MOUNT PLEASANT
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Tina Chang S T Y L I N G BY
Malorie Urbanovitch
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fashion GEORGIE
(left) dress - ZARA shoes - DKNY (right) dress, bag shoes - DKNY
GEORGIE
fashion
(left) shirt - DKNY necklace - LOFT (right) shirt - ZARA HAIR
BY
Angela Cooke M A K E U P
BY
Nickol Walkemeyer M O D E L S Ava Lund & Emily Goudreau (Mode Models)
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GEORGIE
fashion
PHOTOGRAPHY
CON VERS ATION
BY
Zachary Ayotte S T Y L I N G BY
Raelee Balanag
henley - HOMESPUN (gravitypope) shirt jacket - PAUL SMITH JEANS (gravitypope) pocket square - OVADICA & SONS (The Helm)
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GEORGIE
fashion
jersey - UNITED CYCLE (United Cycle) cardigan - SOFIE D’HOORE (gravitypope) jacket - SOFIE D’HOORE (gravitypope)
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GEORGIE
fashion
shirt - DRIES VAN NOTEN (Simons) jacket - PAUL SMITH JEANS (gravitypope) pants - SHIRT BY COMME DES GARCONS (gravitypope) —47—
GEORGIE
fashion
HAIR BY
Mark Hayes M O D E L Braeden Wright (Mode Models)
shirt - DRIES VAN NOTEN (Simons) vest - CRUCIANI (The Helm) sport coat - THE HELM PRIVATE LABEL (The Helm) —48—
vest - Mm6 (Simons) jewelry - Laura B (Paul Hardy )
FALL BREEZE PHOTOGRAPHY Sty l ing
BY
BY
Tina Chang
Leah Van Loon
GEORGIE
fashion
top - MM6 (Simons) skirt - PHILIP LIM (Simons) shoes - ACNE (gravitypope) skirt - MALORIE necklace - (Park Hardy) —51—
sweater - ALEXANDER WANG (gravitypope) skirt - CALLA (Coup Boutique) shoes - ETOILLE ISABEL MARABT (gravitypope)
dress - KENZO (Simons) cuffs (Paul Hardy)
GEORGIE
fashion
dress - VICTOR&ROLF (Simons)
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GEORGIE
fashion
top - CALLA (Coup) skirt - MALORIE URBANOVITCH (gravitypope) jacket - BALMAIN (Simons) shoes - MARNI (gravitypope) —55—
top - Phillip lim (Simons) skirt - Acne (gravitypope) skirt - Missoni (Simons) boots - Alexander wang (gravitypope)
DENIS GAGNON (Simons) RAQUEL ALLEGRA (Coup Boutique) pants + shoes - ACNE (gravitypope)
GEORGIE
fashion
dress - DAMIR DOMA (Simons) gloves - AGNELLE (Paul Hardy) earrings - LAURA B (Paul Hardy)
HAIR
BY
Kirsten Klontz (Mousy Browns) M A K E U P
BY
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Katie Matson M O D E L Nicole Abt (Mode Models)
12056 Jasper Avenue
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