The Lab Magazine - Issue 00

CARLY POPE, CHIN INJETI, FAN DEATH, BEN TOUR, AUSTIN ANDREWS, ELENA KALIS

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To truly understand The Lab you must start at the beginning in a dark basement filled with musical instruments, video cameras, microphones, cobwebs and random collections of antiques and art. In this basement Justin, Jeremy and various other artistic scientists witnessed beautiful, innocent and pure experiments with art, music, friendships and lifestyle in general. We are very strong believers that to naturally progress you must surround yourself with people that inspire you, people who want something more out of life and who can teach you something new everyday. If you don’t have those people in your life we hope this magazine can serve as your virtual community and help you to create this environment in your life. In many ways that is the major theme of the magazine and this issue: bringing real stories of struggles and success into your home.

We live in a world where truth is a creation, a world where everything has been given a "human angle", a world permeated with our attitudes towards it, our needs, ideas, aims, ideals, joys and sufferings, a world that is part of the vortex of our existence. As Albert Einstein once said “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”

We at the Lab Magazine are looking to deliver raw, uncensored conversations with artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, photographers, designers and anyone creating something different, inspiring; people who stand out amongst their peers. The one aspect that we pride ourselves on in not only this issue, but in every issue to come, is to have artists in similar life situations, interviewing our feature artists. For example, Bob Dylan interviewing John Lennon or Jean Pierre Jeanut interviewing Tim Burton.

We feel that this technique will provide a far more authentic story not only within the interview itself, but also with the entire aesthetic and feeling of our magazine. It’s important to us that each article, each word, is coming from a sincerity that cannot be learnt at Harvard or Yale, but is learnt by basically struggling to create something you love, struggling to become the only person you know how to be, struggling in an industry that can beat you down, or give you something that lives on forever, like a movie, a painting, a song or even a magazine.

——Fan Death ₆ Austin Andrews ₁₂ ——Ben Tour ₁₆ Chin Injeti ₂₀ ——Elena Kalis ₂₆ Carly Pope ₃₂ ——Who is The Lab? ₄₀

Every person that we featured in this issue are is an artist who we feel upholds this same belief system of never giving up and continuing to practice their art, even in the worst of times. Our magazine is in many ways a tool to bring back the value of artistry and to ensure the world that no matter how many fences we have to hop, how many mountains we have to climb, we will continue our pursuit of happiness.

The Lab Magazine started with all odds against us; the economy at an all time worst since the 1930’s, the government cutting nearly all artist based grants systems and diminishing artistic programs in schools. Instead of turning the other cheek, we decided to create something to inspire and spread hope amongst the entire world. We chose Vancouver as a base for this artist movement because there is an incredible untapped talent pool here that needs to be heard and seen.

“We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history.”

- Sonia Johnson

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Editor, Art Director Justin Tyler Close justin@thelabmagazineonline.com Editor, Art Director Jeremy Regimbal jeremy@thelabmagazineonline.com Design Director Xavier Encinas hello@xavierencinas.com Copy Editor Deni Mori ———— Head Office 411-207 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 ———— Justin Tyler Close

+1 604.568.1023 info@thelabmagazineonline.com ———— For advertising inquiries, please contact: ads@thelabmagazineonline.com +1 604.568.1023 ———— Contributors Jules Moore Tarmar Ouziel Katharine Horsman Mikey Lipka Tiffany May ———— Thank you The Close Family, The Regimbal Family, Xavier Encinas, Carly Pope, Fan Death, Ben Tour, Chin Injeti, Elena Kalis, Katharine Horsman, Austin Andrews, Tamar Ouziel, Jeff Herrera, Aidan Wright, Jesse Regimbal, Justin Kohse, Michael Shindler, Linda Baker and her amazing cookies, Deni Mori, John Poliquin, Wu-Tang Clan for teaching Xavier english, The Grace Gallery, Rachel Zott, Tiffany May, Jean Pierre Jeunet, Sweet Station Blog, Topless Gay Love Tekno Party, Analog Bell Service, Cheeky Disco, Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Rhino Printing, The Hasting Set, Michelle Mylett, Natalie Robison, Stacey Armstrong, Kevan McGovern, Dominik Walaszczyk, The Media Club, Allana Farnell, Cheryl Honrat, Sonia Johnson, Action Athletic Wear, Bambo Café, Smart Mouth Café, Section 3, Debbie Erhardt.

———— Printed in Vancouver, BC by Rhino Print Solutions Text set in Futura Std, Plantin Std & Adobe Caslon Pro. ————

———— Xavier Encinas

Cover Photograhy by Justin Tyler Close Styling by Katharine Horsman Make-up & Hair by Tamar Ouziel Earings vintage, shawl FALIERO SARTI, top ALEXANDER WANG ———— 2009-2010 © The Lab Magazine Inc. and its authors.

Reproduction without permission prohibited.

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———— Deni Mori

———— Jeremy Regimbal

———— Mikey Lipka

———— Jules Moore ————— 5

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FAN DEATH INTERVIEW BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE MAKE UP & HAIR BY TAMAR OUZIEL STYLING BY DANDI WIND

An angel and a pixie walk into a club… no, really they do. It’s called a Fan Death show, and they have been popping up all year in clubs from Mexico to Moscow. The story of Fan Death began in 2007 with a spontaneous heart-to-heart between two of Vancouver’s most beloved musicians, Marta Jaciubek-McKeever and Dandilion Wind Opaine.

Now just two years old, the friendship has grown into a fresh form of turbo femininity cut from very distinct cloths: Marta, the warm, soulful folk pianist, and Dandi, the cool, devil-may-care dancing queen. Fueled by fantasy, lust, glamour and Grace Jones, their debut single Veronica’s Veil and haunting rendition of Q Lazzarus’s Goodbye Horses are works of pure disco genius, sung in a sexy, synthesized undertone. Forget disco revival. Fan Death are couriers of existing energy that beat down our doors and insist we come out and play.

JUSTIN—Welcome to my studio. It’s so cluttered in here, I hope you don’t mind sitting in the midst of all my weird, random shit! [Laughs]. Wow! I must say that this Turkish coffee has gone right to my head [Laughs] Anyways. To start it off, how did you guys come up with the name Fan Death?

DANDI—One of my friends was telling me about a Korean urban legend.

He said that all the fans in Korea are built with a timer so that they go off. So don’t leave them in your window or you will suffocate at night from the oxygen sucked out of the room, creating a vortex. I found that really interesting, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and called her [Marta] and we started the Myspace page.

MARTA—And it wasn’t taken yet, which was exciting!

DANDI—We talked about starting a band and we knew we wanted a really different name. So this worked out perfectly!

J—How would you describe your music?

D—It is electronic with acoustic elements of cello and violin, string quartet.

It’s kind of dark; it’s nostalgic to films that we saw as children, soundtracks to fantasy films and some horror movies.

J—How did the two of you meet to form Fan Death? You guys seem so comfortable with each other on and off stage. Should I say fate? Music Gods?

M—I met Dandi at a Dandi Wind show. It was a crazy Halloween show. I just saw her and thought she was amazing, so I walked up to her and made friends.

J—Was your first conversation about making music?

M—At first we would just hang out. Then Dandi moved to Montreal and I was on my way to New York, so I lived with them for a little bit and we started talking about making dance music together.

D—When she came to Montreal to stay with us, she actually practiced with Szam [other member of Dandi Wind] and I and played the keytar for a couple of months. You find that you drive back and forth between Montreal and New York a lot, when you live on the East Coast, so we’d just stay at her house or she’d stay at ours. We just knew we would work on something together in the future.

“I don't hate anything. I love„ J—Well I’m glad you did! I know you guys just went to Russia, which must have been exciting. What were you guys doing there?

D—A Russian magazine had interviewed us a few months before, called Afisha.

They have a music festival every year, so they brought us down to perform. We played with some talented bands and they treated us really well.

J—How long were you there for?

M—We were gone for 5 days. 2 days to travel there and back. It’s so beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Poland, which is where I grew up.

J—Sounds like quite the traveling adventure. Is there anything crazy that happened to you guys while you were there? Any interesting stories that you could share with The Lab? D—There is this cathedral that looked like candy called St. Basil. That was amazing and all around the cathedral was women in bridal gowns. It was wild.

M—I guess married couples just go there to fulfill their walks. It was just packed with them. Everywhere we turned there were these amazing Russian brides.

Super young couples, it was really weird.

D—They’d come out of hot pink limousines or, like, red limousines. They’d come out with an entourage. [Laughs] We didn’t realize the people were in these limousines, so we were posing in front of them for photos and when the entourage got out, they all got angry with us. [Laughs] M—What I was surprised with the most was the money that is there. I used to think it was this communist weird black hole. There are a lot of very wealthy people that live there. I was kind of expecting a really old world.

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D—There is some beautiful architecture and the people are really sweet. The crowd was amazing when we played the show.

M—Yeah, it was my favorite show.

J—Sounds amazing. I wish I could’ve seen the Russian brides and hot pink limousines. [Laughs] I want to know what influences you guys when you are creating music? Who do you guys look at for inspiration?

M—Grace Jones. David Bowie always inspires me. Neil Young, but that’s totally a different kind of music. I’m inspired by anything.

D—Yeah me too. I have a lot of favourites, like an artist on Mute Records called Fad Gadget who’s my favorite performer, and other obscure Italian stuff.

[Laughs] J—I also know you guys were in Mexico when you shot your music video for ‘Veronica’s Veil’, which I love! What can you tell us about that experience?

M—That was the best time of my life. Pretty much Mexico is amazing. We were lucky enough to stay at Dandi’s friend's house.

D—Yeah, he has a beautiful, beautiful place. Originally we were going to shoot around his house and around the beach, but it got more and more adventurous.

We were only there for 5 days, but everyday we would go to a new location. We went to a graveyard, to a mountain, she [Marta] climbed a mountain, went to a waterfall, to fields where they make tequila. It’s just so beautiful, I love Mexico so much. We carried our own gear around, and we all just helped out and made it.

M—Yeah, it was really magical.

J—Sounds like it. Shotgun on your next adventure [Laughs]. If you guys could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? And why would you live there?

D—Well, I really love Mexico. I think I would like to live in Mexico City at some point if I could learn Spanish. It’s my favourite city that I’ve been to.

M—I just want to live on the beach somewhere. Either Mexico or Hawaii. I also have a really strong pull towards Argentina. My great uncle lives there and have a feeling I will end up there one day. I’m kind of a gypsy. I don’t really settle down anywhere. [Laughs] J—Do you guys do anything else other than music? I’m interested in what you guys do when you’re not recording music?

D—I work on music videos. I just directed a music video for Lady Sovereign, it’s called ‘I Got You Dancing”. I do photography, sculpture and love to travel.

M—I play in another band. I have my own band called VFL. So that keeps me busy between Fan Death and that. I just did 2 weeks back to back of rock camp, one for girls only and one for boys and girls, that basically changed my life. I used to teach piano. It was amazing, you basically teach kids how to be in a band and how to write songs. It was the most rewarding and inspiring experience of my life. So I want to dedicate more of my life to that. the lab magazine ————— issue 00

“I was electrocuted!„ J—How old were these kids?

M—Well, the youngest, we found out at girls rock camp, was 6 and 8 is the cap.

D—How did you find out she was younger?

M— We kind of figured because she was smaller, she behaved like the younger person. She was brilliant though. Basically it was 8-18 for girls. The Galliano one was 6-16. Mostly they were, like, 10 -12. The most amazing creativity I’ve ever seen. Some of the kids would take longer to get comfortable with other people. Most of the bands just couldn’t wait to play their instruments and jam.

They would create these amazing, amazing songs. It was really lovely.

D—One of the songs was stuck in my head for like 3 days that the girls had written. It was so good.

M—Sometimes I feel that being a performer is a little selfish when you keep doing it for your own gain or for your own expression. When you start giving back a bit is when it starts getting a little more well rounded.

J—Must be great to see kids so young, who all share the same love for music. That makes me feel happy inside.

M—It was amazing. My friend and I were squealing like little schoolgirls.

[Laughs] J—You guys have played in shows all around the world, as we already mentioned Russia. I’m interested in where else you guys have performed and what were some of your most memorable moments?

D—Fan Death has only done a few tours. We toured Europe, went to Moscow and we played in Mexico, but with Dandi Wind, we have played in China, Japan

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and in Taiwan and Taiwan was one of my favourite shows. It was in this tiny, tiny club. There was something weird about the electricity, it wasn’t grounded I guess. So as we were singing, we were getting shocked through our teeth and through the keys. As I was performing someone threw a massive thing of beer onto me and I slipped and the microphone hit the liquid and the electricity went through the liquid and into my body. I was electrocuted! Visually my life flashed before my eyes. I saw images when I was 5 and 6 [Laughs]. It was the strongest pain I’ve ever felt then it just disappeared, so I just kept performing. An hour and half later I just felt so ill that I had to go to the hospital. The show was so fun though [Laughs]. The reason why I think I didn’t stop was just because the crowd was so fun. Taiwan was one of my favourite shows.

M—Scotland was really fun. I was in this cave-like place. It was so humid that the brick was getting wet.

D—The brick was actually sweating.

M—[Laughs] It was crazy. Kids were just pulsating.

J—Must be great as a performer to feel the energy from a crowd. It’s something I can only dream about.

M—It's unreal. I get so nervous. I’m like a mom sometimes. When I see her [Dandi] stage diving and going into the crowd, I’m just like ‘ahhhhh’.

D—I’m very nimble so I don’t feel pain much. That show was really, really fun because it was a very young crowd. This new generation is interesting on how they discover stuff so easily on the Internet. I don’t even know how our tracks have gotten on but they have it and know the words [Laughs] J—Can you tell me about the single you guys just released?

D—Well, we released last year’s single, “Veronica’s Veil”. We just released another one a few days ago that came out in Japan. Really soon we’ll be releasing an EP, which is our first CD release.

J—I'll be first in line. I can tell by sitting with you, shooting with you and by watching your videos that you’re also into the fashion world. What do you guys like about fashion these days? And what do you hate?

D—I like how you can find out quickly about fashion designers through fashion blogs and then find them on Facebook, message them, tell them you like their clothing and then they’ll make you something [Laughs] There are some really great designers right now.

J—Will a designer give you something to wear for a show?

D—It’s happened for me a couple of times. For stage I have to wear really stretchy outfits because I move around a lot and sometimes people give me stuff I can’t wear on stage, but I wear them in photos.

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J—What about you Marta? What do you love and hate about fashion today?

M—I always admire people who look really good and not necessarily trendy. You can just tell that it’s their personality. I like to wear my jeans and a hoodie, that’s my favourite. I also love the way I feel when I do put an effort in and it instantly transforms me, especially on stage. I can’t get in the mood if I don’t dress up and don’t put on makeup. It’s very theatrical for me.

D—It’s part of the job to dress up and to look the part.

M—And to entertain J—Is there anything you hate about fashion?

M—I don’t hate anything. I love.

D—I don’t know?

M—I hate scrunchies.

D—I like scrunchies [Everyone laughs] M—I used to like scrunchies back 15 years ago D—I like early 90’s, like fly girl stuff. I like how you can easily find that stuff on ebay.com. I used to have an online store for like 3 years. I would trade and sell.

My bedroom is like a vintage store. I’ve got racks and racks of clothing, hats, 70 pairs of shoes, 70 pairs of boots. I collected mostly vintage, I love it.

M—I miss New York for the fashion. I miss seeing these hot Puerto Rican mommas rocking it with their big bellies and tits, you know. Not being afraid of showing off their beautiful bodies. I find the West Coast a little contrived.

D—Yeah it is. Vancouver is very uptight. People laugh at me if I go into the drugstore. They point and stare all the time.

M—Which is fucked [Laughs]. It’s an expression, right?

J—I know! Personally, I grew up in the suburbs where everything looks the same.

Barbie houses, nice cars, golden retrievers and where everyone seems to live the same lives. Which is why I got out at my first glance of the real world. I think it has a lot to do with fear and the way a lot of people fear the unknown. If you think about it, the only education of culture, fashion, and art people can get that live in the suburbs is from Internet, television or if they take a vacation once a year.

I think that’s a pretty lame way to experience something, through the mindless numbing effect of TV. M—[Laughs] I’m not even an expressionist. Why do people fear it more on the West Coast? It’s a very provincial attitude. But it’s getting better. I’ve definitely noticed a difference in the past 10 years. That’s why I was drawn to Dandi, because she actually had the balls to look different.

J—With so many bloggers always competing these days, it just seems so easy to Google anything you want and poof! You got it!

M—That’s interesting because that’s what we noticed traveling through Mexico, Italy, wherever, all hipsters look the same. You could take a kid from Mexico City and Moscow and they would be wearing the same outfit. It’s weird. It’s all about the blogs, I think. I don’t even know because I don’t really do the blog thing. It’s a bit of a mind fuck.

J—Well put. “Mind Fuck”. OK so here are my 2 favourite questions [Laughs]. If you were a rap artist, what would your name be?

D—I think my name would be “Lil’ Squat” [Laughs] M—Mine would be “Maahsive” D—Yep, mine would be Lil’ Squat or Lil’ Whip. Lil’ Squat because I do the squat dance.

M—Let’s see the squat dance [Laughs] J—Yeah, I would love to see the squat dance [Laughs] Ok, last question. I like to ask people this question for some reason; maybe it’s a selfish thing? When was the last time you have written a love letter to someone?

M—I did it about a week ago. I think it’s really important, you gotta do it.

J—I agree. People need to be more expressive. “Maahsive Expressive”[Laughs] Let’s all have a good cry now [Laughs] D—Maybe when I was 14 I did. I don’t do stupid shit like that. Ha-ha. I write love songs though. Now should we dance? [Laughs]

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“It was amazing.

My friend and I were squealing like little schoolgirls.„ More———— www.myspace.com/fandeath

Marta———— dresses, laces & vintage jacket, shoes DIESEL Dandi———— dress & skirt RATNA HO, corset stylists own, shoes DIESEL

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JEREMY—Hey Austin. I was on your website today and I must say that your photos are just getting better and better. You have really put yourself into some dangerous but thrilling situations, all for a photograph. Not only that, but I know from experience by working with you on films, your ability to capture a moment is truly inspiring. I want to start this interview off with something simple. Tell us a little bit about yourself?

AUSTIN—I guess over the last few years I’ve kind of partitioned my time into distinct chapters, focusing pretty much exclusively on one thing for between four and twelve months. It could be anything from a film project from early preproduction through to the premiere, or like the chapter I’m on now, where I’ve been in South Africa for eight months focusing on photography. I arrived here not knowing what form that focus would take and ended up shooting for a few different NGOs, working freelance for a paper, that kind of thing. All I knew entering this period was the body of work I wanted to get out of it.

J—Not a lot of artists these days can be disciplined enough to focus only on one thing for a set time. I respect that. What were your first steps into the arts?

A—I’ve been doing this thing in a roundabout way for quite a while, starting in my early teens doing feature length spoofs of existing films with hamsters and cats. One of those was Jurassic Park With Cats, a scene for scene remake of Jurassic Park with the hamsters cast as the humans and the cats as the dinosaurs. the lab magazine ————— issue 00

I'm not sure if we want to call that a first step into the arts, but it definitely paved the way. It was just raw… well, I don’t know if ambition is the right word, but some combination of curiosity and not having a whole lot of better things to do.

I really just got addicted to the thrill, of putting things together from whatever raw materials you had, either in yours or in others' brains, extracting and tossing them up onto the screen for people just to sit back and say: “Whoa, that’s really quite awful,” or “Quite interesting,” or “There’s something pretty cool there.”

There's nothing better than being able to engage in that kind of dialogue. So from those early projects the scale started snowballing, started getting real crews out, started casting people. Never budgeted them properly, but no one really does at that level. I stuck mostly to the short form for quite a while and did a few films in Australia that started getting some festival recognition. So whatever it is that I’m doing now it's probably because of that early work.

J—Where the hell have you been the past year since your last film, Frog?

A—That’s a bit of a difficult question to answer. I guess geographically I’ve been here, in South Africa, where I moved to Johannesburg a week after we shot Frog. To lend some context, Frog was a short film I directed in January starring Allison Mack from Smallville and Chad Krowchuk from Mentors. It’s a one shot film unfolding over 15 minutes across six city blocks as a couple learns to say goodbye, or to reconcile their break-up. Just after we shot that, we were cutting it really close to the wire, I moved here. So in the last eight

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AUSTIN ANDREWS INTERVIEW BY JEREMY REGIMBAL — PHOTOGRAPHY BY AUSTIN ANDREWS

His passport says he's a New Zealander, his accent says he's Canadian, he got his degree in Australia, and he's just closed the door on eight months working as a photojournalist in southern Africa. Crossing borders is a lifestyle for filmmaker and photographer Austin Andrews, and to prove it he's started counting the countries he's been banned from on his second hand.

At 23, Austin hops from whim to whim like a mallet playing Whac-a-Mole and he's just getting started. His film work has screened to millions at festivals on five continents, his photography has featured in National Geographic and he once filled a passport without stepping foot on a plane. And for his next trick? Read on to find out.

“This could be anything from crossing crocodile-infested rivers and escaping bush gangs.„ months I’ve been focusing mainly on photojournalism, using Joburg as a base to plant myself as a means of exploring some of the rest of southern Africa.

The most worthwhile thing I've found within that has been shooting for NGOs (Non-Goverment Organization). That sounds wonderfully altruistic, shooting with NGOs to save the world or some such thing, but I think the biggest appeal within that has been the concentrated thrill of the experience, getting swept up into something so exciting, so much bigger than myself. In this case it’s been the refugee crisis in Zimbabwe. Now these last couple years, Zimbabwe has basically been the world’s worst crisis outside of a war zone. They’ve suffered rampant inflation, hyperinflation, 231 million percent, to the point where the largest bank note was 100 trillion dollars and that still wasn’t enough to buy a loaf of bread. There weren’t any goods on shelves, it was really hectic! This was under full sail when I was here and is only stabilizing now. The biggest consequence of this, of course, has been that life in Zimbabwe for a long time became almost impossible to live. An estimated three and a half million Zimbabweans fled to South Africa, which is probably not a whole lot less than the number of Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe right now. South Africa is the beacon of light in the region and is sort of to Zimbabwe what the United States is to Mexico. So Médicins Sans Frontières is one of the major organizations that’s been mitigating this crisis and helping refugees that cross settle into life in South Africa. They’ve opened clinics, done a lot of work in the border regions where the Zimbabweans hop fences and cross-rivers. In March and April I did a photography project with them where we profiled some of the refugees

who have crossed over, the hardships, the challenges, the barriers and obstacles they’d come up against and had to fight. This could be anything from crossing crocodile-infested rivers and escaping bush gangs to the discrimination they've faced here in Johannesburg, where foreigners, especially in the past couple of years, have not been looked upon in a good light.

J—Holly shit! You're like a blend of Snake Plissken and Christopher Columbus.

[Laughs] I mean I really love what you do. You get to show the entire world, photographs of places and people that we would never see otherwise. It creates a strong purpose for your work. What are your proudest moments in the arts?

A—I think many of my proudest moments have come wrapped up inside those chances you get to take with something you’ve poured so much of yourself into —whether it's time, effort, money, energies, life energies, passion – then fold it up and put it out there to say, “This is who I am. This is what’s important to me, this is what means something to me”. It can be a frightening thing, particularly if you’re not sure of what you’re putting out there. It can also be a humbling thing. Or it can be really thrilling, putting this work out there, whether it's photography or film, that says something about you in so much purer a way than verbal words or mission statements can or purer than discussions with friends can. I make films so I don’t have to explain them, if I'm doing my job properly, so I don’t have to explain myself or do interviews [Laughs] Whether it’s in a film festival setting or with a group of friends over popcorn, ————— 13

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there’s something really special about it that I’ve come to treasure a lot. It's not something I’ve deliberated on much but now that I’m trying to put into words I suppose it's that reinforcement, that feedback that you’re doing okay, that you’re on the right path. I’ll get back to you on that.

J—What are your plans for film and photography in the next year?

A—I’m coming off a period where I’ve focused myself almost exclusively on photography. I’m fast realizing it's a great way to explore new places or get caught up in other people’s lives in a way that I wouldn’t be able to otherwise; meeting people I wouldn’t otherwise meet; seeing things I wouldn’t otherwise see. I find that really cool. But most of my ambitions still lie in film. The last 8 months I’ve spent developing a feature film project with my friend Dan. We’re through the treatment now and are looking to get it developed and financed next year and get it to cameras for 2011. That’s what I’ve plunged wholly and utterly into. Then I’m moving back to Canada in a week and a half, which is coming up very soon and it’s starting to set in. It's bittersweet.

“I make films so I don’t have to explain them, if I'm doing my job properly, so I don’t have to explain myself or do interviews.„ the lab magazine ————— issue 00

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BEN TOUR INTERVIEW BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE — ILLUSTRATION BY BEN TOUR

Here is a list of words that might help you find Vancouver artist Ben Tour: Water Colours, Women, Toronto, Francis Bacon, New York, Lifetime Collective, Graffiti, Marvel Comics, Ballpoint Pens, Porn Star Sasha Grey, Germany, BLK/MRKT Gallery, Gibsons, Blue, Red, and Beer. Alone they mean nothing but together they form the experiences and views of a very metropolitan artist who spends his days on BC's remote Sunshine Coast. We sat down with Ben and watched some of these words come to life.

JUSTIN—Hey Ben. I am really excited about this interview. I can honestly say that your work has influenced my own creations with photography and I constantly turn to it for inspiration. I mean, you’re just really fuckin' good [Laughs], a true innovator and someone who has stamped a style not only here in Vancouver, but in the world. All in all, I think everyone should know who you are and see your work.

I am so stoked that you’re in our first issue of The Lab. Thank you!

So to start it off, Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where were you born, how you started? Maybe something crazy people wouldn't usually know about you.

The uncensored version!

BEN—I was born in Toronto—mid Seventies—Virgo. The uncensored version?

You had to be there. It was suburban, big city life. I'm an only child raised by older parents —cartoons got me into Marvel Comics, listening to my parents classical music got me into N.W.A, Hip-Hop got me into graffiti and graffiti got me into illustration and Fine Art. I enjoyed being creative as a kid and had the opportunity to be. So, here I am.

J—Why are you an artist?

B—Because I have to learn everything the hard way. I'm an artist today apparently, tomorrow —I'm unemployed again. Some people call it freelance.

It's good work if you can get it.

J—I can relate. Being an artist today isn't easy. But on the other hand, I actually think it's an exciting time because so many people are getting fired from their jobs because of the economy crashing, but as a result focusing a little more on their personal ambitions. I am seeing it more and more, which I find rejuvenating. What is your major inspiration? Where do you search or does it find you?

B—It's everywhere. I wish I could just tell you, but I can't. Inspiration is only one part of making paintings —the other part is work. I haven’t even started yet.

I always want to make a painting. I look through websites, magazines, and old photo books. I doodle, make notes, watch movies, take photos, and climb trees, whatever.

J—[Laughs] Who is your favorite artist and why? This could be anyone, painter, filmmaker, director, graffiti artist, actor, juggler, anyone at all.

B—There’s really too many to name. It's impossible to really jot down some names and call it a day. There have been times in my life where I hunted for

“New York fucking City!„ images like crazy —I lived in libraries just to stumble upon artists I'd never heard of or seen before. Now with the web, obviously everything is right there and everybody knows about every dried up dead illustrator there ever was and you can make a tool in Photoshop and do their style overnight. Last time I was in NYC I saw Francis Bacon at the Met. I'm into Francis Bacon, throw in some Schiele on the side there with a little Rauschenburg to dirty up the edge of the canvas a bit with a goat head or two. Then get William S. Burroughs to write a quick manifesto about it and then Akira Kurosawa to direct, starring Sasha Grey.

J—Do your emotions affect the way you paint?

B—I know this may seem obvious to a lot of people, but I know from experience that art is usually conveyed from an emotion during a certain time in your life, which reflects onto your work.

J—I am wondering, when you decide to start a new piece, how does it all evolve from inside your mind and onto the canvas?

B—I don't like my personal life rearing its ugly head into my studio space. I try not to bring it in with me. Of course, it's all there with you all the time. I like to treat painting as a job —I go to work and make images. If I'm feeling shitty about something I usually don't work that day- but subconsciously, it makes its way into the work later on.

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J—I know you have traveled to galleries all around the world, displaying your work, which must be an exciting part of your job. What is your favorite city that you have traveled to? Why do you love it? And where is your ideal place to create?

Live?

B—New York fucking City, hands down favorite city to show and hang out.

San Francisco is a close second. San Francisco feels like what Vancouver could be like in the not too distant future. Hopefully. LA is also a lot of fun. Great galleries, stores, people, trouble in all those places, obviously. Let's go on a trip!

More———— www.thetourshow.com

J—I'm so down for a trip. You say when and I'm there [Laughs] I vote New York!

Obviously! I dream about it often [Laughs] I know in a lot of your paintings, you often use the colors blue and red. Is there a reason for that?

B—It honestly started because I'm lazy and would do site specific murals or paintings on the road and not want to carry around lots of paint or mix paint when I was somewhere. I would have blue, white, black and red and a squirt bottle —nothing else needed. I started out doing them black and white and red but then that Frank Miller movie came out. The blue stuff is dead. It’s just a quick fix that works and 2 years later it’s my signature. It wasn’t intentional —just more of that subconscious coming into play.

J—Also, I have noticed you like to paint women and when you do, you make them look really sexy but still have this hard edge to them, by hanging a cigarette from their fingertips or creating a sexual expression. I know a woman can be a very beautiful subject to paint, but is there any other reason than the obvious?

B—I've worked a number of shitty jobs in my life. Now when people ask me what I did that day, I can tell them I was putting highlights on a nipple. It's good work. In truth, I believe painting women is a crutch —I have a quote on my studio wall that says “Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves they have a better idea.” I'm currently working on that idea.

J—I really like that quote. I think that quote can be used for all different kinds of artist. Even photographers that tend to shoot a lot of women. I am kind of one those, actually. Guilty! [Laughs]. What do you love most about your job? If you could do anything else what would it be?

B—I don't know, something that pays really well every 2 weeks with benefits and a company car. [Laughs] J—[Laughs] Why choose Vancouver to live and paint?

B—I chose Vancouver as a great place to live before I really thought about an art market here. We’re so young and new in Vancouver, so it’s like a double-edged sword with opportunities. I believe this is a great place that's only getting better.

It’s been good to me, so I must return the favour. At the end of the day, this place feels great to leave and even better to call home. Nobody has it better than us in the summertime. If we develop what we have here and stay true to our brands, and ourselves we can't lose. Vancouver is awesome.

J—So I tend to ask everyone I interview this question. You being no exception [Laughs] Have you ever written a love letter? If so, how long ago?

B—Of course! Writing a love letter doesn’t cost a thing. That’s personal, even for this interview.

“I'm an artist today apparently, tomorrow —I'm unemployed again.„ the lab magazine ————— issue 00

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CHIN INJETI INTERVIEW BY JEREMY REGIMBAL — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE

Chin Injeti doesn’t need to be told that the music industry isn’t what it used to be. He’s way ahead of you, he’s lived it, he’s been swallowed by it, he’s been saved by it, and now he's out to conquer it. He doesn’t like the term ‘one hit wonder’; like it or not it’s hard to escape the story of the rapid success his band, Bass is Base, experienced as they rose through the Canadian charts in the early 90’s with their song “Funkmobile”. Unlike many artists who drop from pops as fast as they top them, Chin survived and went on to work with some of the biggest names in hip-hop, such as Nas, T.I., Talib Kwali and Dr. Dre. We caught up with him to discuss disappearing genres, Garage Band and why Vancouver is poised to make a bigger musical impact than ever before…

JEREMY—Hey Chin thanks for coming in, even though we’re only 4 floors down from your studio. How was the elevator ride? [Laughs]. Ok. Let’s kick this interview off. How long have you been in this music game professionally and who got you started?

CHIN—I would say I’ve been doing it for about 12 years professionally. My father, who just recently passed away, got me into it. He always kept music around the house and made me respect music as a craft. I had polio when I was young, so I spent a lot of my childhood in the hospital singing to myself. I realized at a young age that this kind of feels natural to me. At the time I didn’t even know I was producing records and I fell into amazing opportunities like Maestro Fresh West and various other records. After university, instead of going to teachers’ college like I was supposed to, we created this group called Bass is Base. Long story short, we got signed to a major recording contract, and I started doing it professionally ever since.

J—Was the bass guitar your instrument of choice when you were learning and first getting into music?

C—[eyes light up] Yeah it was, and still is, my main instrument.

J—What would you say have been the biggest changes in the music industry since you’ve started, in particular in Vancouver, but also globally? And what are you doing to embrace this new world?

C—The way I think it's changed is that it’s come full circle. When I started in this game, professionally, I had to do everything for myself, to the point where I had to learn how to record my own music. My father built a studio in my brother’s bedroom. I was out promoting the group, playing gigs, like anyone else. But what I was doing that nobody else was, was shamelessly going out and saying, “ Hey! Come to my gig”. It could be summer, winter, it didn’t matter, I’d be the guy on crutches slipping all over the place or on the ground saying “Come to my gig”, you know? Now, fast-forwarding to today. That’s what’s happening again. I’ve gone through that whole experience of being signed, of having all that notoriety, doing the music videos, being on Muchmusic, touring, did all that stuff. The world is a small place and music is so immediate right now. I’m sure every musician is talking to you about the Internet, YouTube, and whatever else there is out there, but for me it’s just full circle, it makes our job easier. Now I can literally record a song in one day and with the press of a button, I can make it go to a thousand places and have people all over the world

“We just love music and listen to everything.„ listen to me and create a presence where people want to get to know me. It’s come to that place where lifestyle and art truly exist together. If one doesn’t happen the other won’t happen, so it’s going to make it harder for those fake musicians. Technology makes it easy to record music, but to carry out that belief system around your music, you gotta come with a lifestyle. That’s the sincerity and authenticity in the music.

J—Your positive outlook in music and how you choose to live your life is truly inspiring. I mean ever since I met you and started working beside you, my whole outlook has changed on how I see the world and how I treat people, honestly! I thank you for that. Where would you say your drive and inspiration comes from?

C—My drive and inspiration comes from people around me. I’m a strong believer of community. The reason I am who I am is because my whole life I’ve had to get help from people. At one time I felt some shame for asking people, “Could you pass me that thing”, you know, but now, I embrace it. As much as people help me just to do simple things, I just want to help people. What I realized is that I have a lot to offer. I find that inspiring.

J—I really respect the way you seem to give and don’t worry about what’s coming back. I think Vancouver and the world could benefit from that attitude. Especially some of the artists here!

C—Yeah man, because it comes back. I mean we all give to each other right?

You’re giving to me right now!

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“It's come to that place where lifestyle and art truly exist together.„

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J—Well put. You’ve been all over the world, what makes you keep coming back to Vancouver and why do you choose this as your home base?

C—I’m from Toronto, but I came here when my group “Bass is Base” had a messy break up, almost like a divorce with two of my closest friends. I came here on tour, and I’m sure every musician has had this experience… [Smiles and tips his head back, raises his arms like he’s in a convertible] you’re driving over the Burrard St. Bridge, the sky is pink and on one side you see sailboats and on the other you see Granville Island, the mountains, the whole bit. When I was at that moment on the bridge, I was like, “I’m going to move here.” Literally that summer, I moved here. I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles, New York, still some time in Toronto, touring and what keeps me coming back is… I’m so excited about what this city is about to become. I feel that the people I’m around are international, their mind set is truly inspiring… that’s what keeps me coming back because it makes me feel like I want to be a better version of myself.

J—I hear you on that one! Vancouver is an inspiring place to be right now. It feels great to see Vancouver grow and create a healthy artist community. What are you presently working on in music as far as new groups, remixes or in your solo career?

C—Right now as a producer, I’m so blessed. It goes back to community. The people I’ve nurtured have been nurturing me. I have this incredible partner, my best friend, my brother, his name is DJ Kahlil, and he’s in Los Angeles. He and I have being working with Dr. Dre for almost a year now. I’ve been working on his new Detox record. He’s recording 3 joints that I did. Songs I did with R. Kelly, Nas, T.I. along with Dre. I’ve also been working with Talib Kwali, Busta Rhymes, Omar Khan,The New Royales, Slaughterhouse & Pitbull. I seem to be working with the most incredible women in the business, Canadian or worldwide.

I produced some of the new Esthero record. I discovered a group called Love and Electrik from Vancouver. I’ve fully taken them on and got them a record deal. It keeps on coming. I don’t know what I’m going to work on next, but I feel really lucky yesterday, today and tomorrow.

J—I know by personally watching Love and Electrik grow throughout this year, into something really special, that they are something Vancouver should be really proud of. I remember them being so shy on stage back in the day and now they rip shit up! I love meeting talented people that are humble about what they do. What are they up to right now and what are your plans for them?

C—We put out a single for a song called ‘Sex Video’. It was a soft release on a label called Tremendous, just to start a buzz. We’ve finished a record, but we’re going to put out an EP. They’ve been getting label interest. You know that whole machine; the industry is really getting into them now. They’re just about to go on their very first tour for 6 weeks starting in Nova Scotia and ending up all the way back in Vancouver.

J—Nice! It definitely sounds like they’re starting to get the attention they deserve which must be exciting for your whole team.

C—They’re so excited, and I’m so excited! The reason why I’m so excited is because we did it by ourselves. We did have a record label in Montreal and a publicist in Vancouver that did help them, but we really made it happen. I just think they’re going to do amazing things this year.

J—I Look forward to seeing what comes from it all. I know you’re a part of a crew called “The Hastings Set”. Can you explain what that’s all about?

C—The Hastings Set started like this… [His eyes light and he leans forward with his contagious enthusiasm] I’d been in Vancouver for a little more than 10 years.

I was working with this artist and she wanted to go out and wasn’t really sure what to do. So I decided to throw a party in my own studio. Everyone was artists, actors, writers, models, visual artists, photographers and everyone was having fun enjoying each other’s company. The next day, my email account

blew up. Everyone was telling me how much they loved it. The 2 people that manage me, Jeff Herrera and Aiden Wright, had this brilliant idea: Let’s throw another party and make a compilation CD of everyone we work with. At the next party everyone was listening to it and the most incredible thing happened, they were celebrating each other. They were like, “Dude I love this track, I love this track”. My heart was doing one of these [he pounds his chest in a fast rhythmical pattern]. We were like, “This is amazing! What can we do to harness this and do something great with this?” We eventually found an old bank with a vault, and called it The Vault Party. The Vancouver community, the DJ scene, the club scene, the artist scene, they all got involved. It was so overwhelming that we started taking names and turning it into a community. That’s how we found Love and Electrik. We exposed them to all that stuff that we created. What we essentially did is gave this band a following before they even came out.

J—It’s a beautiful thing that you’re doing. Community is so important. You’re kind of like the Godfather of Vancouver. [Laughs] The big question that I have is what is the ultimate goal for you and the Hastings Set, both in Vancouver and internationally?

C— The ultimate goal, honestly, is to create an incredible functioning community in this city. Our focus is really Vancouver because the more focus we put on Vancouver, the more the world seems to be coming to us. We have this incredible talent pool and it makes us a better version of ourselves. Really, it’s that simple. We just want to raise awareness for what we do.

J—So you’ve definitely worked with the world’s top talent in the music industry.

Who is the most memorable person since you’ve started?

C—Oh man, let me see. It isn’t always the icons, but some of the icons are great, like Dr. Dre. He is incredible, He is one of the reasons why we dress the way we do, why we act the way we do, why we say the things we say. He is so influential through all music. He is like the last of his breed. He is the Quincy Jones of this era. When you’re listening to a song, with just you, Dre and the singer in the booth, you’re sitting in the back because you can’t believe it. Dre looks back at you and says, “Chin what do you think?” then I’m like [in a pre-pubescent boy’s crackly voice], “Well I think…” you don’t know what to say and Dre does one of these, “Just come here”, I’m like [in the crackly voice] “OK, I’m coming.” I’m sitting down and he goes, “Why don’t you produce her?” And I’m like, “No… you’re doing a great job.” That’s all I can say to someone like him. [He laughs] ————— 23

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J—That whole sense of someone controlling what you can do is gone now.

C—Yeah, you control what you do.

J—OK, serious questions over now. When you’re relaxing at home what are you listening to?

C—I’m listening to my kids, they sing, they make noise. I’m not really listening to music at home, believe it or not. When I do, its very background, so I don’t pay attention to it. My kids like Michael Jackson. I like looking at different blogs and how music influences fashion and how music has influenced writers who write books and poetry. That’s what I’m checking; I’m not really listening to records.

J—I know you work closely with Aiden and Jeff from The Hastings Set, if you could give them Care Bear names and super powers what would they be?

C—[laughter erupts in the room] The Wonder Twins! Jeff’s super power would be this bottomless pit that could eat anything and still function. Aiden would have this gift that would heighten your hearing senses. Because he speaks so quiet and drives a loud car.

I don’t know what names I would give them... We’ll call Aiden Sound Craft and Jeff would be Stomach Man. [Laughs]

J—It’s an amazing opportunity to work with such an iconic and influential artist like Dr. Dre. There are so many talented up and coming musicians in Vancouver but some seem to have trouble getting noticed or balancing the business world with art. As someone who has seen success globally, do you have any insight as to how we can get Vancouver noticed on the world map?

C—OK, first of all, Vancouver is noticed. The biggest songwriters and artists all live here. Sarah McLaughlin, David Foster, Bryan Adam, Nelly Furtado. Those are worldwide artists. Vancouver is noticed. There is a whole new crop, whole new generation of artists.

They really need to work on being heard. A lot of them need to be accountable, respect their gift, really believe in what their doing.

Here’s a big one, believing in and being a part of the community so it uplifts them, by uplifting them, they uplift it. That’s what I think needs to happen in this city. I think as soon as we start interacting with each other, it’s going to change everything. This will be the creative hub of the country. When I’m here, I’m blown away everyday.

J—How do you feel about music in general and where it’s headed?

C—I think it’s incredible. Technology has made it a genre-less place.

Artists of all genres are melting, you know? They’re working with each other. I really think rap & hip-hop culture changed that for the world. Especially for the new generations that is developing there own niche. I was in Toronto recently; a friend of mine lent me his laptop. I was sitting there with a Mac laptop in my basement and it comes with Garage Band and a small microphone. I finished an entire record on this laptop. When I came back, I listened to it and I was like, “Holy, this is amazing”. Now it’s being mixed, and by next week, I’ll have a record out. That’s how immediate it is. Hot Hot Heat shares the same studio space with us, they listen to what I do, and I listen to what they do. We actually work together without ‘Hey, I want some credit or I want some pay’. We just love music and listen to everything. I think technology is raising the level of awareness.

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“I'm so excited about what this city is about to become.„

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1—Bacon or sausage?

———Turkey Bacon

More———— www.myspace.com/chininjeti

2—Michael Jackson or Bob Dylan?

———Michael Dylan 3—Coffee or tea?

———Lately tea 4—Love or lust?

———Lust 5—Hardwood or Carpet?

———Carpet 6—Matte or Glossy?

———Matte 7—Penguins or Koala Bears?

———Koala Bears 8—Basketball or Hockey?

———Basketball 9—Air freshener or incense?

———Incense 10—Sex or music?

———Sexual Music

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Alice IN WONDERLAND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELENA KALIS

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MODELS: SACHA, WILLIAM & ANN SOPHIE

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CARLY POPE INTERVIEW BY JULES MOORE — PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE MAKE UP & HAIR BY TAMAR OUZIEL STYLING BY KATHARINE HORSMAN

Actor, writer, social worker, eternal student, Carly Pope is a premium blend of royalty and ragamuffin. Born and raised in Vancouver, it’s just as common to spot her onscreen as in a dingy pub or pressed up against the stage at some unheard-of rock show. For over a decade Carly has been working non-stop on shows like Popular, Dirt, 24 and Californication, and in films such as Eighteen, The French Guy, Itty Bitty Titty Committee and the fabulously controversial, Young People Fucking. Yeah, you know the girl. I first met Carly back in 1999, and immediately thought what everyone thinks, “this girl is bee-autiful!” With rich charcoal eyes and a smile that could guide a ship home at night, such first impressions are hard to avoid, yet quick to fade behind the full package. Quite frankly, she is one of the most interesting and genuinely interested people I’ve ever met. And so, as the sun sets on our last September evening, I’m nestled up on a fire escape, beside a magnum of wine, a pigeon and the luminous Carly Pope.

JULES—So, where have you been spending most of your time these days?

CARLY—Well, I’m reluctant to say that it is L.A., but the truth is that’s where the work is. I’d love to be up here working and playing in Vancouver but unfortunately it can’t really happen; a girl is not getting any younger (laughs)!

L.A. may not be necessarily inspiring, but I’m always trying new things to fill in the blanks when I’m not working on a set.

J—I love when you come back to Vancouver because when you’re here, you’re out having fun with people and taking care of other endeavors that have no ties to acting.

C—Oh yeah, I have to diversify and spend energy in lots of different realms in order to feel at least relatively complete as a human being. And you know my friends and family are what I value the most and what I hold dear. My solitude is important as well. The work thing is a necessary part of the game; it’s a big portion. I have a lot of difficulty feeling like I’m accomplishing things in the industry because as an actor you’re waiting for that opportunity to arise, then you’re waiting for the phone to ring, and for every twenty auditions you go on, you maybe book one of them. I’ve been blessed to be fairly consistently working.

I still don’t feel like I’m doing enough.

J—I’d say you definitely are.

C—It’s a tough one. That’s the biggest struggle for me, to feel like I’m doing enough with my time, my brain and myself. For a long time I struggled with not having followed through with the academic pursuit. As you know, I’ve tried with correspondence and distance education for so long and it took me a good ten years to figure out that it wasn’t the way I learn most optimally. I wasn’t engaging in it at all because I wasn’t in class with a professor, students, and in that learning environment that I find the most exciting. So instead I try to do other things experientially that give me that sense of growth or advancement.

J—Well, you’re a naturally interested person. I have the privilege of knowing that beyond acting, you also write, produce, volunteer and you are a music nut… and not just by claiming: “I love music.” You know music.

C—People have said to me on more than one occasion, “You’re really curious aren’t you?” And I’m trying to decide if that’s a euphemism, if that’s a nice way of them being like, “please stop asking me questions” (laughs). That’s what this ride is all about: picking up what we can from people and everything around

“Life is a little bit of a puzzle.„ us, utilizing all the gold in our mitts. I’m really just trying my best moment-tomoment.

J—Is it more appealing to have a set schedule? Or are you more impulsive?

C—I feel like the Carly of old would have been more into having structure and schedule. Now I’ve become more adept and a lot more interested in my ability to be spontaneous, letting the wave take me. I like having the ability to get up and just go. I don’t think a very structured life suits me. Much to my parents disappointment, who wanted me to have grandchildren sometime soon, I’m just like, “It’s just not going to happen”. I’m nowhere near able or ready.

J—So are you working with no goal as a life method?

C—It’s interesting you say that. About five years ago I was on a cruise from some of my friends from high school. We were sitting together at dinner one night and one of our friends proposed we go around the table and talk about our five-year plan. Everyone was pretty organized about it. Everyone had these goals. I found myself without that same idea of what I wanted or needed. But then as I started talking about what I thought my goals were, I got to the point where honestly, I think that it’s arbitrary where I want to be in five years. As time goes on, I feel myself shifting, changing, evolving, becoming interested in different things constantly. That doesn’t stop for me. Its inauthentic for me to try and find something to say when the reality is that I have no idea where I’m going to be in five years, I have no clue.

J—I forgot to ask you about L.A. When did you first go there?

C—I first went there in 1999, when I was 18. I traveled down there because I was cast in the show “Popular”. We shot the pilot earlier in the year, it got picked up and so I moved to the city. I went there not knowing what the hell was going on in the city. All of a sudden I had a career on my hands that everyone was telling me I should love. I just thought acting was a hobby. It was a big deal for ————— 33

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“The only thing I can say here is that I have a minor to moderate obsession with Conan O’Brien.„ me to relent. I didn’t feel like I was making the conscious decision: “I’m going to L.A, I’m going to be an actress, this is what I’m going to do”. It’s a tough place to be when you’re young and on your own for the first time in a city that’s so much about image and being desired in the moment. And I didn’t have a huge support network down there. There was really only one person I knew that was in a similar situation and we were lucky to have each other. All said and done I was there for nearly 3 years. Then I moved back here with absolute certainty that I wanted to stay in Vancouver.

J—But of course you had to be there…

C—Yeah, so I closed up shop again. I’m surprised the door opened up for me again considering I put down the iron curtain when I left L.A. When I came back to Vancouver, I worked for a non-profit organization and I was doing some pick-up courses by correspondence. Luckily I was able to keep up with some acting work within Canada but it got to the point where I wanted to give acting the best shot and that best shot really was in the market place, L.A. So that’s why I moved back there. I was also getting out of a relationship so I was happy to escape for a little bit. Once I was there, it quickly became apparent that I would be there for a while.

J—People tend to view L.A. as this great big wily world. Do you find the basic human interaction there all that different from here in Vancouver?

C—Maybe I’m a little delusional about it, because now so many people from Vancouver are living down there. So we have this conglomerate of homies from here that makes it seem familial and a lot less intense and insane. It’s not this massive party scene and to be honest, I find it tamer down there than it is up here. I’m just getting to know the art scene a little more, taking part in the music and the galleries and all these things that are there and available.

J—What music are you listening to these days?

C—A friend of mine just introduced me to Benji Hughes. That was the last concert I went to. I went to see a private Money Mark show which was unbelievable.

J—What do you mean by “private”?

C—It was literally, like fifty people, in the back of this bar in L.A. Money Mark was playing with his band. It was such an unbelievable show. I’ve never seen him play on his own before, but I’ve seen him play with the Beastie Boys. His music was really inspiring and improvisational, really cool and bluesy; a real mish-mash of styles. It was exceptional. Another friend of mine introduced me to Dexter Romweber.

J—I have no idea who that is.

C—It's kind of rockabilly, you should check it out. And I know she’s everywhere, but I really love Santo Gold. That’s a happy place for me.

J—Are you going to lots of shows?

C—I’m not going to as many as I should be. I was trying to go to the Tracy Chapman show that was in L.A., but it didn’t happen. Same with The Flaming Lips show. I just had my tonsils out, so I was in a mad recovery. This is the first week that I’m starting to feel back to normal… too bad I’ve been drunk for most of it. the lab magazine ————— issue 00

J—You know, a lot of people make videos of you and post them on sites like YouTube.

C—Really?

J—Oh yeah. How do you mentally process it when strangers are making videos of you and then releasing them for public scrutiny? Do you even process it?

C—I have a lot of time to waste during the day, but I don’t spend it watching YouTube. It is very touching, but I don’t want to have anything to do with that.

When I was growing up, there were people, actors and musicians that I admired, but I would never have considered contacting them or anything like that. It’s a personal choice that I haven’t made before, so I have a hard time relating to other people doing it. I don’t really know if I’m explaining it.

J—I think I get what you mean. Meeting someone famous isn’t really satisfying anything personal. I mean there’s very little substance in that exchange. More often than not it becomes bragging rights.

C—Yeah. And to be honest, I’m totally open and comfortable with a passing hello.

J—After all, you’re not a child of the YouTube era. We grew up when there wasn’t a way to snoop virtually, and now that you can it’s like a whole new machine for obsessions.

C—The only thing I can say here is that I have a minor to moderate obsession with Conan O’Brien.

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“I still don’t feel like I’m doing enough.„ J—[Laughs] Like a crush?

C—Yeah, a bit of a crush. In a really strange way, I’ve always had a crush on him. There was this brunch that we had to go to for NBC as a sort of ‘welcome to L.A.’. I was like a little girl, just like, “Hi, how’s it going? It’s so nice to meet you”. When you’re in a position to always meet people like that, you can’t really get too personal.

J—On that note, you worked with Al Pacino in Two for the Money, as well as Matthew McConaughey, who you made out with. Who was freakier to meet?

C—Matthew McChonauhey, only because I had to make-out with him, and that’s just weird.

J—But you’re Italian and so is Al Pacino…

C—This is true. I think there was a little bit of the wink-wink situation because of our stallion side [Laughs]. He was great, really wonderful.

J—You recently worked on the show Californication. I loved watching you play a saucy Rolling Stone journalist that seduces David Duchovny’s character.

C—David Duchovny was somebody that I had a strange crush on from the getgo. I was so hyper aware of it that I began feeling incredibly awkward. I’ve never felt so awkward on a set. I had to treat it like a professional endeavor, but we’re dry humping. That’s the weird part of the business, you’re meeting people one minute and making-out with them the next. It’s very strange.

J—So, you’ve never had the experience of just losing yourself in it?

C—No, I’ve never had that experience. I’ve not been available to loose myself.

I’ve generally been in relationships and it’s not a good idea to let yourself go there when you’re working. You have to have a shield. When you’re shooting, you need to work with that veil of understanding and respect. Otherwise it just gets messy.

J—Does that kind of messiness happen a lot?

C—I don’t know, because I’ve never done that before. But I’ve heard that people who have, it gets complicated. Someone recently told me that what tends to happen is people with on-camera relationships are hooking up on the side, they tend to loose the fierce tension and passion for one another.

J—Wow, I just assumed the opposite would happen.

C—I don’t know. That’s what someone recently said, they’ve seen that happen a couple of times and they loose that fire in their eyes.

J—I know there’s an organization you’ve been working with for a while C—I’ve been working with options for sexual health, here in Vancouver. Which is a volunteer based job. I was working full time. Its an information resource and referral phone line that anyone can call into to ask about the sexual health rainbow. Its really unbelievable. It’s actually what spawned this ravenous desire to study human sexuality. Which I still am wanting to do. Again, its one of those things where how do I plan it out because I know I need to be in class and I haven’t been able to apply.

J—Interesting that you starred in Young People Fucking.

C—[Laughs] For me, when I was working for Options, a huge theme was to promote healthy sexuality. So choosing a job like Young People Fucking, I really wanted to play Kris, I really wanted to play the friend portion of the movie. That’s such a fine line between it being a positive or negative experience when they could potentially be screwing up their entire relationship. Or are they making the healthiest decision because they’ve already got that ingrained knowledge of one another, care for one another, and respect for one another. I

really loved investigating that. The whole movie does that. Every relationship explores that question of are we making a healthy choice or not?

J—No doubt everybody has gone through or will go through that one. There are always friends we’re curious about sexually. Would it be awesome? Would it suck?

C—There is a lot of internal conflict around that. It rarely happens that from beginning to end we can be platonic with someone of the opposite sex.

Typically, there’s some point where feelings cross a line. I’ve certainly had that experience with guy friends, plus I grew up with brothers so I have a lot of male presence in my life. It was an interesting place for me to toy with.

J—What are excited about working on right now?

C—I’m starting a new TV show for NBC. We start shooting in the fall and it begins airing right after the Olympics. We’ve been told it could be an event series that could be a season long. Depending on how it does, it could end up going longer, but they’ve been toying with the idea of making it a complete storyline. Everyone I’m working with is really cool and we all gelled right away.

I’m excited to get going on some script ideas that I have and I’m excited to find a film that’s a complete opposite of the TV show. In the meantime, my roommate and I get to play classic Nintendo Tetris.

J—Wooo-hooo!

C—My roommate’s ridiculous (laughs)! She’s gotten up to two hundred lines on level twenty, which is crazy! I’m still working on level 12. It’s really igniting the kid within.

J—Life’s kind of like Tetris, isn’t it?

C—Life is a little bit of a puzzle.

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WHO IS THE LAB INTERVIEW BY MIKEY LIPKA — PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANY MAY

A lot has gone down in the past year. Time is flying and dollars are flopping as we scramble to find new ways of working within old systems. For many, it’s a struggle to finish projects we’ve already started, never mind put new ones in motion.

Unless of course you’re a couple of stubborn, headstrong dreamers like Justin Close and Jeremy Regimbal, who see this as prime time to perk up Vancouver’s art scene with their new journal titled The Lab Magazine.

As executive producers of The Studio Movement, an agency that specializes in film, commercials, music videos and web design, Close and Regimbal are dedicated to showcasing all elements of a production, bringing us behind the scenes for a more detailed and dynamic experience. In their Vancouver headquarters, surrounded by brick walls, grandma’s den furniture, a vintage 1920’s record player and heaps of film equipment, we find two guys huddled over a new baby, The Lab Magazine.

MIKEY—Let’s start it off with the biggest question of them all. How did The Lab Magazine start?

JEREMY—Well I met Justin two years ago working on a short film that he was directing called “Lost Until You’re Found”. I was the editor on it. We were locked in a room together for like a year. It had lots of VFX, so it took forever.

Naturally we became friends or else we would have fought and probably killed each other [Laughs] JUSTIN—[Laughs] We called our office The Brown Room of Death because it had brown walls, no windows and was literally right beside a sweatshop. All we could hear were sewing machines, and then we would walk out of our office to see piles of clothes. It was kind of weird. [Laughs] JEREMY—Since the short film and leaving The Brown Room of Death, we started a film, music video, commercial, and web design production company called “The Studio Movement” or TSM Entertainment. We just recently worked with bands Hey Ocean, Aaron Nazrul and the Boom Booms and The New Royales, which were all amazing experiences in their own way. We also have three feature films in development and have shot a few short films that we're currently submitting to festivals around the planet. We like to crash festival parties. You know Wedding Crashers? Yeah! But different [Laughs] M—I dig that. “Festival Crashers”[Laughs] With your pasts and how they’ve collided, where do you see this movement going in the next 2-5 years?

JC—I think our major plan and why we called ourselves The Studio Movement in the first place was to help bring back the value of artistry. We’re having such a tough time economically in the world right now; the value of artistry is way down from what I can see. People aren’t getting paid as much; everyone is low balling each other. It’s a bloody war out there. What we’re trying to do is to find the talent and act like an agency, which is why I love this magazine so much. It allows us to reach out and find talent anywhere in the world. I just think that’s so fuckin’ awesome! Gets me excited. On our website we represent six different directors that we believe in. They’re from all around the world, Israel, Montreal, L.A. We like to meet and work with different kinds of people, so it can create a more powerful collaborative movement. If we can all move together, we can defeat a really hard industry and break through the barriers faster. I also think that the current state of our world can be inspiring. More people seem to be chasing their dreams and forgetting about their 9-5 jobs. I like to see someone the lab magazine ————— issue 00

35 to 50 years old re-inspired to follow their childhood dreams. That’s so cool!

It’s like Never Never Land where no one gets old [Laughs] Makes sense to me.

M—That leads to the thought that there aren’t too many pop culture, ‘cool guy’ magazines in Vancouver and North America that are geared towards filmmaking, Do you guys plan on focusing a lot on film into your magazine?

JR—Definitely. I think that’s what is so special about The Lab. We cover a lot of different talent pools, while grinding them with questions and showcasing their work. I mean who doesn’t like to get to know a brilliant artist? The whole art, music, film ideal is one big entertainment community. We just want to bring that together. If all three of those genres work together, Vancouver will change so much faster.

M—If you were merchandising your magazine on a rack, where would you put it?

JC—I hate to compare our brand new magazine to such an established, amazing one, but I like to think The Lab Magazine is going to resemble Interview Magazine the most. I think that’s where Jeremy and I have reached out for our inspiration. We both are huge fans of what Warhol was doing during his early movement, by getting to know artists in strange ways by asking personal and sometimes brutal questions. I think it’s brilliant. Putting an artist on the spot and seeing what they puke out. Every artist is naturally expressive, so it’s a fun

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experiment. I personally would like to see this on the shelf beside some of the magazines I buy often, such as S Magazine, I.D, Hobo, Under the Influence, VS or even something like Spin or Rolling Stone. I like to think big. Why not though?

It’s not in me to think small. Especially with The Lab Magazine because it’s such a childhood dream come true for both Jeremy and I. I hope to be 50 and celebrating our 25 years of The Lab. [sighs] That would be fuckin’ awesome [spur of excitement]!

JR—I personally would put it on a glass podium by itself, maybe rotating with a spotlight on it? [Laughs] I’m serious though.

M—I’m going to frame my copy. [Laughs] They say that we’re learning the most when we’re laughing because we’re recognizing some sort of truth behind what we’re seeing. Will your magazine make me laugh?

JR—I know we laughed our ass off making it. Still laughing. We had so much fun. I think everyone involved had a great time. I hope so. I can’t promise you’re going to laugh. I can promise that this magazine is just going to keep getting better with each issue and in a way that makes me have an evil laugh. [Insert evil laugh here] JC—I like that question a lot. Creative! [Laughs] I don’t know what to say? I think Jeremy said it perfectly.

“It's like a dream when your creating something you really believe in.„

JR—We definitely try to incorporate a lot of humor into our interviews. When you truly love your job and what you do, you laugh all the time. Look! See. I’m laughing now [Laughs] JC—[Laughs] Jeremy is a fuckin’ blast today. He’s on fire [Laughs] I think one thing we try to pride ourselves on, as a company is making sure everyone has a great experience working with us. Not tooting our own horn or anything, but a lot of people have told us that working with us has been their best experience ever. We don’t like to take advantage of our clients and I know a lot of companies do. I think it’s important to make people feel a certain way so that we can continue to work together. That’s so important to us.

JR—In the end of it all, we want our readers to go away not only informed about something that they didn’t already know before, but also go away refreshed, like something new and crazy just hit Vancouver and want to be a part of it. In many ways The Lab Magazine is our fishing net to find the most talented artists anywhere in the world. Not to sound too selfish but this magazine is designed to help everyone involved.

M—Now that’s happening, do you think The Lab magazine will be a dojo, a workout gym, where you can exercise your crafts that you guys hone, or is the craft going to be the magazine itself?

JR—I’d like to think we’re starting the dojo for Vancouver. I’m necessarily not the Sensei, but we’re trying to get this together to show everyone’s martial arts to the rest of the city. [Laughs] Everything that we’re going to do through building this magazine is going to really help us. Hopefully at the same time, it’s going to increase everyone’s awareness about art and how important it is.

M—What are you guys doing other than the magazine right now?

JC—I like to play tetherball, look out my window and paint still life.

JR—Cutting my lawn JC—[Laughs] We just like to keep super busy. Always trying to come up with new ideas and ways to move faster. I also do lots of photography, shooting fashion, musicians and doing crazy creatives for fun. We’re constantly trying to find new bands, trying to broaden our horizons around the world. We’re just trying to work with the best. We love doing projects where we can be creative and doing it for music we love, or a company we believe in. It’s like a dream when you're creating something you really believe in.

JR—I think the big things we’re focusing on right now is we have a few TV series ideas that we’re pitching and a short film in the festival circuit called “Short on Love”. We just finished screening it at Vancouver International Film Festival, which was awesome. The more people that see the film, the better. We also just did 2 other shorts and are constantly planning to keep shooting short films to exercise our crafts. Feature films are definitely keeping us busy. Our passion definitely lies in story telling.

JC—Content is king. We’re constantly trying to put out new work. In a world where the Internet is everything, showing people that we are constantly creating something new through, YouTube, Facebook, blogs or whatever. It puts a huge fire under your ass, having the Internet so accessible. It’s like the Michael Jordan Syndrome, which I have lived by my entire life. If you aren’t on the the lab magazine ————— issue 00

court practicing, then someone else is. Sounds kind of cheesy, but makes so much sense to me. If you don’t put something out for a month or 2 you fall off the radar. We don’t ever sit still. Our energy is through the roof these days.

Sometimes I will just hear Jeremy randomly scream. I’m like “What? What’s wrong?” He’s like “ Nothing, I’m just so stoked” [Laughs] Then we probably will high five each other [Laughs] Times are very exciting for us right now and I think by putting The Lab out there, we hope to shed that excitement on to everyone that reads it.

M—This magazine is a way to show that you don’t sit still and it showcases everything beautiful that you do for Vancouver. For the record, I really admire what you guys are doing.

JR—Thanks Mikey.

JC—Yeah. Thanks Mikey. I am a fan of yours too.

M—One last question, where do you see The Lab magazine in 5 years from now?

Ideally, where would you want the magazine to be 5 years from now?

JC—I think international. I would love to go to Europe and find our magazine on a shelf somewhere. Promoting artists we believe in, somewhere else than North America, sounds great! Doing our part in putting Canada on the map. I would love to see someone in Berlin or Paris in a coffee shop reading The Lab magazine. That would make me flip out. “Ahhh…..” [Chewbacca call] JR—We definitely want to focus on Vancouver and make it strong here first. We really believe in this city and the talent in it. The bigger plan is to take over every big city that we love and start something like this there. We want to start our own thing in every city we can and every city that inspires us. We have some big plans on what the online magazine is going to become. I can’t talk about that too much right now though. Top secret shit! [Laughs]. All I can say is that I feel like a kid these days. This magazine is the missing piece to our pie and I already can’t wait to start working on Issue #1.

M—Do you guys have a website for it already?

JC—Yeah, it's www.thelabmagazineonline.com.

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