The Lab Magazine - Issue 01

REAL MODELS.

REAL REVIEWS.

To find the best trends in your neighbourhood, check out what locals are saying on

www.yelp.com

february ————— 

Editorial Director Justin Tyler Close justin@thelabmagazineonline.com

Editorial Director Jeremy Power Regimbal jeremy@thelabmagazineonline.com Design Director Xavier Encinas hello@xavierencinas.com Copy Editor Deni Mori

Writers Louise Burns, Ashleigh Ball, Michael Shindler, Josh Close, Chin Injeti, Justin Tyler Close, Jeremy Power Regimbal Contributing Writers Trevor Risk, Natalie Robison, Tilly Stasiuk, G.P Testa, Jon Marshall Contributing Artists City and Colour, Woodhands, You Say Party! We Say Die!, DJ Khalil, Frank W. Ockenfels 3, Matt Hoyle, Mark Ryden, Jamie Babbit, Daniel Iron, Alison Pill, The Blue Violets, Bend Sinister, André Pinces, Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party, Caroline Weaver, Josh Close Contributing Photographers Mike Lewis, Anna Wolf, Trevor Brady, Tiffany May, Eve Fowler, Justin Tyler Close, Frank W. Ockenfels 3 Online Designer Gwyn Pritchett Publicist Laura Brooke Toplass laura@thelabmagazineonline.com ———— Thank You The Close Family, The Regimbal Family, The Power Family, Linda Baker, Robert Marshall, Mabel Marshall, Jon Marshall aka Cheeky Disco, Carol Leflufy, Sherry Etheredge, Cassia Hoffman, Tricia Ricciuto, Cristina Fernandes, Brad Keech, Darryl Weeks, Aidan Wright, Jeff Herrera, Paperbag Records, The Hasting Set, Jesse Regimbal, Marina Henao, Louise Burns, Isabela Roper, Drew Nelson, Natalie Robison, Kandle Osborne, Dara Dammann, Jackie Pytel, Clark Oshin Gallery, Austin Andrews, Pablo Picasso, Fortune Sound Club, Rhino Print Solutions, John Howcroft and everyone else…

———— Head Office 411-207 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 +1 604.568.1023 info@thelabmagazineonline.com For advertising inquiries, please contact: ads@thelabmagazineonline.com +1 604.568.1023 ———— Cover Alison Pill Photography by Anna Wolf Styling by Lauri Eisenberg Hair by Song Hee for Kerastase Make Up by Kristin Hilton for Benefit Cosmetics white leather jacket KAYLEE TANKUS, earrings LEE ANGEL ———— Printed in Vancouver, BC by Rhino Print Solutions Text set in Futura Std, Plantin Std & Adobe Caslon Pro. ———— Opinions expressed in this issue are the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Lab Magazine.

2010 © The Lab Magazine Inc. and its authors. Reproduction without permission prohibited. the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is a ————— culture magazine

EDITORIAL

It's no accident that The Lab Magazine arrives just in time to usher in a new decade. We don't know whether this one will finally make sci-fact from the sci-fi of flying cars or space elevators, or in ten years leave the world in better shape than it found it, but one thing is certain: after the gloomy reality check of the noughties, anything, again, seems possible.

The Lab Magazine is here to celebrate that unbridled, world-bursting hope for the future… Your future! Since we were young lab technicians we’ve been tinkering with formulas to reach our ideas and dreams out to the world.With this first internationally distributed issue, Stage One is now complete. NAAARF! To creatively evolve, we are strong believers that you must surround yourself with people who inspire you and use their ideas to help you create yours. If you don’t have these people in your life, we hope this magazine can help trigger the creation of this type of environment around you.

We chose a conversational, artist-on-artist interview style to present the unfiltered personal views of some of the world's most influential artists, photographers, musicians, filmmakers and actors.

To be truly successful, a person must be unafraid to reach out and ask questions when they need an answer. They must be willing to take a risk when opportunity arises or become a leader when no one else will. Everyone featured in this issue has taken this concept and made it into a lifestyle that affects every decision they make. We encourage you to keep that child with big dreams thriving inside of you, no matter how old you get, or how busy you may become, because it’s this feeling that keeps you happy, creative and alive...

——City And Colour ₄ ————Woodhands ₁₀ ——You Say Party! We Say Die! ₁₈ ————DJ Khalil ₂₄ ——Daywreckers ₂₈ ————Frank W. Ockenfels 3 ₃₀ ——Matt Hoyle ₄₀ ————The Love Lab ₄₆ ——Mark Ryden ₅₄ ————Jamie Babbit ₆₀ ——Daniel Iron ₆₆ ————Alison Pill ₇₀

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

Pablo Picasso

————— 3

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— music section

CITY AND COLOUR INTERVIEW BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE — PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE LEWIS ASSISTED BY STEPHEN DAGG & JENNIFER TAN

If you’re the type of person who feels like music these days has become too electronic or over produced, then ask yourself this…When was the last time you went into a record shop and bought a vinyl? Or better yet, when was the last time you actually listened to a full record from start to finish? And finally, have you heard of Canadian singer-songwriter Dallas Green, aka City and Colour? Well, I urge all of you to go buy his latest album "Bring Me Your Love" because you will find it impossible to turn off. A musician like Dallas Green, in the year 2010, revitalizes that timeless feeling of music, when musicians’ tools were only guitars, their own natural voices and their stories. His folk-acoustic sound mixed with lyrics inspired by real life, is so relatable it makes you truly believe in the artist he already is, and the artist he is naturally becoming. City and Colour, which started as a side project for Dallas, has now evolved into one of the most respected Canadian acts of the past decade. I was thrilled that I got the chance to chat with Dallas, because I was curious about how a kid from St. Catherine's, Ontario became a Juno-award winning musician.

JUSTIN—Hey Dallas.

DALLAS—Hi, Justin, how are you?

J—Good, how are you?

D—Good, I’m just packing up because I’m flying out tonight.

J—Oh, nice. Where are you flying? Are you out on tour?

D—No, I’m at home in Toronto. I’m flying out to Chicago tonight. I came home for a day because I was touring all weekend and I had two days off.

J—How is your tour going?

D—YIt’s been great. It’s only been four shows so far, it’s a pretty short tour, nine dates in total in the States. The thing is with City And Colour, I don’t really ever have time to do big, big tours. You know what I mean.

J—Is that because of Alexisonfire?

D—Yeah. I do it in my downtime from Alexisonfire, so…

J—That’s a pretty solid side project.

J—Why is that?

D—I don’t know, my friend Stu, who’s our tour manager and sound guy, drinks like twenty cups of coffee a day. And he’s a smoker too…

J—Oh, no! He must have a fast heart rate.

D—I’m not really a hot beverage kind of guy.

J—Well, that makes sense. Stu better be careful, he may explode one day. [laughs] D—Yeah I know [laughs]. My wife tries to get me to drink tea, but only when I’m sick, do I even think about having a tea.

J—I’m curious about how Dallas Green came to life. Where were you born?

D—I was born in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, 1980, September 29th, at the General Hospital in St. Catherine’s.

J—When did you first start playing music? Did it all evolve as a toddler, dancing around, or did you go see a singer at the local concert hall and think, “Wow. This is what I’m supposed to be doing with my life.”

D—My parents were always really big music fans, but neither of them played instruments. When I was eight years old, they signed me up for guitar lessons…

D—Yeah, it turned into something that I never thought it would become, so yeah, the shows have been really good; people seem to be very interested in what I’m doing. It just feels really good.

J—…So it was a hobby that you did once a week, then it became more of a habit and then it just became life, I guess?

J—It’s good to feel good. It must be refreshing to feel that energy from an audience, because being an artist is like being a tightrope walker: if you fall, you die. If you make it across, you live and everyone claps! Okay, this question has nothing to do with music but I’m just wondering if you’re a coffee or a tea drinker?

D—Exactly. When I first started, I hated it, because, you know, I was young, I was a skateboarder, and I just wanted to do that and play with my friends. I didn’t want to go take lessons, because at first it was like extra learning on top of school and I didn’t want to do extra learning, you know?

D—Well, to tell you the honest to God truth, I have never had a sip of coffee in my entire life.

J—I totally know…I was a monkey when I was young. All I wanted to do was be outside, climb trees and spy on people [laughs] Now, in my life and where I’m at, I wish my parents had forced me to play music.

J—Whoa. I feel like saying congratulations? [laughs] I’m drinking a big cappuccino right now.

D—Yeah, most people I know are the same.

D—Exactly. So after a few years, I stopped taking lessons, ‘cause I started getting the ear for it, and that was it. I started being able to figure out songs by listening to them.

————— 5

february ————— 

J—That’s great. I recently read an old interview with Bob Dylan and he was saying that he could go into a record shop and immediately know how to play the song after hearing it once.

D—Yeah, it probably took me a couple more times than once…

J—How did City And Colour grow its wings? When did that project really take off? As you were saying before, this project is kind of a side thing that you’ve always done, but I’m curious about when people actually started to take notice of this gem?

D—Well, before Alexisonfire started I was playing shows in other bands and playing shows by myself around St. Catherine’s, just trying to do something with music, you know? I guess I’ve kind of always been doing City And Colour, it just wasn’t called City And Colour.

J—Right. Which is a clever name, by the way.

D—Oh, thank you very much.

J—I actually only understood the origin of the name about a year ago, and I was like, “How could I ever miss that? What an idiot!”

D—I’m going to tell you right now, no one, and I repeat, no one, has ever gotten it.

J—Are you fuckin’ serious?[laughs] I felt so stupid. Dallas Green. A city and a colour.

Genius!

D—Don’t, you don’t have to. No one’s ever gotten it. Everybody’s like, “Wow, you know what I just realized?” and I’m like, “What?” I really didn’t think it was that clever, I just thought it was a good way to go, to put out a record that I didn’t have to put my name on, you know?

J—Well it works, in a cryptic way.

D—I guess so, yeah.

J—I’m interested in the song “Sleeping Sickness” because I personally relate to what I think it means. I used to be so scared to go to sleep, scared of what I was going to see when I shut my eyes, because sometimes the images would be so real and horrible and as a child you don’t know how to handle it, I guess? So I’m interested to hear the origin of this song, it seems really dark to me.

D—Yeah, well, that song I’d been writing since I was a kid, I had this really old version of it and it actually started out as a love song. When I was young that’s all I was writing about, just because when things happen to you, emotionally, when you’re younger, it’s like the end of the world, you know?

J—It’s like if you cut your finger, and it draws blood, you scream, “It’s gushing! It’s gushing blood, I’m going to die!” [laughs] D—[laughs] It kind of never came to fruition as a song, but then as the years went by, I started to have trouble sleeping and that song sort of came back to life and turned into a song about how I don’t sleep just based on all of the worries that I put on myself. It’s kind of like what you said, when I shut my eyes and it’s dark and quiet, and where most people would use that time to relax, that’s where my mind kind of comes to life. I start thinking about the worst things.

J—Yeah. It’s a scary feeling.

D—You know, the little things that build into big things.

J—Well let’s stay away from the bad thoughts and go back to our happy land filled with music, love and art. [laughs] So, by being in two bands, Alexisonfire and City And Colour, you must be working a lot. How do you step away from that and balance your personal life?

D—I don’t know if I’ve figured out how to step away yet. If anything, I’ve just gotten more involved in not having any time away from music. Because with City And Colour, like I said earlier, becoming something I never thought it would be, it now turned all of my time that is supposed to be spent not thinking about music, or doing music, is spent doing music, so…

J—I think that’s what we call “dedication”.

D—I’m sure there’s going to be one day where I just snap and have a nervous breakdown.

J—It’s scary. Start drinking some green tea, I’m telling you! It helps.

D—I know, I gotta do that…

J—It’s good for your heart.

D—I know for sure, there’s going to be a day when I just say, “Okay, I need to go away for a year, and not talk to anybody, or look at a guitar,” sort of reinvent myself. I guess reinvent the idea of why I started in the first place.

J—Yeah…

D—Right now I’m still very excited about it and I still can’t go a minute without thinking about music.

J—I can tell through listening to your music and now talking to you, that it’s something more than just a job for you. So, why stop when the inspiration to create is staring you in the face?

D—Exactly.

J—Ok… Let’s play the game of Life. If you could do anything else other than music, what would you do? It could be anyone, like a photographer, athlete, you could maybe travel with the circus or be a pilot?

D—Well, I’ve always been a skateboarder.

J—Oh, cool.

D—I knew from an early age that I wasn’t going to ever be good enough at skateboarding to make it anything other than a hobby, and that’s why I went more the musical route.

J—Do you still skate?

D—Yeah, I still skate.

J—Well, now that I know that, I’ll be waiting to see a music video where you’re skating down Queen St., playing the guitar at the same time.

D—Yeah, I know [laughs]. I don’t know, I’d probably fall and hurt myself. As I’m getting older, I get hurt a lot more when I fall, you know?

J—Yeah, It’s kind of a childhood hobby. Our bones get fragile, as we become old men.

D—Well, that’s the thing, banging my face is fine, but if I fall and break my wrists then I’ve got serious problems.

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— music section

“I don't know if I've figured out how to step away yet.„

————— 7

this is a ————— culture magazine

————— 8

this is the ————— music section

“I don't need anything else but my guitar.„ J—That’d be a mess. I don’t think your manager would like you to pick up that hobby again.

D—I did fall one time on tour with Alexis and broke my ankle. I had to do the whole tour with a walking cast on.

J—That would be difficult.

D—Yeah. It’s the same reason why I love music, because it’s that I can sit just by myself with a guitar and I don’t need anyone there, I don’t need anything else but my guitar. With skateboarding, all I need is my skateboard and a road. I think the one thing that I truly love about skateboarding and what it’s always done for me is that I worry a lot about everything in my life. Like I said, that’s kind of the reason why I don’t sleep and I’m constantly thinking about things. Even when I’m playing shows, in the middle of shows I’m thinking about the show or if people are liking it, or thinking about what I’m going to do later on, or how we’re going to get to the next show, and is everything going to be okay. So the thing is, with skateboarding, anytime I go out, it’s the only thing I’m thinking about…

J—…I think it’s that feeling of being isolated, which can become addictive. I know for people that are GO GO GO all the time, they need that feeling once in awhile to remain sane.

D—There is something about it that puts me at ease.

J—Well, I think everyone needs an escape, which brings me to my next set of questions. Some may feel that these are the most important questions in the interview, you never know. [laughs] Say the first thing that kind of comes to mind, cool?

D—Sure.

J—Are you afraid of flying?

D—No. J—Do you bite your nails?

D—Yes sir.

J—What was your first girlfriend’s name? [laughs] D—My first girlfriend’s name was Crystal Marsh.

J—I’m so happy you remembered...

J—If you could be any sour candy, which sour candy would you be?

D—I like Sour Patch Kids a lot.

J—I was hoping you would say Fuzzy Peach and I could have a good laugh. For some reason Fuzzy Peaches make me laugh? [laughs] D—I just think Sour Patch Kids get a little bit more bite than the Fuzzy Peach.

J—You can’t beat the variety that the Sour Patch Kids give you: red, green, yellow…

D—...More variation.

J—Exactly. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much, Dallas, for chatting with me and safe travels on your tour. I’ll come see you in February when you make your way to Vancouver.

D—Okay, great, talk to you then.

J—For sure. Take care.

D—You too.

D—Yeah, that was in Grade Seven and her dog’s name was Dallas.

J—[laughs] Really?

D—Yeah… and I was her boyfriend.

J—That’s hilarious! If you could be one colour, what colour would you be?

More———— www.cityandcolour.ca

D—Green.

J—Well, that makes sense. Do you sleep when it’s pitch black, or do you keep one light on?

D—I’m an absolute pitch black sleeper.

————— 9

february ————— 

“We didn't really know each other, but we started our friendship in the same way that our music started.„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is athe————— —————culture musicmagazine section

WOODHANDS INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL SHINDLER — PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE LEWIS

Dream of a sound that takes the grime of Glasgow, the ecstasy soaked sweat of a Berlin night club, the electric feel of Toronto, the bright lights of Tokyo and press it into a tablet of pure, explosive saturation and satisfying aural adventure. Fast- forward dreamscape – this is Woodhands. I had heard of Woodhands in the whispered sweet-nothings of hipsters in decrepit lavatories from the UK to Montreal, and often featured them on my 6AM playlists. Acutely intelligent, playful and fantastically energetic, Woodhands paint a masterful canvas in the studio, and inspire provocative bliss in the live venue. Their second album is out on Paper Bag Records in 2010. Keep on this band like a stalker if you want to get laid due to your street cred this year, or EVER.

M—And what’s the friendship like now?

D—Pretty bad.

P—We’re bosom buddies. [laughs] M—Like hetero life partners?

D—Yeah. Essentially. Well, a lot of the time we tour just the two of us.

P—And there’s a lot of Dan and Paul time.

MICHAEL—So… from the beginning of time. How did you guys meet?

DAN—Paul and I were both playing. I had just moved to Toronto in 2005 or 2006, and the summer of 2006, I was playing solo, doing some Woodhandstype stuff. I was also playing in some indie rock bands, and our friend, Henry Fletcher - whose band I played in called Henri Faberge & the Adorables, which is awesome - had this gigantic CD release party. He got pretty much every single band and friend that he knew in Toronto to play. So there was like 20 bands in this outdoor venue. It was so nice, right by the water. I played right before the Rural Alberta Advantage, which is Paul’s other band. Basically, I’d seen them play before and I really wanted to play with the drummer. I’m going to speak for you [to Paul], Paul saw me and was incredibly moved. [laughs] And then we crossed as I was taking my shit down and they were setting their shit up, because everyone was playing, like, three songs or something. I was, like, “Hey man, I’ve heard you play drums, like, you’re an awesome drummer.” And Paul was, like, “I was incredibly moved by your performance.”

M—And that was the catalyst?

D—He didn’t say he was incredibly moved, he said, “Yeah, that was pretty good.”

PAUL—No, I was, like, “You know what? I think I could make your music better.

I should join your band.” [laughs] D—So we basically just like met, and then jammed. We didn’t really know each other, but we started our friendship in the same way that our music started.

D—There’s no room for bullshit. Or only room for bullshit. Depending on how we’re feeling.

M—And you said you were playing stuff, kind of like Woodhands before.

D—Yeah, but it was more ambient. It was definitely electronic music, but it was not super high energy or dancie. I released an album on my own.

M—So, when you came together, did you know where you wanted to go soundwise?

D—Not really, I knew for so long that I wanted to play with someone who played drums. Beyond that, I don’t think that I had a sense of what really it was going to sound like.

M—What’s a jam session like with you guys? Do you create through the jam sessions or do you do the writing first?

D—We basically make songs any way that we possibly can.

P—Yeah, a lot of “Heart Attack”, Dan already had songs that existed in his previous incarnation, but in a very different form. And those songs, through jamming, were changed, adapted and turned into something resembling a 3-minute pop song.

M—I just listened to your new album on the way here, it’s amazing.

P—Cool, I’m glad you guys liked it.

————— 11 —————11

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

a ————— this is the —————culture musicmagazine section

M—Yeah, I really like it. I found it a bit more produced, a bit more put together, whereas the older one feels a bit grittier, or dirtier. Both I love for different reasons, but it shows a bit of an evolution.

D—It’s definitely an evolution I would say.

P—I mean, we wrote this album pretty much in the studio, and on the road, but we’ve had a lot of freedom to just get in there and try things out, and see what sounded cool. We have an awesome producer, named Roger Levinson, who has a kick-ass studio in Toronto. He has a million toys that we can play with in there too; it’s just really fun.

M—Do you guys write your lyrics together?

P—That’s all Dan’s work.

D—That’s all me. Although I would say that I come with lyrics, but I would never presume that they were finalized until Paul hears them, and Roger hears them. I definitely can say pretty dumb shit sometimes and not know it, so it’s really good to have a few other people to be like: “No, you can’t say that.”

But, I would say that often the lyrics come after the song. There are a few songs, actually one song that didn’t make the album. The lyrics started before the song.

I don’t know if that’s why it didn’t make the album.

M—I like that. So the lyrics kind of flow organically out of the music in that sense?

D—I mean, I’m not an incredible singer, so I basically try to enhance what’s already happening in a song. I’d like to think of it this way. I’m a piano player and I started playing piano percussively originally, like that’s the kind of shit that gets me excited, and I kind of see the vocalizing as an extension of that. It’s almost percussive for me a lot of the time. In a way, when the vocals get put on, they’re often pretty staccato. I usually come with really staccato melody lines and they‘ll get smoothed out in the studio. I see it as another synth – like the lead synth perhaps. In this band, vocals are like an expression of joy. I feel in a live context, I see my role as vocalizing the joy that the audience is feeling. And if I can do that effectively then everyone feels better.

them, but they’d been touring for eight months and we caught them on their last leg. We were super fresh and happy, and they were enjoying their shows but they’d definitely gotten to another place.

P—They were road weary, I would say, by that point. There gets to be a point in a tour, even a short one, like three weeks or something, where your day is just the same thing every day, you have this process. You sleep, you drive, you get there.

There’s the same food waiting for you, because your rider’s always the same. You eat that exact same meal, play that exact same show, go to bed, and then just do it again. I think as some kind of self-defense mechanism, at some point you just block out everything else that could possibly come into that and you go through that routine. Junior Boys were definitely in that zone, and to make it to each show, and actually deliver a good show, they were just on autopilot for every other aspect of life.

M—Did you go out with them?

P—We went out with them, yeah.

D—That was our first night, so, we were happy to see each other, and...

P—And they were really excited, we were going to go to New Orleans and just, try to do it up. We tried it, and failed, I would say.

D—Failed miserably.

P—We tried and failed to be debaucherous in New Orleans.

M—Indulge us.

D—Well a member of their touring crew essentially got attacked by a stripper.

But we don’t need to get into that. It’s not bad, nothing bad happened.

M—I’m not judging, I’m totally okay with stripper attacks.

D—You’re open to stripper attacks? [laughs] M—As long as it’s a stripper attacking you, not you attacking a stripper…

M—How’s touring for you guys? Love or hate?

P—We love it. It’s really easy for us. Because there’s only two of us and we can fly around if we have to, or we can drive in a tiny vehicle, and have all our gear with us, and…

P—Well, I will say that city is really interesting because it encourages you to just sort of bar hop, because when you buy a beer you can just take it outside with you…

D—There’s no open liquor laws, or anything.

D—Extra people. If we want.

P—Yeah, we can take people with us if we want to. Loading in is so easy for us, ‘cause we have so little, like, tonight I’m playing this giant drum set that we borrowed, but my usual kit is this touring drum set, all the shells are thin, and I can pick up the whole thing in one hand. So I mean, we try to make it as easy on ourselves as possible. Also we’ve discovered the joy of Priceline, which has meant we’ve stayed at some of the nicest hotels I think I’ve ever stayed at in my life.

D—We’ve stayed at crazy nice hotels.

M—Oh that’s so smart.

P—It’s so awesome.

D—This recession is awesome for us.

P— Yeah, it’s great.

D—We’ve toured through the Midwest, and the south, and it’s like, no one is fucking touring, or being a tourist, in the Midwest and the south right now. It’s us in four-star hotels and no one else around. It’s pretty awesome.

M—That’s amazing – just you two in a hot tub together.

D—Yeah. Just rocking the hot tub.

M—You just got back from tour with Junior Boys, how was that?

D—It was great. Yeah, we started in New Orleans with them, and toured through Florida, and through the south.

M—Do you have any big highlights or stories, anything dirty or funny you want to share?

D—Well, it’s funny, because, they’re buddies of ours, so it was great to tour with

P—So everyone’s just like, you go in, buy a drink and when you’re bored, if you’re a quarter done your drink, you just walk out with it and continue on your way to the next place. It’s a whole different planet.

M—Amazing! Dan, you lived in Europe for a while, didn’t you? Were you playing music over there?

M—I was writing music. I played a few shows. I played one show in Berlin and couple days in Paris. But, we’re going to Asia again. We’ve gone to Asia a few times.

M—Yeah, how was that?

D—Awesome. It’s crazy cool.

P—Unbelievable. And the best part was that they received our music really well.

I mean when you go to somewhere that’s so far away and so culturally different you never know how you’re going to be received, so it was nice to know that what we’re doing transcends that kind of boundary.

P—People in Toronto have seen us grow and I think there’s a sense of Toronto audiences owning us, in a way, you know what I mean?

D—It was cool touring with Junior Boys, because we really had to earn it every night. Like, We’d gotten to a point in Toronto where, you know, we’d maybe not have our greatest show, but people know all the songs and they’re just happy that we’re playing a show, so we can all have a great party anyways. In the States, in some of the places we were going where we’d never been before and had nothing, no exposure yet. But Junior Boys are a huge draw anywhere. We were definitely faced with a new challenge. It was a lot like starting our band again, you know, we first started a few years ago in Toronto and played to people who had never seen us before and it was always so rewarding when that crowd was with you by the end of the set.

D— It’s a good feeling.

————— 13 —————13

february ————— 

“I like paintings. I'm just going to keep saying "I like paintings".„

M—What kind of art do you guys like? Do you think visual art and music are kind of in the same realm? Do you consider yourself an artist?

D—I don’t really consider myself an artist. I don’t really think about it. I like paintings, a lot.

P—I think we’re artists. I mean, come on, we’re pop artists, in a way. We’re definitely some kind of art.

D—Yeah. I like paintings. I’m just going to keep saying, “I like paintings.”

P—Dan is a painting enthusiast. You could accurately say that Dan is a patron of the arts.

D—Thank you. I like paintings. There’s a lot of really great visual art in Toronto.

I get pretty excited exploring it.

M—What’s the scene like with musicians and artists, in Toronto?

P—There’s some overlap in terms of spaces. The Whippersnapper Art Gallery has an all ages show sometimes, and there’s definitely some overlap. There’s probably not as much as there should be, but there is a fair amount. We have friends who are heavily in both scenes. I think there are a lot of people who are in both scenes, like our friend Julianne Wilding is a visual artist, as well as a member of the The Adorables. She runs a house that showcases art, and also has performances by musicians in their living room and stuff like that. There’s a cool scene like that all over Toronto, it’s just in little places. I don’t think it’s organized on a large scale, but in small ways it is.

M—Do you feel like it’s a community that supports each other?

M—Maybe he will read this interview.

P—You know what, that’s the one thing; I wish there were more connections between the art scene and the music scene, especially because in Toronto, there’s so much organization on both sides. Look at OCAD [Ontario College of Art and Design] and everything that’s going on around them, and they’re so organized and so awesome. That’s just one piece of the art puzzle in Toronto, and then music also has all kinds of people who are running these large enterprises. I would love to see more collaboration between those two worlds.

P—Yeah, Apache, if you’re reading this, what we want to put out there to Apache Indian is that we are still interested. Yeah, he said he would be down doing something with us, and I think it freaked us out because we thought we needed to create the greatest track EVER for Apache, and not just anything. It has to be something specifically tailored

M—If you could make some music, or collaborate with one person, musically, who would it be?

P—Nothing that we’ve done so far feels like it’s the track for Apache, so we’re still working on it. We had a candidate, but it just didn’t do it. He’s a childhood hero for me. I want to send him a track, and just blow his mind. And I want it to be, like, the Apache Indian comeback track, you know? That’s what I desperately want.

D—Apache Indian.

P—Apache Indian, yeah, I was just going to say the same thing. We’ve had this dream, and we’ve had preliminary…

D—...discussions.

P—Discussions.

D—Negotiations.

P—We kind of dropped the ball on it actually. We were on our way to collaborating with Apache Indian.

D—It’s just paused.

P—But we need to reopen that negotiation. the lab magazine ————— issue 01

D—It’s got to be something for Apache.

D—He might also desperately want that… He’s probably not desperate, though.

P—Yeah, probably not as desperately as we want it. [laughs] M—Here is something random. Do you believe in unicorns and other mystical beasts?

P— I believe in their capacity to spread goodwill.

M—Ok, but do you think they are just an appropriation conceptually of a horse with the addition of a horn, or a magical creature in its own right?

P—Here’s what I would say to that: I would say that if a horse was born with some kind of horn mutation, then he would not really be a unicorn.

this is a ————— culture magazine

————— 15

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

a ————— this is the —————culture musicmagazine section

“It's like, is a wizard just a man with a big hat? No, no. It's not. He is a fucking wizard.„ D—Yeah, that’s not a unicorn.

M—He’s putting thought into it, Dan.

P—Because a unicorn is a magical creature.

D—So am I.

D—It’s noble. It draws its strength from its horn. There’s a certain power that is unique to it. It’s like, is a wizard just a man with a big hat? No, no. It’s not. He is a fucking wizard.

P—I’m allowed to think about it. [laughs] Water skiing or houseboating? Water skiing.

M—Okay. What are you guys listening to right now?

D—I’ve actually been listening to a lot of Townes Van Zandt.

M—No way, he’s my favorite!

P—I think the last two records I listened to were the Arkells record, and The Antlers. They’re good.

M—Ok, almost done here, just a few quick-fire questions left… Just answer these as it comes to you individually… Jacques Cousteau or Pierre Trudeau?

M—Dan? D—Waterskiing.

M—Okay, cool. Wild West or Space Craft?

P—If I have to choose… I love space westerns.

D—What about Westworld.

P— Westworld is a great example.

D—I’m going with Westworld. We’re both going with Westworld.

P—Pierre Trudeau.

M—Okay, Obama or Bill Cosby?

D—Cousteau.

M—Serge Gainsbourg or William Shatner? (For musical reasons, not actor reasons.)

D—I don’t think you can qualify it like that. You see this guy’s shirt? (pointing to Paul’s Star Trek T-shirt)

P—[laughs] I would say Bill Cosby thirty years ago, but Obama now.

D—Obama.

M—Ice cream truck or cab?

P—I think this has already been answered for me. Definitely. William Shatner.

P—Ice cream truck.

D—Gainsbourg.

D—I love cabs.

M—Police woman or female exterminator? [Pause, laughs]

M—Berlin or Paris?

D—Police woman.

P—Berlin.

P—Yeah, I’ll go police woman as well.

D—Berlin.

M—Water skiing or houseboating?

D—Water skiing.

M—Amazing! Ok, that’s it. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for being a part of The Lab Magazine. I’m stoked to watch your show right now. Good Luck.

D/P—Thanks.

P—I thought I was getting to answer first.

M—Yeah, he’s supposed to go first.

D—But you’re not answering, you’re, like, you pause...

P—I’m actually thinking about the questions.

More———— www.myspace.com/woodhands

————— 17 —————17

february ————— 

“I was in that place inside of myself where I just got to run free, like a child.„

dress Markus Lupfer, earrings Tassel earrings, ring stylist's own the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— music section

YOU SAY PARTY! WE SAY DIE! INTERVIEW BY ASHLEIGH BALL — PHOTOGRAPHY BY TREVOR BRADY ASSISTED BY BENJAMIN LUK STYLING BY DEANNA PALKOWSKI MAKE UP & HAIR BY NEGAR at THEY Representation (THEYrep.com)

You Say Party! We Say Die!, a name so frenetically urgent you’re not sure whether to charge the nearest frat boy or break out in spastic dance. Luckily, when it comes to this band, either will do. Hailing from Abbotsford, BC, this dance-punk quintet was formed in Vancouver's "off season" (aka too wet for biking) and released their first EP, "Danskwad", to much regional acclaim. After a few member changes, they released their break out "Hit The Floor" in 2005, and "Lose All Time" in 2007, touring internationally to such success that even my Grandma in England knew who they were. Now, with their latest album "XXXX", produced by Howard Reddekop, (Tegan and Sara, New Pornographers) the band of many !'s finds itself in a niche of a richer, more mature sound with an impressive focus on songwriting. There are also hints of The B-52's and Siouxsie and the Banshees, paying homage to their New Wave roots. We had the chance to pick the brain of singer Becky Ninkovic amidst her crazy schedule. Here is what the songstress had to say...

A—volim te?

B—Yeah, volim te.

A—That’s nice.

ASHLEIGH—Hi Becky Ninkovic. So, where is Ninkovic from? What is your background?

BECKY—Hi Ashleigh. My dad is Ninkovic, that’s Croatian, and my mom is from California, but German background.

A—Do you have relatives in Croatia?

B—Far off relatives live there. I went there when I was fresh out of high school and my friend and I decided to go to Europe for... forever, really. When we left we were like,“Let’s never come home…” [laughs] So we ended up only going for three and a half weeks. I got to meet with some of my family and reconnect with the language, because my dad never really talked much Croatian at home. It was more the language used between my Baba and him when they didn’t want us to understand what they were talking about.

A—How did you respond to the language when you were visiting?

B—It came really easily, even though I’m not even close to being fluent, it felt really familiar. I remember just a sense of feeling at home there, in a way that I hadn’t felt anywhere else before. So, that’s the blood in me speaking.

A—Can you say something in it? I'd love to hear Croatian.

B—Um, “volim te,” That’s “I love you”.

B—Thanks.

A—Okay, so you are the front woman of You Say Party!, We Say Die!. You are obviously in the band full time but when you’re not touring or recording what do you do?

B—I work in a group home, supporting six ladies with various disabilities and mental illnesses. They need a lot of support with their daily needs. Mostly a lot of it comes down to just helping them understand what they’re feeling, how to engage with each other, how to have relationships with one another, just helping them understand their dynamics and working alongside them. It’s always interesting, it’s always new, there is no routine, you know? Specific things like autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, you have to make certain things repetitive, but they’re very intricate, complex, unique individuals that go through changes and change throughout their life too, so in that way things stay interesting.

A—That must be extremely rewarding work.

B—Yeah. I love it.

A—You were on the front of the Georgia Straight not too long ago… in the article you talked about touring, getting super exhausted and how you got to a point where you were kind of…

B—...burning the candle at both ends? Pretty much.

————— 19

february ————— 

A—Yeah.

B—I definitely survived this last tour a lot better. I mean, the fact that I’m here right now… [laughs] Usually I crash and burn at the end of tours and I don’t leave my house for a week or two, or however long. I kind of hit the ground running this time and I haven’t stopped yet.

A—Mm hmm...

B—I can definitely feel a need to take some time out and just get some proper sleep, proper nutrition and all of that going again, but it’s hard on the road, because everything’s working against you. You’re dehydrated from the very act of traveling, movement in vehicles and then you add booze and whatever else into the mix...

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day.„

A—…No Sleep Club.

B—Yeah, no sleep, and we’re playing at like, midnight, one o’clock, most nights.

We’re not even out of the venue until three or four and then the long drives in Canada require you to wake up super early.

A—I hate that. It’s the worst, isn’t it? Why can’t all the cities in Canada just be super close together?

B—Totally.

A—And you went as far as Newfoundland?

B—Yeah.

A—How was that? Have you been there before?

B—No, it was our first time. It was very cool. Being on the ferry, you just feel like you’re out in the wild ocean. Giant waves.

A—How long was that ride?

B—Seventeen hours, I think? I pretty much slept the entire way there…

A—Even though there were giant waves… you just slept like a little baby, being rocked to sleep?

B—Yeah [laughs]. I woke up with an hour to kill and they wouldn’t dock us because the waves were too big. We had to wait for an extra two hours until the waves left.

A—Just floatin' around in the ocean?

B—Yeah. So I got to watch the waves for a bit and then we landed and… it was nice. Except everyone else was super sick.

A—I like just watching water. It’s really calming for me.

B—Yeah, there’s something really nice about being out on the open sea. It’s also kind of this terrifying, thrilling feeling, mixed with, I don’t know...

A—...feeling like you could go down any second?

B—Yeah. You feel really close to death. But not in the scary, typical way you would imagine it. I’m terrified of death, so you’d think that it would be really scary, but it’s kind of more thrilling, heart racing, kind of…

A—Do you get like that on planes at all? Do you get freaked out of flying?

B—A little bit, not too much.

A—So, would you rather be in a plane or on a boat?

A—That would be really cool to do a whole tour on a train, like in Festival Express.

B—Yeah. We got our chance when we were in China, we took a train from Nanjing to Hong Kong. It was full of people and we had some bunk, it was so crowded! It was a classic old train and we got to see all this beautiful countryside.

A—That must have been amazing.

B—It was like an old world, just like you’d imagine China back in the 1930’s or something. It just had this timelessness to it that was really cool.

A—How long was that trip?

B—I think that one was, like, seventeen hours too.

A—Are you in any other side projects?

B—A little bit. Stephen and I have a side project that we’ve been working on for awhile. We’re hoping that in this next year we’ll actually get some recording in and make the album happen, because we have so many amazing songs. I’m so pumped about it… we're just forced to put it on the back burner right now.

A—What kind of music is it?

B—It’s kind of electronic but not. I mean, it’s me singing, it’s really me getting the chance to be a solo-songwriter pretty much and then Stephen creates the music to go with it. It’s all collaborative, we work on it together.

A—Do you guys have a name yet?

B—Double Happiness is the name. When we were in China, they were telling us about how when you bless somebody, or wish them well, you wish them happiness, but if they get married, then you would wish them double happiness. It’s not just blessings, or happiness, you always double it.

A—That’s sweet.

B—I remember we thought that was pretty cute.

A—So, You Say Party! We Say Die! have toured and played a lot of festivals abroad, right?

B—Yeah, we did the festival circuit in Europe and the UK and it was a whirlwind!

The schedule was really intense and it was crazy drives. It was actually the tour where things kind of fell apart for me, ‘cause it was just so intense.

A—Sounds intense. [laughs]. What was the coolest place you played in Europe?

B—There was this one in Malmo, Sweden, that was pretty cool. There was this other one, where was it? ... I can envision it, ‘cause they had all these cool things in the trees, all these little tree houses you could climb in this forest…

B—I think I’d rather be on a boat.

A—Like a little Ewok village?

A—Me too.

B—I’ve just always had an affinity for the ocean.

A—Yeah, same.

B—Probably because of my love for mermaids [laughs]. Trains... trains are great. the lab magazine ————— issue 01

B—Yeah! It was like going through this magical forest... Sonic Youth played, so Derek and I were losing our minds for Sonic Youth, and embarrassed ourselves in front of them. [laughs] We were like, gushing to them after. So they’re just like, “Oh, that’s nice, what’s the name of your band?” “Oh, we’ll have to check you out. Good for you,” It was really awesome. We were all like, “Hee hee hee, we love you!!”

this is the ————— music section

dress Markus Lupfer, earrings Tassel earrings, shoes Georgina Goodman, ring stylist's own ————— 21

february —————  jumpsuit IHC, top FORTE FORTE, shoulder pads K. Brower, shoes Givenchy, bracelet PHT, ring stylist's own

A—Wow, that must have been cool. Hanging out with Sonic Youth... crazy.

B—It’s always funny, when you run into people like that, it’s like, “This is my golden chance!”.

A—Was that your biggest star struck moment?

B—Probably.

A—Yeah?

B—Definitely.

A—Who is someone that you’d see and you probably wouldn’t be able to talk at all?

B—I got to meet Martha of Martha and the Muffins when I was in Toronto.

A—...ummm?

B—They’re like, this eighties New Wave band that had the hit single “Echo Beach” back in the eighties.

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

A—Oh, okay.

B—I discovered their vinyl and got really into them, and then realized that they lived in Toronto. So I mentioned it to our manager and was like “What are the odds of getting to meet Martha?” and so they called up Martha’s people, or whatever, and gave them the album. She listened to it, her and Mark, who are a couple in the band. I think that’s why it means even more, because they made it work somehow being a couple, in the same band. She did a kids’ album that won a Juno, and has been really successful. We got to have a this little conversation and she shared with me, what it was like back then. It was so cool [laughs]. She then mailed me a signed copy of 'From The Treehouse', the kids’ album.

A—Oh yeah.

B—She sent me a copy to give to my nieces and nephew and signed it, “To Gabe, Sadie and Lilo, Love Martha,” A—That’s so cool. Were they excited?

B—Yeah, I mean, they had no idea who she was, but they loved the music.

A—Would you ever make a kids’ album?

this is the ————— music section

“This is my golden chance!„ child self, I don’t think we change all that much, deep inside we’re still kids. I know when I was a kid, all I wanted was to sing, dance, be free, love and be loved. Those basics are all that I ever want…

A—It must be so nice to be in that place on stage where you’re just being totally true to that part of you.

B—Yeah, we’ve had terrible shows, sound stuff goes wrong, electricity goes out or whatever, things happen, and I might have had the best time of my life [laughs] ‘cause I was in that place inside of myself where I just got to run free, like a child.

I try really hard to remember to strive for that every time, which is hard when you’re on tour, all of those values, principles, ethics, morals and everything that you believe in can go out the window in the face of exhaustion.

A—Forced to play a show…

B—Yeah, I think for a lot of people, when they feel the pressure of having to do something and there’s no way out of it, the feeling of a lack of freedom can turn you into less than who you want to be. It’s just because you don’t feel free.

I observe that in a home that I work in all the time. If the women feel like the staff want them to do something, and need them to do something, they will refuse.

I observe people being like that all the time.

A—So, now I have to admit something to you! [laughs] B—[laughs] Ok...

A—I saw you guys play, it was probably over a year and a half ago at the Legion in Tofino.

B—That was such a fun show! Was that with Gang Violence?

A—I don’t know, maybe Gang Violence played after, but we had a brief conversation.

B—Mm hmm.

A—I remember you telling me that I reminded you of a girl that you went to elementary school with named Lori Teal.

B—Yeah!

B—I would really like to...one day. It would be a fun tour, getting to play for kids and go around elementary schools. You’d be guaranteed to have a good crowd.

Even if they’re not all that pumped, it’s like, whatever, they’re kids [laughs]. Maybe that’s how I need to change my attitude for shows. Just imagine everybody in the crowd as their childlike selves.

A—Do you feel sometimes on stage that you try to embody your child self?

B—I do, a lot. It has really been so liberating to get into that place inside of myself for shows. It allows you to be uninhibited and just have a truly positive experience for yourself, no matter what.

A—Yeah. I find sometimes, I let the crowds really intimidate me, like when you're on stage performing and looking at the audience. Sometimes people can be really into it and other people just stand there, arms crossed, kinda judging... does that ever get to you?

B—Yeah, there’s so much variety in crowds. If you are tapped into a part of yourself that is insecure, then you’re going to see all of those people with negative judgmental faces, and they’re going to steal your power away.

A—Yeah.

B—If you go into it with the attitude, “I want to be cool, and I want to look cool" then you’re going to see the catty, judgmental girls, or whatever, you know what I mean? You call that kind of attention to yourself by how your own attitude is, and I’ve just learned that when I can be as true to myself as I am, which is my

A—And... [laughs] then I said, “Oh, you kind of remind me of this boy that I had a crush on in Grade Three named Kevin Alkire,” He had kind of a mop of curls and he was just really cute…

B—Aww…[laughs] A—Anyway, after I had that conversation with you, I remember going for a walk through my neighborhood and this little melody came up in my head, and we wrote a song around it. The line is, um, “I… [laughs] I could be the one you want, if you’d be the one that I desire, I will be your Lori Teal, if you be my Kevin Alkire.”

B—[laughs] ...Aw, that’s so cute…

A—It’s kind of about your first love in elementary school, and how that feeling of really just being so excited about someone you just want to make up a dance about them …

B—[laughs] A—Yeah, so I just wanted to get that off my chest, I totally wrote a love song about you [laughs] B—That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. [laughs]

More———— www.yousaypartywesaydie.ca

————— 23

february ————— 

“I told him I was going to be a producer...„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— music section

DJ KHALIL INTERVIEW BY CHIN INJETI — PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIFFANY MAY

In midtown LA, at the corner of San Vicente and La Brea, nestled just above an auto body shop is a lair that belongs to DJ Khalil. Like all super heroes, he's mild mannered by day with a passion for basketball and his new nephew Marley. When the sun goes down and the freaks come out, Khalil transforms into what Pete Rock calls, "the best producer of this generation."

Between gigs as a signed producer to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, a 1/4 of the group The New Royales and a 1/2 of the hip-hop duo Self Scientific, DJ Khalil is living a full-time dream. If you've listened to rap music for the last ten years it's pretty easy to say that it's all starting to sound the same. The boundaries, once pushed, have become barriers and everyone's going for that quick fix. Khalil is about to change all that by taking rap music to a place that it's never been. All you need to do is listen to one of his countless hit tracks and you'll know why Dr. Dre calls him “one of the most important producers in the rap game.”

CHIN—Alright, this is Chin for the Lab Magazine and this is my very first interview ever. I got my subject in front of me, let the games begin. So. What’s your name and where are you from?

KHALIL—My name’s DJ Khalil from Los Angeles, California.

C—What do you do?

K—I’m a music producer and artist. I’m part of a group called Self Scientific and also a group called The New Royales.

C—How long have you been doing music production for?

K—Uh, since... 1991.

C—Were you doing this while you were in college or before?

K—Before. Eleventh grade, I first started DJ-ing in junior high and then, in high school, started producing. Then in college, that’s when I first bought my own equipment. But I officially started in ‘91.

C—Okay, for a producer in the rap game, which comes first: the record collection or the synth?

K—Well, most of the hip hop producers, especially the legends like Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, start off DJ-ing. So it’s kind of a natural progression from buying records to mixing, making mix tapes, to getting into production. Eventually you want to take it a step further.

C—You just mentioned some incredible artists that changed the game to this very day. Can you list two of your biggest inspirations?

K—Oh that’s easy. DJ Muggs and Dr. Dre, those are both my mentors, and I’ve been lucky enough to have both of those people in my life to watch my career grow. I met Dr. Dre when I was 13. I met Muggs…

C—...Whoa, stop. Can you actually tell me how you met Dr. Dre? K—Um, I met Dr. Dre, at my parent’s house, basically he and Chris Deglove and all these dudes took over our house; they were drinking and playing dominoes. [laughs] It was literally my parents and a bunch of dudes from Compton. I

remember being in the backyard with my brother, we were talking to Dre for like 45 minutes, talking about how he got started and how his mom didn’t believe in it, you know, in hip-hop, she didn’t know what it was. She was like,“You’re not going to make any money, whatever.” After he got his first cheque, she was like, “Oh, go on baby, do your thing!” so… [laughs] That’s where I told him that I was going to be a producer.

C—Wait, you told Dr. Dre that?

K—Yeah. I told him I was going to be a producer, I was like, “I’m going to be a producer just like you.” He tells everybody the story, how he met me when I was 13 and I told him I was going to be a producer and here we are now, I work for him.

C—Can you tell us about that? Tell us how long you’ve been affiliated with Aftermath.

K—[laughs] Um. Well, basically, it all got started when I got re-introduced to Dre through an artist that he signed named Brooklyn. He loved the songs that we did so when he signed her, he brought us all in to redo the records. I started giving him beats because at that time I was making eight to ten beats a day, easily. I was crazy. I was just giving him so much stuff, that after awhile, he was like, “Yo, I wanna sign you,” and it’s been five, six years now.

C—Wow. And that’s not even a long time. Are you still affected by his presence?

K—God, yeah, I mean, he’s a legend. He’s one of the greats but he works like it’s all new to him still. He’s still learning about new music, even stuff that I might be into. Nobody knows, but Dre can actually sit down and play classical music, you know what I mean? He can play the trumpet. People don’t really know besides the engineering, he’s a master at engineering, and putting records together, he’s the Quincy Jones of hip hop.

C—Yep. Absolutely. He’s a game changer for sure. The other person that I met, through you, who’s another game changer, is Muggs. It’s like LA is split into Dre and Muggs, so can you explain that to us?

K—Well, I mean, everything that comes from the west coast either comes from Soul Assassins, which is Muggs, his whole family tree, or Dr. Dre, the NWA family tree. I mean, Muggs is basically, the whole Latino, Mexican culture; they’re like the Grateful Dead of hip hop. Muggs is an incredible businessman. I mean, from ————— 25

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— music section

“I just like making music.„ “Smoking Grooves” to “Put the Smoke Out,” to starting Gorilla Union to the Soul Assassins brand itself to Mr. Cartoon, he’s basically given people careers. Just to be around a person that moves the way he does in terms of business, is an inspiration to me. He just rediscovered DJ-ing again so he practices like four or five hours a day now he’s doing huge festivals, doing tricks and stuff. He’s like back to Grand Mixer Muggs, you know?

C—That’s incredible, they constantly reinvent themselves. I want to step outside the music for a second, because I want to talk about your family. Every time I meet your family, it’s like Christmas. I want you to tell me about your mom and dad a little bit.

K—Well, my mom’s name is Jaleesa, and actually I named my publishing company after my parents. It’s Jaleesa and Mahdi’s music. My dad’s first name is Mahdi. His government name, his original name was Walter Hazzard, he was a professional basketball player, he played in the NBA and was a gold medalist in the Olympics, 1964, on the cover of Sports Illustrated, played for the Lakers, he was an All-Star. He was also the MVP player of the year in college, 1964. My mom was the first black cheerleader at UCLA and that’s how they met.

C—Tell me who Chace is.

K—Chace is my partner, we’re in the group, Self Scientific. I knew Chace through basketball and it’s funny because, before we even knew each other our parents were next-door neighbours.

C—So, I want to talk to you about Canadians. You seem to have an affinity towards them. Tell us why.

K—Well first of all, Canadians, they’re intelligent and… [laughs] they’re talented, but not snobbish, that’s not the vibe that I get.

C—What do you least like about us?

K—I don’t know. It’s weird, because it’s just a different culture, out here in LA it’s hustle, hustle, hustle and out there, it’s like, “Oh, we’ll get to it.” [laughs] C—‘Kay, without thinking about it, name the artists you’re working with and what you’re working on right now. Go. Go. K—Dre, Detox, Game, just worked with Clipse, Drake, uhhhh…I can’t think.

The New Royales, Self Scientific… I’m forgetting a lot, but who else, who else?

Slaughterhouse, Evidence, I’m forgetting a bunch of people.

C—Loud, medium or low volume?

K—Loud.

C—Big booty, small booty, no booty?

K—Big booty.

C—Keyboards, bass or an ASR? K—Keyboards.

C—‘Kay. Breakfast or Lunch?

K—Lunch.

C—Public Enemy or Outkast?

K—Ooh, that’s tough! Public Enemy has the greatest rap album ever made, but I’ll pick Outkast.

C—Alright, that’s it man. Talk soon.

K—Alright, thanks.

C—I know it’s kind of weird for you to hear but when someone like Pete Rock, Dre or Muggs say that you’re one of the most important and upcoming producers in the rap game, how do you feel?

K—It’s weird. It doesn’t feel like it’s me. I just like making music, that’s my whole thing. I’ve sat in here and I’ve cried, I’ve everything, you know? I’ve had goose bumps, whatever. I just want to create. Music is about moments and I just want to keep creating moments. I’m fortunate to be able to work with Dr. Dre, with 50 or Game, and actually give them something that they’re going to like. I just want to get better at what I d.

More———— www.www.myspace.com/djkhalil1

C—Well you’re off to a great start. So, choose between these things: Black or white?

K—Black.

————— 27

february ————— 

1 PLEASE SIR I WANT SOME MORE — by Tilly Stasiuk — Don’t you remember mummy telling you that if you didn’t finish your dinner then you couldn’t have any dessert? Well, servers seem to have forgotten this and other seemingly simple traits of dining etiquette.

A handful of my chow-down experiences have left a sour taste in my mouth after being shoved the check before finishing. I’m pretty sure that all the eaters are aware that 10pm is late to be dining and that you (the server) want to go home, but: A) I haven’t finished my food, B) I wanted another glass of wine, and C) I was eyeing up another chick’s tiramisu.

So, thanks for rushing me through my overpriced and undercooked meal with the guy I’ve spent five years persuading to spend five minutes with me. Oh, and you want 20% gratuity? Sure… I don’t wanna seem like a cheapskate on a first date.

5 DJ Jazzy Jackoff — by Trevor Risk — The mentality of a DJ wastes my time and patience every day. They consistently consider themselves artists and what they do an art form. By that logic, a curator at an art gallery is an artist. On top of that, they start grammatically retarded wigger-beefs with each other on Facebook about such intelligent ideas like how some of them “stole” certain songs from each other… because of course, they had a hand in writing, producing or generally creating anything at all. If one more DJ slathers some sort of infantile, sense-ofownership, nightlife drama on me like Nutella on toast, I’m going to stab him in the cheek with a shrimp fork.

photography by: Frank W. Ockenfels 3 the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— ranting section

————

DAYWRECKERS ————

2

3

4

Junior Mints

STROLLER

LOUD RUNNER

— by Jon Marshall —

— by Shitty —

— by Justin Tyler Close —

So… my girlfriend, Amy, and I went on a little movie date to see Avatar in 3D (Romantic, I know, and if you’re asking if I got any that night, I DID but it took some convincing). Anyhow, my favorite part of going to see any movie anywhere is the theatre-sized box of Junior Mints. Junior Mints are my absolute fave! I look forward to going to the movies just so I can get them!

They are a staple item at any movie theatre, at least they SHOULD be! That chocolaty, minty flavour that only a Junior Mint can supply. Fuck me running, they’re good. Okay, sorry, getting off topic... So, Amy and I were waiting in line to get snacks, I step out of line and peek into the glass case where they keep all the snacks, just to notice there are no Junior Mints. What!?... I thought, “No way, they have to have them.” So, I wasn’t too worried… We got to the front of the line and I ordered popcorn and DC (diet coke) and I asked for a box of Junior Mints. The lady at the cash said, “No, we don’t carry them.” I laughed to myself and said, “No really, I’ll take a box of Junior Mints.” The lady looked at me like I was some sort of a lunatic and repeated, “We don’t carry them.” Absolute bullshit! What kind of an establishment calls itself a movie theatre and doesn’t carry Junior Mints? It ruined my movie, ruined my night, and almost cost me my relationship.

Recently on the bus, I was uprooted from my seat due to one of those massive fucking Grand Canyon, Hummer strollers that people seem to want to put their offspring into, which took up more room than a wheelchair. My inconvenience was caused, but for a tiny wonderful being, the product of two ill informed “breeders”. The following day, I went to the grocery store and found parking designated for families with small children. I couldn’t get a spot for hours, and further, handicapped people are being shafted out of spots traditionally designated for them. We are basically giving people a medal for jamming their dick in and jizzing. Congratulations. You didn’t use a contraceptive, but here’s a parking spot. Much like urinating on me, you managed to excrete an otherwise valueless fluid out of your genitals and ruin my fucking day. Wait, I’ll go for a cigarette, yet I can’t anywhere other than in the bushes, lest I get smoke near the wholesome tribe of breeders. I won’t even talk about how your otherwise interesting and cool friends turn into William Shatner’s Christmas sweater after joining the breeder team. Listen up folks: those hard working scientists at Trojan and Allesse are innovating for a reason. Put on a condom, have casual sex, or better yet, fuck someone the same sex as you - switch it up, and stop going to Wal-Mart for batteries for your kids’ piece of shit toys.

So I go to this small, semi-private gym every morning. Yes! That’s right, I workout. I don't really like the gym, hate it actually! The only reason why I go to the gym is to start my very busy, stressful days off by relaxing, stretching, meditating, and basically to kick start my heart. No matter what time I go, or however I try to plan around it, there is this guy, who always seems to be there at the same time as me. I call him " The Loud Runner". This guy, THIS GUY! At the gym stomps so fuckin’ hard on the treadmill, that I feel like someone is punching me in the face. What the fuck?

Does he not notice that everyone around him is staring in complete annoyance? Does he not understand that running is NOT STOMPING. I’m serious. It’s like those little tiny noises that annoy you so much, that you literally can’t focus on anything else but that one noise? Yeah! I have actually debated about buying a gym pass somewhere else, just to escape him, but I feel like if I do, he will just show up there. PLEASE STOP! Stomping your little Nike sneakers every morning at 9 am and then pretending that you’re so innocent. NO ONE LIKES IT! LOOK AROUND! Every time I see your tiny little face enter the gym, my good mood turns bad. Thanks for ruining almost every day Loud Runner. You Fuckin Suck! I am now in therapy…

6

7

8

CLIFF HANGER

Go Fish Yourself

Concrete CONFUSION

— by G.P Testa —

— by Jeremy Power Regimbal —

— by Natalie Robison —

Do you recall the face of disgust that Seth (Jonah Hill) makes in “Superbad” when he realizes that the girl he was grinding with at the party, got her period blood all over his thigh? No? Yeah? If not look it up and that’s the face that I get every time I see a girl wearing open toe shoes and their carny feet are overhanging the front of the shoe like it’s supposed to be like that.

Ladies, it’s a rarity that most men will ever make notice, let alone mention such a disgusting fashion faux pas. In today’s modern world it just can’t happen. Don’t jump the gun here and try to save your white ass by saying “only trashy girls do that!” because we damn well know that you Ugg-wearing, trendsetters have been known to fall victim to the toe cliff hang more than once.

“If the shoe don’t fit… DON’T WEAR IT.”

Remember the old saying "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime"? It seems today’s world has forgotten. I was raised in a family where the words "I can't" or "I don't know how" didn’t exist. So in today’s technical “do it yourself world” I constantly have my day destroyed and wasted by those lazy words… Nowadays, it seems to be the first choice of the sloth-like cop out generation we've become... and of course what’s the next thing out of their mouths? "Can you do it for me?"

How the hell do you think I learned how? I put my head down, put in my time and research so I wouldn't have to rely on everyone else for day to day survival and I recommend you do the same before you choke on that "fish" you've been stealing and drown in a lake of your useless selves.

There is nothing more infuriating than being stuck on a Vancouver sidewalk. You’re cleaned, caffeined and ready to go, filled with the promise and energy of a new day. You are briskly on your way... then BOOM, it happens; you are stuck in the phlegm of our streets: the slow-walkers. Their wondering eyes and wavering bodies, roaming, zig-zagging across sidewalks, googling at their phones and staring into space like mentally challenged infants.You can try getting past, a few quick steps to the left… oops, they wandered over; try to dart right and their annoying friend leaps ahead. They are giddy and absent minded, a toxic lollygagging breed that can barely hold themselves up-right never mind walk in a straight line. What happened to goals, getting places, punctuality? If this is living-in-the-now, we are so screwed.

————— 29

this is the ————— photography section

FRANK W. OCKENFELS 3 INTERVIEW BY JUSTIN TYLER CLOSE

As technology evolves, it’s made buying a decent camera easy and calling yourself a photographer even easier, but the ones who stand out amongst the millions of shooters are the artists that continue to create new ways of exploring life behind a lens. Frank Ockenfels is a straight up camera junkie and has an astonishing career, which started in New York City when he was hired to shoot Tracy Chapman for Rolling Stone Magazine. His out of the box thinking and dark intoxicating imagery has created a style that has attracted some of the most influential performers in our lifetime. Frank has recently released a limited edition self-published book with some of his journals to the world and has covered the pages with drawings, photos and people who have affected all of our lives, such as Tom Waits, David Bowie, David Fincher and Marlboro cigarettes. Being one of the last living portraiture photographers his methods involve throwing lenses against the wall, crumpling up photos and re-scanning them, drawing or painting on top of a photo, any way to break the boundaries of what makes photography boring these days. You would think for someone like him, who has shot everyone you could imagine, from Kurt Cobain to Natalie Portman, that he would have a huge egotistical attitude, but I shit you not: He is the exact opposite. Frank is not only one of the top photographers in the world, but is one of the nicest, most humble human beings I have ever interviewed and I feel so blessed that I got the opportunity to sit down with him and chat about life, inspirations and about the emotional day, when he had fifteen minutes to do a photoshoot with Barack Obama.

————— 30

this is the ————— photography section

————— 31

february ————— 

JUSTIN—So Frank, how are you?

FRANK—How am I? Freezing today, in sunny Los Angeles.

J—Yeah, what the hell? We flew in yesterday and it was raining. I thought our pilot went in a circle and took us back to Vancouver.

F—We even had frost this morning.

J—I didn’t even know that existed here?

F—We don’t like talking about the cold days, we like the sun. Anybody who ends up here on a cold day, they’re, like, “Uh, what’s going on?”

J—I'm so confused by the cold here. Anyways, let's not talk about it then.

F—[laughs] Let’s make it go away.

J—How’d you sleep last night?

F—Good. I recently moved; we bought a smaller house but with a bigger piece of property. We’re renovating a building on the property, so we moved our 3000 square foot house into a 900 square foot house, so my sons are asking me what the hell have I done because they both used to have their own bedrooms.

J—That’s intimate. Brotherhood at its finest. Good and bad.

F—Yeah, they now share a bedroom that’s 8 x 8 with a bunk bed. We call it “Prison.”

J—You can make it a game. Playing Prison and you can play the gatekeeper. What did you eat for breakfast? Are you a breakfast guy?

F—No. No. I’m a dinner guy, which is weird because everyone says it’s the worst meal to eat a heavy one, but…my breakfast usually is four shots of espresso with a little bit of steamed milk in it. So, I kind of go for that jolt in the morning, that’s it. I mean, I might eat a banana or something like that. But, yeah, breakfast; it’s not my thing.

J—It’s actually the first thing I think of when I wake up.

F—When you wake up?

J—I’m a breakfast guy for sure, orange juice, eggs, bacon, all the time.

F—If I eat breakfast, I want to go back to bed.

J—Yeah, that’s true. I fight that feeling daily. Your gallery show (Clark Oshin Gallery at The Icon) looks great...

F—Yeah, it worked out well. It’s funny though, because a lot of people said to me, “Well, it would be nice to see you in a ‘real’ gallery.” And I mean, but a real gallery wouldn’t give them my nooks and crannies and in here it kind of makes people look at things in a different way.

J—Totally does that. Feels less forced.

F—I like it when you go someplace and you go back again and you see something you hadn’t seen or that you have a different experience each time you go. That’s kind of why I did it, so that each part of the room is presented in a different way. the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— photography section

“Why are we doing this?

What's the point of it?„ ————— 33

february ————— 

“If we need to do a picture for Rolling Stone, I did the picture for Rolling Stone.„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— photography section

————— 35

february ————— 

“Do you want to shoot Barack Obama on Tuesday, in Washington, DC?„

anymore portrait photographers. It’s kind of weird to say that. You know, Irving Penn was the last of our portrait photographers. He truly said to someone, “You’re coming for a sitting,” and the sitting could be, you know, 6 hours. Nowadays you do someone’s portrait and you have 10 minutes and it’s on their terms and sometimes you can corral them to do a little more. So I guess, to shoot someone’s face where there’s no props, it’s not about the background, it’s just about the person, looking into their eyes, is such a need of mine to have that with each person I photograph.

J—What’s more interesting than a face? Well, I think it’s time to get into some of the good stuff. Where did you grow up?

F—I grew up in Lockport, New York, which is a suburb of Niagara Falls, right on the Canadian border.

J—What was your first real big gig?

F—First real big gig was for Rolling Stone magazine.

J—I like the wall full of just portraits.

F—The portrait wall is kind of funny. I probably should have put a little bit of a disclaimer or something on it. They’re all shot with the exact same camera, which is the Super D Graflex. They’re all 4 x 5 portraits, type 55 Polaroid negative or 4 x 5 colour film on the same camera and it’s my obsession with the face, which was always there. If I had to or not, when I photographed the person, the first thing I did was photograph the face.

J—Kind of like a warm up.

F—…and a lot of the time I'm like, “Why are we doing this? What’s the point of it?”

J—That’s the first thing you do, when you show up on set?

F—Yeah, usually.

J—That’s cool.

F—I mean, I think portrait photography is kind of lost. I don’t think there are the lab magazine ————— issue 01

J—How did that happen?

F—I had gone to school with Jodi Peckman, who was one of the photo editors of Rolling Stone. She hired me to shoot Buster Poindexter on New Years’ Eve, a quarter page picture. But the bigger part of it was, after I did this, they hired me to do a quarter page picture of Tracy Chapman.

J—Amazing! Love her dearly. Where did you do that?

F—In Boston. It was a quarter page image for her album, her first album had just come out and no one had any idea who she was and by the time I got back with the pictures, she blew up…

J—Lucky for you.

F—Yeah. All of a sudden it went from a quarter page to being a full page. And that was totally the catalyst, of the, “Who is this guy? He’s got a full page in Rolling Stone.” “No one knows who Frank Ockenfels is and does he have an agent?” All of a sudden I had people calling me, “Who handles your resale?” then I had people saying, “Do you have representation?” and it just kind of took off. And that’s when I met Carol, my agent.

this is the ————— photography section

————— 37

february ————— 

J—Wow. You guys have been together for a long time.

F— Yeah. It’s a rare thing in this industry.

J—Yes, very rare. So, I have to ask this question. It was amazing for me to see that you shot with Barack Obama. Umm. Wow! How was that?

F—It was an odd day. I mean, it gets a little morose towards the end of the conversation, but I was sitting in the house and Carol called and said, “Do you want to shoot Barack Obama on Tuesday, in Washington, DC?” And I think it was on a Sunday. I was like, “Sure, what do you want me to do?” they were like, “When the shoot comes, you’ll have fifteen minutes.” In between four other things he was doing that day… but he wasn’t president yet.

J— So it was during the race?

F—Yeah, prior to the election. So I was like, “Great!” So I got there and my sister called me and said, mom is back in the hospital and she isn’t doing well, and literally, the Secret Service came in and we were in a room that was about this big [referring to the small room we’re sitting in]. They swept the room with guard dogs and everything; just as they did this, my sister calls and she goes “You know, mom’s totally almost…you know, she’s really bad, you need to come.” And I’m like, “Well, I’m going to shoot Obama in about five minutes,” I couldn’t even say that ‘cause they said not to say what we were doing. So I said, “I’m on the next plane.” Then Obama walks in the door, you know all this is going on, my mother’s about to pass and Obama walks in the room, he looks at me, and he’s like, “Hi!” And I’m like, “Hi!” Then they threw over this leopard print cape over him to do his makeup and I said, “I would have thought more tiger than leopard,” and he goes, “Yeah, but I think I’m rocking the leopard pretty well,” [laughs] I go, “Yeah, you’re looking good.” So, we were joking around, he’s very open in the conversation and he stood up and he was very direct. I mean, it’s kind of, when you shoot people, and you know, if someone can give you five minutes and be amazing, where those five minutes were the best five minutes, and they are looking at you and they are listening to you. Or there’s the five minutes where they are not listening to a word you’re saying, they’re just trying to get something.

Well, he was the first. He was like, “Okay, well, what do you want to do?” and looked right at me.

J—That’s insane that all this was happening to you simultaneously.

F—Yeah, so the end of that story was basically, my mother passed that day. I went up to New York, and she was gone. It was exciting to meet Obama, but in the middle of your excitement you go, “Wow, my mom is about to pass.” It was a very odd day to say the least.

J—Wow, that’s quite a heavy day. I can’t even imagine all the different thoughts running through your head with the most important man in the world sitting in front of you. Way to go for remaining calm and focused. I’m not sure what I would have done if I were you on that day.

F—Yeah, it was quite the day, bigger question than maybe you wanted to know [laughs] J—That’s okay, it was a great story, but let’s move along and start talking about your mind-blowing portfolio. I love looking at your website. You have worked with some of the most recognizable and influential performers of our lifetime. To mention a few musicians, such as Bat For Lashes, Garbage, Alicia Keys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tom Waits, Jay-Z, Vancouver's own Hot Hot Heat and the Snoop Dogg himself [laughs]…but the two people that stand alone in my mind, are David Bowie and Kurt Cobain.

F—Well, Bowie’s uh…

J—You shoot with him quite a bit…

F—Fifteen. Sixteen times. I’m the only one that has, actually… from his word.

I met him and he liked how my brain worked and how I constantly changed things. He also got that I didn’t waste his time; That if he needed to do a picture for Rolling Stone, I did the picture for Rolling Stone. I didn’t try to do twenty pictures, or five, or four. Because he doesn’t like to spend a lot of time doing it.

He’ll give you a hundred percent when he’s there, if he gives you like, ten minutes, it’s like an hour and a half with somebody else, he’s so amazing to shoot. When we started doing things together, I would be able to do things quickly and get him out of there quicker, and the pictures would be exactly what we wanted, and we had these great conversations. I actually put a book together for him and it’s called Collaboration. It’s supposed to be interviews with he and I talking about our collaboration over the years and the things that we’ve done together and why we did them and did you hate them, did you love them? You know, what was the reason for them?

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

J—Oh dilly! That book sounds amazing! What about the day you shot with Kurt Cobain?

F—Kurt was amazing to work with; I worked with him just before he died. It was during that time that I shot with a lot of Seattle people. I did Soundgarden, I did Alice In Chains, that was really the start of me being a successful music photographer. But Kurt was amazing, and you know it was a great day to shoot, they all wanted to be shot together, and it’s kind of funny because Spin used that picture for the cover.

J—I idolized Kurt growing up.

F—Yeah?

J—Still do. Okay, now for the fast, fun questions. I crafted these up last night, over a glass of wine. Not that I waited for the last minute, it’s more that I was waiting for the perfect moment. Thank you, Merlot.

F—[laughs] Okay, the breakfast thing wasn’t a fast, fun question?

J—No, that was warm up and I like talking about breakfast ‘cause I’m kind of hungry [laughs]. If you could rate your extreme good looks, from 1-10, what would it be?

F—[laughs] Humor: ten, looks: two.

J—That’s funny.

F—Women love funny guys. It’s gotten me laid more than once. [laughs] J—When was the last time you cried?

F—When was the last time I cried?

J—This is my personal favorite question. You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to, I won’t be mad. [pauses] Maybe a little mad.

F—Starting, a physical, actual outburst?

J—Yeah sure. It could be a movie, it could be life, a performance of some sort…

F—Umm, the last serious cry I had was probably my mom’s death. It was the realization, it was weird, you know that outburst where you just uncontrollably cry, which is what that is, and I don’t think I’d done that in years. My mother passed and I hadn’t dealt with it. One of my sons had gone to camp and I looked at my younger son; we were sitting there looking out into the valley at our old house, which used to be up on a hill. I was sitting there with a glass of wine looking out and I was thinking about my mom and looked down to see my son crawl into my wife’s lap in a hammock and it hit me, that my mom was gone. My son walked over and put his hands around me and goes, “It’s okay daddy, you can cry, your mommy’s died.” And I remember, I just sat there when he said that. He just held me, he was holding my head and I was like, “Holy, Christopher.” My wife looked at me and she just kind of like smiled, ‘cause she could see the whole thing happening.

J—That’s a great image. Couldn’t script it better.

F—Oh, it completely was. When you see yourself with your own mother, because he looks just like me when I was a little kid. So beyond that, because I’m silly, I cry at movies and commercials.

J—Yeah, me too. I just saw a band play called Swell Season, have you heard of them?

F—Oh yeah, what’s his name?

J—Not sure? The girl and guy from the movie Once.

F—Yeah, yeah. Once.

this is the ————— photography section

J—I was tearing up at the show, and I was like, “What’s happening to me?”

“Women love funny guys. It's gotten me laid more than once.„

F—That movie made me cry a couple times. I don’t know why. I’m like, “I don’t get it.” Are they supposed to be together? Is he singing about her? Or is he singing about himself?

J—Or have you seen that TV show, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition?

F—Oh my God, yeah!

J—[laughs] At the end of the show when they’re like, “Move that bus,” and you’re like… ”Don’t move the bus!”

F—[laughs] Yeah your’re right! I’ll cry in commercials more, if they hit me right, I’m easy.

J—I am too. Big hearts, I guess. I think that is a great way to end the interview.

Thanks again Frank, this has been by far my favorite interview thus far. Thanks for being a part of a project I care dearly about.

F—You’re welcome. Thank you.

More———— www.fwo3.com

————— 39

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— photography section

ARNUMVILLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATT HOYLE

————— 41

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— photography section

————— 43

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— photography section

More———— www.matthoyle.com

————— 45

THE LOVE ——— Lab

this is the ————— love lab section

Nº I ———— Music

THE BLUE VIOLETS Interview & photography by Justin Tyler Close

The dark, sultry sound of The Blue Violets immediately places you inside a scene of a David Lynch film. Listening to their music feels like you’re being seduced by a psychedelic creature, swimming around your ears, whispering to you. Their self-titled debut album is sexy, confident, mature and wise beyond their years. Songs such as "Desire" and "You Said" convince you that there isn't a band comparable to these girls, unless you want to mention someone like Brian Jonestown Massacre or Concrete Blonde.

Considering that they've been playing music for the majority of their lives, it is no surprise that their careers are off to an impressive start. Coral Osborne, whose haunting and oddly comforting vocals lead the trio, started writing songs with sister, lyricist and guitar slayer Kandle Osborne. They soon discovered songwriter and bassist Louise Burns, who completed the musical union. These ladies automatically make you feel sorry for every ex-boyfriend they've ever had.

Listening to this band inspires me to go out and buy a fur jacket, top hat and a one-way ticket to New York City. Who's coming with me?

JUSTIN—What does The Blue Violets mean? Is there a hidden meaning? I know the blue violet, by definition means faithfulness; does it have any relation to that?

THE BLUE VIOLETS—The Blue Violets? We're called Blue Violence...it refers to our ill-tempered ways. No significant meaning, it was our fourth name choice and we had all recently watched Blue Velvet by David Lynch and our name was a play off of that.

J—Who are you influenced by? Musicians? Films?

Artists? Board games?

TBV—Twister. Hands down re: board game.

Collectively, we all look to artists like PJ Harvey, Kim Gordon, and Joy Division. Rashida Jones is a big inspiration to us because we read on Wikipedia that she and Aaliyah have BFF tattoos. Which coincidentally, I (Coral) have Louise's initials tattooed behind my ear.

J—Where would you like to see The Blue Violets a year from now? Look into your magical glass ball and tell me your hopes and dreams!

TBV—We're currently recording our second album.

It's well rounded with a definitive sound, as Louise has contributed to the writing process this time. Each of us has become an integral part of the songwriting process; Kandle is the creative mastermind, Louise is the arranging and harmonizing genius and I (Coral) fit in there somewhere. We're migrating east this spring and plan on doing more of the same thing once we get there. For us, the ultimate accomplishment is to be heard by as many people as possible. The more ears, the better.

More———— www.theblueviolets.com

————— 47

february ————— 

LOUISE—Gentlemen, greetings. Bend Sinister: homage to Russian lit, or perhaps Mancunian postpunk? What is the origin behind the name?

Nº II ———— Music

BEND SINISTER Interview by Louise Burns Photography by Justin Tyler Close

The regal rock wizardry of Bend Sinister evokes the sort of nostalgia you can only get from A) living everyday like it’s 1974, or B) having a deep appreciation for the rock opera and harmonizing guitar solos. Either way, you probably worship Freddie Mercury and can imagine nothing better than driving down the streets of your hometown blaring “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Forming in 2001 in Kelowna, BC, I’d imagine these boys did just that until re-locating to Vancouver, all while selling out EP’s, playing some of Canada’s most prestigious music festivals (Pop Montreal and Sled Island to name a few) and signing a deal with Distort Entertainment. Their music is reminiscent of a time when it wasn’t ironic to hold a lighter to a ballad and auto-tune was the name of a shitty car repair shop. Their latest album, “Stories Of Brothers, Tales Of Lovers,” is the kind of album that doesn’t come around very often, and so rarely can progressive rock be done so effortlessly, so memorably. These guys are firecrackers of musicians, and if you don’t feel humbled by the end of the record, try getting Jimmy Brown out of your head. Yep, wizardry I tell you. Here are some questy’s I got to ask the guys.

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

BEND SINISTER—Basically, we named the band after the book of the same name by Nabokov in 2000, not so much the book itself but because of why Nabokov chose the title in the first place. It was his attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life. Being young and very into prog, this seemed pretty great at the time!

More———— www.bendsinisterband.com

L—Your live performances are a force to behold. I’ve seen you rock the smallest rooms to theatres. Who do you think is the greatest performer of all time?

BS—Hmm…good question. There are a lot of amazing performers out there and it is very hard to narrow it down. I remember ranking my top show of all time back in the day as seeing Tortoise when they toured “Standards.” Then more recently (or maybe it was three years ago) I was completely blown away when I went and saw Final Fantasy for the first time out at UBC (University of British Columbia). I had

fallen in love with his record 'He Poos Clouds' and was disappointed when he came out to play the show by himself without a band. Little did I realize that everything was all built by loop upon loop on the violin, making it sound like a one-person symphony.

It was beautiful.

L—What’s in store for you this year?

BS—Well, since we made into the top three in the Peak Performance contest, we’re in the running to make between $50,000 – $150,000. With the money, we plan to tour like crazy and actually be able to pay our rent! We're going to record a new record very soon and then focus more on eastern Canada and the United States. Maybe even a trip to the UK!

this is the ————— love lab section

JUSTIN—Who is André Pinces? How did you become you?

Nº III ———— Photography

ANDRÉ PINCES Interview by Justin Tyler Close

There’s an old romantic feel to the work of André Paul Pinces, a sort of old soul wayfarer, drifting through decades, smoking hand rolled cigarettes and drinking red wine, to the soundtrack of Serge Gainsbourg or some other French cool guy. Working for disciples of Warhol and Man Ray, he maintains his Boho street cred while contributing to advertising, fashion and music spreads for the big guns, including Coca Cola, Adidas and Maple Recordings. Favoring the conceptual as much as the improvisational, every shot has an intimate quality that brings you to his side of the lens. Though shooting internationally, he is based out of Vancouver in what I’d imagine to be an unbearably chic loft filled with beautiful people and art. Le bon vivant!

ANDRÉ—After studying printmaking at the University of Alberta, I worked in New York City with Warhol photographer and Man Ray disciple Christopher Makos, Interview Magazine cover artist Richard Bernstein, aRude's and Ike Ude. I have exhibited in London, New York, Montreal, Vancouver and Los Angeles, and currently I shoot commercial fashion and portraiture, as well as produce fine art editions. Some recent work includes clients like Coca-Cola, Adidas, Stussy, Aritzia, and Lululemon. I'm based in Vancouver, Canada but can also be found at various truck stops between Venice, California and Venice, Italy.

J—Who or what inspired you to become a photographer?

And who is your favorite photographer right now?

A—I was inspired by my parents' National Geographic collection growing up. That wall of yellow was an endless source of amusement as a child. My father mostly had audiophile magazines around, but my mother's collection of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar is what ended up in my photographic consciousness.

I had been shooting since my yearbook days in junior high, and later had a little darkroom set up in my friend's basement. His girlfriend was a model and I asked her to do some photos together as a favour. She obliged, and then was surprised when I came back with some hot stuff. She showed her agency and they were really encouraging, sending me models to shoot for their portfolios, like two or three a week. It was some of that work that ended up getting noticed in New York and I ended up heading out there to assist other photographers and hone my skills. My favorite photographers right now are Vilmos Szigmond and Laszlo Kovacs, two of the greatest cinematographers of all time. At film school, before they even held a camera or a roll of film, they studied painting and music for a year. I try to approach my work similarly, in that I use whatever technical means I have to solve a visual problem, but never get tied down to certain formulas or gear.

It's more of an exercise in communication than a technical problem to solve.

J—Why photography? Be true to the real reason why you love photography.

A—I love everything about photography and what it has done and continues to do for civilization. There's always a truth in a photograph. Whether or not that truth is the one the photographer meant to describe in that photograph isn't as important as what the image evokes from the viewer. If I can do this once in my career then it's a fluke, if I can do it twice then I am a photographer.

More———— www.pincesphoto.blogspot.com

————— 49

february ————— 

Nº IV ———— Music

TOP LESS GAY LOVE TEKNO PARTY Interview by Jeremy Power Regimbal Photography by Justin Tyler Close

If polygamy wasn’t illegal in Canada, I would marry and make love to this entire family of the six most musically and creatively talented people you’ll ever meet. Until they change that law, I’ll remain screaming like a little schoolgirl in the jam-packed, confetticovered, pulsating, sweaty crowds that they attract to every show! Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party started with two members, Michael Shindler and Donne Torr in Glasgow, UK. They brought their Euro-Electro madness sound back to North America and joined forces with the four other masterminds: Dave Vertesi, Sean Tyson, Kevin Fairbairn, and Benny Schuetze.

The group is by far the most exciting live band I have ever seen. Whether it’s confetti, spandex, disco balls or giant polar bear videos projected onto the stage, they get it done and they bring energy out of the crowd like you’ve never seen! With their first album in the works, I can’t wait to see what they will become. (Cue Star Wars theme song) Can I get a Yeahhhr?

JEREMY—I've heard a lot of crazy stories of how y’all came to be. Can you give me the skinny on how Top Less formed?

DONNE—We all met online in a chat room called mygayface.com.

MICHAEL—Donne and I used to play a lot of music together in University. Then I moved to Glasgow and was really impressed with the music and art scene. I feel like I was pretty sheltered musically in Vancouver, not because Van is shit or anything, but I just was. So, living in the UK really opened my eyes to some interesting music and ideas. I had been doing some other projects, recording by myself, some really mellow stuff, and I wanted to make something more upbeat, more electro sounding. So Donne moved over to Glasgow for a short while and we started writing. Then she left for Toronto, and I stayed for a couple years after that initial writing session. Donne then moved to Vancouver, we started putting the songs together, and then we elicited some help from friends who happen to be amazing musicians. We were just going to play one show together, but ended up liking the project. From that, the songs have totally evolved and become creations of everyone.

JPR—With such a talented group of business minds and musicians, how do you all work together to harness this energy? Who brings what and what do you do with it all?

D—We do a lot of naked, hot yoga together. We get real slippery. This enables us to truly connect with each other’s energy.

SEAN—Mike wears a harness.

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

KEVIN—I like the number 6.

BENNY—Mikey - brains, Donne - love, Kevvy - heart/edge, Sean - business tie but also love like his sister Donne, Dave - knowledge, Benny - teen angst.

JPR—Where do you see Gay Love in the future?

S—We’re moving to the HimiGAYas. I would love to get a show on the International Space Station. Our rider would be a logistical nightmare.

K—We plan to obtain an underground lair/war room to engage the world - hopefully somewhere in Europe.

D—Hopefully touring the world in a blimp. Also, we’re going to start an acid jazz side music project called Bottomless and Vulnerable.

M—I’m going to start breeding raccoons and cats so they can finally get along.

B—Top Less will be involved in a coup, in a small Southeast Asian island group, and dictate a cruel regime of free love and party tricks. The band will be busy running the country, but Sean will take to writing Italian love songs, topping the charts in Denmark with, "You've Got Sexy, I've Got Sexy."

More———— www.myspace.com/toplessgayloveteknoparty

this is the ————— love lab section

Nº V ———— Art

Bateman's work and was amazed by how he painted fur so well. Someone once told me my paintings were like Robert Bateman on acid and I felt so victorious.

CAROLINE WEAVER

S—If you could have dinner with a group of talking animals, whom would you invite?

Interview by Steve Williams

A.k.a. Dead Man's Hands, Razor Knuckles, Screamin' Weaver, C-weed, Corpsie, Whale, Carebear.

Caroline Weaver is a chain-smoking dolphin with gold fronts on a bad salvia trip. Her paintings will tell you the same story. She was born in the 'burbs, lives in East Van, but belongs in a zoo, this loud and energetic chick with a trucker's mouth will leave you laughing 'til you cry. Caroline has been painting up a storm as early as she can remember. A self-taught artist who's shown her work all over Canada, she has upcoming shows in Portland, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Things are quickly heating up for Razor Knuckles and her rowdy pack of wild animals.

More———— www.carolineweaver.ca

STEVE—Hey Caroline. So, how did you get started?

CAROLINE—Well, I was always drawing as a kid.

I remember my mother always telling us to go paint in the backyard. When I got out of high school, I started painting a lot. Things really ramped up after I broke up with a boyfriend and I made the decision to start doing something for myself. I could have kept painting as a hobby, but decided to take a real go at it.

S—What or who inspires you?

C—Umm... I guess I’ve always had muses and now I’m muse-less. So, I’ve defaulted to using myself (chuckles). My ex-boyfriends would always ask me, "What's this about?" I’d say, "Nothing," although it was totally about them. They were usually painted as a rat or a dog, but I didn't mean it in a bad way.

Also, Robert Bateman is huge for me. I used to go into those cheesy poster and framing shops to see

C—Definitely a skunk. I think they'd be the best pets on earth, but I heard their guts fall out if you remove their scent gland. We'd likely talk about our mischievous adventures. Umm... a fox because they'd be so sly and smooth. I heard when they're hunting, they dance and jump around playfully to trick the young rabbits into thinking they're just a fun neighbor. Then they get their neck crunched up.

Also, an otter 'cause they're fun and cute... he would be the fun, drunk guy with all the stories. No birds, though. They're too skittish and annoying.

S—Yeah, birds would make shitty people.

————— 51

february ————— 

Nº VI ———— Film

JOSH CLOSE Interview by Jeremy Power Regimbal Photography by Justin Tyler Close

Josh is the type of person that when he speaks, you listen, because you know you will learn something every time. He has such a methodical and wise mannerism about him that it surprises you when you realize that he is still a young man with a very promising career ahead of him. As an actor he has worked with directors such as; George A. Romero, Kathryn Bigelow and Scott Derrickson and co-starred with the likes of Harrison Ford, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Carpenter and Adam Goldberg. His acting experience and study comes through in his writing style in the form of flowing dialogue and clever character development. He has three feature film screenplays completed; one of which is shooting this summer and he just recently directed his first short film, which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. If I had to think of an object that I would compare to Josh, it would definitely be a kaleidoscope… yeah, a wise, humble kaleidoscope of awesome shit!

JEREMY—I already know this because you’re like a brother to me, but tell us where you grew up and when you first knew you wanted to act. What was it that attracted you to performing?

JOSH—I grew up in a small town outside Toronto called Oakville. I probably first began loving acting further back than I can remember… It has always felt like such an involuntary love after watching so many films as a kid and going to the theater on class trips, but consciously, it was probably during my senior year of high school. I was the lead in a play called A Willful Act written by a gifted writer and good friend of mine at the time, who I believe hired me out of pity. Anyway, on the second night, after opening night’s hour and a half long public panic attack, I had this overwhelming sensation of joy and purpose. Luckily enough, I was pretty good at it.

What attracted me, and continues to attract me, is that I'll never be fully satisfied and I believe in the power of storytelling more than anything. I love the

line, "People go to films to see themselves."

JPR—What was your biggest learning experience in the film industry and when did it happen?

JC—Which one? It's all a learning experience. I've learned that “no” can be just as positive as “yes.”

Work begets work. Finding ways to hide true feelings is far more humane and effective than trying to reveal them, which actors, including myself, have all done. "Look at me, look at me emote!" That's not living, that's "acting," which is what I try not to do.

JPR—I had the pleasure of producing and editing your first film titled Short on Love. Is writing and directing something you'd like to pursue or is acting your main focus? What are your plans and goals for the future?

JC—Absolutely. I loved realizing my own script as a director. It was such an education and wonderful experience to work with you, Justin and an extremely talented cinematographer like Wyatt Troll. Kai Lennox, one of my favorite actors and good friend, was brilliant in this film. I want that experience on different levels over and over again. It was funny to me that I thought directing would be less nervewracking… Nope. I also have a few feature film scripts, which I've written, that are in development right now, so we'll see...

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm1208725

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

Discover new talent ———— www.thelabmagazineonline.com

Films, Commercials, Music Videos, Web Design.

Vancouver. Toronto. Los Angeles. • www.thestudiomovement.com

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— art section

Mark Ryden

————— 55

february ————— 

II the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— art section

III

Nº I———— previous page 60 California Brown Bear, Oil on canvas, 2006, 20" x 16".

Nº II———— The Tree of Life, Oil on canvas, 2006, 66" x 42".

Nº III———— Yoshi, Oil on canvas, 2007, 36" x 48".

Nº IV———— 59 Allegory of the Four Elements, Oil on canvas, 2006, 28" x 36".

IV

————— 57

february ————— 

V

VI

Nº V———— Heaven, Oil on canvas, 2008, 16" x 20".

Nº VI———— Grotto of the Old Mass, Oil on canvas, 2008, 24" x 36".

Nº VII———— Abominable, Oil on canvas, 2008, 20" x 16".

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— art section

VII

More———— www.markryden.com

————— 59

february ————— 

“I like bossing people around and I don’t like waiting for people to boss me around.„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

JAMIE BABBIT INTERVIEW BY JEREMY POWER REGIMBAL — PHOTOGRAPHY BY EVE FOWLER

Director Jamie Babbit juggles a full-time filmmaking career with single motherhood. How does she do it? By being fearless and never shying away from asking people for help, even strangers. She got her first big break by faking a resumé and convincing David Fincher to hire her on an eighty-million dollar movie. At 25, Jamie persuaded an investment banker to single-handedly finance her first film, which would go on to become the independent smash-hit, But I'm a Cheerleader. Today she no longer needs to fake her long list of credits which includes directing episodes of Alias, Nip/Tuck, United States of Tara, and 90210 and is she about to take on her fourth feature film. For me, the most admirable thing is she does it all and still manages to have time for her family. I got to sit down with Jamie and have a glass of wine in her stunning Los Angeles home while her two beautiful daughters skipped around, giggling and snapping Polaroids.

JPR— …how did you start out in the film industry?

J—I started acting when I was nine years old, but when I was in college I realized I didn’t like the life of an actor. I didn’t like not having control of my life and not being able to do what I want to do. I like bossing people around and I don’t like waiting for people to boss me around.

JPR—I know that feeling, it’s scary when you can’t create your own opportunities.

An actor can to some degree, but it’s not the same as when you’re producing or directing.

JEREMY—Hey Jamie. It’s so good to see you again… I think the last time I saw you was at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival). You seem to be keeping pretty busy.

JAMIE—Super busy. I’ve been directing a lot of TV lately and I have a Barbie commercial before Christmas too…

JPR—…Barbie?! Do you get to come up with an idea for that?

J—No, they already have the concept of Barbie escaping from out of her box, into the toy store at night.

JPR—Is it stop motion? Or how do they move…

J—…it’s going to be actors. The Barbie toy animates and comes to life, you know, the girls dance around and it’s sort of like Corduroy. Do you remember that story from when you were a kid?

JPR—Oh yeah, yeah… definitely. The little bear. Sounds fun, can’t wait see it. So, When did you first move out to LA from Ohio?

J—When I was eighteen, I left Ohio, and I went to New York City. I was there for six years and working in the film business and going to college and I realized that I wanted to make independent films and that the place to be to make a career for yourself was out in LA…

J—Yeah. Totally. I knew in college that I wanted to get behind the camera and my first internship was for Martin Scorsese as his personal assistant on The Age of Innocence. That was a really great job because I had his storyboards, shot lists and phone references at my disposal. He was a great director to work for because he’s really into film history and super gracious. He’s like a teacher to everyone and doesn’t try act like he’s a genius.

JPR—How did you get that job?

J—I just found the name of the production company and I called them and I said, “Can I work for you guys, for free?” That was a really good lesson for me, early on. If you just ask people, you never know what you can get. Eventually they were, like, “We feel really uncomfortable that you’re working for free so we feel like we should pay you something…”

JPR—…You’re like, “Um… OK!”… When you first started out what was the thing that specifically attracted you to film?

J—I started in theater, as an actor and I realized that after a play would be over that you had nothing to show for it… it was just too depressing to me to be a part of something amazing and in ten years, it’s gone. It was that permanent quality of cinema that I wanted to sink my teeth into…

JPR—… and is it true that David Fincher gave you his short ends (left over film) to make your short film, Sleeping Beauties?

J—Yeah, what happened was, I worked for Scorsese then I worked for John Sayles on The Secret of Roan Inish. I worked in the office on both of those and I really ————— 61

february ————— 

“If you just ask people, you never know what you can get.„ wanted to get on set to learn more of the technical side. So I made a fake resumé and I was at a film screening and I met David Fincher. He asked what I did and I said, “Oh, I’m a script supervisor.” Which was basically a lie. I was twenty-four or something, I’d literally been in LA for two weeks and he asked me to come in and interview. So I went in with my fake resume and got hired for an eighty-million dollar Michael Douglas movie…

JPR—…That was The Game, wasn’t it?

J—Yeah, he had just done Se7en and he was super young and arrogant and didn’t ask me any questions in the interview. It was my first film, it was the editor’s first film and it was the D.P.’s first film. None of us had ever done big films before. The thing about David is that he probably is better at everyone’s job than they are so he’s really confident hiring people ‘cause he doesn’t really care, he’s kinda going to do your job anyway. He just wants people that he likes and that aren’t annoying.

When we were on set together, I told him I was directing a short film and I asked if I could use the short ends and his Avid system to edit and he said “Yeah, that’s fine.” Then I asked Michael Douglas if he would write me a letter to Paramount.

So I got free locations, free costumes, free props and shot the whole thing on their lot. I really feel like the most important thing I’ve ever done in my whole life is just asking people, ‘cause a lot of times, they say “yes.”

JPR—That’s so true! How did you transition from that into directing TV? J—Well, after a lot of research, I realized that the best thing to do was to make an independent film and if it gets into a big festival and gets studio distribution, then you can get an agent and get TV work. I made my first short and co-directed it with my boyfriend and it went to Sundance, I didn’t have a script ready and the film was too diluted. I realized I wasn’t going to get an agent off of it. I was like, “Fuck, I have to make another short film,” which is really expensive and just takes so much time and energy. But I was like, “I need to make it and I have to have a feature ready to go as soon as the short is done,” ‘cause when you’re at Sundance as a short filmmaker, you have that one week where people care about you and after that week no one cares anymore. So, I had this idea for a feature film called But I’m a Cheerleader. I went for coffee with this guy someone recommended to me and gave him my treatment and research for the script. I explained my situation and asked if he could have this script finished in three months when I’d hopefully have my next short in the festival. He agreed and he Fedex-ed me the first draft of But I’m A Cheerleader when I was at Sundance and I happened to meet an investment banker that liked the short and liked the feature idea. After he read it at Sundance, he was like, “I’ll give you half million dollars to make it.”

JPR—Amazing. Gotta like that.

J—So then, once we got the cast together and he had already invested some money, I said, “Okay, actually, we need 1.2 million,” and he was like, “Alright, that’s fine. The ball’s rolling, it’s a good cast, I’m willing to do that…”

JPR—…the whole battle is to get that first chunk of money.

J—Yeah, I do think it’s good to say you need less, and then just try and make it for as little as possible. Of course, if your financier has deeper pockets, then try and get more…

JPR—…and the three short films that you directed all made it into Sundance, then?

That’s pretty amazing… I also really respect how you have managed to balance making your independent features and staying very prolific in the TV world.

J—I have two kids and I’m a single mom, so I gotta have the cash… but if I could I would just make my heart all the time, so, for me, I’m always trying to balance the two.

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

————— 63

february ————— 

“You'll never see me stepping out of Michael Bay's Lamborghini.„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

JPR—What would be your advice to young filmmakers that are trying to make a career out of it?

JPR—What’s your take on 3D movies, HD cameras and the so-called “death of film.”

J—Basically, the only festivals that really matter and can get you noticed are Sundance, Toronto and Cannes… You have to make a really good short, which usually means practice and usually means making a bunch of shorts, which sucks, ‘cause it’s totally expensive and a pain in the ass to keep making things. But, you only get better by doing it and also, just ask. Like honestly, don’t be afraid to ask people for things. I’m always really happy when filmmakers ask me for things, like, “Can I do this? Can I do that?” And I’m like, “Totally,” because I want to help people, you know? I’m super busy and I would never think of it, but if someone’s in my face and has something really specific that they need from me, I’ll probably do it.

J—I couldn’t care less. I would love to make a 3D movie. It would just be so cool to make an art film in 3D. You know, like, I would love to see a Gus Van Sant movie in 3D. That would be amazing. I totally embrace all new technologies. I just think you can create art in any technology. Who cares? It’s whatever you make of the medium that matters.

JPR—So true. Do you see yourself in the future staying in TV Land, and still doing what you’re doing, like an independent feature every couple of years?

J—Yeah, that’s what I would like to do. I guess the dream is that you just make studio features that are as creative as what you do in independent film… But I think the problem with me is that my taste and what I get interested in is not what’s necessarily the mass culture’s idea of what’s interesting. So, the kind of studio features that I go up for, I’m not that interested in, and it’s such a big chunk of time. It’s like two years of your life. I’d rather sell out and do a short project like a commercial. I have to say that was the other thing I really learned from David Fincher, ‘cause he still does things like battery commercials while he’s editing Benjamin Button you know? Just to pay the bills, ‘cause you really just don’t make that much money as a director.

JPR—Films are such a big risk, too. It’s like two to five years of your life and if something goes wrong…

J—…Yeah, I remember on The Game, Fincher got paid, like, four million dollars and Michael Douglas got twenty million and he’s the director who’s been on it for years, you know? Obviously, I’d love to get paid four million dollars for a movie, but you divide that by, like, five years, it’s actually not that much?

JPR—I remember reading that he gave up like, a million dollars of his wage for the last shot of Fight Club, I don’t know if that was true…

J—…I’m sure it is, but that’s the thing about him. He’s like, “I don’t want to sell out on my films, I’d rather sell out doing commercials.” So, that was a really good lesson for me as well. I say that to young filmmakers all the time, “Don’t be above making money, ‘cause everyone does it. You’ve got to find a way.”

JPR— No, definitely. I think it’s the same with a lot of people in the arts. They think that if you’re not crazy passionate about it or if you’re making money doing it then you’re selling out… it’s like, what the hell?

JPR—Cool, I remember talking to you awhile back about your music choices for the TV series, The Unusuals and I loved all the songs you picked. What are some of the bands that you’re listening to now??

J—I mean, I’m really into Bon Iver, but also Discovery, The xx, OK Go and PJ Harvey.

JPR—I know we’ve had hilarious discussions about this before so I have to ask…

If another director asked you out, and you didn’t like their films, would you date them?

J—I don’t know, I feel like there’s romantic tension to be had in coming from really different places. So, I could understand… As long as... if I had respect for their films, but I didn’t particularly like it, that would be fine. If I have no respect for their films… for example, there’s no way in hell I could ever date Michael Bay… You will never see me stepping out of Michael Bay’s Lamborghini!

JPR—[Hysterical laughter] J—And I’m sure it’s yellow… [laughing] You know it is.

JPR—It’s totally yellow. (still laughing trying to regain composure) If you had an unlimited budget to make your dream film, what would it be about and would there be any certain stars you’d pick?

J—Oh my God, that would be amazing. It would definitely be in 3D. [laughs] How about Toni Collette and Julianne Moore in a lesbian breakup-ship decide to road trip to the music festival in Mali, West Africa and pick up Diego Luna.

Like Y Tu Mama Tambien for the ladies although not sure I could ever top that amazing movie!

JPR—What are some of your favorite movies be?

J—Hmm... Sweetie - directed by Jane Campion and La Vie En Rose - directed by Alain Berliner.

JPR—Cool, I think that’s everything. That was fun! Thank you, very much.

J—Thanks for coming over.

J—Yeah and you can also learn. Like, I’m doing a Barbie commercial, I’m totally into it, I’ll learn something. I’d rather have someone pay me and I get to learn…

That’s awesome. [laughs] JPR—No doubt! And do you think being a female director helps or hinders your chances of getting jobs in the TV world?

J—I think it totally hurts me. I think it’s like any job; there is sexism across the board. It’s always harder if you’re a woman, people get jobs based on their friends and if you play golf with someone... Pretty much all the people who run shows are guys, so it’s hard like that. Also, you’re like, more judged as a woman…

JPR—...like if you’re a stubborn guy or whatever, people…

J—…They’re like, “Oh, he’s really good.”

JPR—“He’s passionate,” [laughs] J—…and for a girl, it’s like, “Oh, she sucks,” or like, “She takes too long.”

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm0044803

JPR—You almost have to do twice as good, just to prove yourself. Are there any tricks you’ve used to try and get around hurdles like that?

J—I mean, for me, I try to make guys my mentors, which helps, you know? Maybe I can’t play golf with them or be in their basketball league, but I can just be like, “Hey, can I have coffee with you, I really admire you, can you help me?” Putting them in a mentor role, I think, really helps.

————— 65

february ————— 

“Any opportunity you have to learn, you should take it.„

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

DANIEL IRON INTERVIEW BY JEREMY POWER REGIMBAL — PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE LEWIS

Although Daniel Iron is a Toronto-born and raised film producer, you definitely can’t classify him as just another Canadian filmmaker. His films are on another level among the all too often flat, movie of the week, Canadian content films that generally are released in Canada. It’s not just me saying this either: he was just awarded Best Canadian Feature Film at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival for his film, Cairo Time, which was only the second film from his company, Foundry Films. Their first film, Away From Her, directed by Sarah Polley was nominated for two Oscars and won a staggering thirty-nine awards. With a track record and talent like his, it’s not surprising that he attracts award-winning actors like Julie Christie, Ryan Philippe and Patricia Clarkson. An interesting thing about Daniel, is that unlike a lot of filmmakers, he skipped the stage of making low budget commercials, music videos and short films. I got to sit down and talk about the challenges of shooting in Africa for his most recent film The Bang Bang Club and take in some great advice from an innovator in today’s film industry. If you haven’t yet seen his films and you appreciate beautiful European-style cinematography with quality stories you need to check him out.

JEREMY—Hey, Daniel, how are you today?

DANIEL—Good, how are you?

JPR—I’m great. So, first off thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. We appreciate it. How’s Toronto these days?

D—It’s freezing… but we’ve had no snowstorms. Maybe like an inch.

JPR—Did you grow up in Toronto? And have you always worked out of Toronto?

D—I’m one of the few people in the film industry in Toronto who actually grew up in Toronto and I’ve always worked out of here, too.

JPR—Did you grow up in a film family? How did you first get involved in the film industry?

D—Well… all my friends from high school ended up in the film industry. So I was always interested in film, but I ended up going to law school.

JPR—Oh, really? Is that how you got into film, through the law side of things? Or were you interested in directing or the creative side when you first started?

D—No, I was never interested in directing. I always watched films; went to all the European films and films at repertory cinemas that used to play in Toronto, much more than they do now. I basically grew up loving movies… but it was hard to imagine what I would do in film. There wasn’t really a film industry back then.

JPR—Yeah for sure. Did you do any commercial or music video work before you got into film, television and documentaries?

D—No, never. I went to law school when I was very young, and I articled at Telefilm Canada, oddly. When I was about 23 I started working at Telefilm as an articling student and then they hired me on as a lawyer. I spent five years at Telefilm, basically doing legal work…

JPR—…So you got straight into getting paid, unlike most filmmakers. [laughs] D—[laughs] …as a junior lawyer at Telefilm Canada… I probably made less than a junior grip (low paid film technician)… After about five years as a lawyer, I was ready to get out and go work for a production company. As fate would have it, Rhombus Media approached me and asked if I would come work there as a

business affairs person. So, I left Telefilm and went to Rhombus, as the lawyer in business affairs, and when I was there, I started producing.

JPR—What kind of projects were you producing when you worked with them?

D—Well, Rhombus Media did a lot of high-end performing arts films… sort of like Yo Yo Ma, working with the top dance companies and classical music, musicians from around the world. The first feature I worked on there was Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould.

JPR—I’m a filmmaker myself and I know some producers are creative producers but your background definitely seems to be in the law and business side. Is that more what you focus on when you’re involved in a project?

D—No, it’s both for me. I got into producing for the creative stuff, so I work quite closely with writer-directors. I can do the business stuff because of my law background and my background at Telefilm, but I like to do both.

JPR—Do you usually try to develop your own ideas, or do you buy the rights to scripts?

D—It’s different for everything. I don’t normally buy the rights to scripts. A lot of the people I work with, like Ruba Nadda or Sarah Polley, are writer-directors. I like to work with writer-directors creatively, but it’s often their ideas and we start with a treatment and build a script together. On occasion, I’ll buy the rights to a book and then hire a writer-director to work on it.

JPR—You’ve produced all sorts of projects for TV, film and documentaries. What are the biggest differences, on the producing end, between the three areas? Are there any specific things that you could point out?

D—Well, the big one is, in television, you actually often get paid.

JPR—[laughs] Yeah.

D—I find, like with a lot of the television I do, it’s not that different of a creative process. It all sort of starts from the creative, and hiring the director and the crew.

The financing’s quite different for all of them, I guess.

JPR—Yeah, I guess a documentary is a lot harder to get financed?

D—There are fewer and fewer outlets in Canada for docs, so it’s becoming ————— 67

february ————— 

increasingly harder.

JPR—Who owns Foundry Films and when did you start that company?

D—It’s just me. I was at Rhombus for eleven years, I was one of the five partners there, and I decided it was time to leave. Two of the partners were directors so, a lot of the time I had to produce things, just as part of the company, and after awhile I just wanted to work on my own, so I started Foundry Films.

“The city is insane.„

JPR—What was Foundry Films first feature length production?

D—The first feature I did was Away From Her, Sarah Polley’s movie which had two Academy Award nominations.

JPR—And the next film after that was Cairo Time, which won Best Canadian Feature Film at 2009 Toronto International Film Festival?

D—Yeah, it was.

JPR—Congratulations, that’s amazing. Not a bad way to start a company, with two award-winning films. So, Cairo Time was all shot in Cairo? What were some of the issues with filming there?

D— I mean, the biggest one is that the city is insane.

JPR—Insane? [laughs] D— Yeah, it’s twenty million people squeezed into a space I think that was made for eight million. The hardest thing is crossing the road. [laughs] JPR—Is there an infrastructure for the film industry there? Or did you bring a lot of gear with you?

D—No, it’s like the Hollywood of the Arabic world. When you throw on the television there’s these amazing black and white films from the Thirties and Forties where everyone’s dressed in tuxedos and drinking champagne. It has a really long history of filmmaking. It’s now where all the Saudi Arabian commercials are made, but it’s very hard to navigate ‘cause it’s extremely corrupt.

JPR—Is Ruba Nadda, the director of Cairo Time, from Canada?

D—She’s fantastic! This was my first time working with her. In Away From Her, Julie Christie was also an Oscar winner. We definitely had to pick the right actress to bring to Cairo. The amenities are not what they would be used to in the U.S. It really is “fly by the seat of your pants.” There really is no police protection there.

JPR—Yeah, I can imagine it would be pretty crazy. Were you operating with a pretty small crew there, or was it a normal size?

D—No, no, pretty big. Especially because, in Egypt, labour’s not really that expensive, so, if you want a scaffold built, all of a sudden fifty people show up and build a scaffold.

JPR—[laughs] Well that’s definitely one bonus of shooting there. What about the film you just finished, The Bang Bang Club? That was a co-production between South Africa and Canada, right? And was that was all shot in Africa?

D—Yeah, the whole movie is set in South Africa.

JPR—When is that expected to come out? Who was in it?

D—Well, I’m going to see the final print in three days. It stars Ryan Phillippe, Taylor Kitsch and Malin Akerman.

JPR—What was it like shooting in South Africa? Was it pretty crazy there?

D—You know, I actually loved it. The company we worked with did Generation Kill, the HBO series. A lot of people shoot there all the time because it’s cheap, the crews are great, and geographically it can look like anything.

Image from The Bang Bang Club.

D—Yeah, she was born in Montreal, and her family lived all over Canada.

JPR—Oh, okay. And what was it like working with the Oscar-nominated actress, Patricia Clarkson? Have you worked with her before?

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

Image from Cairo Time.

this is the ————— film section

JPR—Was Out Of Africa the company that you worked with?

D—Yeah. They were quite experienced.

JPR—Were there any other crazy stories from filming in Africa?

D—Well, the film is about these four photojournalists in their twenties who are like rock stars. Imagine if there were street battles going on in Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver) with thousands of people dying everyday and no one in Vancouver knew it was happening. These photographers were in there capturing it everyday for four years.

JPR—For four years?

D—Until it ended with the elections, when Mandela got elected. One of them got shot, and then another one killed himself right after, and the other two guys that are still alive wrote a book, called The Bang Bang Club.

JPR—Oh, cool. So the actual photographers wrote the book and you bought the rights to the book.

D—Yeah, we developed the script from the book and we shot in the actual locations where the events happened. So, it was really emotional… people in the neighborhood were coming out and saying, “My brother was shot right there.”

JPR—How was it for the actual photographers that were on set? Did they get pretty worked up about having to relive all those moments?

D—Yeah, at certain points they did. I mean, these are tough photographers, you know? One of them is still in Afghanistan, I guess once a year, but, yeah, they got quite shaken up at certain points.

JPR—Wow, that sounds like an amazing film. I can’t wait to see it! Now I’m just going to ask you a couple lighter questions… What type of music do you listen to?

D—I’m still really stuck on The Clash, but also Wilco, Radiohead and Glenn Gould.

JPR—What about films? What are some of your most recent favorite films that really stuck in your mind?

D—There Will Be Blood... I’ve watched, like, ten times in the last six months… also Crouching Tiger, In The Mood For Love, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

JPR—You’ve definitely had a pretty balanced film career between documentary, TV and film. Are there any secrets to staying alive and making money in the film industry that you could share?

D—Well… I was talking to a screen writer yesterday and people are always saying, like, “Oh, I want to write a script,” or, “I have a script,” and our joke was, like, “Yeah, okay, well, I want to be a heart surgeon, so could we go in the bathroom and I’ll conduct surgery on you?”

JPR—Yeah. [laughs] D—It’s a skill, like anything else… you have to learn things and become better at them and you have to look at the business, dealing with artists, dealing with directors, dealing with scripts, and learn it. And any opportunity you have to learn, you should take it because it’s sort of an accumulation of knowledge and learning that makes you good at what you do. It’s all about learning how to collaborate with people. The most important thing is knowing how to get the most out of people, how to create environments that are conducive to creativity and allow people to be work at their best… Watch people do well, watch people do poorly. Try to accumulate the knowledge into one bigger skill.

JPR—Definitely. Very good advice. Thanks so much for chatting with me today.

I look forward to seeing The Bang Bang Club. Talk soon.

D—Thank you, Let me know if you need anything else.

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm0410065

————— 69

february ————— 

black dress ORANGE, octopus necklace DIGBY & IONA, silver eagle claw PAMELA LOVE the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

ALISON PILL INTERVIEW BY JOSH CLOSE — PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNA WOLF STYLING BY LAURI EISENBERG HAIR BY SONG HEE FOR KERASTASE MAKEUP BY KRISTIN HILTON FOR BENEFIT COSMETICS

I first met actor and karaoke-singer extraordinaire, Alison Pill, in New York after seeing her in the play, "Reasons To Be Pretty,” written Neil LaBute and directed by a mutual friend. The opening scene is like watching a bomb go off, only sans countdown. Here's this terribly cute young woman whom I've heard about several times - "She's amazing,” "You have to see her in something... anything... she's the best,” "She's my favorite,” - punishing this guy on stage in a heated argument. Finally, here I am, getting a glimpse. It's hard to call her an actor. I feel like there's too many of those roaming around in LA. She's that… and something more. Magician. Tightrope walker. Explorer. The next time I met Alison was equally impressive. Here was this young, pretty, intensely smart young woman drinking Black Label and belting Sam Cooke in a five-by-five private karaoke room in the East Village. A cheesy Eighties line popped to mind, "Gee whiz, what a woman!” Since that night, which ended with us listening to classic blues over the jukebox on our who-knows-what-number scotch at the corner bar of Ninth and Avenue A, I've leaped into the vast and crowded pool of Alison admirers.

JOSH—Hello?

ALISON—Hello.

J—Hi, How are you doing?

A—Good, how are you?

J—Good, good. What are you up to?

A—Not much, but it's bitter cold today.

J—Scotch weather.

A—I just have red wine.

J—Right… You’re on the upper west side having wine and dinner parties.

A—Well, the dinner parties haven’t started, there’s still no furniture here. Besides my one chair?

J—[laughs] That’s right. I remember being around in New York while you were shooting the TV show In Treatment. You seem to have this clear attachment to what your character was going through. Also wasn't it through the writer that you kind of discovered a lot of the character?

A—Yeah, we both related to what she was going through. I think we had both been through enough therapy and knew this type of over-achieving, people-pleasing person with so much indescribable rage. I think in trying to portray that, it’s like one of the scariest things you can do. I think angry young women are terrifying.

Especially when on the outside they look so perfect…

J—How do you even begin to carry something like that?

A—It’s always interesting. I think it’s also interesting to play these women because they’re so good at hiding something and there’s nothing more fun in acting than not showing your hand.

J—Yeah. The hiding of it all...

A—…I hate it when actors shout or cry too easily. Too many people think that’s acting. I think that’s melodrama. I think there’s something interesting in trying to figure out ways to play that weight. I watched Inside the Actors’ Studio and I remember Benicio Del Toro talking about always knowing what his characters have in their pockets and that being one of the most important things. I think that’s so important, literally and figuratively. Everybody has secrets and everybody kind of keeps something back.

J—How long have you been acting for?

A—Fourteen years.

J—So, you started when you were how old?

A—Ten. J—And you’ve been working pretty consistently since then...

A—Yeah, yeah, I’ve never had a real job. [laughs] J—That’s huge. Do you still get the same sense of nerves that you once did or do you feel it’s kind of diminished in a way?

A—I feel like it’s gotten worse.

J—I agree.

A—You know, here’s this girl who’s doing well in school and has the right kind of life and seems to have everything put together and yet, has this death wish.

J—Worse?

A—Yeah, I think when I was younger I didn’t know that I should be scared. It’s just like, “What? You want me to do this? Sure. Yeah, I can do that.” It was still ————— 71

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

“I think angry young women are terrifying.„ acting and suddenly it became, you know, at a certain point I had to question whether it was something I did because I was getting work and people thought I was good at it or whether it was something that I, in fact, liked doing.

J—Right.

A—Because if “Yes” wasn’t the answer to either of those questions then why the hell would anybody put themselves through this? And then I realized that I did love it and I’ve taken it more seriously since… you know, the last five years.

J—Do you remember what inspired you to say that? “I’m going to take this more seriously now?” Was it a certain part?

A—It was an audition. I started coming down to New York before I moved and it was my last year of high school, maybe it was before then, but I just started coming down to New York for auditions and for theater, because I had never gotten hired or got auditions for theater in Toronto. Anyways, so I really wasn’t comfortable with theater, I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I came down to New York and my agent took me to see Proof with Mary Louise Parker. And I was like, “Whoa! That’s what I should do, that’s what you can do on stage.”

You can make weird personal choices; you can use your whole body. You can command that much. I went into an audition the next day and there was just a chair in the middle of the room and instead of doing what I usually did during auditions, which was just kind of perch on the edge of the chair and say my lines, I worked and memorized and used the chair.You know, trying to give myself some physicality, trying to sort of think about other things than just saying the lines right and hitting my mark. And that kind of flipped the switch for me.

J—Did it help you get away from yourself in some way? I mean, giving you a cast of things to do.

A—Yeah. Saying the lines and hitting your mark, you’ll probably do fine, if that’s what you’ve been doing the last while. You won’t get anywhere near the kind of power that somebody else can bring.

J—It’s true. I love the little things, the little doings, which communicate so much.

Can we talk about Milk a little bit? What was that like for you? Did you audition?

A—Yeah, I auditioned for it and then I got it. [laughs] J—And… The End? [laughs] A—It was really neat. You know, I… [laughs] J—…What was "neat" about it?

A—It was such a different shoot. I never knew what the camera was focused on.

All of those scenes in the political office, in the mayor’s office, in wherever we were, we would just run them a few times and it wasn’t like, “Okay, now we’re doing this close up and then we’re doing a medium on this person.” It was like, “Run through it and we’ll set up some shots and we’ll do some stuff.” I never saw one monitor in the entire time we shot. We’d get ready in the morning and we’d go to set in this political office, which was actually where Harvey and everybody were during that time.

J—So, that must have inspired everyone...

A—Yeah. I got to meet the woman I played and her daughter and Cleve Jones was around on set everyday. We got to meet everybody who is still alive.

white t-shirt with draping ROCHAMBEAU, levis cut off shorts stylist's own, necklace & small crow skull PAMELA LOVE, bracelets with scissors BOBAE, stilettos VICINI ————— 73

february ————— 

J—How was it working with Sean Penn and Gus Van Sant?

A—It was amazing!

J—I'm sure.

A—Gus doesn’t really say a lot and it took awhile for me to realize just what a light touch he has as a director.

J—By ‘light touch’ you mean…

A— I mean, the most you would usually get out him, if he was satisfied, was, “That was good”, and it took awhile for me to realize that was the highest compliment you could get. He’s like, “If I’ve moved on, that’s all you need to know.” [laughs] J—Okay...

A—…And then I realized that the way he shot, the way he put everybody in a room together, the cast, and then kind of let it fly, just works when you put together the right group of people.

J—He doesn’t sound like he’s isolating people at all; he’s really bonding them. I feel as soon as you start saying, “This is your time for your close up,” it’s just sort of isolating, is it not?

A—And you stop kind of reacting in the same way. You stop leading your own character’s life.

J—Yeah.

A—Usually ‘cause you’re so focused on one moment or one thing, and in his way, it was like every moment counts.

J—How long were you on it for?

A—I was in San Francisco for about six weeks, I think? The whole shoot was two months and we had two weeks of rehearsal beforehand.

J—Well, the film was great. I loved it.

A—And Sean’s just a genius.

J—He is. How was it watching him work?

A—Insane. I mean, it’s just like, he’s Sean, and then suddenly, he’s this gay man from New York. And it would be just about that quick of a change. Very few actors can act a scene with their back. But, there was this one time we were watching it’s a scene when Diego Luna walks up and he’s drunk, and it’s the first time he’s introduced in the movie…

“It's like mental involvement versus an emotional involvement.„ this page———— black shirt PLUME, yellow pants KATE ERMILIO, silver wheel bracelet PAMELA LOVE, boots GUISEPPE ZANOTTI opposite page———— black jacket BLANC DE CHINE, arrowhead necklace PAMELA LOVE, acid wash denim necklace CHRIS HABANA, sword necklace SURFACE TO AIR, 3 cube necklace JACKSON, JOHNSTON & ROE, elephant head ring DIGBY & IONA, 3 ball ring ALEXIS BITTAR the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

J—… I remember…

A—… And the whole scene Diego has almost all the lines, he’s drunk and he’s just talking to Sean. They shoot Diego’s side and then the producers are expecting Gus to turn around and shoot Sean’s close up from outside the door. And Gus was like, “No, you know what, I have it.” You watch that scene and you get everything from Sean’s back. Not many people can do that. That sort of says a lot about the both of them.

J—Too much of the time it's about finding ways to explain what’s going on, as opposed to... I was having a conversation with my friend the other day about this, after seeing a film called Brothers.

A—Oh, I haven’t seen it yet. I want to see it!

J—It’s good. Great performances. There’s a scene where Jake Gyllenhaal was talking about this horrible act that he committed and you never go into the act, you never see the act, but the way he is describing it is so involving as an audience member. I forgot how appreciative I am when filmmakers do that, you know? They don’t show you every bit; they don’t go into every detail to show how people reacted and what they’re doing... we get to experience it through these two characters talking about it.

It's refreshing to be involved that way, with a film.

A—It’s like mental involvement versus an emotional involvement. I mean, I can mentally put together the story, but it’s another thing to feel like you’re watching somebody live through it again.

J—Your right. What’s in our imagination is so much more fearful, more vivid... Or maybe it’s just mine? I’m sure it’s picking and choosing, but it diminishes whatever feelings were there in the first place.

A—Yeah, it’s like, “Mine was scarier.”

J—So Milk...

A—[laughs] Milk was really neat. You realize it’s the end of the decade soon?

J—I know, it’s crazy. Are you a reflective person?

A—I’m trying to be. I think it’s kind of worthwhile to say what works and what doesn’t. You know, things I would improve upon… I think that’s a valid thing to think about.

J—Do you have anything you want to share? Resolutions?

A—Um... keep a cleaner house. [laughs] J—I’m going to send that resolution your way too. I think that’s a great resolution.

A—[laughs] J—Is there a certain day of the week that you love the most?

A—I love Wednesdays.

J—You do? Why do you love that day?

A—I love it because it’s usually my favorite crossword day. [laughs] It’s in the Dining section of the New York Times and a challenging crossword, but a doable crossword. Then Thursdays are my favorite, because I know I have Thursday night and there’s not a matinee until Saturday.

J—So, you have that full stretch open, to yourself.

A—Yeah, yeah. But usually Wednesdays.

————— 75

february ————— 

“Look people in the eye when you tell them you miss them.„ J—The Hump Day. A—Right.

J—Gotcha. Have you ever done an interview before?

A—No.

J—[laughs] What’s the last good piece of advice that you got?

A— Look people in the eye when you tell them you miss them.

J—I like that a lot and have never heard it. When’s the last time you’ve eaten a chocolate bar?

A—Um, I actually bought one on my way home.

J—What if you could interview someone? Who would it be? Besides me?

A—[laughs] It would be, uh... I don’t know. Who would I interview?

J—You did?

A—Yeah.

J—Let’s say living... narrow it down.

A—Okay, let’s narrow it down to living...‘cause, The Red Book, by Jung is now out in release, but it was unpublished during his lifetime. Anyway, he’s not alive, not that he would be my first interview, but he just opened up a whole, other dead person category. But in terms of living people, ummm...That’s a tricky question.

J—Maybe you want to interview someone who just read The Red Book?

J—On your way home from the Eighties?

A—What?

J—I don’t know, I haven’t bought a chocolate bar since the Eighties. That’s what came to mind.

A—Oh. Oh, I get it. [laughs]

A—[laughs] Maybe Hugo Chavez. He’d be interesting for me to interview.

J—Okay. Have you ever had a Baby Ruth?

J—That would be a good interview.

A—Yeah, I know Baby Ruth.

A—Yeah.

J—Baby Ruth is the best.

J—And boxing match.

A—He’s supposed to be incredibly charming. And I would be fascinated to meet him. Him and Karl Rove.

J—Why those two? Especially Rove.

A—I would say one new resolution is to try and empathize with the other side of whatever side I’m on.

J—That’s funny you say that, because you seem like the most empathetic person in the world.

A—[laughs] J—So, I’ve got some shorter questions for you. What’s the last joke you heard? And retell it. No matter how bad it is.

A—Mmm... Almond Snickers is pretty much no joke.

J—That is no joke, actually.When I was playing hockey, I'd always see young diabetics carrying the Almond Snickers around, ‘cause that was their drug of choice.

A—Fuck you, insulin.

J— [laughs] Well, I’m back on the East Coast as of mid-next year.

A—Woo-hoo!

J—Well until then.

A—Until then. Talk to you soon.

J—Yes for sure. Talk soon.

A—No! I can’t.

J—Come on, there’s no joke rating on this magazine.

A—Yeah, but I can’t because I know exactly what the last joke I heard was. And it involves The Miracle Worker and it’s a Helen Keller joke and will not tell it.

More———— www.imdb.com/name/nm0683467

white t-shirt with draping ROCHAMBEAU, levis cut off shorts stylist's own, necklace & small crow skull PAMELA LOVE, bracelets with scissors BOBAE, stilettos VICINI the lab magazine ————— issue 01

this is the ————— film section

————— 77

february ————— 

the lab magazine ————— issue 01

ews N od o G

Vanc ou ve r’s

m

t os

Th e

this is ————— advertising

e ph ra

a av

o

n le o b a il

hing “post-P

iTunes

fe t c r n og

six piece! Al b rs” u m s

myspace/weareallgoodnews

————— 79

february ————— 

power • fow • hot • a n us a ra • h at h

a

•

yr

e id

yin • kids lates • •p r • pi e na ore tal •c the lab magazine ————— issue 01