Uke hunt interview and tour

SPIKE SLAWSON INTERVIEW BY SHELBY MONITA /HOSER PUNX and J.B WITHIN PUNK ZINE COURTESY OF MELANIE KAYE PR

SPIKE SLAWSON PHOTO J.B

J.B: Hey I’m sitting here with Spike Slawson and Shelby from Hoser Punx and we’re tag teaming, Spike so, here we go!

SHELBY: So Uke-Hunt has been around now for about 8 years?

SPIKE: Yeah we’ve been around since like 2008 we’ve been playing under one incarnation or another but under the same moniker so whatever that adds up to so...7ish eight-ish.

SHELBY: Yeah something like that!

SPIKE: It wasn’t until about two years ago that we started playing at a fisherman’s wharf and that’s when things started to become in earnest. And then Mike offered to do a

record so that kind of gave us a big kind of motivation to kind of get our shit together and form a real cohesive, coherent compelling band you know?

SHELBY: Yeah I’ve read about the fisherman wharfs performances and how did it feel to perform in front of the people after a long day at the wharf?

SPIKE: Well the tourists wouldn’t congregate for that very reason but the dialects would! So often you were playing for them and they don’t have any money but they are very vocal about if they like you or don’t like you no not necessarily vocal you know what you mean? So it really gets you to keep your shit together in adverse environments.

SHELBY: Actually I have a really weird question in regards to that. Whenever I see tourists taking photos of street performers and not donating, how do you feel about that? Being a Canadian I want to be polite and it’s pretty impolite to not donate and enjoy the entertainment in what they are doing!

SPIKE: I agree but also I believe in being free to be less polite because those people’s lives will ultimately be much less rich than others and well that’s the hope anyway. I’m not sure completely if that’s true because I think our reward system based on this continent and Western Europe is for absolute douchebags and they’re the ones who end up being hugely successful. But my hope is not a financial success kind of context but life in general is much more rewarding to be polite and have manners, but you’re also out in public space and they

PHOTO J.B are also taking pictures of everything else so it’s not like they are throwing money at the Alcatraz ferry or something except that they are except for when they are taking pictures of crab stands and thing like that. There are a lot of people that are like, ‘hey you want to take a picture, tip people’ and are really vocal about that so you know it’s a fine line. There’s also a lot of weird people out there too!

There’s this guy – “Anti-Semitic Elmo” who made the news. He was arrested in Central Park with his mask kind of slung back and his creepy sort of face like head kind of peeking out and he still had the Elmo costume on and the cops arrested him with it on with the cuffs on him and he was screaming anti-Semitic slurs and it turns out he was Jewish himself. But he moved out to Fisherman’s Warf and he was taking pictures of kids and stuff he apparently had this video called “Welcome to the rape camp”.

SHELBY/J.B: Oh my god!

SPIKE: This is not a joke not a lie not a fabrication this guy he had this sliding scale you would pay to watch these Cambodian girls tortured on the internet on a sliding scale. So then he had these knee pads that he used to kneel down and take pictures of the kids and stuff and this balloon guy who was also kind of sketchy and he was the first guy who told me “Hey man don’t talk to Elmo he’s got a video called welcome to the rape camp man” What the fuck did I just hear? Or who? And you just got to stand there and play you know. And you’re like ‘when do I start, how do I start’ you know and you just do but your skin is crawling and your stomach is about to fall out but eventually you get over it so.

SHELBY: Sounds like a really unique experience?

SPIKE: It was and one day we just got really stoned and kept doing it long after we weren’t making any money because the fog had come in and it was just

something that I haven’t experienced or ever done before.

SHELBY: So you toured to Quebec and I have to ask everyone who’s gone through - whose is there favorite place to eat Poutine?

SPIKE: Yeah I had many times Poutine but tomorrow were not getting a chance to because we are going to a friend’s place somewhere in Quebec and it’s got the best Frog Rock and is that kind of un political to say that, Frog Rock? But anyway it’s fucking good and Poutine pizza fries!

SHELBY: Poutine Burrito?

SPIKE: My god! but no we are going to have it in Quebec City next time there’s Smokes and they have that chain in Vancouver now but it’s right beside a Harvey’s and it’s like the only Harvey’s in Vancouver and to me that should be a gold standard in North America to have Harvey’s everywhere I love Harvey’s it’s kind

PHOTO J.B

of like Starbucks sort of! When you’re travelling there’s so much bad coffee out there that Starbucks as low of a standard coffee it is at least it’s a standard you know what I mean? And Harvey’s is kind of like that but a much higher standard.

J.B: Well that’s the thing about Starbucks it’s been known that they say it’s certified Fair Trade but it’s not really Fair Trade coffee!

SPIKE: Who’s that, Starbucks?

SHELBY: I’m not even going to go into that! So do you have any rituals that keeps you grounded close to home and sane since you’ve been on tour so long?

SPIKE: Coffee and the shows. That’s sort of the constant and it’s kind of what you call it the “Meat” or the “Nut” or what you call it? It’s the focal point of the day but the rest of it I grew up in Pittsburgh and breathing like actual air is kind of nice to do again because I’ve been living on the Pacific coast for so long. I love San Francisco but it’s dry and with like a four year drought it’s really dry. So there are certain things about touring, like back here it’s grounding for someone that lives in San Francisco for like 25 years you know? So yeah, rituals basically just playing, sound checking and playing with different people and walking around getting my bearings and the more I travel the more I know all these far flung cities. It’s amazing to think about how much trivia

ROB PHOTO J.B

and trivial trivia the human brain can absorb.

SHELBY: Yeah!

SPIKE: I know my way around way more cities now so that’s kind of cool for me and I fought geography with my uncle who lives just outside of Lancing and every five minutes we were breaking the atlas out! Even though both of us had smart phones!

SHELBY: Do you remember your first celebrity crush?

SPIKE: Linda Blair!

J.B: Post Exorcist?

SPIKE: Yeah post Exorcist. Remember that movie I fucking forget what it was called the one with the unknown comic and she was in some of those weird teen movies back then and she was a fox back then I mean like baby fat and yeah that kind of worked out for me so yeah!

SHELBY: Wicked!

J.B: So I grew up in Vancouver and

you talk about the Fisherman’s Warf but it’s kind of like Granville Market and Gas Town in Vancouver?

SPIKE: Yeah exactly it’s like being in East Hastings and in Canada and me being from the States I feel less threatened and that’s not an insult and I feel slightly less threatened walking through it you know. Like if I have my running shoes on and you know I can pretty much deal with anything you can throw at me until you get to that corner on Cordova Street where like the tent city is and that’s where I thought like man we were like ‘man we shouldn’t be here’ and it got to the point that if we were like man if we walked in would be like the real ghetto tourism and not like the shit they show you and plus I thought I might get some flesh eating disease because you can only imagine what’s going on in there. And as we continued down Cordova Street we were a little bit hesitant until we seen these two body building homosexual dudes walking down the street and we thought well these guys will protect us so!

So we followed them and as we were crossing the street we thought what was a gang it was all these Asian dudes in red track suits and they were walking down the street with purpose and aggression and I was like looking around looking for the guys in the blue suits or the white suits like remember “Big Trouble in Little China” and I thought it was like going to go down and it

turned out there like from St Peter and Paul and they go around and feed the addicts and homeless and then they went into a building and then that’s when we go there and there’s some amazing stuff out there.

What’s amazing is it’s got this corner in the city and Vancouver is like San Francisco it’s one of those cities that have not been forgotten about which is unfortunate sometimes. But that’s one of those corners of Vancouver that has been forgotten about so you see this crazy siding on houses and stuff and you wouldn’t see it anywhere else in Vancouver and yet it’s still there and that’s kind of like the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

J.B: The name of the band Uke-Hunt you mentioned before it was from travelling as a kid and your mother used to make jokes about - where’s Mike Hunt?

And you kind of adapted from that, do you want to relate to that?

SPIKE: Ah yeah that was the reason to the whole project was to kind of put a truth to the lie of the whole name because the name was just too good of a joke and ultimately the opportunity to play and the Warf and Mike with the opportunity to record with Fat that was the real world catalyst but my personal inspiration for it was the name. And yeah it was my mom that taught me the joke although if I mentioned it now she would probably deny it or something.

J.B: So did you find the transition from six strings down to four of the Uke a little weird to play?

SPIKE: Yeah I don’t play guitar really all that good but I got rudimentary skills and it’s like the guitar but with two less strings. You take the top two strings off a guitar and you got a Ukulele and then you learn

CAPTAIN DAVE PHOTO J.B

those chords and then you keep learning and learn new ones there’s all these different configurations and weird jazz chords that are easier to play then actual bar chords. It all flows and it comes easier you know if I ever get around to it or find the talent for it you know it’s a great tool for song writing because all of the chords you can do all in one position.

J.B: Have you ever been on the Social media forum for Uke Hunt?

SPIKE: No I’ve seen it but have never actually ever been on it and all the stuff I’ve learned has been from this guy “Lyle Ritz” and from his books he’s this guy who did a couple records for the Verve Label in the fifties. “All About Uke and fifty state Jazz” was one of them or both of them I think there was only two al-

bums made and he did the song from that Steve Martin movie “The Jerk” and he did an “Orange” song that was really good and that’s where I’ve learned the most chords and otherwise you just learn the rest And you get a chord book and you don’t have to put it out in tablature you know. I would probably say that’s a great resource for people looking to learn.

J.B: And you mentioned a lot of Jazz that touches base with the Lounge atmosphere. Is there any kind of small lounge or venue that really stands out that you’ve played at?

SPIKE: I would like to say there’s this kibitz room at Canters in Los Angeles. It’s like this Jewish wonderland in the middle of this village called Fairfax Avenue that I used to go to as a kid and it’s on the west coast and they have these fantastic turkey open face sandwiches and the corn beef and you can get a Monte Cristo sandwich there…

And they have this bar in the back that fit maybe about fifty people and it’s called the kibitz room and bands play there and that’s where all those weird rooms from like the forties and fifties that used to make up Los Angeles - mind you, you have to travel a little further now to find them because Los Angeles is built up now, it’s cool what’s still there in between the crack of Los Angeles and on the west coast it’s little bit harder to find being from the West Coast you understand that and lot of that midcentury stuff is the key to appreciating and moving from Pittsburgh I didn’t quite appreciate it. I was used to this nineteenth century beautiful brick and cornice work and rock and on the west coast you have to learn to appreciate these things like car dealerships before someone tears those down and all the Deco is protected but all the other stuff is open game you know.

J.B: Your line up - you have people from Mckenzies to Ranshackle Romeo’s and Filthy Thieving Bastards?

SPIKE: Tonight we have Ramshackle Romeo’s but sadly no Real Mckenzies or Filthy’s but we do have a guy from “Bomb” remember that band from the nineties from San Francisco? Captain Dave Hillsinger is playing the bass with us tonight and he’s from Toms River which is one town over from “Seaside Heights” where they film Jersey Shore and we actually went to the house when we went to visit him! That was one of my favorite shows, it was like America

showing its dirty laundry.

J.B: You have a lot of songs that you pick to cover from John Lennon to Bowie but a lot of Kinks. Do you really like the Kinks?

SPIKE: Yeah I really like the Kinks it’s the main thing but I do like the Stones and the Beatles but with the Kinks it just makes it I don’t know if it’s the guitars or what?

J.B: Are you going to do the “Man Sold the World” tonight?

SPIKE: No but we are going to do a lot of things tonight and make a left turn in the middle of the set and we hope that Toronto will follow us.

J.B: I always end with a famous book or a famous quote is there anything that comes to mind?

SPIKE: Yeah my friend, may he rest in peace in Dayton Ohio once said “Get into the night” and a famous book “Paying for it” is a great book have you read it? Chester Brown, he’s from Montreal but he lives here and he’s one of those weird Triad of guys but paying for it is a book about his experiences as a john in Toronto and it’s amazing man and there’s these appendices that roll into passion in defense of the trade of prostitution and how he’s just as meaningful passionate relationships with women that he’s exchange money for sex with that as with anybody else and sometimes more satisfying than on multiple levels it’s amazing read. So this guy attacks the question like Joe Matt and invites these two guys to sit down and eat lunch and have coffee and this guy Joe Matt I don’t know if you read his comic books or not but he’s not a prude or nothing if you read those books because there kind of confessional in a Robert Crumb kind of way. And he’s the one that has the biggest problem with Chester Browns getting into and it’s interesting it really attacks your deepest held sentimental beliefs about prostitution and gender roles and relations and things like that.

UKE-HUNT

SELF TITLED ALBUM AVAILABLE NOW

WWW.FATWRECK.COM