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This is an interview with Kevin and Mark with some guy
from Fundy Cable. I dont know his name, so I'll just call 
him "the Guy"! It was done on Feb.22, 1997 while they were
in the SUB, at UNB. If you want the video for it, email me
and maybe we could work something out. 
 
Guy:  How's the tour goin so far?

Kevin:  So far it's been a really good tour, we finished up
 with IME and Mud Girl in Toronto, and now we've been out with
 Ginger for a couple of weeks.

Mark:  Actually, its one of the longest tours we've ever done
 across this country, and we're out for about 2 months total
 and just going to a million cities we've never really been to 
 and just doing Canada in a really big way this time.

Guy:  Well, I really like the new album Creature, now, how's
 the reaction when you play it live?

Kevin:  It's been very good so far, we've played probably all 
 the album to crowds at this point now, and each of the songs
 reacts very well so we're happy in that way.

Guy:  Now, last time you played here was in the fall at the Aitken
 Center, quite a large sized area. How are you guys able to 
 make the transition from a large arena to a small club?
 Do you guys find it difficult to do?

Mark:  We've been doing alot of that in this tour, actually
 depending on which city we've been in we've been in Vancouver
 played 8000 people in a colliseum, we played at a city in 
 Ontario, called St.Catherine's to 500, just a little tiny place.
 So, It's amazing how different the vibes are playing in an arena
 there's a sense of thunder or size to the whole thing, cause
 there's so many people there, and when you play at a club, you 
 feel people's sweat coming onto the stage! We always get both,
 we get both when we got to United States as well, so it just
 provides a little bit of variety for us.

Guy:  Now what took it so long for you guys to make it to the 
 Maritimes?

Kevin:  I think when we had been touring the first album, when
 we were touring Silver, it was released internationally, at various
 territories at the same time, everywhere in Canada, in United
 States, and over to Britain. It just happened in Canada we didnt
 make it to the Maritimes till late in the album.

Guy:  Well you certainly have alot of fans around here in New 
 Brunswick!

Kevin:  Yeah, we discovered that! (smiles)

Guy:  Now why the long gap between last album and this album,
 Creature?

Mark:  It wasnt intentional really by the time we got going with 
 Silver and got into the touring thing, we discovered that it was
 being released all over the world and we had touring, we did the 
 tour in America, we did the tour in places like Thailand, and Europe
 so once we got finished touring in Canada we still had a lot of
 touring to do. So, it's amazing how much, when it seemed like
 the record was over here, it was still going strong in other places
 it just took a long time to finish up with that record.

Guy:  What was the crowd reaction to the band been like over in
 Europe?

Kevin:  Varies from place to place..some places we do very well,
 we do very well in Britain, we played top of the pops of Britain,
 top 20 single, we're lesser known in the rest of Europe, but we 
 still keep going back!

Guy:  Were you surprised by the success of the song Push?
 
Kevin:  We were surprised in the success of the album in general!
  (laughs)

Mark:  It wasnt meant to be a record right, it was intended to be
 an indie record we were gonna sell off teh stage, we recorded it
 in a matter of days, like in Vancouver, recording after midnight
 and that kind of thing. It was, the whole thing was a surprise.

Guy:  How big a hand did MuchMusic have in the pushing that making
 you guys the success you had?
 
Kevin:  We extrodinarily surprised that MuchMusic played the
 video for Push as much as they did. We thought we'd get 4 or 5
 plays, when they jumped on it and immediately put it into
 medium, then heavy rotation. Ah, suddenly everyone seemed to know
 who we were.  They had a big role in our success.

Guy:  Is making videos something you guys enjoy doing?

Kevin:  It is something actually, up until Ressurection, we had
 a very active role in the creation of the videos and concepts 
 for videos, and now we've just sort of let someone else handle it
 for a change to see what they'll come up with.

Mark:  We were very surprised with the directing, it was one of
 those things where it was either going to work, or it wasnt going
 to work. It was very technical, the way working out with alot of
 math, figuring out how big the rooms had to be, how they were
 going to fit with the song and seeing the finished product, it was 
 like, Oh my God! Is that what we did? You know, cause it was like
 2 second takes, literally and then you'd be on to the next take!

Guy:  How much of a hand did you guys have in the concept of the video?

Kevin:  Uh, that was written by someone else, the concept completely.
 We basically just stood there and said where do you want us? It
 was nice for a change to have that kind of feel that if something
 went wrong, it didnt all come down on us!

Mark:  I think we were always prepared to work with someone creating
 videos if somebody brought us a creative that we really liked, it
 just so happened that this guy brought us a creative that was
 better than anything we were thinking of, we just stepped aside and 
 went, Wow! This is very cool!

Guy:  Now last time I seen you guys perform live, you played
 Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. That was a great version of the
 song, how did you guys come about doing that?

Kevin:  Just jamming in rehearsal, playing different songs, and
 that one sorta popped out and stuck there for a long time, so.

Mark:  Anything we can do to keep it interesting, we're playing
 so many shows, and over the course of this year we're probably gonna
 do 200 shows, you gotta be always throwing things into the set, 
 trying new things just to keep yourself sane!

Kevin:  Sometimes they work.

Mark:  And sometimes they dont work! (laughing)

Kevin:  We had a bit of a nightmare with a cover we were trying
 last week.  Didnt work out very well!

Mark:  What was that song? "I Will Survive"?

Kevin:  (nodding) We did "I Will Survive".

Mark:  We're not doing it anymore! (laughing)

Kevin:  It's done!

Mark:  Dont need to worry.

Guy:  Now, has the album taken off in States yet?

Kevin:  It hasnt actually been released in the States or anywhere
 else yet, we'll be heading off to Thailand at the end of this tour 
 in the end of March, and from there...who knows?

Guy:  What advice do you guys give to a young and upcoming band?

Mark:  There's no blueprint to making it work in your band, the 
 biggest thing that anyone in the industry is looking at is songs.
 When you're sending in your demo tape, they're looking to see
 what your image looks like, but at the end of the day its all
 about songs, and just how the band sort of gels as a unit that way.
 The biggest advice has to do with writing, just make sure that
 you're, as musicians, always writing and always challenging
 yourself and create as apposed to just learn the new lick off the
 bush record.

Guy:  So just concentrate on songwriting?

Kevin:  Definately!

Guy:  So you guys performed up in the Northwest Territories with
 Metallica and Hole? How did you enjoy that?

Kevin:  That was an interesting gig, we flew in, landed on a gravel
 runway and were there for 36 hours, it was nice. We got a chance
 to meet Metallica and go see their show, and see the Hole show,
 it was an interesting time, definately.

Guy:  Did you get a chance to meet Courtney Love?

Kevin:  Uh, I dont think we actually met her..

Mark:  I actually had a couple words with her.

Kevin:  Did you?
 
Mark:  (laughing) Yeah, she wasn't very nice!

(they are both laughing)

Guy:  Ah, well you didnt get a black eye or anything.

Mark:  Nah, I survived it! I wasnt a big Metallica fan before
 I went up there, but seeing the show with 300 other people,
 in a small place like that, it just blew me away!

Kevin:  It was unbelievable! They're an unbelievable band live!

Guy:  What do you think the biggest obstacles facing young 
 Canadian bands, like yourselves? Lack of airplay?

Mark:  Distance.

Kevin: Distance can be a difficult thing, we set goals for ourselves
 when we started this, we wanted to have a recording of some kind
 almost immediately after our first couple of shows and some of the
 recordings that we did very early on ended up on the record, Silver,
 when it came out, and also touring.  We wanted to tour, so we went
 out and did whatever it took to get on the road. In our case that
 meant borrowing money from our friends so we could buy a van so that
 we could travel the night before we left and we were very lucky.

Mark:  It's so easy for European or American bands, you travel for 2
 hours and you're at another big city...Canada, you find yourself in
 Vancouver, you gotta drive 10 hours till you get to Calgary, accross
 trechorous highways in mountains.  It's not designed for bands in
 mind, this country!

Kevin: (laughing) Really??

Guy:  I think people think when you get a gold record in Canada
 you're automatically a millionaire. But it doesnt work that way. The
 States, maybe it does, but not in this country. You pretty much
 have to break it big in the States in order to make money?

Mark:  Anyone who gets into the music business with the idea of
 getting rich, is an idiot! You're in the music business because you
 love playin music, and if you make some money on the side, well, that's
 an excellent perk.

Kevin:  If you can stay alive doing it, then anything else is a complete
 bonus. We're just happy we can do this for a living and then 
 continue to do it.

Guy:  Does this take a toll on personal life, constantly touring?

Kevin:  It can!

Mark:  It helps being in Montreal, you have to do little things
 to make it so you have a balance in your life. In the last record,
 there were times when we lost that sense of balance in there, were 
 times we were out for 6 or 7 months straight without getting home.
 So we moved to Montreal, which helps us to get home. Tours are 
 always routed through Montreal.

Kevin:  We're going home tomorrow for 12 hours. So it does help..
 you get to go home.

Guy:  So what's the near future hold for the band?

Kevin:  We'll be playing the Juno's then make-up shows in South
 Ontario, then off to Thailand, hopefully after that have a couple 
 weeks off.

Mark:  And then a whole lot of America. If you've ever toured America,
 its a big place!

Guy: Ok, well the great new album is Creature, if you have a chance do
 pick it up. I wish you the best of luck with the tour.

Kevin & Mark: Thanks very much.

Guy:  This is Kevin and Mark from Moist.