What was your first musical memory?
Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond: “My mother was an organist and she was doing an organ recital and I was about two and a half. She had to take me to this auditorium to practice. I just remember her putting on her black patent leather shoes and then a huge enormous sound coming out. I am sure it was the shock of a pipe organ. It is the original rock instrument.”
Isis Salam of Thunderheist: “I’d say growing I had three brothers but my older brother was a writer when he was 13 and I was 10 and he was writing raps and I always looked up to him. When Nas’s Illmatic record came out I remember us sitting together and listening to it and thinking, ‘This is the best record of all time’.”
Jacques Doucet of Radio Radio: “My first tape that I bought was by Sharon, Lois and Bram. Because my mom said these are good songs, you know, ‘Purple People Eater’, ‘Rockin’ Robin’ and all that. If it wasn’t that it would be listening to Green Day’s Dookie record.”
Alexei Perry of the Handsome Furs: “For me, it was dancing to Tina Turner with my mom barefoot down a long hallway.”
Dan Boeckner of the Handsome Furs: “Probably getting Metallica’s Master of Puppets on cassette from my friend Emmett when I was in grade five.”
Josh McGuirk of Styrofoamones: “Michael Jackson. I lost my mind over Michael Jackson. I went to see him at Exhibition Stadium with my mom and he was the master of the stage. It was the first record that my mom bought for me.”
Daniel Lee of Styrofoamones: “Bruce Springsteen. I used to dance around to him in my underwear, Born in the USA. It was a great album. He wrote that song in a half an hour.”
Tony Dekker of the Great Lake Swimmers: “My local radio station was an old school country radio station, so I guess it would be listening to old country and western songs…I really hated it. Like around the late 80s, early 90s, country music was really bad. I don’t want to put a label squarely on it but around that time period country music wasn’t the best music that was on the radio.”
Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene: “It think the most impacting one was when I was about 14, I heard Bob Dylan on CBC Radio for the first time. They played “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”, and I grew up in a very anemic suburb and it blew the lid off everything. It was like an alien visitation or something. It was so outside of the culture that I was from, it really shook me to the core and led me on a musical path to find out about so many other artists.”
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond: “My kindergarten ‘What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up’ colouring page says artist, veterinarian and musician.”
Isis Salam of Thunderheist: “I just wanted to be the boss. I’m not sure the boss of what, I just always pictured myself with helicopters and an office with windows overlooking the entire city.”
Jacques Doucet of Radio Radio: “I wanted to own a chain of funeral homes. I wanted to be a mortician.”
Alexandre Bilodeau of Radio Radio: “I wanted to make music for Bollywood films.”
Alexei Perry of the Handsome Furs: “A writer.”
Dan Boeckner of the Handsome Furs: “I wanted to be a musician.”
Tony Dekker of the Great Lake Swimmers: “When I was really young I wanted to be a fisherman. We lived on the Lakes and my dad was really into fishing, so I just thought it was cool when I was ten years old.”
Josh McGuirk of Styrofoamones: “I wanted to be a hockey player, but as a joke whenever someone asks me that I always say a rock star.”
Daniel Lee of Styrofoamones: “I wanted to be a child psychologist. That’s all behind me now though.”
Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene: “When I was really young I wanted to be a photographer and travel around in a Winnebago.”
What is something you have never told anyone?
Isis Salam of Thunderheist: “I have the Klingon dictionary. It’s probably the reason why I am single.”
Jacques Doucet of Radio Radio: “I have a fetish for transvestites.”
Alexei Perry of the Handsome Furs: “I have backwards heart valves. I almost died in a snowmobile accident last year…I went off an 11,000 foot cliff face and hit a bunch of trees, but didn’t die.”
Jason Collett of Broken Social Scene: “You know what, there isn’t anything. I don’t hold anything back.”
Photographed, but not quoted: Great Lake Swimmers and Jill Barber, by Ian Gibb. Check out more of Ian’s HPX shots at http://www.iangibbphotography.com
