Thunderbird Interview Hell (questions by Evan Symons)
1. Who are you?
Michaela Galloway: Vocals, flute, keyboard, percussion
John Lucas: guitar, baritone guitar, bass
Gregg Steffensen: Drums, random noises
Cam McLellan: bass, guitar
Kyle Fogden: Guitar, keyboard, bass (currently in Copenhagen)
Meredith Woolley: Keyboards, backing vox (Kyle’s temp replacement)2. What part of rock politics do you wish would just go away?
Michaela: I wish all the rocks would just get along.
Gregg: Bruce Allen.
Cam: Manufactured conflict.3. Hinterland played its first show at Ms T's Cabaret. Is it the best venue in Vancouver for up and coming bands (why and/or why not...) How does it rate compared to the ANZA Club and the Sugar Refinery?
Michaela: You left the best venue for up and coming bands off your list. The Purple Onion is by far the best. We have played there more than anywhere else. Jay from Seaside Studios puts on Thursday live band nights. Sean is a super great soundman. Never underestimate the importance of a
good soundman who really knows the house system.
Gregg: I believe Ms. T’s is the ideal venue because of the simple fact that it's easy to fill and it costs nothing to put on a show there, as opposed to Video In, who need a $300 fee up front. I also think it's on par with the ANZA and the Sugar Refinery.
Cam: The ANZA has a certain something… knowing your dad drank beer there in the ‘70s after rugby games.
Meredith: I think that Ms. T's is a good venue for gigs, but I like the feel of the ANZA Club because it has this cozy cabin type setting.4. Should the Sugar Refinery be banned from the Georgia Straight?
John: Only if the Georgia Straight is banned from the Sugar Refinery.
Kyle: No, but Hinterland should.
Gregg: Of course not! I think this town is a little too self serving at a time when we (local bands, venues and media etc.) need to help each other to save this pitiful live scene. Where's the love?5. Describe the first show you ever played and add a little folk lore
for good measure.Michaela: I played my first show at the Press Club in April of 1997. I was in a band called Space Cadet. We played with the Dirtmitts and the Beans. Jenny (who used to book the Press Club) told us that the Club had never been fuller than that night!
John: Flutter debuted to an audience of about 25 at some rec centre in Coquitlam. Our bass player took off to Hawaii and we were forced to do an acoustic show. Never again!
Gregg: My first show was at a theatre in Salmon Arm with a bunch of guys from my high school. We did a song in 7/4 time to impress my drum teacher. I was into glam rock... next question.
Cam: Starfish Room on an indie-rock bill with Blaise Pascal and Meet Daisy.
It was their last show, I believe, and it was a good one. True Love Forever didn’t last much longer either—probably my first and last show as a drummer.
Kyle: House party with my first band (I was 17). I did backing vocals and after singing my first lines I got embarrassed, hid in the kitchen and played bass from there. Then I broke a string before playing "Gauge Away" and compensated by playing the wrong third note in every phrase. Then I went
on my first rock ‘n’ roll bender...
Meredith: Well, that would have been a month ago. It was my first time ever in a band and on stage playing an instrument and singing. Sure, I had a pre-show jitters and blocked out some of my singing parts but once I was on stage and I heard the songs it came back to me at once.6. What other bands have the members of Hinterland performed with? How have they influenced Hinterland? Are you older and wiser now or just older and "losing your edge" to quote a twentysomething indie rocker who is now thirtysomething?
Michaela: I used to be in Space Cadet, and in the Electrosonics. I am a much better musician now than I ever have been before. Joining the Electrosonics was very educational. Suddenly I was playing the Starfish Room (a big jump from the Press Club) and recording on something other than a 4-track. The other members of the Electrosonics were older than me, had been on tour and in the studio before. I feel like I really cut my teeth in that band. In the Electrosonics Eric White really had primary creative
control. In Hinterland I am creatively present in the music in a way I never have been before, and that I never was ready to be before.
John: I learned to play live and write songs in Flutter, which also featured
a very rusty Gregg on drums.
Kyle: Loud Twin Bell is all I'll name... the other two in that band taught me to f*ck around and try to keep things interesting. Another band I was inin Toronto taught me that combining new wave, the Smiths, and glam rock just isn't where it's at.
Gregg: This is embarrassing because all my old bands were metal. I guess the most popular was Sasha’s Aura. We played at the Lunatic Fringe a lot. I think I still pull out some of that influence on Hinterland.7. What part of the world would you most like to tour in?
Michaela: I'm not really into the idea of being on the road for weeks at a time in any part of the world. Sleeping on floors and dealing with crabby ex-metalhead sound people isn't my thing. I could go on a short tour anywhere in the world as long as I got to stay in a hotel and got to play at a decent club with a good sound system. Oh, and I would need to take my cats because Meredith usually looks after them and she would probably come with us.
Gregg: Eastern Europe.
Cam: Northern England or Lebanon ‘cause the food’s good.8. Where is your personal Hinterland?
Michaela: I take it we are being metaphorical here. I have places I imagine in my mind, things I imagine being in those places. Sometimes I imagine that I am a lovely little fish in a babbling brook navigating the current. Sometimes I imagine that I am sleeping in a large ice cave with a
towering ceiling. Sometimes I imagine that I am standing in a vast tall grass field.
Gregg: Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto's Sea of Japan.
Cam: Miles from here.
Meredith: Sooke, B.C, where my grandma lives. It fufills both definitions:
a) a region that is remote from cities and b) the land that lies next to coastline or river.9. Describe your style without comparing yourself to any other bands.
Michaela: No.
John: Atmospheric rock. Better than a stick in the eye?
Gregg: I hate this question. Ethereal applications volume 6.7.
Kyle: To quote John Lucas quoting Kyle Fogden: "Close your eyes and it's 1991", but I guess not so much anymore.10. Discography
Two three-song demos. Tracks available at http://www.mp3.com/hinterland
Web site: http://www3.telus.net/hinterland
