Chad Van Gaalen is the best surprise of the year. His Infiniheart disc is important '” it's the product of a decade's worth of quiet pitter-patter in a bedroom somewhere, distilled down to the top 19 tracks he could squeeze through, and it's amazing. He's the quiet sort; the kind that'll blow you away with his explosive talent, but act all quaint and 'œwho, me?'? about it '˜til you can't love him anymore. His perfect, Neil-Young-sits-on-Issac-Brock-peers-over-the-shoulder-of-Jeff-Buckley indie rock is bliss at its best and eccentric at its most endearing. We'd tie him up and force him into a Hogtown-bound train if he weren't already busy to the west with the betterment of an indie-ballooning Cowtown.

WHAT'S GOING ON IN CALGARY? THERE'S A LOT OF HYPE ABOUT ITS CURRENT AWESOMENESS. I've never really been in the Calgary 'œscene'? until Infiniheart came out and people suddenly wanted me to play shows, so my knowledge is very limited, but as far as music in Cowtown and what I have been exposed to in the last year, it's been very refreshing. Bands like Falconhawk, Cape May, The Dudes, Fake Cops, Invention of Science, Vail Halin, Lucid 45 and The Summerlad all offer something fresh. So I think now Calgary is starting to get a little stink in its armpits, and that's good, that's what a city should be. We are growing up and getting exposed to new ideas, kids are sick of having a boring city.

YOU'D BEEN WORKING ON THE SONGS ON INFINIHEART FOR YEARS '” WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO RELEASE THEM? It took a long time for Infiniheart to come out because... well, I never really thought anyone would be interested in putting any of my pop stuff out. The only reason that it got noticed is that my good buddy Ian Russel (the drummer in Fake Cops), who is the brain behind Catch and Release [Calgary co-op label; www.catch-and-release.org], knew that I had been recording my own music for years and said to drop him a comp of songs that would work well together on an album. Infiniheart is a comp of about ten albums, Ian knew I had been passing out CD-R/tape albums independently since I was 15.

WHICH SCHOOL OF THOUGHT DO YOU SUBSCRIBE TO: 'œIF YOU'RE GONNA DO SOMETHING, DO IT RIGHT'? OR 'œIT'S BETTER TO DO ANYTHING/SOMETHING THAN DO NOTHING AT ALL'?? EXPLAIN! If I'm gonna do something, sure as shit it's gonna be right.

ARE YOU CURRENTLY MORE INTERESTED IN YOUR REAL-INSTRUMENT OR ELECTRONIC-INSTRUMENT SONGS? Currently I'm focusing on broken-down punk rock-y stuff with my buddy Eric Hamelin who is a 'œfree'? drummer/percussionist. A friend of ours from Boston will be here in a couple days to join in on the tomfoolery. He plays synth/vocals; his name is Noel Webber.

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR PLANS FOR A ROCK'N'ROLL ORCHESTRA? The rock orchestra is on the back burner. I don't have enough time/space right now, but possibly this winter I will have a space where we can all practice.

WHAT MAKES A HERMIT-Y BEDROOM RECORDING GUY DECIDE TO GO FOR COLLABORATIVE MULTI-PERSON ORCHESTRA? I have always been into doing collaborations with musicians, in fact I prefer it. But often I'm just too wound up in my studio to put the project together, so I just take the 'œteam-ups'? as they come.

ARE YOU PLAYING SOLO AT YOUR WAVELENGTH SHOW? ALSO, PLEASE STATE ONE OR TWO OF YOUR FAVOURITE ALBERTAN MOMENTS/CHARACTERISTICS/IDIOSYNCRASIES. I'm not sure how I will be playing or what I will be playing at the Wavelength show, but I know that Chinooks are one of my favourite things about where I live.