A veteran of Toronto's experimental music scene, Mike Hansen has also shown his sound installations in galleries across Canada and can be heard Wednesday mornings on CKLN 88.1. Ron Nurwisah interviewed Hansen via email.
YOU'VE BEEN DOING EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC/SOUND ART FOR A WHILE. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED? I started doing turntable and tape experiments in high school, back in the early 70s. A friend of mine and I would sit in my bedroom and tape the television and spin and scratch records while drinking beer. I believe this would be a while before DJ-ism arrived. After that, in the early 80s, I did an all-night radio program at CKLN 88.1 where I would do long and large sound sculptures on the radio. Looping, scratching and odd mixing. Not looking for dance mixes, but creating themed atmospheres.

WHO, OR WHAT, ARE SOME OF YOUR INFLUENCES? When I first received Christian Marclay's Record Without a Cover, I was stunned. This is what I have been doing and it blew me away; the fact that it came without a sleeve and that the environment and playing was to enhance the recording, make the skips and pops better. That was my first introduction to turntablism. At that point and time, I still hadn't resolved what I wanted to do in music, so I was a jazz drummer. After that, a plethora of recordings started to appear from artists like Martin Tetrault, Janek Schaefer and Phillip Jeck. I dropped the drums and started playing the turntable.

YOU ALSO DO A LOT OF SOUND ART IN GALLERIES, BUT ALSO DO LIVE PERFORMANCES. HOW DO THESE COMPARE? DOES ONE TYPE OF WORK INFLUENCE THE OTHER? Well, the sound art I've shown, and continue to show, doesn't allow me to control the sound. The sound installation I'm currently showing, 'œItch,'? is quite related to my turntablism. The installation is played by gallery visitors. It is designed to allow people to experience improvisation and DJ culture. One of my first sound installations also worked under a similar principle and the visitors played a control surface that caused a record to play a loop and you were to create composition through the switch of record loops.

'œAVANT-GARDE'? MUSIC SEEMS TO HAVE MADE ITS WAY INTO MAINSTREAM FORMS OF MUSIC (HIP-HOP, DANCE, NOISE-POP, ETC.). WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? I feel this is happening because popular music has become boring, premeditated and contrived. Pop music has done nothing but recycle itself. The only way you can stand apart from the masses is to incorporate the experimentation, like Mike Patton's Fantomas, Black Dice and a huge range of Japanese artists. Improvisation is the only art left in music today.

YOUR NEW RECORD IS INSPIRED BY BILL EVANS. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? It's not really inspired by Bill Evans, but it is a take on what is seen as one of the most important figures in modern jazz. I took on Bill Evans as a statement that EAI can take the same stature as Bill Evans. Evans' improvs are now compositions, and are an important part of the jazz songbook. But jazz, in a lot of ways, has become the same as classical music. You stick to the text and vary from that written note. I will admit that there is still a great deal of improvisation in jazz music, but it is only done around a specific theme, the theme of the song being played. These days, I'm using records less and less and if I use vinyl, I'm just as happy playing the ticks and scratches on the disc. If I'm to use a record, I process it to the point that its original content is no longer relevant.

Evading taxes for as long as humanly possible and discussing the correct
pronunciation of 'œHüsker Dü'? with members of Hüsker Dü-- it's all a part of
the Statues experience. Hailing from quaint, picturesque Sudbury, ON, the power-punk-pop trio formed in May 2003 and immediately went into a self-imposed musical hibernation of writing, rehearsing, and practicing. When they emerged a full year later to play their first show, their Pelado Records debut, Aux, was done and ready to go. Since then, they've been tearing up the north and elsewhere with their catchy repertoire of tunes inspired by outfits like Buzzcocks and Joe Jackson. Mitch Houle (bass and vocals), Jeff Houle (drums and vocals), and Rob Seaton (guitar and vocals), promise to show Sneaky Dee's what a true Sudbury Sunday night (groan!) is when they make their Wavelength debut. Brett Clarkson corresponded with Rob Seaton via e-mail.

IS THERE A SIGNIFICANCE AT ALL TO THE NAME '˜STATUES'?

Not so much a significance, just that we're all pretty big Hüsker Dü fans.
When we were trying to find a name, one of us was looking through Hüsker
records and saw the song title 'Statues' and that was that. On an aside,
our friend Sean Maxey was recently talking to Grant Hart (the drummer from
Hüsker Dü) and, apparently, the proper pronunciation is not 'œHOOsker,'? but, in fact, Husker-- like corn husk. The umlauts would indicate otherwise, but they only
added them to the word Hüsker cause it looked cool.

I FIND IT INTERESTING YOU DECIDED TO RECORD AN ENTIRE ALBUM BEFORE PLAYING A SINGLE LIVE SHOW. WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THIS, AND LOOKING BACK, WAS THIS A GOOD GAME PLAN FOR THE BAND?

Yeah, I think it was a good idea for sure. We just stayed in the basement
for a year and wrote and practiced and got pretty tight together. The reason
we recorded first was just kind of a luxury thing. I hadn't filed taxes in
five years and thought for sure I was going to jail. When I got around to
doing them it turned out I was getting quite a chunk back. So I paid off
some debt and we had enough to record. It was like winning a lottery...but
if I lost I would have been in some serious trouble.

SOMEBODY TOLD ME NASA TRAINED ASTRONAUTS JUST OUTSIDE SUDBURY BECAUSE THE HARSH ENVIRONS THERE ARE SIMILAR TO CONDITIONS ON THE MOON. WHETHER TRUE OR NOT, DESCRIBE HOW SUDBURY HAS INFLUENCED/SHAPED STATUES, MUSICALLY, OR OTHERWISE.

In '71, NASA sent some astronauts around here to play among the rocks as
Lunar training. That's really the one bit of trivia that people throw at us
when they find out we're from Sudbury. Sudbury's cool though. There are
parts that still look gross, but everywhere you go has places like that. As
far as influencing and shaping the band, I will omit the obvious rock pun.

IS THERE A MUSIC SCENE IN SUDBURY, AND IF SO, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT IT? ALSO, WHAT'S THE BEST VENUE IN NORTHERN ONTARIO?

There is a scene in Sudbury for sure. It's wickedly diverse and I honestly
think that regardless of genre, we have some of the best bands around. Bands
play and stay together for years up here because it's not about the two year
make-it-or-move-on plan. We also get a lot of touring bands coming through.
The ones that take the time to check it out always make a point of coming
back. If I didn't plug the The Townehouse Tavern as a best venue I'd be banished, but there is a little community arts space called Myths and Mirrors that
does all ages shows here. It's a great room. There was also this loft in
North Bay affectionately known as The Loft, which was cool, but the guys that
rented it moved out and there were too many stairs.

TELL US FIVE ALBUMS WE SHOULD BE LISTENING TO.

The Doers - Ready Set Do/I Can Enjoy Almost Anything
Pointed Sticks - Perfect Youth
Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade/New Day Rising
Futureheads - S/T
Hot Snakes - Audit in Progress

ARE YOUR GRANDMOTHERS FANS OF THE BAND?

I'm sure they are. I'm sure they would be if we were bank robbers too, as
long as it made us happy. That's the thing about grandmas...

ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO ADD?

We're just finishing up recording a new EP and we're planning a little side
project with Malcolm Bauld of the now defunct Frenetics. I would like to add
their discography to the list in question number eight, please.

You just can't deny good live rock n' roll. Branch out, play all the crazy shit you want, but once you've gotten a taste of that shimmering guitar in your hands and the electricity on stage you'll eventually come back. Unable to resist the salty sweat of rock trickling down his forehead, Ex-Tigre Benvie/Thrush Hermit/Dears Rob Benvie is set to plug in, turn up and lay it on us. Mike Perreault sent questions out into the e-cosmos and received answers from the main Presse-man himself.

COULD YOU WRITE A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF YOUR FELLOW BANDMATES'”WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY PLAY?

Presse is myself (Rob Benvie; vox, guitar, keys), Wayne MacPherson (vox, guitar, keys), Sofia Silva (vox, bass), and Matias Silva (drums, cello). Sofia and Matias are either married or siblings, they won't tell the truth; Wayne and I, while rumoured to be cousins, are in fact lifelong sworn nemeses.

HOW DOES PRESSE DIFFER FROM ANY OF YOUR OTHER BANDS?

Presse is perhaps more morose. Wayne tends to be more of a rock purist and I tend to be more artsy fartsy. The roots of Presse grew out of the frustration I experienced in trying to translate the fun of writing and recording by myself into live shows - I missed the camaraderie and fulfillment of collaboration that worked so well in the other band[s]. One Christmas in Halifax, Wayne and I, both bored in the Pro Tools universe, got drunk and vowed to crank it up again. Presse is first and foremost a 'œband'? band, not just a songwriting vehicle for myself and Wayne. Currently, I also have a band with my friend Ian McGettigan called Camouflage Nights to which folks should definitely be alerted. Our LP is forthcoming - this is a more eclectic, studio-y thing but hopefully equally, if not more, destructive than Presse.

IN ADDITION TO MANY MUSICAL PROJECTS, YOU ARE ALSO A PUBLISHED AUTHOR.

I do not deny it.

DO YOU TAKE THE SAME APPROACH TO SONGWRITING WITH LITERATURE? OR DO YOU APPROACH EACH PROJECT IN A DIFFERENT WAY?

Most of the time playing music is fun and provides instant gratification, while - as anyone who does it knows - writing is tough and painful and most of the time feels completely pointless. But the moments of revelation, when they actually arrive, are more profound when doing something like writing a novel (my book, Safety of War, is out now through Coach House Books) than when writing pop songs. I could try to frame it within some sort of flaky framework of a 'creative realm' or a 'well of inspiration' or something like that, but I think if you really scrutinize most artists' motivations they're usually much more banal than that. I think one is first driven to create art, and the format one finds, i.e. writing, music, knitting or whatever, is usually what's most convenient at the time.

YOU MENTIONED ON YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU WERE STRONGLY CONSIDERING CHANGING THE BAND'S NAME. ANY NEW IDEAS? CAN I NAME THE BAND? I NOMINATE THE NAMES 'œDRAGONFUCKER'? AND 'œBOGROCKET'? FOR PRESSE APPROVAL.

Neither of your suggestions comes close to the band my girlfriend, Stevie, and I are starting: Trybal Katwok. Time will tell whether we in Presse will stick with our current moniker.

SUMMER'S ALMOST HERE AND THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR SOME KICK-ASS ROCK AND ROLL SHOWS. WHAT DO YOU PLAN ON DOING THIS SUMMER, AND DOES IT INVOLVE WEARING SHORTS?

Unless you are a professional athlete or under the age of twelve, I personally believe it undignified to wear short pants in public, particularly in an urban setting. But, of course, the SOS rule remains in place: No Shorts On Stage. Not ever. For anyone. If I ever paid to see a band play and the singer wore shorts, I'd ask for my money back, even if it was fucking NWA. Man, that would be weird to see NWA in, like, Gap khaki shorts. Okay, maybe I'd let Eazy get away with it.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE UPCOMING PRESSE ALBUM.

Be forewarned: 'twill be heavy, and strange, and powerful, and odd.