Tradition, featured prominently in Vice Magazine's 'œGuide To Toronto'?, are still recovering from being featured prominently in Vice Magazine's 'œGuide To Toronto'?. With such big retro Pumas to fill, and none of the required electroclash to back it up, how will they possibly overcome the immeasurable hypestorm und drang? I caught up with James Klassen, famed rambler, victim, and as it turns out, hater of interviews.

IS TORONTO AT RISK OF ADOPTING THE PAY-TO-PLAY CULTURE THAT HAS SEEMINGLY OVERTAKEN MONTREAL?
I think if certain bar owners had their way, it could possibly turn into something like a pay-to-play culture. But there are definitely people interested in the flourishing of whatever community exists here that have the imagination and creativity to find interesting places to put on shows where the conflicts of stage band vs. audience change or dont exist at all. Although I think you are always going to pay in some form if you play in a club or a rented space, I think it just dependshow much and in what ways you are willing to pay'¦ to play.

THAT SAID, WHAT DOES THE IDEAL ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PLAYING, WATCHING, AND PROMOTING OF LIVE MUSIC LOOK LIKE?
I'd like to see bands play in bars less. Most of my favourite shows that I've seen or played at have been at weird rooms like Cinecycle, or at a friend's house - around the city where there are no lines or rules to do with age or other forms of discrimination that conflict with a clubs agenda of making money. I'd rather just leave the clubs to the professional musicians climbing some ladder to their golden pony or something.

DO YOU FIND THAT YOU'RE SPENDING SO MUCH TIME CAUGHT UP IN THE SOCIAL STRATOSPHERE OF TORONTO MUSIC CULTURE THAT IT LEAVES LESS TIME FOR ACTUALLY WRITING?
I'm not sure that there is or thought there ever was really much of a social stratosphere to get caught up in. I go and see bands, but I do that a lot less often. It's depressing to see my favourite bands open up for some touring band who aren't nearly as interesting, at a show I can barely afford to go see, in a bar I would never go to. I guess that's why I don't really go out to many shows. I don't have a job and I never really sleep. I guess I have a lot of time to do what I want. Replying to your questions takes up more of my time.

I SEE. SO IS THAT TO SAY THAT YOUR SOMEWHAT (IN)FAMOUSLY PRODIGIOUS AND CRYPTIC RAMBLINGS ON STILLEPOST ARE SIMPLY REPRESENTATIVE OF YOU SIMPLY NOT GETTING YOUR CREATIVE APPETITE SATED BY YOUR MUSICAL UNDERTAKINGS? OR DO YOU JUST DRINK A LOT?
I'm not really measuring my creativity or my energy, or whatever. It feels endless when I think about it, which I don't want to. I see the internet as something beyond just a form of basic grunts and hollas between people. I think it is more interesting to think of it as an open field or landscape to piss or write on. I think Stillepost as a message board is probably the most basic way to use the internet, which is pretty boring. It doesn't take much time or energy to make a few posts every so often when I feel like saying something on there. I don't really read all that much on there, unless its juicy. Most of the stuff on there is just advertisements - for shows, for egos, whatever. I dunno. It could be more interesting than that.

AS A MUSICIAN, WAS THERE EVER A POINT IN YOUR LEARNING PROCESS WHEN YOU FELT LIKE YOU ALL OF A SUDDEN JUST "GOT IT"? THAT MUSIC BECAME A LANGUAGE AND NOT AN EXERCISE IN LEARNING AND REPETITION?
Even if that language is supposedly nonsense, I am definitely interested in taking old languages and making them new languages. I mean, I am definitely influenced in what is happening around me. This probably sounds very cheeseball, but sometimes I think of music as being letters that people send back and forth to each other in code, and people all over the place get these letters and decipher them and then write back with their own code, like when you are a kid and you pass notes in class. Over time you would build and create this new language between you. Of course, sometimes I don't think this at all and sometimes music to me is just a bunch of nonsense. If you count for long enough, there is rhythm in everything. What I'm saying is that I don't think about this at all, and I would hate to take what I just said seriously.

By Bunk Bedouin