Following a brief exile in Australia, Mikey Crichton of former Postage Stamps fame returned to Canada with Now Yr Taken, a lush blend of loop-based guitar and electronic elements that marks his first foray into solo performance. Eric Arthur spoke with Mikey via email.

A LOT OF THE GROUND FOR THIS INTERVIEW HAS ALREADY BEEN COVERED BY THE EPK ON YOUR MYSPACE PAGE. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
I was playing a show at Sneaky Dee's one night and the dude that runs that site (www.epkhosing.com) was there doing a piece on another band. He made the effort to do all of the filming, interview stuff and editing on his own time, pretty much out of the kindness of his heart because he is down with NYT, so big ups to him!

HOW MANY BANDS HAVE YOU ACTUALLY BEEN IN OVER THE YEARS?
My first band was in the eighth grade and it was called Immodium. We named it after a Nirvana song and played what we thought punk rock was. We broke up right after our first gig because we had this douchebag in the band who was totally full of hot-shit-rock-star hopes and dreams, and none of us could stand him so we just let it die. After that I started a band called Ego Trip that was more or less dedicated to slandering the dude from Immodium.

After that band broke up I formed a band called Mr. Pink with the only two other dudes in my high school who were into underground music. We played a bunch of Supernova band battles and then grew tired of making money for those fuckers and getting nothing in return, so we sort of retreated and only played for friends in our practice space or at the odd high school show.

Then one day my friend Mike from the Postage Stamps told me that their bass player had quit, and luckily I was accepted into the fold of an already semi-established, totally awesome indie band, which was pretty much my life's ambition at that point. I played with the Stamps for the better part of two years, loved every second of it, and then abruptly quit and moved to Australia to try and sort some shit out with myself. That is where NYT was born, in my bedroom in Melbourne.

YOU'VE GOT A VERY PRESCRIBED, TECHNICAL APPROACH TO THE WAY YOU MAKE MUSIC, BUT THE RESULTING TUNES SOUND VERY FREE AND ORGANIC. DOES THE SONGWRITING START WITH A CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, OR DOES IT EMERGE FROM THE TECHNICAL SETUP? DOES HAVING A SET METHOD OF MAKING MUSIC MAKE THE SONGWRITING PROCESS EASIER?
Using the loops and pedals makes my process easier because I can take time to get everything aligned in my head the way I feel it needs to be. It's been better because for years I had been frustrated with writing music because I am ADHD, and in my mind one riff or melody wasn't enough, but I didn't know how to get everything together with just two hands coupled with my very limited capability.

I don't really have a set method of doing what I do. I mean, I do in the sense that I step up to my pedals and capture a loop, and then fuck around with it and build it up until I feel that it is where it needs to be, but as far as what comes out when I am doing all of this, that's sort of where the surprise of the creative process comes from for me.

YOU'VE SAID THAT ONE OF THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF WORKING AS A SOLO ARTIST IS THAT YOU CAN DO YOUR OWN THING AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO ANSWER TO ANYONE ELSE. HAVE YOU FOUND WORKING AS A MEMBER OF A BAND TO BE LIMITING?
When I was in the Postage Stamps I was very raw and I needed very badly to be disciplined. There were points at the beginning when those guys considered kicking me out of the band because I wasn't picking shit up quick enough, and we had worked on the songs a lot. Being in the Stamps was sort of like going to college for me. I learned the real practical ins and outs of what it takes and how things need to work if you want to bring big ideas to life.

But then on the other hand the situation with five dudes in the band with very different approaches could get really complicated at times and things would fall apart. It happens with every band I think, so with NYT I decided that I needed everything to fall together a certain way. I had carved out a specific sound with specific movements that needed to be just so at times, so instead of having to tell someone that their ideas weren't welcome, I decided that since I had the capability to do this by myself, that I should keep it like that for a while.

YOU JUST PLAYED THE TRUTH EXPLOSION LAUNCH PARTY AS PART OF A BILL THAT FEATURED SOME PRETTY BIG NAMES. HOW DID THAT GO?
The Truth Explosion release was amazing. It's not often that I'm playing in one of the best venues in the city, sharing the stage with some pretty serious bands at a gig with all sorts of industry schmooze happening. In retrospect, we might have come off looking like amateurs, but I don't care. This whole thing was something that began in my bedroom, and I would never have thought that people would believe enough in what I am doing to allow me to play with bands like the ones that played the Truth Magazine launch.

This is still small potatoes compared to where some of my friends are at in their artistic careers, but to be honest, this is much further than where I saw NYT going. I never thought that I would be asked to play Wavelength, and I definitely never thought that I would have the chance to play with some of the people that I get to play with, so when I look back and appraise where I am at right now with everything, I have to admit that I am totally stoked. I just want to be cool about it and do the best with it that I possibly can with what I have got inside of me.