Read it here: Record Label Owner Interview with Kristel Jax of IT³

Performer Kram Ran, newly back in Winnipeg, tagged along.

Reetbot’s upcoming show, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the [...]]]> IT³ caught up with Winnipeg’s Reetbot, one of this country’s most hard working new artists, in a church at a Christmas craft fair. He spoke about his upcoming Santa themed show, his city, music, feelings, and pizza.

Performer Kram Ran, newly back in Winnipeg, tagged along.

Reetbot’s upcoming show, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year…, opens in Winnipeg on Thursday, December 10th.

IT³: How are the fans, Reetbot?

Reetbot: What fans? I have no fans, unfortunately. I have this one crazy stalker girl who basically rips off everything I do. I have some fans in my apartment actually, but I have to crank them to get them to work… and then they make this crazy noise like, durrrrrrrrrrrrr…

What’s the show all about?

Santa’s struggle to cope with the debt that Christmas brings each year. He pays slave wages to the elves, but the cost of gas…

What about the reindeer?

They’re a myth.
Really I just painted Santa because he’s creepy. But it could also be interpreted as my love for pizza.

In what way?

I always eat pizza while painting. It makes me feel like I’m on heroin, it surges through my body and sometimes I can’t remember what’s happening. It’s my comfort mechanism. When I was 20 I found out Santa wasn’t real. Now I fill the void with pizza… and paintings of Santa Clause.

Who the fuck is Reetbot?

Reetbot is a group of ten people. They’re all sailors. No, he’s just some stupid kid and he paints these little characters. Honestly he’s not even real. Basically, I found a Reetbot well and I pull these things out of it. It’s an endless well of crappy paintings, and I just pull these out of it… I don’t know.

Why is the well in Winnipeg?

Because we’re the center shit hole of Canada. No, there’s so much good stuff coming out of Winnipeg right now; there needs to be really TERRIBLE art to contrast it. It’s like an ego booster. “If Reetbot can do it, anyone can!” Plus, it’s the best place in the world.

Are you the guy who spray painted my garage the other night?

No no, that’s Re-boot. Reetbot doesn’t paint houses or cars, only children in strollers. And breasts.

Will you paint a deer in a forest for my grandpa’s living room?

I have like 10 deers in forests already. But if he wants a custom made one, totally. Still lives are my speciality, but I love nature paintings too.

What is the nicest thing a stranger’s ever said to you?

I got a call after my show last year saying great things. This guy called me Shitbot, and said the gallery shouldn’t have Reetbot shows because the neighbourhood gets plastered every time with graffiti up and down the block like a plague. I thought that was a big compliment – it must take a pretty special person to accomplish that. It’s like being in the mob, but I’m a white kid from the suburbs. It all comes back to pizza. I had another show where I played that message on a tape player, and people could listen on headphones.

They left a message?

Yeah, on the gallery’s machine.

What’s going on artistically in Canada right now?

Oh man. This is the first time I’ve left my apartment in a month. Graffiti everywhere, it never sleeps. Yesterday I was waiting for the bus, and a guy asked me to buy one of his portraits. It was awesome, but I had no money. So that’s happening. People are hustlin’. Oh, and Reetbot shows.

How does graffiti cope with Winnipeg winters?

It thins the herd. Graffiti loves Winnipeg winters. Reetbot only paints graffiti in the winter. But I don’t know anything about it.

What are your thoughts on this craft sale?

I love the caroller. Lots of cute girls. Some sweet treats over there. I saw a kid sneezing on them earlier, and I’m thinking I might buy one so I can get sick and miss work on Monday. Sales are good, I actually sold something. So that’s a step forward.

What gets Reetbot out of the house?

If my internet connection goes down then I have to go to the library. I can’t order pizza on the phone, because I’m scared of the phone. I need to order pizza online.

So just pizza?

Whenever City Champs play a show. Oh, and craft sales. At churches.

Top five albums of the decade?

What?

Just wing it.

Alright… Matching Socks, Missing Feet by the The Bonaduces. The Get Up Kids: Something to Write Home About. American Football’s self titled… Dog Disco by Leatherface, and, um…. wait, let me think for a minute.

Sure.

My Downtrodden Smile – My Downtrodden Smile

My Downtrodden Smile? Are you in that band?

I wish. I was 15 when they played their last show at the Albert, and I wasn’t sneaky enough to sneak in yet.

What do you say to bands or artists who pass over Winnipeg because it’s a frozen shithole?

I say, I stole your music on the internet and I never want to see your art again. Also, any band that has come through and stayed with me can attest that I make the best grilled cheese sandwiches and have the cuddliest cats, so they’re missing out.

Kram Ran: I make the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

Reetbot: I don’t know… we’ll see. We’ll have a cook off.

IT³: What does this city need the most?

It doesn’t need anything – it’s perfect. It needs more youth oriented programs. And more pizza places. I want pizza with sesame seed crusts.

Last time you cried?

Last night. I cry every day. Life is hard. I listen to too much Dashboard Confessional, also I write too much poetry for my own good. But seriously I hate life. I get really depressed and I cry. Some days I cry twice a day. Or three times. There’s no limit. No one’s ever caught me though.

Does your art come from the place of secret tears?

Sometimes, yes. Sometimes I’m so upset that I throw something, rip a canvas, and make my art even better. One canvas I ripped and had to sew back together. I was like, oh man, this is awesome. But mostly my tears are self serving. I’m wasting time when I should be painting. One day I’ll learn to multitask.

What’s next post Santa show?

Go explore the world in a canoe; disappear. Write the greatest musical anyone has ever seen – all disco trance music with a hint of soul. About a fox who lost his hole, so he grows up into a bitter old fox man. I’m still working out the kinks.

So this is the farewell show?

Yeah, in this life.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… runs from December 10th-19th at the Cre8ery gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Opening night is the evening of Thursday, December 10th.

The Cre8ery: http://cre8ery.com/
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#/event.php?eid=223466048792&ref=mf

It is re-posted here in its original form, with some additional notes on behalf of our editors, [...]]]> The following interview was conducted by Joseph Stella, in Los Angeles, California, for ICMTTP’s zine Typewriters on Screens. This interview first appeared in print on October 8, 2008, and was first posted online at syphmag.net on October 17th, 2008.

Our thanks to Joseph Stella for his generosity in allowing us to re-post this interview.

Interview with Nic Van Roon, editor of Syphilitic Mermaids Magazine, about the nerdier aspects of running an online magazine.

Syphmag (or SM², in abbreviated form) first caught my attention for their unique design, which can be seen at www.syphmag.net.

Nic, thanks for coming. Let’s get started on the geeky questions right away. What do you think about Web 2.0?

Geeky questions, alright. I think it’s fine. I prefer it to that time when you had to visit Geocities sites to find information; I prefer there being a blog or a wiki for everything, rather than a fan page.

The internet has become a reliable source.

I don’t know if it’s more accurate, but it’s more believable – and a lot less annoying.

You’ve accused yourself of falling behind the times, design-wise. Do you feel that the fact you haven’t conformed to Web 2.0 standards (for whatever reason) holds you back?

I don’t think our design is behind the times so much as our programming is. I think our design is fine for what we do, but right now it’s difficult, if not impossible, to read Syphgmag from an iPhone, and obviously this is a drawback for us, because we loose those readers who do read a lot of their internet content through their phones. And I imagine that the number of people who do this will be increasing. So yes, we are behind on our Web 2.0, and yes, in a way it’s holding us back.

Would you say you’re making a conscious decision to forgo that advanced programming in favour of aesthetic? Your site has gone through a few incarnations now, but the design has always been very stylized and unique.

No, I don’t think it’s been a conscious choice: SBK [interviewer's note: SM²'s web designer] and I have the desire to use whatever advanced programming is possible, and I know that we would if we had the time. We’re behind the learning curve, and I think we feel that it’s going to be a struggle, to catch up.

The truth is that we aren’t programmers, and as far as I know, no one has programmed the kind of software that we would need for what we do. Nothing that would satisfy us, anyhow. There was the possibility of putting SM² into some kind of preconceived format, so that we didn’t have to figure these things out ourselves…

The whole site in a blog?

Yeah, something like that. We could do that. We’ve talked about it, but, I’d hope, only in a joking manner. We don’t want to do that; that isn’t what we set out to do.

I see. So in that way, your aesthetic is taking priority.

In a way, yes. Some people do still read things online with a monitor – most people do. So, would we like readers to be able to access our content on the subway, or the lobby of the doctor’s office? Yes, of course we would. Are we panicking because they can’t? A little bit, but right now, okay, we’re using this basically antiquated style. It functions, but it annoys and embarrasses (web designer) SBK. Yet, obviously, we prefer this state of affairs to some kind of white background, multi-column blog.

Ah, the resentment surfaces.

I’d rather think of it as an only slightly biased observation…

It’s true though, every site looks the same right now.

I don’t know about that. I don’t go to a lot of new websites right now. I’ve seen some interesting things, sometimes with Flash, even – some examples where the designers use restraint, but managed to pull off something attractive that’s also original. Some band sites, e-zines, or artist portfolios… I haven’t come across anything that was too memorable in a while, but I imagine they’re still out there.

I know what you mean. It seems like now, I go to the few same news sites or blogs for news and entertainment, and to MySpace for bands, Facebook for events…

Exactly. So does that homogeny mean there’s less demand for a well designed – or, rather, interestingly designed – site? Probably. They can be inconvenient: they’re sometimes hard to update, and they can confuse or turn off new readers. We’re all in a hurry.

Is SM² inconvenient?

No. Yes. It could be. I’d hope that people find our design simple enough, especially the new design – though I think the old layout was fairly intuitive as well. We try to be innovative but straight forward. I know we’re not as easy to process as a standard blog, or say, a site like The New York Times, or Pitchfork Media; though they’re obviously trying to accomplish different goals than we are.

We do use a blog for our updates, though. We have a RSS feed available through MySpace[see note]. That’s a priority for us right now, actually: to set up a better newsfeed system.

[Note: this new RSS feed is now up at http://imtrying.net/?feed=rss2]

Let’s get back to your criticisms of 2.0 for a minute.

I only have a few, so a minute sounds good.

Ha. What do you think: is convenience making the internet aesthetically sterile?

In a way, it’s made the internet bland, but as I said before, it’s an improvement on early HTML. It’s clean, it’s structured, it gets the job done. I completely agree that sites ought to prioritize universal usability. What we’d love to do is figure out a way to make the design of SM² both functional and original – assuming we’re original doing what we’re doing now, which I’m reluctant to believe. Other sites will probably get this right before we do: interesting design concepts, plus maximum, universal function. It’s probably happening already and I just haven’t come across it.

But you can say you thought of it first.

Dreamed of it first, maybe. Then again, no, definitely not. We’re amateurs at this.

For someone who’s managed to accomplish so much, it’s hard to believe you can be so diffident.

That’s an art in and of itself.

Will there be a way to view your old layout, in the future? The new one is great, but there’s a part of me that misses the old fridge, and the personalized pages.

You’d have to ask SBK, as that’s her jurisdiction. Though I think for the next while we may be too focused on moving forward to worry about the past.

[Note: Nic was correct. -via SBK]

What do you have planned for SM², design/programming wise?

We’re still putting all our old content onto our new layout. After that, we’ll want to fix all the bugs, and make everything more intuitive: links between pages, access to the news feeds, etc. Maximize accessibility and ease of function as best we can, and make it easier for readers to comment and contact us. After that, well. We have plans to make plans.

You’re my kind of man, Nic.

I’ll keep that between us.

Ladies and gentlemen, Nic Van Roon.

Photos by SBK.
Typewriters on Screen is a print only, anti-everything magazine, available in a basement near you. Go outside.
Syphilitic Mermaids Magazine: syphmag.net

Interview with Californian band Former Ghosts (members of Xiu Xiu, Zola Jesus, and This Song is a Mess But So Am I) conducted before their (canceled) show on October 16, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Present Ghosts of Freddy Ruppert: A Sighting of Former Ghosts

IT³ met up with Freddy Ruppert and Jamie Stewart over hot chocolate [...]]]>

Interview with Californian band Former Ghosts (members of Xiu Xiu, Zola Jesus, and This Song is a Mess But So Am I) conducted before their (canceled) show on October 16, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Present Ghosts of Freddy Ruppert: A Sighting of Former Ghosts

IT³ met up with Freddy Ruppert and Jamie Stewart over hot chocolate at a small coffee shop on Queen St. in Toronto, hoping to find out more about their new project Former Ghosts, and their haunting synth-pop debut album Fleurs. It began to appear as if we would end up talking mainly about Ruppert’s personal life – which seems to be an inevitable topic when discussing the art of Freddy Ruppert.

There came a point where Ruppert leaned back in his chair and said, “I don’t know how far I want to go into this,” which, though understandable, seems ironic considering how far he goes into it in his music. Ruppert openly admitted that he struggles, as is a common dilemma in our blogging, social networking age, with justifying what is private and what is public – but that hasn’t stopped him from laying himself out there completely in his music.

Ruppert’s first recording project, This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, began in 2003 as a means to deal with his mother’s death, and in 2004 he released Church Point, L.A. an album of extremely personal laments buried in noise and electronics. He supported the album by touring, and his stage shows were a spectacle of gut-wrenching antics not unlike an exorcism; a memorable performance, whether disturbing or otherwise. It was clear Freddy Ruppert was sincere.

But Ruppert found himself coming to terms with the issues he reflected upon with This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, and decided it was time to move on. “A time came when it just wasn’t cathartic anymore,” Ruppert told us, and, staying true to his original intentions, he decided to quit music. He sold all his gear, and spent two years estranged from recording. This diversion, inevitably, didn’t last.

Former Ghosts, Ruppert said, was born out of songs created for a specific person. The songs from Fleurs were originally created and posted on his personal blog as a means to exclusively communicate with this someone.

“I’d post songs when we weren’t communicating; it was an effective way to reach her – I knew she was checking my blog (http://freddyruppert.blogspot.com/). Then, once she heard it, I would take it down,” Ruppert told us.

Ruppert’s fans from his This Song is a Mess But So Am I days were privy to the songs as well – as were some contacts from the music industry, and Ruppert seems almost serious when he claims to have found a label for Former Ghosts because of a Talking Heads cover he posted, among other positive feedback from old fans.

This exaltation seems to be carrying over to the project’s finished product. Ruppert’s official return to music, Former Ghosts’ Fleurs, has been getting favourable reviews in the blog world since its release – partly due, of course, to its ties to two other highly praised indie acts. So, how did Freddy Ruppert join forces with the inimitable Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, and the enigmatic Nika Roza of Zola Jesus?

Ruppert and Stewart, having toured together in the past, had been planning on working together for some time already. They had become friends seven years prior to Former Ghosts when, following the death of his mother and after reading Stewart had, similarly, just experienced the loss of his father, Ruppert emailed the front man of the experimental pop group. The two toured together, and have been sharing music with each other for a long time since then. When Ruppert found himself with new songs, they began an official collaboration, still mainly over the internet. As for Nika Roza: Ruppert, a fan of Zola Jesus, simply asked if she wanted to sing. (Though Nika was not available to tour this fall, her haunting vocals on Fleurs are a key element to the album’s mournful power).

While elements of both Stewart’s Xiu Xiu and Roza’s Zola Jesus are plainly heard on Fleurs, Ruppert acknowledges that Former Ghosts’ sound is quite different from the abstract electro-industrial noise of his last project. “I’ve always been a fan of pop music, and I wanted to do something different.” says Ruppert.

The sound isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Where the This Song Is A Mess’ primary means was as a place for Ruppert to reflect on his past, Former Ghosts’ songs were created as the issue (or romance) progressed – and the songs themselves were an actual means for communication of the messages and feelings that the songs were about. Ruppert is quick to clarify that that doesn’t mean Former Ghosts is just a one-off project. “I have new songs already, and will be going back to work on them after the tour.”

Stewart reinstated the projects longevity, calling Former Ghosts “a long-lasting regular band”. Ruppert seemed excited about the future, especially for a not-too-distant time when all three of the band’s members would be in the same room together once the band wraps up their hectic 30-day tour.

The tour itself seems like it’s been a trying experience, as Ruppert says, “it hasn’t been fun”. Amid venue confusion, long drives, and busted shows, this may or may not also have to do with the fact that the relationship with the mystery girl (the catalyst for many, if not all of the album’s songs) ended right before the tour – and the subject matter he has to deal with every night when performing. Nevertheless, Stewart pipes up with a smile on his face when asked about some tour experiences: a man running in during one of their sets with his face cut, screaming “they’re going to kill me!”, the force feeding of chocolate bars in the van, or one instance, apparently un-chocolate bar related, of Rupert puking on an exotic dancer.

Stewart goes on, explaining a new band the two of them are working on. The plan is to be sponsored by Hummer and Blue Shield Health Insurance, and, instead of playing actual music, they will tour with a band of their choosing – and proceed, each night, to beat said band up until they can’t play, in order to “quell the rotten music genre pool”. After urging Stewart to disclose some of the bands they’ll be targeting with this new project (which they claim will be called Guan(u)o; they couldn’t decide on the number of ‘u’s), he decides, laughing into his tea, that it would be better to give us an exclusive some time in the future, so the bands can’t prepare for the attack.

As for Former Ghosts, what does the future hold? Will there be more songs for this mystery girl? When asked how Ruppert communicates with this special person now that he is on tour and all the songs have been made into a full length album, he replies, “insane text messaging.” A recent entry on Ruppert’s blog makes reference to an “insane text war” on private property in where, after being approached by security, Ruppert implores, “”I’m in the middle of an insane text conversation with the girl I was insanely in love with! What do you want me to do?!”

The security guard answers, “Oh o.k., it’s cool man. I understand. Do what you need to do. It’s alright”.

Which is exactly what Freddy Ruppert has been doing with his art, and graciously has shared with us on Fleurs.

Former Ghosts: http://formerghosts.com/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/formerghostssleep