Peak Season! October 19th premiere!

Hi!

There's a new MTV show revolving around the action and drama of 6 local "Whistlerites".. (someone that's lived in Whistler, BC, Canada for more than 3 days).. which will be airing on Oct. 19 on MTV Canada, as well as on MTV.ca
This show features lots of our friends, as well as music by Animal Nation, AS WELL AS a few guest appearances by Animal Nation, including parts of our performance from the 2009 World Ski and Snowboard Festival!

I also voiced the trailer, as can be seen here!

Make sure to check out all the excitement at the official Peak Season web site.

The show features plenty of super cute Whistler girls, and also features our good friend Dre Morel, who we interviewed a few months ago, and who MTV interviewed recently as well!

Pictured: Super Cute Whistler Girls!

From left to right:

Lauren Horton: The Wild Card - Lauren will punch you in the face, steal your boyfriend, and make you wish you were her, all at the same time.
Elle Hetherington: The Transplant- Elle is the typical Australia/Whistlerite that... well... I don't know Elle personally, but most Australian girls are sluts.
Steph Just: The Shredder / The Local - Born and bred Steph Just will do just about anything to get the gold, and go home with the prize money. Amazing rider, and even better humam being. Also good at getting in cat fights.
Amanda Scheller: Self described as "........" - I don't really know anything about Amanda. I've never met her. She used to go out with our friend Dre, but now she goes out with some dude with a pony tail...


Rad,
-Steige.

Animal Nation's "Party Animals"

Animal Nation's "Party Animals"!



This video was made by Blair Richmond of http://imperialpnd.com
This beat was made by Linus Stubbs - http://myspace.com/linusmuzic
This song is featured on Animal Nation's 3rd album - "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music"

Thank you very much!

Make sure to download the song and the album below, and Pay Whatever You Want.

Understanding ARTings!

Hi friends!

Oh! First off - The Party Animals video should be online by the end of the week!

But back to... Bandcamp.com, and more specifically http://animalnation.bandcamp.com, recently included the ability to download album art when you download an album from their site.
We've uploaded all the album art for both our new album "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music", as well as our previous EP, TimeZone.












The cover art for "Understanding..." was done by a Japanese artist named Taka Sudo - Tifdyl.com, and the booklet cartoons were drawn by Kent Osborne, who used to be one of the main writers for the Sponge Bob Square Pants TV show and movie!












"Understanding..." is a 'pay what you want' download, so if you haven`t already, make sure to head over to http://animalnation.bandcamp.com right now to cop that. If you've already downloaded the album, but didn't get the art, and you want the art, search in your email for 'bandcamp', and re-download the album, or if you deleted the email, head back over to http://animalnation.bandcamp.com now!












Thank you!

Hope you enjoy the artings. They are quite fun to us!

-Steige.

Basti Made Me Do It! - New [EP] w. CamoBear Records!

Hi!

Hihihihihihihihi!

Our new EP, to accompany our Brand new album - UNDERSTANDING MORE ABOUT NOTHING THAN ANYBODY EVER THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE, should be releasing fairly soon. This [EP] will either be 5 or 6 or 7 songs, of which the majority were written during the making of "Understanding...", as well as 3 tracks that we wrote specifically for the [EP], and were recorded during 3 weeks in July/August when our good friend Sebastian Hochstein came to visit us!

We will be releasing it digitally through CamoBear records, which is owned by underground hip-hop sensation Josh Martinez, which is pretty freakin' cool, because he was the guy that got me into underground hip hop in the first place!

We'll still be ugly and broke, but at least we'll be one step closer to achieving 'starving artist' status.

We'll let you in on all the important updates as they occur..

Okay,
-Steige.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: International super-babe, and photo genuis extraordinaire Paige Harley has finished making the cover art for said [EP], which I hope to get online, and all over your pretty little face, as soon as possible.

Super secret information update: This whole blog post was just a clever way of linking back to old interviews and articles on our own site?
Sure.
What?
No.
Jiminy. Billy the Kid. Shad K.

Brandon Semenuk, an Interview with Freerider Extraordinaire

I never had a younger brother growing up. I never had anyone to blame for taking the last cookie out of the cookie jar, or anyone to take the rap when Mom's fine China accidentally ended up all over the hardwood floor.
Fortunately for me, I did have a best friend, and next door neighbour, that had a younger brother.
Unfortunately for my best friend's little brother, he would be an easy target for all our teenage angst.
Fortunately for my best friend's little brother, AKA Brandon Semenuk, he grew up way tougher, stronger, and infinitely more handsome than both myself and his older brother. He also gets way more girls than us, drives around in a car worth more than my life, and gets paid to travel around the world to do what he loves.
Did I mention that he's only 17 years old?

Steige: What's your favorite thing about CrankWorx?

Brandon Semenuk: Seeing and riding with all my friends for almost 2 weeks.

S: What's your least favorite thing about CrankWorx?

BS: Big line up's!

S: What is your ultimate fantasy pizza? Extra points for putting an entire meal on a pizza. (ie - A bacon and eggs with a side of hash browns pizza)

BS: Pizza with Bacon, ham, 3 cheeses, BBQ sauce and a side of yam fries.

S: That sounds amazing. I think you should sell that one to Fat Tony's! Besides pizza money, what motivates you to launch over 40 foot gaps and land on hard packed dirt on a machine that weighs less than the computer I'm writing this on, and could easily crumple in half at any time?

BS: It's fun and I like the challenge.

S: What's going through your head right before you 360 tail-whip off said jumps?

BS: Just focusing on the trick and making sure I land it.

S: If the sky wasn't blue, what color would it be, and why?

BS: Brown 'cause the reflection of the dirt.

S: Then you could ride in the sky too! In a town full of amazing talent and 20 000 bikes that all cost more than 6 months worth of rent, what do you do to stand out?

BS: I don't really try to stand out. I just ride my bike for fun, and it's cool that my riding has stood out as much as it has.

S: Which breakfast-cereal-spokesperson/mascot/animal/monster can you relate to most? Are there any breakfast cereals you eat strictly based on whoever's on the front of the box?

BS: Tony the Tiger, 'cause I also believe practice makes perfect. But I always buy Honey Nut Cheerio's.

S: You've eaten those forever! I remember your Mom would lose her sh-- whenever she came home and we'd eaten all the Cheerio's! What's your career highlight to date?

BS: - 1st Crankworx Colorado 2008 and 2009 - 3rd Crankworx Whistler 2007 and 2008 - 1st Red Bull Rampage - 1st Claymore Challenge

S: What's the best piece of advice you can give to up and coming riders that want their own pro model seat and ultra rad car?

BS: Do what you love.

S: Perfect! 'Cause I loooove drinkin'! What's your very first memory involving biking?

BS: My brother pushing me around a grass berm in our backyard on his beat old Specialized Hard Rock.

S: I think one of my first memories of you riding is when you got your first adult size bike. It was at least a thousand sizes too big for you, and you could barely reach the pedals, and you were still keeping up to your brother and me on all the trails.
Imagine you find out that everything you've ever known, your entire life as you know it, has all been but a dream. Would you want to wake up if you didn't know what was on the other side, and if you knew you couldn't come back here?

BS: Tough call. If I could go with other people I probably would, but don't think I would do it by myself.

S: Hey! Just like that one song by that one band that wrote a bunch of songs about lots of different stuff and things!
Here's a picture of Brandon winning last week's CrankWorx in Colorado. Seventeen years old, and he's already carrying around huge bottles of champagne!
I love it!

Sebastian Hochstein and The Pillow.

Sebastian Hochstein is our friend from Germany. Sebastian Hochstein is part of the production group Nic & Jaq. Sebastian Hochstein is also very good for Animal Nation's motivation as will soon be revealed in the 5 track EP we've been working on during the last two weeks he's been hanging around in Canada!
We also went to the Aquarium yesterday!!!
Rock.

Here's a song called "The Pillow", which, surprisingly, is a song about a pillow, and will be featured on our new, as of yet untitled, EP.
(If you have any name suggestions send 'em in!)
So far we've got:
"Basti Made Me Do It"
"The Thirsty Boys"
"General Electric Brand Dishwasher Detergent Doesn't Really Do It For Me Like It Used To"




Steige: Between the cigarette burns and the red wine stains, our couch cushions have definitely seen better days. Do you prefer sleeping on the side covered in burn holes, or the side that’s permanently red-wined?

Basti: You guys should know you made me sleep on the ground right next to your washing mashine...so don’t bother me with those couch questions. I need to see my chiropracter.

S: If you died tomorrow, and believed in re-incarnation today, and were brought back to life as a cushion, which type of cushion or pillow would you be, and why? (ie-throw pillow, couch cushion, fancy decorative pillow, sleeping pillow, etc.)

B: Doesn’t really matter as long as Tyler West wouldn’t have his girl done on me!

S: Tell me about your worst couch surfing adventure? Was it because of the shoddy quality of the pillows?

B: It was that night that Reid had (way) too many wildcats and died on the sofa next to me...

Triple dolphin jump. No big deal...

S: Would you rather your sleeping pillows be gangster pillows or emo pillows? Do you prefer them hard or soft?

B: I prefer them soft, so i think it needs to be an emo pillow, eh?

S: Since you’re a vegitarian, would you prefer if I didn’t call it a cow-ch? Should I instead maybe call it a ‘squash’, or a ‘zuchini...ch’?

B: Call it falafel...ch, dude.

S: You’ve spent the last 2 weeks sleeping on the floor next to our couch. This, right now, is the first time that I’ve told you that our couch folds out into a bed. How does this make you feel?

B: See question 1), bastard!


If you enjoyed this, make sure to stay tuned for our collaboration EP between Animal Nation and Sebastian Hochstein (Nic & Jaq) coming out in a week or two! Also, make sure to check out our Interview with Nic & Jaq!!

ROBAANKS, An interview with...

Do you ever wake up in the morning with your mind stuck on a certain subject? Maybe you've just opened your eyes, and for the rest of your day you can't think of anything other than going on a vacation to Thailand. Or possibly you can't get it out of your head that, even though you already have a fully functioning bicyclette, you need a newer, lighter, faster one, with way more horns on it.
I think either that, or my extreme fascination of Rob Banks' bathroom habits, led to the questions in this interview.
Why would anyone want to know what Rob does with his toe nail clippings in the winter? Probably for the exact same reason you'd want to go to Thailand for vacation.
It's hot.

Steige: When was the last time you had a shower?

ROBAANKS: 20 minutes ago

S: Face cloth, or straight up soap to skin?

RB: Wash cloths are for girls.

S: Where do you clip your toe nails, and what do you do with them once they're no longer attached to your feet??

RB: In the winter I clip in the living room or the washroom. In the washroom they go directly into the toilet. In the living room they often go onto a plate or into a bowl and then in the garbage. In the summer I clip on my back steps and the nails stay outside.

S: Do you always wash your hands after you make pee?

RB: If I'm in a washroom, yes.

S: Okay, so I have a... friend... who has a pretty serious problem when it comes to biting my finger nails... his finger nails.... Why do you figure this is, and what's your advice for someone trying to quit?

RB: Way back when, I used to do it just 'cuz I was to lazy to clip 'em. START GROOMING THEM SHITS! Girls notice that kind of thing, and for good reason too.

S: Alright! So you've got yourself a date with the cutest girl in all of Whistler, when BAM! you realize that your underarms aren't as fresh as they should be. It's 8:45, all the stores are closed, and you're meeting your lady friend at 9pm sharp! What's your plan of action?

RB: Chill. There's tons of public washrooms all over town. Get your ass in one. Preferably one with paper toweling. If not, toilet paper will work in a pinch. Take that shirt right off, you don't want water marks on that M/F. Damp your pits, damp some folded towel, put soap on that towel, scrub pits, splash water up those pits, dry with dry towel, put your shirt back on, go get some son!

S: Easy as that! Anything else you'd like to mention? Maybe you'd like to tell us what you normally think about during the 2 minutes you spend brushing your teeth in the morning?

RB: When I'm brushing my teeth, that's my main focus. Floss, brush, mouthwash. Every day. Bad breath is THE best way to be shunned by fine females. I know for sure I am never taking no halitosis girl home. I do not care how hot she is. If the mouth smells bad.......

S: Then she's bound to not have a trust fund set up for her. I hear ya.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out other "Bank" interviews in our Interview With Feet Banks!

Also, make sure to check out the ROBAANKS' video interview with everydaywhistler.ca about why he doesn't dig pasta stir sticks.

RIGHT HERE!!!!

Free Music Give-a-way!

For fun!

Animal Nation's "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible"
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gzont1zli1o/Animal Nation - Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music.zip

Animal Nation's acapellas of "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible"
http://www.mediafire.com/file/aymhvoymjzl/Animal Nation - Acapellas - Understanding More About -Remix Material- Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible.zip

Animal Nation's "TimeZone"
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tn2dyhtwwyl/Animal Nation - Timezone.zip

Rock!

Carmen and Camille, an Interview with...

Carmen and Camille, much like burnt waffles, are kind of ridiculously hot. Alternatively, unlike burnt waffles, Carmen and Camille have written an album full of hits that have been featured everywhere from The Hills, to Billboard, to Elle Magazine, to my headphones, to your speakers.
That being said, when it comes to Carmen and Camille vs. a stack burnt waffles, what would you rather eat?

Steige: What are you wearing right now?

Carmen: Well the honest answer is jeans, a t-shirt and sandals but that's not very exciting now is it?

S: Skimpy lingerie and stilettos?? You dog, you! Ok ok... on a more serious note... my girlfriend likes girls, by which I mean, I’m trying to convince my girlfriend to like girls. How would Carmen and Camille go about convincing a girl that kissing other girls is fun?

Camille: I'm sure once she tried it there would be no going back. Lesbians really are the smartest people in the world.. but getting her to try it is the hard part I guess. Good luck with that.

Steige: What’s been the best or worst or craziest or most standout live show you've played so far?

Carmen: The best live show for me was probably in Egypt... we were there for a military tour and we performed outdoors for a couple hundred soldiers in the middle of nowhere at an army base. It was very surreal. And the people were so supportive, they let the soldiers stay out an extra hour after so we could sign stuff and meet people. Good times. That was also the show though that Camille kept electrocuting herself on her mic cause something wasn't grounded properly. That got fixed eventually lol.

Steige: If you were the biggest person in the world, ever, like Paul Bunyun sized, what would be the first thing you would do?

Camille: I think I would join a circus and travel the world... Being a carnie might be fun.

Steige: What about if you were the smallest person ever? Like, mouse sized.

Carmen: I would record an album with my little mouse voice which would obviously sell millions cause no ones doing that right now.

Steige: On a scale of 1 – 10, what’s your favorite number?

C & C: Definitely 2...

Steige: Anything else you’d like to mention?

C & C: Tell your girlfriend to call us ;)

Steige: Wow. Alright.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out more interviews with more really really good looking people by clicking here, here, here, here, or here.

Off to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz-ttawa!

I wrote an article for our local news rag, The Pique NewsMag, about our trip to Ottawa for Canada Day, and New York for the 4th of July.
I was limited to 600 words, so I had to skip over quite a few things...
I could have easily written 2000 on Stacy London's house alone!
Our good friend Pat captured a lot of it on video, and is putting the footage together now, so we should have something of that sort up soon too.

"
Four states, three provinces, two Independence Days, countless beverages, four border crossings, two band members, and one passport. This is Animal Nation's recollection of the past seven days.
"
Click here to read the rest of the article!

---

Make sure to download our latest album, "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music" if you haven't already done so! Or do it even if you already have! Download 5 copies! Download it onto your friend's computer, and put it on her iPod!

Armadillo Slim, an interview with.

Micheal and I just finished set one of two for our "Canada Day in Ottawa" extravaganza. Our crowd was an interesting combination of people young and old, from 8-80... with no one in between. (Except Ms. C-Chord! Thank you muchly!) We've got three hours to kill before our next set, so we're going to drink drink drink our faces off, hope for some people our age to show up, and wind up blackout just in case our crowd is a gaggle of kids and sagging skin again. While these beers are going quickly down the hatch I'm also going to force Mike to answer the questions that I sent him 6 months ago.

Steige: Listen: The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire, and for some reason we're all out of water, so we have no choice but to let the motherf--ker burn... You've only got time to grab one thing out of the house. What's not going down in flames?

Armadillo Slim: It's definitely the bag of weed from the kitchen drawer. But then it would just go down in flames anyways the instant I escaped my burning house after I realize that I left my girlfriend in there.

S: What's your favorite song on the new album? What was your favorite song to make? Why?

AS: I really don't have one particular favorite song on the album. There's a different favorite for different moods because of the variety of the CD.

S: What's the most annoying instrument we have?

AS: The typewriter.

S: Off the top of your head, what's been the highlight of your entire music career thus far?

AS: Probably this years main stage performance at the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. Good crowd, nice weather, cold brews, and loose morals. Always a good time. But we are literally en route to Ottawa to rock a show for the Canada Day Celebrations as I write this interview. I'm scared to think about how much fun we're about to have there.

S: Hate is great. Give me a quick list of things you hate and why you hate them...

AS: Insomnia - It really cuts in to my sleeping time!
Auto-tune - Makes me hate the song or artist the instant I hear it.
Black licorice flavored anything - It makes me not be friends with my so-called taste 'buds'.
Interviews - I'd rather save my energy for funner things. And yes, I do know that 'funner' isn't a word. But I figure it's funner than saying 'more fun'. Which sounds kind of square.
The Border - I am a dual citizen and can't be denied entrance into Canada or the U.S. regardless of my situation. I am used to putting on the face at work and on stage but for some reason (don't insert reason why here) I don't like the feeling of doing something wrong when I'm not. We are about to cross the border tomorrow and I don't have a passport and we have my little brothers rental car = almost cavity searched cavities. Not cool. And I find it weird that I am answering your questions as you are reading my answers over my shoulder while we are in the same room. But hey, Happy Canada Day there bud.

S: Your shoulders pop out all the time. They've popped out right before going on stage, they've popped out while performing, they've even popped out while you've been asleep. If you had the choice would you rather a) have your shoulders magically healed and sealed so they never pop out again, or b) have the ability to morph into a veloci raptor on command, but still have bad shoulders that pop out quite frequently?

AS: I'd rather have my shoulders healed. I hear that raptors have a hard time picking up chicks and if I learned anything from Jurassic Park 1 and 2, dinosaurs are extinct.

S: Alright, you've gotta kill one, fuck one, and marry one.
a) Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears.

AS: a) I would marry, kill, and fuck all three of them, in that order, too. But if I had to choose: kill Britney, fuck Lindsay, and marry Paris.

S: b) Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, the late Nicole Simpson. (Can't kill someone that's already dead)

AS: b) I'd bang Martha over Barbara.

S: c) Your girlfriend, your best friend, yourself.

AS: c) I'd kill my best friend (with kindness) marry my girlfriend, and fuck myself.

S: Which CD would people be most surprised to learn that you own?

AS: Sock Hop hits from the 60's. I also have almost every Barry Manilow record in my vinyl collection.

S: When are you happiest?

AS: When I'm dreaming of rainbows and unicorns and happy little people with gumdrop smiles. And the smiles are edible and taste like blueberry cream pie, so you can eat the smiles off the little people and they can't even say anything about it because their mouths are gone. That's when I'm the happiest.

S: What is the closest you've come to death?

AS: In a car accident with my friend, Reid. I was eating pizza in the back seat and when I got out of the car I thought that the pizza sauce was blood. It pretty much changed my life.

S: What song would you like played at your funeral?

AS: Soul Station, by myself.

S: Perfect.
Our second show, by the way, went amazingly, and ended with thundershowers and hale storms that decided to stop by for the last 20 seconds of our set, and left us completely soaked.
Awesome.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview with ME! our Interview with an Empty Plastic Bucket, as well as an Interview DJ Dredi did with Animal Nation a while ago.

Billy the Kid, an interview with.

It's raining, it's pouring, and all the golfers are stuck indoors... which is awesome, because now I get to go run around on the golf course, and rip into my harmonica as loud as I want, and no grey-haired, trouser-wearing, collared-shirted old Slicey McHackersons are gonna get all "You keep that down, you quick-tipped little whipper-snapper!" while pumping their golf club in the air, and furling their brows, and sipping on their tumbler of scotch, and they're out living it up, and the only time I'm allowed on the golf course is when it's raining really really hard, and.. umm... here's an interview I did with Vancouver's Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid is the first person to send us answers in the form of pictures and video, and I think you're going to think it's pretty fun. That being said, Billy is basically a nerd's wet-dream-come-to-life, and I'm pretty sure she could have sent us death threats and we would have considered them 'fun'.
Make sure to check out her myspace page NOW! to listen to her super catchy tunes, and perv on see more of her photos.

1. What’s your favorite television show theme song?



2. How does your own ‘Billy the Kid’ theme song go?

Varying degrees of the following featuring different lyrics:



3. You’ve got DIY music ethics, you’ve got the nerdy-yet-totally-hot librarian look going for you. How many thousand times a day do people ask you if you’re the newer, younger, better lookinger Lisa Loeb?



4. Which of your tattoos is your favorite? Why?



He's my lucky star. Every time something good happens, I thank my lucky star.

5. Which of your tattoos has the worst story behind it?

I got my first tattoo at 16 years old in a kitchen.

6. Who’s your favorite cat/mouse combo?



7. What’s your favorite thing ever, ever?

This guy:



8. What’s your favorite breakfast cereal? Who’s your favorite breakfast cereal mascot?




9. Anything else you’d like to mention?

http://www.billythekidonline.com ;)



If you enjoyed this, make sure to read up on other incredibly beautiful/talented people in our interviews with Paige Harley, Ali Milner, DJ Laura C-Chord, and myself.

Blair Richmond, an interview with.

FEET BANKS, an interview with.

"Hey Mike, what do I say about Feet Banks for the intro to his interview?"
"I don't know. Ask him, 'if we killed him, would we be defeating him? Or his family? Or... the World??'"
"Uhhh... alright."

Steige: “Feet Banks” are what I call my shoes. If you were a pair of shoes, what kind of shoes would you be, and why?

Feet: When I was a kid we didn’t have much money and my mom used to buy me runners from the Saan in squeamish. Real pieces of shit that were made totally from plastic and had no ankle support. All the other kids made fun of my “Saan Specials” and I blew my ankle almost every gym class. My first pair of socially acceptable shoes were black Nike hightops and 16years later I still have ‘em so I would have to say I’d be those suckers because they go well with 80’s hair metal and, if you walk the walk, will still get you laid in Kamloops, BC.

S: Hearing the word 'Saan' makes me cringe. I find people are usually either in love with, or disgusted by feet. Are you a foot fan or foe?

F: I’ve done some weird shit with feet in hot tubs but I really only love my own feet. I love them so much that when I go hiking with a heavy backpack I use those telescopic ski poles to take some of the weight of my feet. Makes me look like a euro but I don’t give a shit, it takes like a tonne off your feet over the course of a day.

S: If you had the opportunity, and you knew there were to be no repercussions, whom would you throw a shoe at, and why?

F: Candace Bergen, that actress who was in that shitty show Murphy Brown. I’ve never met her or anything but every time I see her I’d like to heave a big steel-toed workboot in her face. Also I wouldn’t mine drive-by shoe-ing everyone in Whistler that is letting greed take over their sense of community, but that would be most of the town, and they don’t have that many shoes at the Re-use-it center. Now that I think about it I’d like slap a couple of the Re-use it staff around with a pair of tap-dance shoes too, those fuckers piss me off more often than not.

S: What's the deal with sandles and socks? Why is there such a stigma surrounding the combination of the two? What do you secretly, or not so secretly, tell people you catch walking around with the sock/sandle combo?

F: Generally I am all for nonconformity but combining Sandals and socks is like walking around with a sign on your back that says “I haven’t been laid since my mom used to dress me.”
The purpose of sandals is to let your feet breath. Socks don’t allow that. Socks are prisons for your feet and your soul. Your soul and over all well being is totally linked to your feet. Foot Reflexology is not all hippy-dippy shit. I heard there are some foot masseuses that can even kill a person just by rubbing and pressing the right sequence of spots on a foot.
When I see someone with socks and sandals I mostly just laugh because their socks are gonna get extra dirty and then they’ll be the ones having to do more laundry. Doing laundry is one of the worst things ever, the stupid mundane repetitiveness of it.

S: I'm doing laundry right now! Err... How many feet tall are you?

F: 6 feet 4 inches if you use my own actual feet to measure me. My feet are only 11 inches long. Test your high school math skills out.

S: What's the gnarliest thing you've got going on with your own feet?

F: I can pull my little toenail off pretty much anytime I want and it doesn’t hurt. Also, since it is summer my feet are always dirty, I live on a farm and they just get real dirty and unless I sit down in the shower and chip away at ‘em with some sort of lava rock there is not much I can do about it.

S: What color socks do you prefer?

F: I like white socks and I like a brand new pair each time. My buddy Calder taught me that. Big bags of white socks are cheap so you just keep a bag in the drawer and grab a fresh pair whenever you want. Before the hippies start giving me shit I’d like to point out that I donate my used-once socks to charity. I also have some fancy socks for when you have to wear a suit or if you have black shoes or whatever. The fancy ones are never white.

S: Anything else you want to say? Foot or non-foot related?

F: “A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer.” Mitch Hedburg said that.
“Fuck with me, I’ll put a foot in your ass.” Ice Cube said that.
“In the winter, never trust a woman with warm feet in bed, she’s probably a dude.” I said that.

S: My feet are always freezing. I think I've got bad flow.

F: Oh.

S: Yeah.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview with an Empty Bucket! Or if you want to read a really really long interview, check out our Short Story Interview with Sponge Bob artist Kent Osborne!

Artist Interview w. Arne Gutmann

Arne is the man. The Gutmann. I don't really know what the heck a Gutmann is, but I assume it's Dutch or something, and probably means "Good Man", or, like, "Totally Rad Dude That Takes Killer Photos of Fat Dumps".
Probably.


Steige: Why do you take photos of your poop?

Arne: Cuz almost 20 years ago I saw one of my poops and said "I gotta photograph that! It looks like the letter ....." Since that time I have paid a little more attention to that unusual thing called "poo."

S: Do you have to practice to make your poop into shapes and letters, or is it all just left up to chance?

A: Nope, it's just like freakin' magic. I never know. It's always a fresh bowl and what happens is up to chance. I am sure diet helps a little. Steak and pizza. Yum.

S: What are the best and worst things anyone has ever said about one of your poop pictures? Has anyone ever told you that your photo looks like crap, and then ran off giggling, only to come back later and buy two? Cause I would like to think that’s what I would do. And I would definitely get a B and an X, because those seem like they would be the trickiest to make.

A: Most people chuckle, some think it is just wrong. I only remember one dude at a show and he was really ticked off, I was like sorry you don't like it, then just don't look at it. He wasn't having anything to do with it and was almost confrontational. He was also very drunk. That's what happens at art shows some times and I am prepared for that.

S: Which letters were the trickiest to make?

A: So far they have to be: r, a, h, y.

S: Can you make a ‘poop me’?

A: Hey man, I havn't even got passed the alphabet! Maybe with a special diet and a lot of practice, though I highly doubt it. Sorry. Besides, that would be the weirdest portrait ever. Period.

S: How the heck do you take a photo of your poop without getting any tiolet paper in the shot?

A: That's a very interesting question......

S: Anything else you’d like to mention? Poop or non poop related...

A: Yeah, one time I had set up 12, 4x6 black and white prints that spelled out the name of the art group I am in. It was right over the cheese and munchie platters. Some people didn't even notice, of course some people did and laughed or... Some people thought it was so funny that they themselves would step back to watch other people's reactions.
In closing, always have your camera with you, because you never know when you might need it in the most unusual way. Literally! Digital is nice for this application, though not to forget analog, ohhh sweet analog. Not burton analog but non-digital. cheers and happy shooting.

S: Awesome. Make sure to check out more of Arne Gutmann at his site boardstars.com.
Nice.

If you enjoyed this make sure to check out another photo-nerd Interview With Paige Harley, or our Interview with a Couple German Guys, Nic & Jaq!

Calling all DJ's, Beat Makers, Producers! (Free acapellas!)

Hi!
Hope everyone is doing awesomely.
Errrmmm...

New Music Video
We just got back from Vancouver where we spent our yesterdays shooting a Bob Dyan-esque music video for the first single from our new album, "Party Animals"!
The video was shot by our good friend/videographer extraordinaire Blair Richmond, and should ready for viewing pleasure in 2 to 3 weeks!
And Mike just woke up and told me that he ate mushrooms on the drive to the city, and was tripping balls the entire time.
Spectacular.

Calling all DJ's, Beat Makers, Producers! (Download our acapellas!)
With last week's release of our new album "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible" we've been getting a few people asking for the acapellas so they can remix them, or throw them down at the end of their Top40 set to clear out the dance floor, or chop them up so that we say funny things, and use them as their answering machine greetings... so we've gone about gathering up all of the acapellas for all of the new tracks, and made them easily downloadable here at animalnation.bandcamp.com
Make sure to tell your favorite DJ-that-lives-down-the-street about our free acapellas, and don't forget to download the new album while you're there!

Rad.
-Steige!

Mike interviews a passed out guy named Dave in Elliot and Lee's house at 4am after the last show on our 2nd tour with Jiminy.

There's really nothing more I can say about the following clip that the title doesn't already cover.



This is amazing.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Animal Nation Video Interview on Saskatoon Radio, as well as last week's Interview we Conducted with Dre Morel, which you may have missed because you were busy not doing it right.

New Album - "Understanding..." - Pay What You Want!

Today is the day!
The day is today!

DOWNLOAD: Animal Nation's "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music"



So here's the deal...
We're broke. We know that you're broke too. All our friends are broke, and if I had a car I'm sure it would be broken as well. Basically, everyone ever, except some people, are all really poor right now. That's why Mike and I have decided to let you choose how much you want to pay for this album. If it's worth $2 to you, pay two bucks. If it's worth $15, that freakin' rules, and our huge piles of debt love you for it... if you're not really sure if you're going to make rent next month, and your dog is starving, and you can barely afford to pay attention to how good your ladyfriend looks in that new sundress she spent her last $10 on, download it for free, give it to a couple of your broke ass friends too, and give your girlfriend a hug for us.

Click on the "download" button on the bandcamp player at the top of this blog. You'll be magically transported to our bandcamp page, and given the option to download our album in lots of fun formats.

Physical Copy
If you want to pick up a physical copy - with amazing cover/back art by Taka Sudo, and a 12 page color comic of Animal Nation's adventure through song titles by Kent Osborne (SOOO AWESOME!) - You can purchase it for $12 by clicking here.



Thank you so much to everyone that came out to the shows throughout our tour (we're making a tour video as we speak!), and thank you in advance to anybody that comes out to any of our shows in the future.
Super huge extra thanks to anyone that bought merch, which helped fill our cars with gas, and our stomachs with A&W.

Thank you.
-Steige Turner, and Mike Armitage.

Andreas Morel - Weekly Artist Interview

I haven't eaten a proper meal in weeks. I don't actually think I've eaten real food in the last 48 hours. This tour we're on right now is definitely the most fun thing I've done since we did the same tour last year with the Jiminy boys, but it's turning me into a skeleton. I'm trying to write an introduction for one of the best House DJs I've ever seen (not that I'm any sort of House DJ expert), and the only thing going through my head is "food, food, food, food, food", and yet, it totally won't surprise me in the least when all I manage to eat today is a Teen Burger and Fries.
That being said, I'm glad I wrote this interview 2 weeks ago, before we left for tour, before I spent all my money on cheap booze and A&W, and before you could count my ribs through my skin, and use my hip bones and drums.
I asked Dre about ice-cream, what he would do if he was God, and what it's like to be featured in MTV's upcoming reality TV series "Peak Season", airing this fall, and he told me about tampons, mushroom trips, and something called "strawcavilla".
Awesome.

Steige: What's the grossest thing ever. Ever.

Dre: There aren't a lot of things in the world that gross me out, but there are three that stood out the most, and couldn't figure which was the worst. 1. There's this traditional meal in the Philippines called Balut. What it is: Half-hatched chicken egg. A fifteen or sixteen day old fertilized chicken egg, complete with partially formed feathers, feet, eyeballs, and blood vessels showing through the translucent skin of the chick. they eat this raw. 2. Brazilian fart porn......hilarious but gross 3. Not being sexist or discriminating at all but I'm gonna have to say tampons. WTF! It's the twentieth century. You'd think that tampon technology would move forward to something so stealth that guys would never even know about it. Yet there are commercials on every channel for every commercial break. I dunno. Just something I'm grossed out by.

S: I bet if you combined all three of those things into one bright shiny package, you could sell it for a pretty hefty price in a vending machine in Tokyo.
If I were to give you a small tub, say 1.5 L, of Neapolitan iced-cream how would you go about eating it? Would you mix the flavours? Go for a particular flavour first? ...And you have no spoon.

D: Well if you have no spoon I guess you cant really just go for one flavor 'cause it's all gonna mix eventually in your face. Unless of course you can use your hands. Then yeah, I would mix the flaves togetha. What flavor would that be called? Strawcavilla?

S: If you controlled all of everything, everywhere, all the time, what would DJ stand for, and what would you be eating right now?

D: If I controlled everything everywhere I wouldn't allow any haters or judgers in my world so DJ would be the abbreviation, and would stand for Don't Judge. Think that's cheesy? Prolly a hater! And I would be eating an ice cream i invented called "strawcavilla".

S: If God was a DJ what sort of music do you think he'd be spinning right now?

D: God would be spinning some crazy genre of music not known to anyone. This genre of music would be vitamins for your ears mixed with all the essential legends of music and sounds of planet earth.....I think.

S: Does it ever anger you that the coyote never caught the road runner?

D: Well I've seen a video of an edited version of the Coyote & Road Runner cartoon, on youtube with an obvious edited ending where the Coyote actually catches the Road Runner. The video has become viral and the Latin American press and TV media made a huge deal of it. Most of the press reports say that this is a cartoon made by an animator by request of a Japanese millionaire that was sick of never seeing the Coyote succeed. To be honest if this is true I would have to agree with the Japanese millionaire request because it would always make me insanely frustrated when I was a kid seeing this. To this day I still don't know what kids were supposed to get out of this? Violence is good? But then again, if the ongoing chase ended there would be no show.

S: If you were stuck with the Sun being permanently on, or permanently off, what would it be, and why?

D: I recently had a shroom trip and this is one question that my friends and I mingled upon. MY answer would be ON. Sun light brings light which then puts colour into perspective so then, eventually, you get a clearer perspective on EVERYTHING rather than darkness. I know it's deep but shroomers are a perceptional drug, so yeah...

S: Speaking of perception, what's the biggest difference between reality and Reality Television?

D: Simply there are no edits and delete buttons in reality.

S: Anything else you want to mention?

D: NATION OF THE ANIMALS!!!!!

S: Awesome. Make sure to catch Dre spinning anytime you're in the mood to PARTY, because partying is what he will make you do. Also make sure to watch Dre, Animal Nation, and other Whistler locals, in the upcoming MTV reality television series, "Peak Season", airing in September... I think.


If you enjoyed this interview, make sure to check out our Interview With Radio DJ Extraordinaire DJ Laura C-Chord! Or read about other Whistler localites in our interviews with Ali Milner, Paige Harley, Taka Sudo, and Myself!

Interview w. Animal Nation - Weekly Artist Interview

We spent the majority of our yesterday doing a series of radio interviews in Saskatoon to promote the upcoming release of our new album, "Understanding More About Nothing Than Anybody Ever Thought Impossible or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Music", which officially releases in 10 days!
We're doing a series of pre-release parties on our way back to BC to help promote the album as well, with Saskatoonian band Jiminy! Make sure to come party with us if you're going to be where we're going to be.... Did that make sense? I was up pretty late last night putting these videos together...

Here's clips from our radio interview at CFCR 90.5 with Jiminy's DJ - Scotty Martin (The Turntable Terror-wrist), as well as a couple on-air songs we did with a pencil/CD Case drum kit.
Rock!

Interview


Aw Man, Aw Well


Party Animals


I Never Cared (About the Troubles)


Awesome.
Make sure to check back next week as Andreas Morel (super house DJ super-star / MTV reality TV star) talks to us about ice cream, road runners and coyotes, and what he would do if he was God.

Thanks,
-Steige.


If you enjoyed this make sure to check out our Interview With an Empty Bucket, as well as our Interview with our favorite Saskonites - Jiminy!!