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!!!!

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!