Filmed @ BLT Headquarters.

Jeff Miller – Writer of ‘Ghost Pine‘

J Miller’s been writing Ghost Pine Zine for 14-15 years. He released a new issue last month. BLT asked him what’s changed, how is writing different for him now compared to back then in the beginning? Seemed like a good question for anyone who’s worked on one thing for such a long time.

He said that though he’s got somewhat of a new pallet & tools, he’s dealing with the same subject matter, mostly true stories, trying to constantly improve. Then, he told BLT, he thought a lot while writing, & now he lets whatever come out.

At age 16, when GP began, he was thinking about his feeling, trying to tell people what he felt, feelings flowing and now he doesn’t care so much. His sweatshirt has chains on it. It looks great in black light time. GHOST PINE!

Filmed @ M. Shane’s studio. Downtown Montreal.

Matt Shane – Painter
We asked matt a couple questions…

What if you could bring to life one of your paintings, a magical landscape. But one of your creepy rivals was allowed to populate the land with whatever creatures they choose. OR you have a triumphant massive art show, but no one buys anything and there is a fire destroying all your best work and you have no money for new work. Which would you choose and why?

Matt said he would choose to have a painting brought to life because he would know all the hiding places and could create a storm and wash every creature away. An arc situation.

Also we asked him: We understand painting’s meditative, you’re alone engaged in repetitive construction, is there a moment you remember, a moment, making all these paintings, one moment of pause or discovery you remember and hold on to, sticks with you?

He explained that he takes a long time working on one section, drilled down, he’s good at focusing for long periods of time, hours will pass. It’s only when he leaves his studio for a while, takes a break, comes back to the thing that he can see the painting as it is, shall be, a turning point of some panic and a loose letting of accident happen. It is a long & detailed process creating a giant painting. It’s in the last half hour of the night, just before he’s gonna pack up and go home, he said, that he’ll have a moment of discovery. Sublime turning points, titanic precipice. He says his challenge is to be less detailed, less controlling, less meticulous.

Is that a problem in your personal life?

In a sense… I forget that you have to do all manner of things… you have to go outside, see your friends, eat not pasta.

An image comes to mind of building up water behind a dam, breaks thru, rushes down mshane mountain.

Filmed @ BLT HQ

Filmed @ BLT HQ

B- Victoria, which do you prefer? Complex proggy music or simple music with a few chords that may be more kind of… what is the word you used, genuine?
V-Earnest?
B- Earnest, yeah.
V- This is a question that I’ve thought about a lot. I think that when I first hear a band for the first time, or a song, any song, if I like it, that song usually has about three listens, and then I’m sick of it. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad song, it’s just that I get sick of it really easily. Whereas music that I like the most over time tends to be music that I didn’t like originally, either because it was harder to understand or harder to listen to and that’s usually the more complex, proggy, convoluted music. I think that ideally, the best bands will combine simple chords and earnestness with some unexpected elements that catch you off guard. And you might not even realize it at first. Maybe you’ll listen to it the first time and it’ll just be a really poppy song and you’ll think, hey, I’m listening to a pop song! And then a couple of years later, you’ll revisit it and realize that there are some really weird time signatures in this song, that you never realized were there, or some minor notes among some major ones, that are slightly mismatched and that you never would have thought of putting there, and I think that that’s maybe the ideal combination between the two; verging on the edge of earnestness, with elements of the complex and convoluted. It’s a fine balance.

Filmed @ Braids record release.

BLT: Braids!

B:hi! Happy birthday!

BLT: It’s only going to take a minute but it’s going to take some thought, too, so… so the question is, what is the name of your album and what if an alien came and told you that you had to stop being a band, within a year’s time, or they’d destroy a small Ontario town and another alien came at the same time and said that they’d let you come to see her planet If you don’t break up, also in a year’s time. What would you do?

B: I have to ask an additional question on the second proposal. Do we get to come home?

BLT: yes. For sure.

B: Well if it’s a small town in Ontario… who the fuck cares!

B: but you guys, what if there’s someone living in that small town that’s super powerful? And they’ll blow up all the planets that we visit?

– I highly doubt this.

B: yes, but, you know…

– in a world where a bunch of aliens come down and propose these kinds of things?

B: sometimes you can roll snake eyes…

– highly improbable. I’m rolling for that seven.

-I wanna go to this planet. Your neck looks incredible.

-high contrast.

-holy shit.

B: our album is called native speaker.

– yeah, so native speaker would want us to go there.

BLT: has it become an entity?

B: its become an entity.

-it has its own mind, for sure.

Blt: and it would want you to let the town in Ontario go?

B: yeah. There are a lot of towns in Ontario. As long as it’s like, Dundas, or something.

B: Dundas?!

-isn’t that where Dan Snaith is from?

-shit, it’s true.

-yeah that would be killing all of caribou, that would not be good.

– you just blew up caribou.

-maybe Kingston.

-no, Kingston’s a big town.

-maybe a thousand islands or something,

-yeah.

-or something off the 401…

-something that we’ve never heard of. If it’s a town that we’ve never heard of…

-what about Timmins, Ontario?

-Timmins!

-there we go.

-I’ve heard of Timmins, actually. My friend’s mom is from Timmins.

-Goodbye!