Music

A/S/L: An online chat with Abbotsford, BC's Teen Daze

by Josiah Hughes

I’ve never hung out with atmospheric electronic-pop maestro Jamison (no last name because he’s mysterious like that) for more than ten minutes, but I still consider him a friend. We’re both from Abbotsford, BC, the weird, sketchy and strangely alluring manure-covered city outside of Vancouver, and we have a ton of the same friends.

Having just released a new four-song EP called The House on the Hill, I thought it’d be a better time than ever to give him the ol’ A/S/L chat treatment, so I hit him up via his secret Facebook account (again: mystery) and we talked about Abbotsford, granola bars, Nathan For You and The Pirate Bay.

Josiah Hughes: ASL is where I just interview artists via chat, and run the whole chat. If you’re into it, we’ll just chat for a little while.

Jamison: That sounds awesome. Cwe start in like five mins.?

Josiah: Definitely! I’m around all day.

Jamison: I want to put pants on and not be conducting an interview yoga style on my bed.

Josiah: Hahahaha. I’m putting that in the article.

Jamison: Yeah fair enough. BE RIGHT BACK LOL.

SOME TIME PASSES

Jamison: Okay I’m back.

Josiah: Ok let’s chat!

Jamison: Woo! Sooooo, how are thinggggsss?

Josiah: Pretty good! Just had some coffee and a breakfast sandwich. How are you doing? How’s your Friday?

Jamison: Lacking in both of the breakfast and coffee department actually.

Josiah: Damn dude.

Jamison:  I just woke up, which is weird because I normally set my alarm for 9 a.m. Which didn’t happen today. So I’m still sort of figuring things out over here.

Josiah: Would you say you’re in a… Daze? Sorry.

Jamison: Oh boy.

Josiah: I’m sure that’s not what you want to wake up to.

Jamison: Trust me, it couldn’t get any worse. It’s been a weird 20 mins.

Josiah: Do you have another job or do you just make music full time?

Jamison: I’m one of those lucky ones that gets to do it full time. It’d be fun to be able to have that sense of accomplishment when you come home from a good day’s work. But I’m not really cut out for manual labour. I mean, if I HAD to, in order to support my family in some grave financial situation… but for now, music treats me pretty well.

Josiah: Absolutely. What does being a musician mean for your day-to-day life?

Jamison: Well I’m actually getting married at the end of the month, so right now there’s a lot of stuff to do for that.

Josiah: Oh yeah of course! That’s really exciting!

Jamison: Yeah! I’m really excited. But aside from wedding planning, it’s a lot of blogs -> Twitter -> Facebook -> cereal -> Netflix -> Twitter (cereal’s in real life)

Josiah: Truly a dream life.

Jamison: It’s not too shabby!

 Josiah: What’s your favourite cereal?

Jamison: That’s an easy one: Reese Puffs

Josiah: OH SHIT YEAH

Jamison: By a long shot. That being said, it’s always good to follow up a bowl of Reese Puffs with a Fibre One bar.

Josiah: Hahahahhahahahah. AKA a pretend-healthy chocolate chip cookie.

Jamison: It’s funny, because it’s got a great amount of fibre, and SO MUCH sugar. It’s a bit of a paradox in the granola bar world I’d imagine.

Josiah: Definitely true. Also, Reese’s Puffs look like dog food.

Jamison: Yes they do.

Josiah: And whenever I buy a box I eat so many bowls and feel sick all day

Jamison: We all do that.

Josiah: That’s a true sign of adulthood, I think, that I’ve stopped buying sugary cereal. Maybe like once every two months. I just eat Raisin Bran now, like a dumb fuckin’ adult.

Jamison: Hahahaha, yeah I go through phases.

Josiah: When I was a kid we’d have Reese’s Puffs and Nesquik on birthdays and Christmas morning in our Abbotsford home.

Jamison: Okay that is actually amazing. Did you ever hear that Donald Glover bit about cereal?

Josiah: Hmm maybe. I might have blocked it out because I hate Community and I ESPECIALLY hate his rapping. Sorry to be negative so early in the morning.

Jamison: Hahahaha, right. We don’t need to get into Community.

Josiah: Hahahahaha yeah. It’ll be such a long conversation. We don’t want to turn this into an ebook.

Jamison: We should just talk about TO that we LIKE… which is an easy one for us. Since we seem to be the only two Canadians in Canada that talk about Nathan for You! I mean, the GUY IS FROM CANADA PEOPLE.

Josiah: Hahahahahah. Yeah I was getting to that. I figured it out. The reason for that is that admitting you like Nathan For You publicly as a Canadian is an admission of torrenting.

Jamison: Hahahaha

Josiah: But I guess Comedy Network is starting to air it next week. I hate that, when they air it like two months later. No wonder Canada sucks. Jk. Half-jk. But yeah, that’s the greatest show I’ve ever seen

Jamison: No wonder he left. Also, sidenote: if you receive a message that seems really out of context about him being from Canada, it’s because Facebook decided not to send it. I guess they don’t want me talking about him.

Josiah: Oh really did it block a message? DID YOU MENTION THE PIRATE BAY IN A MESSAGE? Facebook blocks Pirate Bay links.

Jamison: Have you ever tried to download Facebook off The Pirate Bay? Not easy

Josiah: Hahahhahaha. Sorry to get all political but we gotta talk downloading. It’s just a natural progression. What’s your view of it?

Jamison: Let me tell you, I’ve been intrigued by it from a very early age. I can remember Napster pretty vividly, and even before that.

Josiah: Yeah me too.

Jamison: I had found this site that would let you download 30-second wav file clips of songs. So like, I had three clips of tunes from Daft Punk’s Homework when I was in the 6th grade.

Josiah: Hahahahhaa

Jamison: Being a computer nerd AND a music nerd sort of negates the issue of downloading.

Josiah: But how does that translate to your own career, and how you feel about other people DLing yr music?

Jamison: Well, I posted that new EP on Tuesday, and on Wednesday it was the number one downloaded album on a certain private music torrent site, and I was STOKED.

Josiah: Hahahah that’s awesome. It only really helps people like you, no? I assume most of your income would come from playing live.

Jamison: Yes and no, the income from my first EP sustained me for like a year actually. Every month the iTunes royalties would be great. But I’m also living pretty minimally. The band is just one person, so it all goes to me, so at this point, playing live works as a better source of income. So downloading doesn’t affect me much at all!

Josiah: That makes sense. Why did you decide to post your EP when you did? I got the impression that it was sort of instinctual, rather than running some sort of PR game.

Jamison: Yeah it was, I mean, I’d been sitting on it for probably a few weeks, which isn’t a very long time, but I really wanted to do a Bandcamp release for it. I don’t want to play a lot of shows for the first half a year of being married, just so I’m not gone all the time, so record sales are going to be a bigger source of income for us, and Bandcamp is so great because it’s so direct.

Josiah: Are you not under a contract with any labels or anything? You just go release by release?

Jamison: Just release by release! And the guys at my label are amazing. So they understood the situation and were like, “go for it! We’ll send it to our digital distributor when it’s up.” So it’ll be on iTunes soon as well!

Josiah: Oh awesome! So flexible. Let’s talk a bit about the new EP. Was there an overarching theme to these songs?

Jamison: To a certain extent. Sonically I think it definitely does. They were recorded in such a short time, and with a very similar mindset. I really wanted to sample a lot of live instruments around the house, so a lot of what you’re hearing isn’t from a computer, which I think is a nice change for me, and for the listener.

Josiah: It has a very warm sound for sure.

Jamison: That’s good to hear. That was important for me.

Josiah: Are you a techno/electronic music nerd? Or is it more like electronic music is most accessible to you and you’re a pop musician?

Jamison: Like I said, computers have always made sense to me, and electronic music has always been interesting to me BECAUSE of that. Not the other way around. You know what I just realized, that’s hilariously Canadian.

Josiah: Hahahaha what do you mean?

Jamison: My first exposure to dance music was when someone would score a goal during a hockey game, and they’d play like some techno song after. Like, “2 Unlimited,” that jock jam. That was probably my introduction to electronic music. Hockey Night in Canada brought that music to me

Josiah: Hahahahah that’s incredible. What brought you to a place where you’re craving more organic instruments then?

Jamison: I had to push myself out of my comfort zone. It’s easy to just start a track with some midi keyboards and drums. It just takes a bit more work to sample mugs and spoons, but the work definitely pays off.

Josiah: Totally!

Jamison: Man I have to run to my bank actually

Josiah: Oh ok! No prob.

Jamison: I hate to cut it off early, but my card got scammed and I’ve got to go sort it out.

Josiah: Oh shit! No prob. Good luck at the bank! Do you use a classic Abbotsford bank like Fraser Valley Credit Union or something awesome? 

Jamison: Envision Credit Union!

Josiah: Hhahahaha yeah! Wait is that the same as Prospera? I feel like my parents used that one.

Jamison: Yeah pretty much. Just different branding

Josiah: I remember our bank was by Super Valu, close to Hemingway’s and the first Replay location.

Jamison: Whoaaaa. Old school Abby.

Josiah: Hahahahah yeah.

Jamison: Mine’s by the Taco Del Mar. Oh how things have changed.

Josiah: Holy crap Abbotsford has a Taco Del Mar? Used to be if you wanted a taco in Abbotsford you’d have to use hand-rolled Mennonite dough and cow turds or something.

Jamison: MMMM. We still have those

Josiah: Hahahahhaha. Those classic Abbotsford taco stands. Okay sorry to keep you. I’m about to start talking about Abbotsford A&B Sound with you so you should probably go.

Jamison: OH MAN. Next time.

Jamison left and went to the bank. Later, we Tweeted photos of Fiber One bars at each other.