Music

Compilation seeking Big Canadian Tunes

by Tom Beedham

So questions an alien voice in the opening hook of the call for submissions ad for a forthcoming compilation tape titled Big Canadian Tunes Vol. 1.

The project is spearheaded by Baby Cages singer/guitarist and Toronto-via-Halifax multihyphenate Halloway Jones. Meanwhile, the call for submissions ad is directed by Mohammad Rezaei, featuring wild-eyed performances from Jones, Montreal-via-Vancouver’s self-described “freak-rock” virtuoso Johnny de Courcy, and actor Nicole Whitely.

What follows is a warped and delightfully deranged lampoon of pageantry and nationalism. Surveying some supposed marks of Canadian identity over the course of its two-and-a-half minutes, the ad delivers a techno ode to Celine Dion, a Canadian Idol skit, and a bit involving a most uncomfortable depiction of brand worship via a Toronto Blue Jays-themed Tim Hortons donut.

The double-double charged frenzy is “intentionally abrasive” and “more short art film than commercial” (fair warning), but the sentiment is earnest: Jones is looking for musicians to submit their big Canadian tunes for consideration for inclusion on a cassette compilation. A lateral extension of a Tumblr of the same name that she launched in November 2015, the call for submissions is directly on brand with the ongoing blog, which features musicians’ responses to tweaked survey questionnaires found on MySpace.

“With the women in Canadian bikinis and the hunks in the Canada pants and Tim Hortons cups and stuff, I don’t want anyone to think that when I think of Canada, that’s what I mean,” Jones says. “I don’t think there is a way to say it’s one experience or one thing, but whenever I Google ‘Canada’ and get those images that I’m using, it’s always the same thing: it’s a babe in a bikini that says ‘Canada’ and then there’s ice and sometimes, like, a majestic animal.”

Despite the project’s pointedly critical veneer, Jones has a comparatively non-partisan design in mind for the compilation. “I’d actually really like songs for songs’ sake, and the more varied the better,” Jones says. “I want it to be an exploration of the idea of identity in a country that’s unbelievably huge and sparse and isolated.”

Artists can submit their music for Big Canadian Tunes’ consideration by sending sound files, short project bios, and explanations (under 150 words) as to how their songs explore Canadian identity to bigcanadiantunes@gmail.com with the subject “[BAND NAME], [City based in]. Vol 1 Submission.” All proceeds from the release will be donated to the NWAC (Native Women’s Association of Canada).

Submissions close at noon EST on April 30, but in the meantime we recommend sucking back a litre of maple syrup and watching the call for submissions in all its deranged glory (we’re premiering it below). Then read on for our interview with Jones including a more thorough investigation of Big Canadian Tunes and its identity politics.

AUX: You recently started a Tumblr blog called Big Canadian Tunes, and now you’ve got this deranged video call for submissions for a compilation you’re working on, which you’ve described as “intentionally abrasive.” What compelled you to do this?

Halloway Jones: I’ve just been very confused – not confused, but a lot of music that I really like, and I talk about all the time with my friends and get really excited about doesn’t get a lot of attention, so I was just like, “Maybe I should just do something.” So I wanted to do something that was more inclusive… maybe I’m answering this sort of wrong. I don’t know why I started doing this…

I think I just wanted to make a charity tape for a Canadian thing. I was having a lot of conversations about Canadian identity with my studio mates, and they were talking a lot about Canadian identity and isolation being a portion of Canadian identity. Like a pretty big thing, either geographic isolation or… our social nature is fairly isolating and polite, and I dunno, I like anything that’s community building.

I don’t like the idea that artists or musicians are selfish. I really believe that creative projects are a way to build community and I think that’s where it comes from.

The branding you’re using to promote Big Canadian Tunes is intended to parody Canadian nationalism, but there’s still a level of earnest enthusiasm involved in calling attention to the artists you’re interviewing there. How are you navigating your intensions here?

The women in Canadian bikinis and the hunks in the Canada pants and Tim Hortons cups and stuff, I don’t want anyone to think that when I think of Canada, that’s what I mean. I don’t want it to be this white-washed, commercial thing. And also it’s so sparse and diverse that I don’t think there is a way… Weird Canada is something that obviously inspires me a lot, but I don’t think there is a way to say it’s one experience or one thing. Whenever I Google “Canada” and get those images that I’m using, it’s always the same thing: it’s a babe in a bikini that says “Canada” and then there’s ice and sometimes, like, a majestic animal. And I thought that was very funny.

Heather Rappard, who’s a video director that I work with often, we’re gonna be making a new interview video series and Anni [Spadafora] from New Fries is gonna be the first person that we’re interviewing, and we’re shooting this intro title thing and it’s again, the same imagery, the same flapping flag and majestic animals and mountains and you know, junk.

Is that going to have the same deranged feel that this one has?

It’s a different director, and a lot of the derangedness [of the call for submissions ad] definitely is Mohammad’s bag. That’s his aesthetic. And also Johnny de Courcy, that’s Johnny’s bag. Johnny’s larger than life. That’s what he does, so that really came from them but this is going to be just as flashy I guess.

What’s going on with the blog?

The questions are all taken from MySpace questionnaires. It’s because I don’t want it to be about building celebrity and I don’t want it to be about any kind of social hierarchy. Anyone that has been like, “Hey, can I do one?” I’ve been like, “For sure.” People don’t often actually respond to the emails I send them. I’ve written so many of these dumb questions where it’s like, [assumes mockingly obnoxious voice] “Who’s the dreamiest member of your band?” and nobody writes back.

I usually try to approach people when they’re coming through on tour and I’m like, “I’m gonna send you a funny quiz, and then when I approach them and ask for their email address or something, I say that it’s gonna be silly, and then when I send the email I also say “feel free not to answer all of the questions,” so a lot of the time there’s a lot of unanswered questions so I send a lot of questions and some of them are like, maybe too ridiculous. There’s a lot of, “were you cool in high school?” and like, “what clique did you belong to?” because I literally type into Google, “Myspace survey,” “high school” – just different buzzwords that I think would be funny. And I have all these quizzes on my computer and I just copy and paste and people usually answer like a quarter of the questions.

Are you at all critical of Canadian music journalism?

No, it’s just… I’ve received a lot of really serious interviews, and it stresses me out, so I just wanted to have a platform for people to write about not much and talk about not much. It was fun to ask people what animal they wanted to be reincarnated as. I thought that was just a fun… it’s also different. When you care a lot about music it’s really easy to put people on a weird pedestal and have all these ideas about them. I think it’s nice to be like, “Oh, you’re just another buddy.” Because I feel like people do maybe have their backs up a little bit about things that are less serious.

I did an interview recently for Wavelength and a close friend of mine sent an email that was like, “Oh my god, you sounded so down-to-earth,” and I was like, “How is that a compliment?” Why would there be the assumption that I wouldn’t be down-to-earth. Who are these people that are making music that have these huge, weird egos? Firstly I would like not much to do with them, and secondly I would like to maybe… disprove that, almost, and be like, “It’s just people making sounds because they love it and because they care.” One step short of asking people why they make music, I want to ask them what their dumb thoughts are every day. It’s a humanizing thing, I think. I want to know that people are human.

What kind of criteria do the submissions have to meet to make it on the compilation? Are you looking for music with a specific agenda?

No way. I’d actually really like songs for songs’ sake, and the more varied the better. I was looking back on the blog right now. It’s not that big, so luckily I can look through it and be like, “What are the trends? What is there too much of?” There are two Daps Records bands right next to each other, and I was like, “Fuck.” But those are the people who are writing me back, and I post them just as I get them back, like, on the hour. So the more varied I can get it, and from different places, the better.

I’ve been reaching out a lot to people on the West Coast, and I think because my connection to the West Coast is a lot more flimsy, I’m not getting anything back. My connection to Toronto’s a lot stronger so people are writing me back, and the East Coast. I lived in Halifax for a long time, so people are writing me from there, and maybe one person only wrote me back, but I’ve written to many people in Montreal.

I’m really trying to get a broader scope and I have a feeling that I’m going to get a lot of anti-nationalist stuff, but if someone really wanted to write this… I was actually really thinking of a specific person that might write like a pro-Harper ballad [nervous laughter] – I’m going to specifically reach out to them and be like, “If you’ve got anything for me, I would really love to include this and I’d love to write about this” – someone who writes a lot of #obamaistheantichrist on Facebook [more nervous laughter].

So, just to be clear, a lot of the artists on the blog right now are either directly parodying marks of Canadian identity or they’re people that are coming at music from marginalized backgrounds; but you’re not specifically gearing the release towards any of that.

That’s sort of where I come from and what I’m specifically into, but I have been making a very conscious effort to try to get out of that. But unfortunately I just haven’t been getting that feedback. Although I would really like to. Any kind of conversation, I think, is interesting. If you show one perspective, even if you’re like, “I think this is correct perpective” or the “real perspective” or the one I identify with the most, it doesn’t mean anything unless you have something else, right?

I want it to be an exploration of the idea of identity in a country that’s unbelievably huge and sparse and isolated in all these different areas. So hopefully I get people writing to me. I wrote someone in Manitoba — fingers crossed. But basically it’s just a call for anyone that would like a new platform or to be exposed to some new ears. I think it would be cool. That’s really a lot of it. I was like, “I bet I could find some really cool stuff.”

The other night I went to my friend’s house and I was just like, “Have you heard this or this?” I do that constantly and I’m sure it’s really annoying for some people, but every once in a while, my friend whose house I was at the other night, he wrote me, and he was like, “Thanks so much for showing me all that music.” And I was like, “Yeah, well I’m super into it. That’s what I think about all the time.” I think it’s just good to talk about what you’re interested in. You find like-minded people and you can build something, and that’s sort of what I want to do.

Do you have a top five big Canadian tunes?

Ooh! Top five big Canadian tunes. That’s so tough. I feel like I can’t say that — like I can’t have them. Because then people will be trying to write Celine Dion tunes, you know? I don’t want it to be about me. I want it to be about people being like, “This is what I think about this.” It’s a pretty broad topic. It can really mean anything, so I want people to approach that — not that they’d be pandering — with not even the thought in their heads that I would have specific desires, even though obviously whether I like it or not, there is already probably a pretty strong idea of what I’m into out there already. So we’ll see.

You’re a musician yourself. Have you ever submitted your music to a juried process before?

Music festivals. A long time ago I thought about record labels when I put out some of my first albums, and I sent those out, or people contacted me and were like, “This seems interesting. What’s the story?” I’d just sort of chicken out and not write back. So I know it is a weird process. And I am gonna have to build a jury at some point, because I don’t want to be in charge of this. That’s not going to be fun or fair. But I would like to have some more varied perspectives, so I’m going to sit on that for a bit. I also want someone who doesn’t make music to kind of have the final say. I think that would be really nice. Maybe someone who is actually more interested in Canadian identity. Have them be like this is a cool compilation ideologically, and then maybe I’ll just move the tracklisting around so that it has some fluidity.

Would you say that a project like this has anything to do with what you do as a visual artist? You’re often poking fun at enthusiasm and celebration.

A lot of my work is making fun of the academy. I’m a classically trained painter, so I could paint your face and it would look like your face, but it’s been many, many years since I sat down and tried to make a painting. I usually sit down and I’m like, “How do I make this look like a very scared child did it?” Because I really hated art school and I hated the pretension around it, around making these things that were perfect or impressive. I think it all comes back to not liking the idea of the impressive artist. I think that’s why I make those questions so silly. Because I really like the idea of humanizing everything and being on a level playing field. If I can expose someone saying something embarrassing or having an embarrassing moment… I ask a lot of questions like, “When’s the last time you were embarrassed?” or “When’s the last time you cried?” Because I think it is very levelling, and the more level things are, probably the more comfortable I am with them [laughs].

In the call for submissions you’re requesting for artists to send music for consideration to bigcanadiantunes@gmail.com. Is that the only way music is going to make it on this compilation? Are you going to be seeking musicians out?

I think that naturally I’m gonna be talking about it a lot and I’m gonna be excited about it, and I’m sure it will come up in conversation when I’m like, “Oh, I’m making this tape and I’m really excited about it and I’ve got these cool submissions.” If I talk to someone I’ll probably be like, “You should send me something.” Or like, “Could I use this song? What do you think?” But other than that, I don’t know… if it is incredibly monotonous and people are really sending me the same thing over and over again…

Or if you’re getting a lot of Toronto stuff, for instance.

Yeah. Then I will start to reach out. Or work with someone. Maybe if people knew that there was a jury member based in Calgary they’d be more likely to participate because they’d be like, “I have a friend on the inside.” Something like that. Really the only way I see me getting more hands-on in this is if the submissions are much of a much-ness.

And there isn’t any sort of criteria the submissions have to meet?

None whatsoever. If it’s just you screaming for 10 minutes, but you write something nice about it, then I’m like, “OK!” I could get behind it. I really don’t want anyone to feel any kind of embarrassment. Even if it doesn’t end up on that final tape, I really would like to write about as much as I can and be like, “This person submitted, they made this effort, here’s a stupid thing I think about this.” I might even ask someone else to write a little something about it, just so it gets a nod. I’m really looking for emerging musicians or established musicians with new projects — just people trying new things, essentially. I don’t know how much I’d like a big band being like, “This is a Canadian tune.” I don’t know about that. But who knows.

Right now it’s just a baby. The whole thing is just a little baby. Now that I’m thinking about it and we’re sitting down and you’re asking good questions about it that are making me think about it, I’m like, “Oh, I should really maybe change some things that I’m doing. But it is, I think, a learning process for me in the sense that I have no background in music journalism. My only experience with music journalism is being on the other side of it. So to be creating content this way, I’m sure I’m messing up. Even when I go back and I listen to an album I was really proud of from three years ago, I’m like, “Where did that come from? Why did I do that?” And I’m sure I’ll have the same feeling about this blog. I’ll look back on what I’m doing now and I’ll be like, “Ooh, I really should’ve known better, that is a wild thing to do.”

Right now it’s sort of just me so I don’t have anyone tapping me on the shoulder to be like, “Don’t do that,” and it’s not my main focus. I have a lot of things going, so I think that something I can take from today is maybe I should sit down and think about things a bit, because I feel like it’s just gaining momentum because I keep adding these projects to it. So maybe before it gets too out of hand… do you have any advice?