Laura Matsue: Hi, I’m just going to test this out. Hi my name is Laura, what’s your name?
Vitaminsforyou (Bryce Kushnier): Hi my name’s Bryce.
L: Let’s start his out with something simple. What’s the occupation that you ideally desire and what are currently paying your rent with?
B: Making music for a living would be an awesome occupation and I do that part-time, so half of my dream is fulfilled. I work in a record store and I’m also a certified high school teacher, not teaching at the moment. Half of the ideal job is there. Teaching is pretty ideal though, I love working in a record store too.
Being an astronaut would be great. I want to go into space.
L: You could be a teacher in space!
B: Exactly! Set up a new school.
L: And a record store!
B: School slash record store, on the moon.
L: What do you want to teach the kids?
B: I’m certified to teach history and social studies so - all forms of historical inquiry and social studies. Anthropology, sociology, family studies.
L: How long have you been making music and what was the initial reason you began?
B: I’ve been doing music for a pretty long time in one form or another; playing in bands, doing music in experimental sound design. The Vitaminsforyou project came out of trying to marry both of those passions, doing more experimental stuff but still writing pop songs. It started 7 or 8 years ago. I have training on other instruments, like saxophone, guitar, drums, and a little keyboard. I’ve always made music; it’s always been around in my life. It wasn’t a decision; it’s just what I do. The first Vitaminsforyou show was in 97 or 98.
L: Do you consider yourself to be attached into the genre of IDM?
B: Not really, but when I started out I grouped in with a lot of electronic artists. That was cool, because I work with the same kinds of tools and the same kind of general conception and philosophy of music that they do. I’ve played in a lot electronic and techno festivals with other IDM artists. It was a means of writing music; an easy way for me to make the songs I wanted to make using certain sounds, but on my own - electronically and with a computer. I didn’t need a band, didn’t need to call people to play on tracks. I could do it alone. It became a means of making the music I wanted to make, and I was using the tools that IDM artists use. I don’t think people who listen to my album get that kind of sense. If they didn’t know I’m using electronics to make music, they’d assume it’s probably just ‘regular music’, you know?
(We decide to relocate because the children playing in the sprinklers in the background were getting louder. Voices can be heard; they were shivering and screaming. We seat ourselves on a bench in front of a sleeping homeless man.)
L: That’s a nice spot for a nap. I’d sleep there. So, I’ve recently heard the term ‘post-IDM’ lately. Could you tell me what your own interpretation of what you’d expect that to sound like?
B: I think music in general, electronic music specifically, has reached a lot of cross pollination with other music. It’s uncommon to find artists that release strictly IDM or electronic albums like they did 5 or 10 years ago. Artists in that mindset are using the same tools to make other kinds of music; for example, Jamie Lidell. Warp (records) is sort of the apex or pinnacle of IDM music, but if you listen to the tracks on his album it sounds like soul, R&B and funk.
Artists are finding other ways, indie rock, psychedelic, jazz. There’s always been a jazz element to IDM.
L: So post-IDM, is there no definition?
B: I don’t know if there’s post-IDM or it’s just dead. There are people who still make IDM records who are creating awesome stuff, like Autechre. If you’re going to define a genre of ‘classic IDM’, there’s Board of Canada who are more on an ambient tip, their new album has lots of guitars in it. They started out doing ‘classic IDM’. For the pioneers it’s easy for them to retread that ground over and over because people want to hear that.
People aren’t necessarily abandoning the genre but they’re seeing the power in doing other things with the tools they have.
L: Your album title is Legends of Birds of Hill. My favorite Legend is Zelda’s, but tell us about this story. If there is no actual legend you’re just going to have to make one up now.
B: It’s a true as a legend can be. It’s a park located about 10 or 15 minutes outside Winnipeg where I grew up. My grandmother used to take me there when I was a kid. It’s a really cool place for a kid to get away from the city. It’s a naturalistic park, it just sort of exists. There’s not much in terms of play structures, you just sort of go and explore. Oh look the kids are all naked now! But yeah, the legend sort of respect of it was
1: I wanted my album to be a story and
2: When we went there my grandmother would always fabricate stories about the park. There was some truth to them, like for one she told me the ice age ended around Bird’s hill so that’s why there are these humongous sand and gravel pits.
L: Is that true?
B: I think it is. There’s another one about a pirate named Captain Bird. I don’t know HOW he would’ve gotten there he would’ve had to take his ship up into Hudson’s bay and then down the Red River to the park. Supposedly there are caves and he hid stuff in them. Treasure; or whatever sea faring folk have to hide.
L: Did you search for it?
B: Of course!
L: Did your grandmother give you map?
B: No map. It’s one of those parks where you always find something new; it’s a big piece of wilderness that hasn’t been landscaped.
L: What is about the Ukrainians that make you want them whisk you away and work you in their fields?
B: Well, Ukrainians are sort of an experiment in personal writing. That’s part of my background, and the song is about the pioneering Ukrainians who came to central Canada in the 18 and 1900’s. They came to plow the land to make a living. The song is about trying to take a different approach with music and lyrics, I wanted to embody something that’s personal to my background, but not directly to the person I am. It was an experiment and a tribute to my family, what they dealt with when they first came to the country, and what they are now.
L: Like the founders of perogies.
B: Perogies of course.
(We decide to relocate again. The streets are filled with World Cup enthusiasts. A game has ended and they typically react by having car horn battles with each other in the streets while crowds of people weave in and out of this chaotic traffic, aimlessly drunk and loud. )
L: They’re really abusing their horns. You know how you can warn people on AOL and they get message limitations so they can’t flood you with messages. They should implement that on the streets, with vehicles. They have to wait a while before they can honk again if they’re too out of control.
We’re going to travel back in time, and talk about the track 1986. What did that year mean to you?
B: A bunch of things happened. You know around that time when you’re growing up, you choose your favorite things? People ask you what your favorite color is, favorite number is, animal. When I was growing up 1986 was my favorite year.
L: Do you think your favorite things in 86 have changed?
B: Not really, favorite color red, number 6.
L: You’ve turned a few answering machines from your friends into interludes between songs, is there a certain fondness for these messages?
B: There are so many things these days that you can stop, edit, turn around, change and I think answering machine moments are so candid and personal. They’re really meaningful, they make me laugh, think… I enjoy moments that you can’t take back.
L: You can actually; you can erase/edit and redo them on cell phone voicemail.
B: I think it’s funny when people say something and trail off or they realize that they’ve been talking forever and they don’t know why they’re talking or if they’re making sense. I have friends that call and sing and say absurd things.
L: I think people who redo the original message ruin that aspect. If you leave a message and then you find yourself changing it, it’s like you’re reenacting out a scene in life that you thought was done wrong.
B: You seem somewhat pompous like ‘Oh I can make a better message!” I’m really into collecting sounds and audio, it’s a great opportunity for me incorporate sounds I can’t produce on my own. People’s voices are things I hear everyday and they’re important to me and I want other people to hear them.
L: So are you archiving your friend’s messages?
B: There are a few friends who are on those messages that call frequently; I could probably do a whole album dedicated to them.
L: That’s a good concept album.
B: I collect tid bits. I collect a lot of sounds. These were things floating around at the time when I was recording the album. Maybe in future years there will be complete collections of telephone messages.
L: Why do you feel fame in absence?
B: A lot of the songs have to do with moving, journeys and traveling. You build these kinds of complexes when you change cities, you have these friends that you make and everyone’s really close knit. You get into sort of a funk when you’re in the same city for too long. You start to realize, you know maybe people really don’t care about you. Then you move away, all of a sudden you come back and you’re the ‘guy who moved away’ or girl or person. You develop a certain fame or, I don’t know, infamous for moving away. That song is about that.
L: when you go back to Winnipeg they treat you like that? When I go back to Thunder Bay I sign autographs.
B: The song is called “Being Away Fame”. I make my songs; I don’t know what they’re called. There’s a certain kind of energy that builds when you return to somewhere you haven’t been in a while. You’ve got friends, family, people you know who live there. It’s nice at first; it’s nice to go back. It makes you realize that what you left was more important or as important as where you’re going to. You have those moments where you wonder if anybody really cares and then when you come back and you’ve got that ‘fame’ from coming back from where you had been, you realize that they do care initially.
L: One of your song titles has the word ‘xenophobic’ in it’s title, which means fear of strangers. Are you afraid of me?
B: Song for the Xenophobic. I’m not at all. That’s directed at the people around me, the people from the places I’ve left who have frowned upon where I’ve traveled to when I come back. For me it’s just fun and games, meeting new people and having new experiences. I think xenophobia is as bad as some of the worst kinds of isms of phobias that are out there. I’m not at all. I like going places, meeting new people. I don’t find you particularly scary even when you’re holding this machine in my face.
L: It’s harmless, promise. We’re going to reach for the broader deeper questions. List 3 things that make you inexplicably happy and in contrast 3 things that come to mind that make you cripplingly sad. This is the part of the interview where I’m going to try to make you cry.
B: The things that make me happy…being out here, sound, that makes me happy. Hearing all sorts of sound all around me all the time. This is corny, but I like smell, things that smell good. Nice smells. Sounds... smell... I wish I could say things that look pretty make me happy but they don’t. I’m going to have to go with puppies for number 3.
Sad…
L: Yes cripplingly sad. Why don’t beautiful things make you happy?
B: It’s not that they don’t make me happy it’s just they’re not the driving force; they seem to drive other kinds of emotions. Visions… seeing someone crying or hurt. I could never be a doctor. Hatred in general.
L: Tears, pain and hate.
B: What does the survey say?
L: I would say pain is at number one. You win. Let’s keep on this topic of depressing things. If you got to choose the age, setting and apparel for your demise what would they be?
B: Jeez that’s dark.
L: Yeah we’re turning gothic. You can choose not to choose. But I think we should go into the dark side sometimes.
B: I’d like to die of old age, being sane and being somewhat of a hip old man. In a big city. My mood would have to be happy, fulfilled. Apparel… I think that would have to be defined by the general fashion of the time. I’d like to keep up to date. It wouldn’t be a suit or a tie; I don’t like to be dressed up. Fashionable attire of 2095. Hopefully.
L: Exact location? A hospital is so typical.
B: In my house. I’d hate to die in public where people would discover me; I don’t want it to be a big scene where people would have to discover me. People would be traumatized by seeing someone dead. I would hate to have to inflict.
L: Passing by some fashionable dead old man. Do you have any books that you think could change the world?
B: I think that people have already tried that and have been unsuccessful.
L: Required reading, you know like things they make the kids read in high school.
B: I don’t know. Lots of the stuff I read that interests me is social commentary.
L: Authors. What author would you like those kids playing in the fountain to read?
B: My personal philosophy about literature is that it’s only as important to you as you make it. The things that I read are what I think are important. They could become less important at another point in my life. I don’t know… the Bible? Ha-ha, what a cop out!
L: No you can’t say the Bible! Are you religious?
B: Another cop out answer, I think I’m spiritual. Not really religious. I think there’s so many more interesting ways in retrieving information in the world than just reading a book. I wouldn’t want to inflict reading upon anybody. Reading is good though, everyone should read! Yeah, literacy! For some people reading is important, for me I read things that make my life make sense now. They may not be important to anybody else.
L: What book are you reading right now that’s making sense of your life?
B: I just finished reading the Encyclopedia of Crypto zoology. It’s sort of a look at the missing links in zoology. Legends like Bigfoot and the loch ness monster. A lot of it is crazy people going out to the jungle, but there’s a science behind it and a passion about locating animals that no one else has discovered yet. Although these examples are the more famous, but there are other things that people didn’t think existed.
L: Do you believe these creatures are out there?
B: I believe that people in their heart of hearts have faith that they perhaps exist; I don’t have firsthand knowledge or experience. It’s good enough that people out there aren’t in it for the money or fame and fortune. They just believe.
L: The national enquirer stories could be true!
B: Perhaps, I don’t read it but it’s possible.
L: Aliens?
B: I don’t have much to say about that I’m afraid. I think that the loch ness monster and Bigfoot, there’s others who are passionate that they exist. If they believe who am I to say that they’re wrong.
L: You’ll only know for sure when you have the school and record store on the moon.
My last question involves a sketch instead of words. The topic is magic in an urban setting. If you get famous I will sell this on Ebay...
