| An Interview with shoebox |
| On Monday, June 25, 2001, Beth and I met up with shoebox and this is what they had to say. Donovan Morgan, from flush, was there too. |
| Lynsey: How did you guys get your name? Brian: Jon Jonathan: um...well we had some really bad names. We had names like 'nemasous 66' and 'the adolescence' and one day at band pratice we all deciced, you know, this bad name thing has got to stop. So I had a pair of shoes and we called our band 'shoebox' Derek: He just bought them Jonathan: I bought them from PEI too. They were air walks.(some laughing) and I had a shoebox, they were GTO shoes and we called it shoebox. Derek: What size were they Jon? Brian: I think they were size 9. Jonathan: Size 9 which is my current foot size too, it hasn't grown since then and that's what we named our first cd we released. Donovan: (from 'Flush') Same shoe size since grade 12? That's sad. (some laughing) Lynsey: How did you guys all meet? Jonathan: Brian, you take this one. Brian: Ok. (some laughing) Jon and I knew each other since we were very little, um....and we both went to Dartmouth City Jazz Band and we sorta knew Mike before hand, but Mike was part of the rhythm section there, so we asked him if he would like to try to gam with us and we got to together with an other bassist actually, who was also apart of that. And then we ended up later on in high school, that was junior high, I met Derek, and we gammed a couple times and then we decided to bring Derek into the band, the other bassist got the hack and..ah.... Jonathan: He didn't just get the hack man, he got freakin' slotted. Brian: So...ya, and that's it. Lynsey: How do you come up with the ideas for your songs? Brian: We beat Jon over the head with a bat, till he thinks of something. Jonathan: No. Mike and I usually write the songs um...I write most of the lyrics, Derek does some of the lyric writing but, I write probably 50-60% of the songs and Mike shoots out everything over top of the songs I write, including his songs, and makes them come out 110%. (Mike laughs) If that makes sence. Lynsey: What's with the Dartmouth Chemical Rock Project? Derek: Ahhhhh. Jonathan: We'll let Mike, just wait, this is Mike's response Mike: I don't know what that is (lots of laughing) Derek: Ok, Mike has a little solo project going on. Mike: I don't know what it is. Derek: He has no idea. No, he does some crazy, crazy stuff with his computer. Donovan: Very intelligent. Brian: How did you guys find out about that? Lynsey: Mail list (starts to laugh) Brian: Oh, really? Derek: Oh ya, I sent that out. Ya, so that's Mike, all instruments are played by Mike and the cynthacizer and everything and he just does a bunch of crazy stuff for fun, and it turned into a fight to the death with the Bedford Chemical Rock Project. Brian: Which should be like, he is kicking ass, that's all. Derek: Ya, ya. So everyone go vote. Jonathan: And Bedford Chemical Rock Project, that's an other place from Halifax. Derek: I just said that. They have like 18 members and Mike's a one man show. Brian: The one. And he still does better, he makes better music. Lynsey: What's the hardest part about being in a band? Derek: Dealing with three jack asses. Brian: Ya, I'm going to have to go with that. Derek: Driving in the car for, no. I'd say the toughest part are the drugs and the women. We have a good time. You can't survive as a band if you don't have a good time. Brian: No, we were talking about it last night, it's not about a hard time, it's just so much fun that it's just.... Jonathan: Me, well for me, the hardest thing about being in a band is that it's hard on your wallet, cause all my money goes to the band mostly. Brian: And everything you earn sinks back. Derek: And also mornings like this one, waking up with a pounding, pounding headache not being able to move. Jonathan: Slash hangover. Derek: Ya, I don't know where the headache came from, the loud music I think. Brian: Those 'Flush' guys are bad news. Jonathan: I think we drank too much pop last night. Derek: Caffine is nuts. Lynsey: How did you come up with the idea of the clay people on th cd cover? Jonathan: um... Derek: It wasn't even an idea, it just kinda fell in place. Jonathan: No, well no it didn't. Derek: Well Jon made them a long time ago and they weren't for the cover. Jonathan: Ok what it was, was I made the clay people in art class in grade 12, we had to make a tribute to someone, so I made a little shrine to 'Sloan' and it had like 'Sloan' letters written under the people and I glazed them all up, it took me about a month and a half to like make them in class, and then when the album came out Derek came up with the concept for the title which is 'life imates art' and using the clay band we thought it fit that title really well, so that's how it came to be. |