Thanks so much to Heather (and Eric too, who answered one of the questions) for the interview. I wrote about The Electrosonics on the blog some months ago and Heather was kind enough to get in touch and answer all my questions, giving me some new perspective on the Canadian scene and also learning many more details about her band. I suggest now to relax, give yourself some time and enjoy this lovely interview!
++ Hi Heather! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are all The Electrosonics still in touch?
Hi! I’m well, and thank you for your previous post about the Electrosonics! That was a treat to find.
The original line up of the band was myself (keys, guitar, backing vocals), Eric White (songwriter, bass, lap steel, vocals), Clare Kenny (guitar, vocals) and Curtis Hobson (drums, percussion, keys). I’m occasionally in touch with Clare (we are connected on Facebook and she lives in the area). Clare still does music projects occasionally and also is involved in a cool collective that builds cob mud buildings (The Mud Girls). Eric is a professor and now lives in Oxford in the UK, and I believe Curtis is an elementary school teacher somewhere on Vancouver Island. I email Eric occasionally about the Electrosonics (he saw the article, thought it was great!). I haven’t heard from Curtis since the band dissolved in 1998. I work at a mental health non profit as an Office Manager.
Clare left the Electrosonics after Rampion came out, and Michaela Galloway replaced her on vocals. Michaela is a philosophy professor here in Vancouver and I am connected with her on Facebook as well. Wendy Young also joined the band at that time to play guitar and sing backing vocals. I am not in touch with Wendy at all and have no idea where she is or how to reach her, unfortunately.
++ You are still making music these days with Kinetoscope. How cool! Tell me a bit about the band. When did you start? Any releases? Band members? And how different or similar is this band compared to The Electrosonics?
Kinetoscope is me and my partner, Ian Tomas. We met and started the band in March 2018, about a year ago. It’s just the 2 of us, we use MC-303s for drums and sequenced bass and samples. I would say it’s similar to the Electrosonics in that we are specifically aiming to make shoegaze music; I also still have much of the same equipment that I had in the Electrosonics so my keyboard and guitar sounds are similar. Ian’s pedal board is the size of a spaceship!
We’ve recorded 5 songs and they are up on bandcamp and soundcloud for free downloading:
https://kinetoscopeyvr.
https://soundcloud.com/
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
I started taking classical piano as a child, so keyboards have always been my main instrument. I play guitar too but not as intuitively. My dad was a musician too (guitar) and there was always music on in the house and the car; I grew up loving a lot of music from the 50s and 60s because that’s what he listened to. My first “favourite” band was the Monkees, then The Stray Cats, and then for a lot of my teenage years I was deeply into new wave.
++ Was The Electrosonics your first band or had you been in other bands before that?
No, I was in a number of bands prior to the Electrosonics. My first band was The Picasso Set, a sort of twee mod pop band. Then I was briefly in a garage band called The Worst. After that was a Manchester-inspired band called Alice Underground. I met Wendy Young in Alice Underground. When Alice Underground disbanded, Wendy and I started a band called Honey. Then finally the Electrosonics.
The Picasso Set: https://www.citr.ca/discorder/
(I replaced their original keyboard player, Jonathan Wong, although I’m not mentioned in this article; sadly no music online anywhere).
The Worst: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
(nothing online for either Alice Underground or Honey).
++ Where were you from originally, Vancouver?
I was born in Ontario, Canada and moved to a suburb of Vancouver at age 10. I moved into Vancouver proper at age 17 when I started university. I’ve lived here mostly ever since, although I did live in the UK for about 5 months in 1998 and in Winnipeg, Manitoba from 2000 to 2005.
++ How was Vancouver at the time? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Hmm, I feel like there were more live music venues in the 90s then there are now, at least small to medium sized ones. There was a small shoegaze scene here in Vancouver, with bands like Readymade, Pipedream, and The Perfume Tree. I was probably out watching live music at least 2 or 3 times a week. Vancouver and Toronto are the 2 Canadian cities that touring bands usually make it to, so there were a lot of great US and international band coming to town all the time.
https://soundcloud.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
++ And out of curiosity, what would be your favourite Canadian bands all-time?
Oh man, of all time? Honestly, I spent a LONG time loving the Grapes of Wrath, I never missed a show of theirs. I’m a fan of Stars as well, I have most of their albums.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
Wendy and I were living in a house with some friends, Honey was sort of in its demise and I answered an ad in the Georgia Straight musicians wanted section. That’s how I met Eric. We started dating and a few months later I moved into the house he was sharing with some other folks. Clare was a good friend of one of our roommates; we were having a party one night and heard her sing, we recruited her on the spot and shoved a guitar in her hands. We advertised for a drummer in the same musicians wanted section and connected with Curtis. It seemed like a magic combination and we were making music shortly after.
++ What’s the story behind the name The Electrosonics?
Oh jeez, I think it was just a mad brainstorming session. We were really into Stereolab and wanted something along those lines. We were briefly “Les Electrosoniques” until we realized it was extremely pretentious and changed it to The Electrosonics.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Curtis was a photographer and he shared a large photography studio with 2 or 3 other photographers. They were only in there during the day so we chipped in for rent and used the space in the evenings. We were really lucky to have this set up, it meant we were able to leave all our equipment set up and just cover it up with sheets — important when your instruments include 5 keyboards, synth bass pedals, lap steel, drum machines, etc. Eric was the sole songwriter for the band. He wrote all of the lyrics and either wrote or orchestrated the music. Some songs came to rehearsal all sketched out (i.e. verse/chorus structure and chords) and some started as improvisational jams and then were massaged into songs by Eric. It was a great creative process though, everyone wrote their own parts and Eric valued everyone’s input into crafting the songs.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Spritualized, Spacemen 3, Stereolab, Slowdive were the main ones. You know, all the shoegaze bands with names starting with “S”. haha.
++ Most of your releases came out on Drive-In Records and its sister label Quiddity. How did you end up working with them? How was your relationship? Being a US label, did you ever meet?
Oh gosh, I’m not sure I even remember… this was way way back in the beginnings of the internet. There were a lot of e-mailing lists around and I was on a bunch of them for music stuff. I think Blair from Endearing Records (Winnipeg) maybe connected me with Drive-In? We had a great relationship with Mike Babb from Drive-In. We did meet them when we toured across the country and back, he let us crash at his house with his family. He’d just had a baby, and Clare and I made a tiny Electrosonics baby t-shirt for her.
++ And before signing with them I suppose you had some recordings or demos?
The first EP, (self-titled) was pretty much our demos. We put them out on a cassette and that’s what we sent to Mike; we remastered them and he put out the CDep.
++ Your first release was the “Infra-Yellow” EP. Something that caught my eye is the photo on the back, where it shows two guitars, a bass and a drum set. I was wondering if these was your own setup, if these were your instruments?
These are indeed our instruments; at the time, we were thinking that our gear was better looking and more interesting than us — and we had a policy of no band photos on album art.
++ Again I’m really curious about the art when it comes to the 2nd release, “Rampion”. Where was the photo taken? And what kind of birds are those? Does it have any particular meaning?
The Rampion artwork are reverse coloured (negative) Beatrix Potter images, from “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin”. We didn’t have permission to use those images — surprisingly no one ever said anything about it. We felt it thematically worked with the lyrics and mood of the album.
++ Your first CDEP had 3 songs and now the 2nd had 5. I was wondering how come you never got to release an album?
The really short answer to this question is money. Drive In would definitely have released a full length album, and indeed they gave us some money to help with the recording costs for Neutron Lullaby, but this was before any old person could record on their laptop. All 3 releases were done in proper studios and recorded either on 16 track or 24 track tape machines. We were all broke 20-somethings, Eric was still in university, and we could only ever scrape up enough cash for a few days of recording.
++ And how come no 7″ vinyl for your releases? I remember Drive-In released many of them too…
Heh, our songs were generally too long to fit on one side of a 7”!
++ Lastly, in 1999, you put out “Neutron Lullaby EP”. 3 new songs plus 3 remixes. I see many of the bands that remixed had connections with the label, so am I right to assume it was the label that picked them? Or was it you who wanted these artists to remix your songs?
Michaela’s friend Kevin did the Object remix and then Mike from Drive in got in touch with Andrew from the Cat’s Miaow and HK from Buddha on the Moon to also do remixes. We couldn’t afford to record more than 3 songs but we wanted to make the EP worth purchasing.
++ Also on this record we see Michaela Galloway joined to sing and play flute. How did you recruit her?
As mentioned earlier, Clare left the Electrosonics after Rampion, so we needed a new vocalist. We put an ad in the local musicians wanted section and that’s how we found her.
++ How different was recording in different studios around Vancouver, like Downtown Sound Studios, Lemon Loaf or Bullfrog? Which was your favourite and why?
Recording at Downtown sound was really my (and I think everyone in the band’s) first experience recording in real studio. Paul was the engineer there and we recorded to 16 track analog tape. After that, Howard Redekopp recorded the next 2 releases — this was before he had his own studio (which he does now) and so we just paid him for his time and paid the studio(s) for space. Rampion and Neutron Lullaby were recorded on 24 analog tape. Howard’s kind of a big wig now 🙂
https://www.howardredekopp.
++ Why weren’t there more releases by the band? Was there any interest by any big labels?
Drive-in (and Quiddity) were really the only labels that were interested and they were so incredibly nice to us, we had no interest in anyone else. It was cool being a band from Vancouver and having our label in Michigan.
++ Are there unreleased tracks by the band that never got to see the light of day?
Nope. I mean we definitely had more songs than we released, but they were never recorded, not even just a recording of rehearsal.
++ I know you appeared on a compilation called “Tiddleywinks (Volume One – Fun For Kids of All Ages!)”. Is it a children’s music compilation? Or it is just the name?
It’s not a children’s album, it’s a compilation put out by my friend Simon Hussey, who was in Speedbuggy. He made a label called “Chester’s Funtime Record Collection” and put out an album full of songs from his friend’s bands. I still have my copy. Simon’s an actor now, he’s been playing Major Marcus Mason on Riverdale.
++ Then you had a song on a compilation called “Losing Today Volume 1” that came with a magazine called “The Sky is Grey”. What was this magazine about? And how did you ended there?
Losing Today was an Italian shoegaze magazine that contained an accompanying CD compilation of the artists featured in the magazine. There is some more info here:
http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.
++ Did you appear in any other compilations?
One of the remixes was in an edition of Mass Transfer magazine.
++ It is hard for me to pick a favourite song but I really like “Triamene”, was wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song?
Eric: Triamene, like a lot of our songs, is really about Vancouver, which in the 90s felt like a vanguard of North American culture, and its tail end all at the same time. The title is the song’s persona, a kind of Casandra figure associated with ocean travel, staring out at an ocean whose role is changing. I grew up on the North Shore and a lot of families were affected when the ship building yards closed down. That sense decline, and the rise of the various booms left a lot of people uncertain, and sometimes in pretty desperate circumstances, and the song ties that to a creeping sense of ecological peril, which you’re always aware of in Vancouver. If there is such a thing as a West Coast gothic, then that’s what it was trying to capture – the rooms, piers, and buildings in the song are crumbling, and the chorus keeps returning to the hope that ‘the tide will still be here’. As always with the electrosonics stuff, if there is hope there, then it’s the connections that exist between the parts. We were into space rock, shoegaze and indie music that stressed the ensemble over the individual, which came through in production and instrumentation as well as in the lyrics. Clare’s voice on this tune captures a perfect balance between unreasonable optimism and twitchy despair, and combined with Curtis’s rolling drums, when she and Heather hit the distortion pedals, you get swept along that in that tide – and hopefully reminded that it’s still there.
++ If you were to choose your favourite The Electrosonics song, which one would that be and why?
My personal favourite is Memory Bar The Door. I really like the slow build of that song, how it goes from soft to loud but holds your attention the whole way. The 2nd runner up would be Roo, I think that song really demonstrates our control over the loud/soft dynamic by switching back and forth. Plus I really like my lead synth parts in Roo.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over Canada?
We mostly played in Vancouver. We did one cross-Canada/US tour in May of 1997. We went east from Vancouver across approximately half of Canada to Winnipeg, then we dipped down into the US and played Chicago and Michigan, and then a couple shows in Ontario, then we headed home.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
Tour was really fun… We got to play with Windy & Carl in Detroit, that was quite exciting. Our best Vancouver show was probably the Rampion CD Release show in early 1998, with the Perfume Tree at the Starfish Room. There was a great crowd, we had projections and fog, the night went really really well.
++ And were there any bad ones?
We played at the People’s Pub on Whyte in Edmonton when we toured and there were about 10 people at that show. People were yelling at us to play some Zeppelin and were slow dancing (think highschool slow dancing). I thought that show was a complete write off but then we had a review in the paper saying it was the best Edmonton show since Yo La Tengo, and we were pretty pleased with that.
++ When and why did The Electrosonics stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards aside from Kinetoscope? You were in the wonderful Paper Moon, right? What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?
The Electrosonics officially disbanded in 2000 but, in reality, it was over before that. Eric moved to the UK to do his masters degree at Cambridge in the fall of 1998, we put out Neutron Lullaby as sort of a swansong, knowing the band would never play live again. Eric continued making music under the name Recurring. He came home from the UK for the summer of 2000 and did a vancouver-based Recurring recording, including a number of members of the Electrosonics (not me, though, we were no longer a couple at this point).
http://www.microindie.com/
I’m not sure what Curtis has been up to musically at all. Clare has done a number of music projects, including the Eye Lickers. Michaela was in Hinterland and The Hope Slide. Wendy was in a project called Kaneva. I moved to Winnipeg in 2000 to become part owner of Endearing Records, joined Paper Moon and I also played in another band there called The Mandarins. I moved back to Vancouver in 2005 and took a long (motherhood-related) hiatus from music. In 2014, I started a band called The Intelligence Service with my then boyfriend, Alex Pen. We split up in early 2018 (The Intelligence Service continues on). Kinetoscope formed in March 2018.
https://
(I am on all of these recording, as well as an upcoming one called Beatrice’s Guitar).
++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?
No reunion and there never will be one. Eric is the main songwriter for the Electrosonics and he lives in England so that’s that, pretty much.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio?
Absolutely none, aside from some extremely sporadic play on college radio in Canada.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention? What about from fanzines?
Just the usual live or release reviews in things like Discorder and The Georgia Straight. I think we got a smidge of press for the tour but nothing crazy. It’s possible there was more we weren’t aware of. This is pre-internet days after all.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Oh definitely touring. That was a first for all of us and quite an accomplishment. We booked all the shows ourselves, by telephone primarily. It was 3+ weeks of togetherness in a small VW Vanagon and we managed not to kill each other. I caught a cold in the prairies and had to medicate myself for the Winnipeg show. We were also in Winnipeg right during the 1997 Red River flood, that was cool/scary to see. We had a killer show in Toronto at El Mocambo at the (in)famous Blow Up — we played our best brit rock set (which everyone seemed to love) and then were treated like celebrities for the rest of the night while the DJs were doing their thing.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have? Do you follow any football team?
I’m utterly not a sports person at all. I have a 14 year old daughter, she is a “hobby” haha. I also do a lot of crafting like sewing and cross stitch. Music is still a huge part of my life. I also have a small rescue mutt from California that I adore.
++ I was once in Vancouver and I really liked it, but as I have the chance I will ask a local for some recommendations! What are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
Well, Vancouver is incredibly scenic so a trip up Grouse Mountain is definitely worth it. You can hike up it, called the “Grouse Grind” or take a gondola up. It’s also hipster/vegan central here so there are more local breweries than you can shake a stick at and SO MUCH vegan or vegetarian food. Ian and I are both nearly life-long vegetarians (and Eric is as well) so this is kind of a haven for us. I have a few favourite restaurants — The Black Lodge (vegetarian Twin Peaks theme), The Storm Crow (scifi gamer nerd bar) and What’s Up Hot Dog (punk rock hot dog beer joint).
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Nothing except thanks for taking such an interest in the Electrosonics. That band was definitely a magical time for me and I’m really proud of it. It’s flattering anyone outside of the people who were in the band even are aware of us!
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Listen
The Electrosonics – Triamene
