Certain Breeds

By brynna

Wednesday November 28, 2007

Going into my interview with Certain Breeds, I knew little about the band. They don’t even have a website! I thought about playing the name game and asking a series of questions about interracial childrearing (is the new politically correct word for bi-racial babies “beigies”?) but then I realized that we already did that in our K’Nann interview. Instead, I decided to wing it, and was relieved when greeted by a tiny group of polite Mount Pleasant inhabitants drinking Pilsner. Phew! This was going to be easy. I didn’t even need to take the bus. After a brief photo shoot in the exquisite lobby of Jen’s apartment building, I talked to the lead vocalist and her band mates Dave, Leanne and Corey about life on the road and how to treat your friends right.

ONLY: You guys recently finished an album, why don’t you tell me about it?

DAVE:: It’s coming out on Global Symphonic. We have a lot to thank our friends for. Every aspect of it was helped out by our friends – from the label to the artwork.

(Suddenly, two people walk into Jen’s apartment unexpectedly. Jen yells, “No! Go away! Wait in the hall!” at them and shoos them out.)

JEN: That’s just my boyfriend and his friend.

ONLY: Um… you can let them in, really, it’s OK. I don’t think it’s very nice to banish them to the hallway on my account.

J: OK, I guess that’s alright.

(Jen allows her friends inside; they flop on the queen sized bed in the middle of the living room and watch silently.)

ONLY: Right, so, friends are really important. You guys go way back. Did you all meet here?

J: We all met in Calgary.

D: Calgary kind of sucks. Everybody is rich.

ONLY: In Vancouver, creative space is diminishing to a huge degree as living costs rise.

D: Yeah it’s true, even with finding a jam space. It’s getting harder and harder in Vancouver.

J: Yeah, we jam in a totally nasty space.

LEANNE: We have a dehumidifier and every few days the bucket is full with brown water.

J: And there’s lots of cockroaches.

EVERYONE: Yeah, ew, the cockroaches.

ONLY: Nasty. Is that where you got your name?

J: Haha. Yeah, Certain Breeds of cockroaches.

L: Certain Breeds of practice space mold.

ONLY: You toured recently. Where’d you go?

L: We went to Seattle first and then Portland and then San Francisco, and then this little town outside of San Francisco that was really shitty.

Only: Why’d you go there?

D: We got a show, so…

L: We were only there for a couple hours and they didn’t have a stage.

ONLY: Did you have an audience there?

L: They were weird.

J: We just walked up and there were a bunch of older men giving us really dirty looks. So we started playing, and we’re like, “what have gotten ourselves into?”

D: We didn’t actually get paid.

ONLY: Did the bar have a chain link fence to protect you from all the bottles being thrown at the stage?

J: Haha, yeah. They didn’t like us all that much.

ONLY: Usually people in small towns are more amped on touring bands because there’s nothing else to do.

L: Yeah, all the shows except for that one I’ve ever played in smaller places, more kids come out and its more exciting.

J: And they want to hang out too afterwards. It’s really cute. Whereas [here in Vancouver] friends come up to you after your show and say “that was rad!” and I’m like “were you even watching?”

ONLY: Do you have any funny tour stories to tell me? This is where you get to make digs and your band-mates and everyone can read it.

L: Well there is this one story…

J: Oh that time you did mushrooms?

L: No! Ew, no!

J: She stared at a blade of grass for like an hour.

COREY: Oh yeah, and there are these herbal supplements you can buy on the road in the States. They have, like, every kind of vitamin you need and there’s this “bonus” pill in a bubble pack attached to them.

ONLY: Hmmm… Sounds shady.

C: So I bought some and asked if anyone wanted any and everyone was like “Oh no no no no!” and then Jen was like “Sure, I’ll have some,” and she took the bonus pill and…

J: I threw up.

C: Yeah, she like projectile vomited everywhere.

ONLY: Bonus!

J: It didn’t even keep me awake [like it was supposed to], I just felt all crazy and passed out and it was all over.

Certain Breeds and their friends Owl Drugs and Better Friends than Lovers play their album release party at the Cobalt December 1st.