Mauno is a wonderfully inventive pop band that hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded by singer/guitarist Nicholas Everett and singer/bassist Eliza Niemi, Mauno have toured the country but have yet to release their second record, which they’re currently working on and will eventually be dispatched by the Idée Fixe label in Toronto. Mauno are playing some shows in the near future, including an appearance at Kazoo! Fest at a boxing gym on Saturday April 9, as well as shows in Montreal and Toronto on April 7 and 10 respectively. Here, Niemi and Everett discuss a traditional East Coast big ass smoothie, strange weather, a German exam that is paralyzing the city of Halifax, Mauno’s upcoming hiatus, Eliza heads to Germany, European studies, Nick of all trades, Nick is from London and Eliza is from Toronto, looking for a boat, Andy Magoffin and the House of Miracles, the Etobicoke School of the Arts, cello and prog-rock, Eliza is very good at music, bass is bass, Mike O’Neill of the Inbreds, Mauno’s discography, the late former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and the Ford family, Rheostatics, Emily Haines, Cold Specks, Nick’s four high schools, loving Rush, the Embassy in London, learning things from each other, a botched, rain-soaked marriage, Bryn was involved in theatre, the origin of Mauno’s idiosyncratic sound, influences, seeing Weaves in Newfoundland, driving without listening to music, silence, Mauno’s songs and their new record, Mauno’s new four-piece configuration, long distance musical collaboration, Mauno’s upcoming shows in Montreal on April 7, Guelph on April 9, and Toronto on April 10, their barren bandcamp page and weird stuff @grampamauno on instagram, the song “Nothing,” and nothing else.
Related links: mauno.bandcamp.com vishkhanna.com
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John Wright is a founding member, singer, songwriter and drummer in British Columbia’s Nomeansno, one of the greatest rock and roll bands in the history of great rock and roll bands. Frank Barnes is an artist who specializes in robotics and is the mind behind innovative projects like Robocross and Drummer. Barnes is part of a team based in Germany working towards creating a completely robotic punk band called Compressorhead, which consists of a guitarist named Fingers, a drummer named Stickboy, a bassist named Bones, and at least one occasional human collaborator named John Wright. There’s a Kickstarter campaign in place to raise 290,000 Euros to build Compressorhead a singer and the deadline to donate is Dec. 5. Here, John and Frank and I discuss the Compressorhead practice space in Berlin, replacing Stickboy’s elbow, whether or not John has ever broken his elbow playing the drums, how Frank came to know Nomeansno and the Hanson Brothers and John, when Frank got drunk and approached Rob Wright about his robots idea, John is not Paul Shaffer but is Compressorhead’s musical director, writing songs like the Ramones and Hanson Brothers, whether John has worked with robots before, MIDI, trips to Berlin, how the members of Compressorhead get along with each other and what Stickboy, Fingers, and Bones are really like in robot, Frank thinks his robots are like kids, his collaborators Markus Kolb and Stock Plum, the robot musician origin story, real instruments, what Compressorhead tells us about music production today, how the robots work, robot fish and robot great white sharks and robot grabby arms, Great White, if the robots’ musical tastes will evolve, fearing Compressorhead and what they stand for, Kickstarting and fundraising and obtainium, recording and producing the Compressorhead album, threatening robots, what happens if the campaign doesn’t work, world tours, John’s role in the future of Compressorhead, the status of Nomeansno, dot rocks, Rob’s famous bass amp, inanimate objects that have Facebook pages, the song “Compressorhead,” and that was the end of our very human conversation.
Related links: compressorhead.rocks nomeanswhatever.com vishkhanna.com
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