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Halifax rock outfit The Stolen Minks are living proof that the Canadian rock 'n roll dream can become a reality.
Formed in 2003, the band swiftly moved from bedroom practices and open mike performances to sold-out shows and recognition as "Best New Local Artist" by The Coast's ‘Best of Music' reader's poll in 2005.
That same year the band released their debut album, a self titled EP containing the hit single, "Boys on the Floor", which tore up the college music charts. The song's animated video, originally produced as a birthday present, was played nearly a hundred times on Much Music and suddenly the four friends - Tiina Johns (bass), Rachelle Goguen (keyboards), Erica Butler (drums) and Stephanie Johns (guitar) - had become a serious rock group to be reckoned with.
Their follow up album, Family Boycott, was released on the New Romance for Kids record label in October 2006, and demonstrated the band's growing range. The album's stylings pushed beyond the rockabilly heavy influences heard on their freshman EP and into a variety of different rock-based genres. The Minks' varied influences, combined with an "everyone contributes" approach to song writing and performance, give the band an undeniably distinct sound that is always familiar and yet totally unpredictable from one song to the next.
While now firmly established as one of the east coast's prominent indie rock acts, last summer the rest of Canada was given the opportunity to witness firsthand what the band has to offer. In late July, The Minks embarked on an ambitious cross-Canada tour that consisted of 23 performance dates in just under a month.
Having survived the tour's mad schedule with nary a scratch, The Stolen Minks now seem poised to take on the world.
(Cult)u're Magazine music correspondent Fredrick Hidell sat down with Tiina Johns and Stephanie Johns to discuss politics, rituals, music, where The Minks have been, and what the future holds in store for the promising group.
(Cult)ure Magazine: First off, how was the tour?
Stephanie Johns: I had a great time. It was definitely long, but the most fun time ever. I was really stoked to see Canada. I hadn't been past Ontario, so it was a really big thing for me. Also, the first week of us on tour was basically a cottage tour, and that ruled. It was nice to share that time with Play Guitar too! (Play Guitar, another Halifax based band, accompanied the Minks on tour).
Tiina Johns: The tour was amazing. We went from Halifax to Victoria, BC and back in about five weeks. Each show was a pretty unique experience: we played punk houses, incredible art spaces, a couple of fancy bars that paid well, community centres, country bars and a sushi restaurant. We met a tonne of cool people and played some awesome shows. Also, driving across Canada is just a really cool experience. Basically, it was the funnest summer ever.
CM: Like hockey goalies, rock bands are known to have various rituals by which they swear. What are some of The Stolen Minks rituals? Did any develop over the course of the tour?
TJ: When we first started playing together we would drink pink champagne at every band practice. Then I think we got more serious and started rehearsing twice a week, and just couldn't consume that much sugary alcohol on a regular basis.
We recently developed the ritual of doing high kicks before we start playing a show. This involves running out into the street and jumping around, yelling and doing poorly executed kung-fu moves. It's a good way to get pumped up for the show, especially if we're feeling tired. Erica almost kicked me in the head once with her mad Karate Kid skills.
SJ: I haven't really been nervous before we play for about a year, so that's not a huge problem, but if it does happen, the high kicks help. And if I'm too drunk before we play, someone has to sing "the lion sleeps tonight" to me.
TJ: The essential tour ritual was coffee before anything else. We learned quickly not to make any major decisions or drive anywhere or talk to each other before we had coffee. By the end of the tour we were saying stuff like, "Gimme my Timmy's and no one gets hurt," and "Instant human: just add coffee," without any irony.
CM: Anyone who has read previous interviews with The Minks knows that you love to present yourselves as primarily focused on the fun aspects of the group. In press about the band, we get lots of talk about smiling, dancing, enjoying cold beverages, etc. Why is that?
SJ: I think it's because we are pretty funny people with (for the most part) good senses of humour. I also think that people find it easier to put girls in that category of being light-hearted, etc. I mean, our music is pretty fun, so if they're going on that alone, they would be right to assume we like to have a laugh.
TJ: We realised pretty early on that if it's not fun for us, it's not going to be fun for anyone else. I think because we're relaxed and laughing and having a good time on stage, the audience feels like it's okay for them to do that too. Also, the Halifax music scene is pretty small, so shows here tend to be just like a party with a bunch of friends. Everyone tends to be having a good time and dancing and yelling, whether they're on stage playing or in the audience.
CM: I'm surprised that most journalists writing about the band have been willing to focus so closely on the "fun" aspects of the music, while completely staying away from discussing politics. This despite songs like, "Boys on the Floor" (I want you to come to my revolution!), "Role Model" (I never call myself a feminist... didn't see the point of throwing punches, I already felt good), "Fight!" (You don't need a class room, to have a class war), and "Stop Talking" (in which the female character rejects the traditional gender roles assigned to her by society). Your songs are, in fact, very political. Why have you shied away from discussing this aspect of your music?
SJ: "Role Model" is about calling yourself a feminist, in case that wasn't clear. We all call ourselves feminists and it actually really bothers me when people shy away from that term or say they are not a feminist. If you don't like being discriminated against because of your gender, then you are a feminist. It's about equal rights, so it always baffles me when people aren't behind the theory, or are scared away from the word. I think that's probably why other journalists do shy away from it. They don't want to get into hardcore feminism in what is most likely a short puff piece about an "all-girl" punk band who like to giggle. It doesn't fit, or something. But you can still act like a fool and be political. That's the whole point. You don't have to be a downer, ever. Nothing has to be off-limits.
TJ: I've always thought of us a political band, and specifically a feminist band. I don't think that we've ever written a song that isn't feminist. But feminism is a really complex and varied political standpoint, which I think is sometimes hard for people capture and write about in a short music-focused article.
What bothers me is that people tend to bring up politics to us by asking, "What's it like to be a woman in rock music?", or "So you're all girls... ", but to me this question is akin to "What's it like to be a woman living in a patriarchal society?" So the answer is basically, "I dunno, awesome sometimes? But sometimes it totally blows?" I feel like people want us to either say, "rock music is totally male dominated and everyone involved in the industry is a sexist pig and it's so hard for us", OR they want us to say, "it doesn't matter at all that we're women because we're just musicians and gender doesn't come into play."
But the real answer is definitely somewhere in between, and totally depends on each situation, and each individual person who you're asking.
CM: Even your fun and "silly" songs seems to have political aspects to them. It's difficult to view the overtly kinky sexuality in "Batman (You're the Sex)" as anything but subversive, and your cover of "Pony" seems rife with satire when performed by an all girl band. Do you see a connection between making people laugh and making them think about things in a new light?
SJ: Definitely. I think that's my whole outlook on things. You can be sitting around your living room, making stupid jokes, hitting the bong and watching Jackass and also make social commentary. Just so long as you consistently point out things that seem unfair to you, and actually try to make a difference in your community, you can still have the same type of fun you normally would in your spare time. I think really political people often get branded as no fun. That's really a shame.
TJ: I think this question really ties into your last one. I think our lyrics do get overlooked because they are silly and funny and fun. But I think that politics can be fun and sexy and danceable. I do think that making jokes can be a good way to analyze stuff like sexism in pop culture. (Keyboardist) Rachelle's blog is proof of that.
CM: The Stolen Minks have been described as indie rock, punk rock, garage rock, rockabilly, surf punk, punkabilly, etc. What's your response to the difficulty people have had fitting to group into any single genre?
SJ: I think it's probably like that for a lot of bands... you have multitudes of genres and sub-genres with all music, and when you've got a music writer who is basically always surrounded by complicated press releases, they get pretty well versed in that vocabulary. It becomes confusing. I just like to say we're garage rock. We used to be more rockabilly, so I think we're to blame for a lot of confusion.
TJ: But the confusion totally works in our favour. We can play Pop Montreal or a country bar in Regina and still get a pretty good response. Hip art kids and old blues dudes alike have liked our shows, which is a nice feeling. I think shifts in genre are inevitable when you have four people with different and wide tastes in music. It also keeps it interesting for us, and hopefully for our audience.
CM: With your second album, Family Boycott, there seemed to be a shift away from your first EP's rockabilly sound towards more straight-up rock. Is this an accurate representation of the band's shifting sound, or was it simply a result of the fact that the first album was heavy on covers, whereas Family Boycott is mostly originals?
SJ: Yeah, I think that's mainly the case. We did write more of our own songs and it's hard to accurately copy the older style. There are some awesome bands that do that, but we're not one of them, I guess.
TJ: Our originals are probably less rockabilly, simply because we're not Link Wray. But yeah, we've moved away from that for sure.
SJ: I also think we came into our own a bit more with time.
TJ: We still have an old timey sound, but the songs are less genre-specific now. One of our newest songs sounds a little space-rocky.
CM: The self titled E.P. has now been rereleased by New Romance for Kids as a 7 inch record. In this digital age, what role do think a rockabilly vinyl release will play? Is this simply something for the collectors, or do you view its pressing as a sort of "fuck you" to the modern mainstream pop fuelled ITunes culture?
SJ: That's something I haven't really thought about, but I really like that idea. I love to say "fuck you" to anyone who will listen, for the most part.
TJ: Our New Romance for Kids pals suggested releasing the old EP on vinyl, and basically said, "That album would sound cool on a record."
SJ: And they were right!
TJ: We were planning on making a split 7 inch a long time ago, but that didn't pan out, so it's pretty cool to have this... pretty punk rock! It sold really well on tour, since there really are a lot of vinyl nerds out there.
CM: Do you feel that the fact that you are all singer/song writers ties you into a Halifax tradition established by bands like Sloan?
SJ: Nope. We just all had some songs kicking around in there, and we can all sing (kind of... some more than others). I think the multiple singer/songwriter trend is more of a current music trend also. Frontmen/women are becoming less popular, I think. That could just be me.
TJ: I feel like we're part of a very different scene than bands like Sloan, who were playing like, 10 years ago. There are lots of awesome, established Halifax bands that we're more tied to or that we love, like Dog Day or the Maynards. But yeah, I think that across Canada Halifax is pretty well known as a city with a good arts scene and lots of cool bands. That definitely had a lot to do with that Sloan/Thursh Hermit/Plumtree scene. And I do always feel excited when I see Joel Plaskett around town.
CM: Tiina and Stephanie, journalists often mistakenly report that you are sisters. Do you feel that the confusion surrounding your shared last name adds a White Stripes-esk mystic to the band's persona, or is the shoddy journalism just annoying?
TJ: Yeah, Steph and I just happen to have the same last name.
SJ: I think people think it adds to the "cuteness". But, yeah, it's weird. I mean, I can't really blame them. It's a big fucking coincidence, by anyone's standards.
TJ: And it's not a super common name either!
SJ: I don't know if I would necessarily doubt that two members of the same sex in the same band, with the same last name were related. If they were a boy and a girl, I might think they were married. But I think I would make the same assumption.
TJ: It's understandably confusing, since we're in the band together, and roommates and we hang out a lot. I think it's funny and pretty awesome. I hope it makes us like that White Stripes. "Are they sisters? Married? WTF?" Rachelle was talking the other day about marrying comic book writer Geoff Johns, so there could be another Johns in the band.
CM: You have a song in Halifax filmmaker Mark Palermo's movie Later That Stevening. How did that come about?
TJ: I knew Mark through Strange Adventures, the comic book store where Rachelle and I both work. He's a regular customer and pals with my co-worker Dave, who designed the poster for Later That Stevening. Mark also writes for The Coast, where Erica, Rachelle and Steph have all worked at some point. Anyway, I think he just basically asked us to contribute a song, so we did.
SJ: I think he thought it would be good for that movie. There's sort of a poppy, high school feel to the album, I guess. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can't wait to buy it.
TJ: The cool thing about the Halifax art scene being small is that collaborations like this tend to come about easily and often. Through Strange Adventures we've got to work with awesome artists, like Oni Press Cartoonist Mike Holmes, who's made posters for us, and animator Ben Jeddrie who did both of our videos.
CM: It's been exactly one year since the release of your last album. Can I assume there is another one in the works?
TJ: Yes, hopefully. We have a bunch of new songs that we'd really like to record, but we're just trying to figure out some life plans stuff.
SJ: It would be really cool to do, but Erica lives out of province now, and Rachelle is in grad school doing her MBA, which is keeping her pretty busy. We have a few new songs. I think we could definitely put together a new album, maybe a short one. I'd love to do it, but I am unemployed right now, so I can do whatever I like! (laughs)
TJ: Our next super exciting thing is opening for rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson in Toronto on October 19th and 20th. It's her 70th birthday, so we're going to bake her a cake.
For more on The Stolen Minks, you can visit their website here, tour blog here, Myspace page here, and Wikipedia page here. You can also check out their music videos on Youtube.
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