dijon

jeremy, charlotte and sara
make vegan cookies

What makes you good roommates?

J. We never see each other. 

C. When I was going to move in I was talking to Jeremy and he said, "you're never going to see me, we're never going to talk." and I was like, ‘that doesn't make sense - we're going to live together’ - but it's true.

J. Yeah, Charlotte's in her room, I occupy that space like 98% of the time. 

S. I'm hardly home and when I am I'm sleeping. We're all pretty tidy people too, so I think that helps a lot.

J. The walls are so thick it's hard to know if anyone's here. Unless someone walks past you, you might not know.

What was your favourite freedom after moving out for the first time?

S. Being able to go wherever I want without having to tell somebody where I'm going all the time, or having a curfew, just being able to do whatever I like - that was really nice.

J. I think the nicest thing is opening the fridge or cabinet and being like, all of these groceries are things that I would want for myself, I chose them and I can make anything at any time. I can have cereal at like 9pm and there's no judgement.

What did you quit growing up?

C. I quit water polo. I always liked really physical sports when I was a kid, and that is the most physical because you have the extra barrier of water. You're literally climbing on top of people and kicking people, but it kind of feels ok because you're in the water. It's like slow motion.

J. I used to act. I used to do drama and I was a really good actor. I quit acting to play music and I'm still doing that, but I’m like, ‘oh man, I could have been an actor.’ I'm slowly thinking I could try that again at some point. 

Was it dramatic when you quit acting?

J. Kind of. My drama teacher was really upset, I told him I was going to go learn guitar and he was like “please reconsider,” but I really wanted to go play guitar. They transferred my mark from acting to guitar which you're not allowed to do, so I had to get very good at guitar very quickly, it was stressful. But it worked out.

What were you like in high school, what was the look?

J. Super fat.

S. I was a lot more basic than I am now, I grew up in a small town so everyone wore the same jeans and hoodies. I remember like grade 11, that's when I went online and was like 'oh there's cool people out there' and started to wear weird sweaters from the thrift store. Converse shoes were a staple. That was later on though, it was jeans and hoodies for many years.

J. Did you wear Fox brand?

S. No, I didn't wear Fox but I had a lot of skate clothes, I used to wear Circa a lot, Vans...

J. Did you have those Osiris shoes?

S. No, I never had those. I wanted a pair though.

C. Those will be coming back any day now.

What food did you eat growing up?

C. Spicy food. My dad always cooked and he was an amazing cook. I grew up eating everything so I'm not a picky eater and I'm used to the spiciest food.

S. I had to discover spice on my own. My family is pretty white so not a lot of spicy foods, but my mom really likes Mediterranean food so we ate a lot of souvlaki and tabouli and stuff like that. Also steaks, classic white people food. 

The way you grew up, has that influenced you being vegetarian?

S. A little bit. In our community we were able to get eggs and meat local from a butcher. When I moved away I lost access to that and didn’t like the feeling of being so separated from it. I didn't like meat that much anyway, I always had to have my steak well done and I've never eaten lamb or anything like that, I was freaked out by it. So once I lost access to knowing where my food came from or at least meat, I didn't want to eat it anymore.

J. I had a lot of spicy food, similar to Charlotte. My mom cooked all the time and a lot of Caribbean food, so spicy food was always around. I ate a lot of meat growing up. It wasn't that vegetables weren't a huge thing but in black culture the emphasis is always on meat. We just love salt for some reason, but it takes us out so quickly. I don't know how or when I became vegan. Coming from eating a shit ton of meat in my youth to being like, ‘yeah I'm done that.’ As soon as I tasted the water from whatever the fish was swimming in I was like ‘ugh that's gross, I don't like that,’ so I slowly snapped out of it. I think it was towards when I was moving out, I started slowly easing off meat. Now that good vegan food exists, it’s way easier. I had an Impossible Burger in the states, and it was like, bleeding. It's fully vegan, so I was like, ‘what's causing this?’ It was indistinguishable from real meat. Science is playing God right now. I don't know what this will do to people in the next 20 years.

S. Did you like it?

J. It was delicious. So good but I was like, 'what the fuck?' cause for a second I thought it was real meat- it acted and tasted just like it. 

What was on your high school mixtape?

S. Lots of Blink 182, for sure.

J. Chili Peppers. Jamiroquai. As soon as I discovered Jamiroquai it was game over. 

C. At work we played the whole Jamiroquai discography. It gets pretty dicey around the middle. 

J. Yeah you can tell it's purely cocaine fueled. He's singing about cars instead of saving the planet and it's like, "man, where are you?" 

C. I listened to a lot of hipster music, a lot of weird music but Animal Collective is the one that stands out.

J. I always thought anyone who said they like that band was lying.

What's the best or first concert you ever went to?

S. My first one was Hedley. When I was in the 8th grade I came to Winnipeg for it, but I didn't even care about Hedley, Boys V.S. Girls was opening for them, they were a pop-punk emo band, and that's what I listened to when I was 14. I only went for them, and cried from the minute they came on stage until the minute they left, I was like "this is the best day of my life" sobbing. It was an emotional time.

How did you get there?

S. My mom drove me. 

Did she wait in the parking lot?

S. No she came in with me, haha. I went with another girl from my grade, it was a mother-daughter road trip.

J. The first concert I went to was Beyoncé. She had like 5 outfit changes and performed for three hours. She pointed at me. She was like "hey you up there in the stripes, stand up!" and I was so excited. At some point in history, I was seen by Beyoncé. 

C. Did you stand up?

J. Well you have to, when you get called out from that far away by Beyoncé... That was a good one, but Paul McCartney was really good. It would be insulting to compare any other act to a Beatle, you know?

C. I also think my first concert was Hedley. It could have been the same one, I also went with my mom. Terrible band, bad man. 

J. I never got good vibes from that guy, he's always seemed slimy.

C. Deerhunter was amazing, it was in Toronto and I went to it alone and I was in the front row. He came into the crowd and sang to me and it was so beautiful. 

C. It could be like Soundcloud. I like it for finding different types of music, because there is a different community there, I mean other than Soundcloud rappers. I've been listening to some of that lately.

S. I like Bandcamp too.

J. I don't care about new music nearly as much as I used to so it's way harder to find music on Spotify. You can literally look up anything and I just go to my playlist and listen to the same 50 songs. That's why I stopped playlisting and am downloading albums - I'm going to listen to them all the way through.

What are your three most recent Google searches?

S. Mine was ‘persimmons.’ I woke up at 4am and had a dream about persimmons and I wanted to know the spiritual meaning behind it. They’re cute little orange fruits. I fell asleep again before I got to the answer. 

C. Mine is Grimes related. I was looking at her fashion show outfits - one was a bunch of weird Chanel bracelets and gloves and this weird baby doll dress? It had real Tokyo vibes. 

J. Mine was ‘venues in Detroit.’ We’re going on tour in a few weeks. 

Hope you get some good fries this time.

J. I’m so stoked for the vegan food in America, they go crazy. It gets insane. Ben and I have a list of hot spots and we hit it each time. 

S. ... Apparently persimmons are symbols of transformation. 

So... from a cookie to a cookie butter. Any ghosts in the Roslyn?

C. No ghosts but my friend went down to the basement and found a bunch of dead pigeons. She opened this little trap door and there were all these dead pigeons in it. She really made it sound like someone was hoarding them, but I feel like it was just a vent or something. Still very creepy. 

What’s your favourite mustard?

C. Spicy Dijon. 

S. Absolutely spicy Dijon.  

J. Yeah same, I have a lot of mustard. 

Let’s line em up.