will & art go to
wall street slice
How do you guys know each other?
A. Junior High.
W. Yeah we were teenager babies together.
A. Will grew up in Lord Roberts, I grew up in Riverview so we went to different elementary schools but then we both went to Churchill. Will is a year younger than me.
What was your high school look?
A. Awful, terrible.
W. I wore a Roots beret on the first day of grade 7, and got shamed for it. I wore it singing in front of a steel band at the Bryer, actually. I was like ‘oh this is cool.’ The Olympics had just happened, that was a big deal, (Canadian accent) they were in Canada in ‘95 ya'know? Then I shaved my head like a week later, for four years.
A. I think my look would have been just ‘too much hair gel.’ Learning how to gel and then getting that real goopy shit rock solid. A lot of black hoodies and jeans and that was basically it. I've never worn jeans really since high school. Maybe I couldn't find the right fit or was just so turned off by how awkward ... I have long legs so if the jeans fit weird it was just like ‘look at my weird legs.’
W. I definitely remember crying buying jeans once, for sure, because I was like, ‘these are the ones I know I'm going to have to get because it's what we can afford, and I hate them, and I'm going to cry in Warehouse One.’ It's really unfounded though, cause I'm sure I bought a bunch of jeans that fit me so badly that I would have cried if I had seen myself in them anyway.
You had a different high school look, didn't you?
W. I started buying baggy clothes, big shirts and stuff yeah. I had a Phat Farm t-shirt. I started working young, so I could afford to skip the Randy River/Exco thing and went straight to Athlete's World and started buying Phat Farm.
A. I never did the JNCO like the giant wide leg jean thing. I dyed my hair a couple times because I listed to punk music, NOFX and Rancid and stuff. I bleached it a couple of times, I dyed it fire engine red once. A lot of experimenting.
What kind of food did you eat growing up?
A. My dad made dinner all the time, and it was really important to my family to sit down and eat dinner together. My dad’s pizza is really good, he used to make it every Friday. He used to make his own dough but he just gets it at DeLucas' now. And then for some reason there's thing coming to mind, these avocado burger things he used to make and he called them "pucks." We had pucks a lot. My parents were vegetarian for a while. I ate meat at every chance possible. Whenever we went out for dinner or at a friends for dinner I'd just be like, "GIVE ME SOME MEAT." Going to my grandparents for Thanksgiving dinner or whatever was awesome, cause I could just eat so much meat. My parents ate fish, I guess, so they were pescatarians.
W. Kids aren't usually crazy about fish...
A. I liked shrimp. Breaded shrimp from Red Lobster, I remember that was good. Nothin' but breaded shrimp.
W. My dad cooked mostly too, cause my mom played piano at night. A lot of under-cooked red meat. He was big on bloody roasts and stuff like that so we would have very square 3 piecers, like boiled potatoes, a roast, and steamed mixed vegetables. The niblets. On Tuesdays he would often get us KFC cause it was $2, Twoonie Tuesday.
What was the worst job you ever had?
W. I mean washing dishes when I was 12 was terrifying. My parents knew I was working there, that was the restaurant they ate at the first night they moved in to the house they still live in, so they were neighbourhood friends. The restaurant was really popular when they were younger, then it became a little more low key. I wasn't full time when I was 12, I was full time when I was 14 though.
Wait, full time?
W. Like, I'd work 4-5 days a week and go to school. It was right near school so I'd walk over and work in the dish pit until 11, get a pizza and go home and do homework. I had turn tables n’ shit though. Lots of trips to Athlete's World for Rocawear gear.
A. My high school job was me and Toby mowing lawns around the neighbourhood. We were called "Mowers to the Max" and we put up posters, went door to door.
Were you guys really fast?
A. No...
W. It lead people to believe that.
A. We basically mowed one lawn a day so we could get $10 and go buy weed.
W. Wow that's a fuckin' belt tight business model.
A. We would do a couple a day, we'd call the same guy every night to buy one gram, instead of buying a quarter.
W. Every high school kid does that though, you save up a little bit of money to buy a bit, then you go back.
A. But we did that every day, it was so stupid. We never mowed when we were high though, we made sure not to do that because we were serious.
W. What?! That's where you drew the line?
A. The one time that we did, we mowed the wrong lawn or something. The worst job I ever had though was Safeway for two weeks, and then ended up quitting. The guy asked me “aren't you supposed to give your two weeks notice?” I was like, “I've worked like two shifts, I don't need the reference.”
Look buddy, at Mowers to the Max we don't give any notice.
A: I've got a golden reference from my business partner, you may have heard from him.
You may have seen our posters around, we may have accidentally mowed your lawn.
Who would have been your dream studio client when you were 18?
W. Honestly it would probably be Radiohead, I was very obsessed at 18. I was just obsessed with any band that used the studio like an instrument. They made records that never would have been done justice if it hadn't been done in a studio. You know when you hear records that are built somewhere where the artist can just do whatever they want? You can dream as big as you want to and then they worry about performing it live after - but make a crazy fucking record. You can hear that they accomplished it because they had a place to get creative with the right people, those Radiohead records were like that.
Where would you take Thom Yorke for food in Winnipeg?
W. Well he's vegan, but I'd want to drink with him... so I would say The Roost.
And who's your dream client now?
W. Frank Ocean. 100%.
A. I'm trying to remember exactly what I was listening to at 18... probably my dream then would have been Dick Dale or Herbie Hancock. I was really into Herbie Hancock and Myles Davis and Bitches Brew and Head Hunters were such cool studio albums, they had such a good sound to them.
Where would you take Herbie for food in Winnipeg?
A. Sam Po for dim sum. I bet he's had dim sum before but maybe he's never had a deep fried Chinese pork perogie.
Who would you want to record now?
A. Cate Le Bon. Her most recent album is so good.
Who are you guys most scared of?
W: Luciano, the restaurant owner. He was terrifying, like soft on the inside but terrifying. He was 6'4", Northern Italian guy, fuckin’ huge, he was like 280 lbs, a little taller than me, a big duster white mustache and like, a pissed off face. I also know that he like weirdly loved me, so we got along, but I was terrified of him. I remember once he found a mouse in the pantry room and put it in a white plastic bag and tried to hand it to me and said "you do it." I was like, “no, no I'm not doing that.” He just sighed, I could tell he didn't want to do it so he went out back and just slapped it into the side of the brick building, had a moment of pouting and then we got on with our evening. So he was a big softy.
That sounds like a hardy.
W: He killed it quickly, that's what you're supposed to do.
A: He didn't put a little pillow over its face?
I thought you were going to say he let it go.
W: No, he still had to kill it.
He's an Italian softy.
W: Which is true, that is Italian soft, Italian soft is like mercifully killing a mouse.
What is your perfect day?
A. There are different perfect days, a combination of all of them would be not doing anything for most of the day, like up until 3 or 4pm. Just making a nice breakfast and laying around being lazy, maybe watch a movie, maybe watch a show, have a nap in there, go for a walk and then go for a nice dinner. It would involve doing something at night too, so dinner wouldn’t be too heavy. Maybe sushi, maybe some small plates, some sharesies. Then go to a concert, not a late one, like a West End show. Other than some vacation, this is my realistic perfect day.
W. Waking up easy, a slow-ish morning. I don't like waking up early, I never have. Nice breakfast, lots of coffee, a couple of hours to do some stuff that feels nice, like read a book, walk the dog, play an instrument or listen to some music, just kind of charge up for a few hours. Afternoon, go and shop somewhere nice to make something for dinner. I also love a day where you feel like you've accomplished something great for a few hours, so a gentle lead up to working hard, giving your all for like 4-5 hours in the studio is a very reasonable thing. Then going off and doing more nice things for yourself. That's what a ‘work day’ should be like.
What's your favourite mustard?
A. That Smack Dab stuff, the maple one.
W. Keen’s hot. I want that 'kind of hurts ya' hot sauce vibe. Mustard is like a gateway drug to spicy food, and I think it should slap a little bit.
Interview by Katy Slimmon & Ali Vandale
Photography by Ali Vandale