Ladies and gentlemen… the one and only Syd Lane.

1 You can take one record to a desert island for the rest of your life – what would it be?
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

2 Who is your favourite artist?
Brian Wilson

3 Favourite chord?
D minor

4 Can God invent a rock that he cannot lift?
Maybe Goddess can.

5 Who did you last vote for in an election?
I don’t vote. I don’t trust in or approve of the government, and I think politicians are dangerous. They’re all on the same team anyway, the supposed different parties are there just to make the proles feel comfortable and to project the illusion of choice and democracy.

6 Favourite fiction writer?
Hakuri Murakami

7 If you could invite 5 people to dinner (dead or alive) who would they be?
Elliott Smith, Bob Dylan, Ian Curtis, Neil Young, and Beethoven

8 What pisses you off?
How sassy everyone is now. How it’s cool to be dumb. That no one knows what music is anymore, and that history keeps repeating itself and we never learn. That drugs and sex are illegal. That we spend trillions of dollars on weapons every year, when we could take that money and use it to feed, clothe, and home every single human on the planet – not ONE person left out… But we don’t.

9 What’s the best song you’ve ever written?
Astride A Grave from my latest record It Begins In Beauty

10 One wish – what would it be?
That Jer and I could be American Indians hundreds of years before the white people landed. We’d live in Canada, in un-touched nature, life would be difficult but pure and beautiful. We wouldn’t know the meaning of posessions or money and greed.

11 Favourite band?
The Beach Boys

12 3 websites worth checking out?

http://www.myspace.com/chansonsdegeste

http://www.myspace.com/theloadedwhispers

http://pupe.ameba.jp

13 Posters above your bed when you were a teenager?
Hanson! Lots and lots of posters of Hanson.

14 When was the last time you cried with laughter?
Last night, after I figured out that the way to deal with difficult people is pure unadulterated psychedelia.

15 If you could learn and play one instrument, what would it be?
I could learn and play any instrument, it’s only a matter of whether they’re available to me or not. But the next instrument I’d like to learn is Cello.

16 Preferred mode of travel?
Train. Trains all the way. They travel at the perfect speed, you have room to walk around, and you can see the countryside. Boats are my absolute favourite mode of travel, but unfortunately I don’t live on the water anymore.

17 Shuffle your iPod – what are the first five songs that play?
Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles
Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon And Garfunkel
See My Friends – The Kinks
Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
Christines Tune – The Flying Burritto Brothers

18 Snowballs, snowmen, or sledging?
Tobogganing

19 Best gig you’ve ever been to?
Mercury Rev in Waterford when I got to open for them.

20 What’s the most embarrassing record in your collection?
I’m not embarassed by any music I’ve liked. There was a reason at the time I liked it, and I don’t subscribe to any rules of coolness.

21 Favourite drink?
Shirley Temple with a maraschino cherry. A few maraschino cherries actually.

22 Drug of choice?
Marijuana.

23 If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
A snow leopard.

24 And if you were a colour, what colour would you be?
Black.

25 Are you good at any sports?
Yes, I’m athletic.

26 Last book you read?
Charles Chaplins autobiography.

27 First thing you think when you get up in the morning?
Why am I an insomniac who can never sleep, why do I never feel rested?

28 Last thing you think when you go to bed?
Will I be able to sleep tonight, or will I lay here all night thinking of all the things I want to be doing until it’s morning and I have to get up.

29 Describe your music in three words?
Genius, Truthful, Emotional

30 If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?
I’d be the president of The United States (who is really, let’s face it, the president of the world)… I’d disban the government, bring all the troops home, end the war, and use all the money to make sure every single person in the world was fed, sheltered, and understood, thus abolishing the resentments which are a great factor in causing wars in the first place.

31 Favourite comedian?
Bill Hicks

32 What colour is your front door?
Mahogany

33 Favourite film?
Buffalo 66

34 A quote that stuck in your head?
You’re all people softened by the false reflection of loss

35 Favourite subject at school?
Art, everything else was intolerable for me. School is a state sponsored manufacturer of echoes.

36 Which actor/actress would play you in a film about your life?
Gene Tierney would play me, she’s the only one precocious enough.

37 What music makes you want to dance?
N.E.R.D

38 What should they write on your gravestone?
I want to be cremated, and my ashes thrown to the wind, I don’t want to be pickled, boxed up, and buried underground. Though if I were to be buried, I’d want to be buried naturally, just buried naked so my body could actually go back to the earth. In that case, I still wouldn’t have a headstone. Bury me under a tree so I can nourish it.

39 How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
I’d call a man a man when he is able to be completely emotionally honest.

40 When did you first start writing your own songs?
5 years ago.

41 What’s the weirdest thing you ever saw?
I’m having a difficult time choosing, because there have been so many weird things… But I’ll say, the father-daughter and mother-son dances in American high schools. When I moved there, and everyone was getting so excited about it, I thought it must be a joke. It wasn’t.

42 Favourite smell?
Pho

43 Favourite sound?
Grand Piano, in a large hall

44 Swings, roundabout, chute, or climbing frame?
Climbing Frame AND swings

45 Who is your favourite Beatle?
Argh, I really cannot choose. Paul and John write the most consistantly brilliant songs, but Georges solo record is the best of the bunch, and Ringo is so clever and witty. Can’t choose.

46 Point us in the direction of a band one of your friends is in?
I don’t have any friends.

47 A YouTube video the world should watch?
I really don’t know.

48 Cats or dogs?
Cats, all the way. Dogs are too needy, too willing to please. I like a challenge.

49 If you had to join the circus what would you be?
I’d be a gymnist/acrobatic type person

50 Favourite book?
The complete collection of Emily Dickinsons poems.

51 Have you ever been on TV?
Yes, when I was eight and I won a music scholarship from the Toronto Conservatory of Music for Piano. It was a competition held every year, a music festival, and I won the overall category.

52 Have you ever been arrested?
No, although I break the law every day in more than one way.

53 What songs do you (would you) sing at karaoke?
I can’t stand karaoke!! It’s not fun to me to listen to people who can’t sing and the whole thing is just too camp and happy for me.

54 Have you ever seen a ghost?
No, but I’ve heard a ghost. My sister and I were sitting under the dining room table singing Disney songs… we were singing “whistle while you work” but we couldn’t do the whistling part, so we were humming it… The next time we came to “Whistle while you work” there was a clear and loud whistle in the tune of the song. We were alone in the house, and when we heard that we both looked at each other and my sister started crying. A minute later, I ventured out to see if anyone was there but they weren’t. My oupa was an avid whistler, and it was probably him. When I told my ouma, she got mad at me and thought I was lying.

55 How do you like your coffee? Or would you prefer a wee cup of tea?
I prefer a wee cup of hot chocolate.

56 Punk or Raver? Mod or Goth? Hippy or Beatnik? If you had to label yourself, what gang would you be in?
I don’t fit into any labels, even if I wanted to. I’m a freak who freaks out the freaks.

57 What’s the worst job you ever had?
Working for PayPal, answering phones in the disputes department. I lost my faith in humanity at that time, with the way customers calling in would treat me. It was the first time anyone ever said “Fuck You” to me, and it was horribly upsetting.

58 What’s brown and sticky?
Marijuana resin

59 Do you have any recurring dreams?
I used to, but not anymore. I used to dream I followed a little cat to a hole in the wall. I look in the hole and I see a little classroom full of little animals. The teacher (a cat) asks me to come in. I say I can’t because the door is too small. She points to a bigger door, and I come in. Once I am inside, she tells me that I can never leave this classroom again. That I am stuck there forever.

60 How many records have you released and which is your favourite?
Six, my favourite is my most recent. It Begins In Beauty.

61 Where in the world would you like to go?
Venice.

62 Favourite kind of cloud?
Cumulus clouds

63 Favourite line from a song?
I used to care but things have changed

64 What’s the music scene like where you live?
Full of dilatantes, fakers, singer-songwriters with guitars singing the most boring songs ever.

65 Who would make up your dream band? (one singer, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer, plus one extra)
I’d clone myself, and have myself playing all the instruments and singing harmony.

66 Favourite cover art?
The Best of Leonard Cohen.

67 Early bird or night owl?
Night Owl

68 Which of the seven sins are you?
Sloth. I’m sedentry as fuck. I like to stay in one spot.

69 Three words people use to describe you?
Selfish, Aloof, Ego-centric

70 You have ten minutes left to live, what would you do?
I’d start listening to Pet Sounds, and cuddle with Jer till the end.

71 Do you support any sports teams?
No.

71 What do you want for Christmas?
I hate christmas, I celebrate the winter solstice and for that I don’t have presents, we eat good food. If I did celebrate Christmas and I wanted presents, I always want more instruments… but besides that I have everything I need and more.

72 Favourite track from all the Daydream Generation compilations?
Is it wrong to choose my own? I’d choose You Kept Me Humble. If I can’t choose mine, I’d say… Grey Dawn by William Carpenter.

73 Can you cook up a storm in the kitchen?
Yes! I love to cook, and I love to eat.

74 What’s the first thing you remember?
Looking out over the water of Georgian Bay and hoping I could stay there forever.

75 How do you go about writing a song?
I don’t go about writing songs. They come to me in dreams, or when I’m in the bathtub, or any old time really. They come to me fully formed, and I merely get them out. I could never sit down and choose to write a song.

76 When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
This is a funny question. I rarely look in the mirror, and when I do I’m not really looking at myself… Sounds strange but I don’t really associate with or acknowledge my physical appearance. I see a girl with deep dark unknowable eyes staring back at me, we stare at eachother for a moment and then I walk away.

77 What’s the best advice you were ever given?
It’s not happening to me, it’s happening to them.

78 Do you smoke?
Not cigarettes

79 Tell us a joke?
I don’t know any jokes

80 Pick a card, any card?
I’ll take the get out of jail free card

81 One question you’ve never been able to answer?
Why I was born to the family I was born to

82 If you could travel back in time, when and where would you go?
Ahh, I sort of already answered this! See answer number 10.

83 Favourite philosopher?
Bill Hicks

84 Do you have any pets?
Yes, three cats

85 Ever climbed a mountain?
I would love to… One day man.

86 What do you do in the real world to pay the rent?
Jer works and he pays the rent. I only do music.

87 Self-diagnosis: any psychiatric disorders?
Oooh you’re opening a can of worms here! The way I see it, there is no such thing as a psychiatric disorder. In order for there to be disorders, one has to judge it against what is apparently normal. I don’t believe in normal. We’re all fucked up in different ways, and some ways are more socially acceptable than others.

88 Favourite poet?
Bob Dylan

89 What wouldn’t you do for a million dollars?
Write dishonest music.

90 Adrenalin junky?
Not really, I like to play it safe.

91 What bands have you been in?
I was in jazz band in highschool… Other than that, it’s always been me on my own.

92 Favourite board game/computer game?
I adore all things Nintendo, and the love affair started in the 80’s with the SNES (still have a snes, and play it on a regular basis)

93 What kind of recording set-up do you have? Equipment etc.
I use a Roland RD-700GX electric piano, a Roland KC-550 piano amp, a Fender American Telecaster, a cheap little Behringer guitar amp, a Tanglewood acoustic electric, Steinberger Street Guitar , a vintage Blade electric guitar which has been modified (not by me), a Line 6 POD X3, Cubase studio software, and an E-MU 1829 soundcard. I also use an autoharp, a melodica, a Harley Benton jazz bass, a flute, and tambourines and shakers.

94 A character you love from a book or a film?
I love Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden

95 Who is the sexiest person in the history of the world?
Leonard Cohen

96 If you could genetically fuse two animals together what would they be? And what would it make?
A cabbit. A cat and a rabbit.

97 What kind of drunk are you?
A sweet drunk. Alcohol softens me and makes me cuddly and nice, whereas when sober I am stoic, serious, and unyielding.

98 What was the first record that really blew your mind?
OK Computer by Radiohead

99 What are your musical plans for the future?
Keep making music as long as the muse is speaking to me, get more instruments, get vintage equipment and start recording in analog.

100 Got some websites of your own we can visit?

http://www.myspace.com/chansonsdegeste

http://www.myspace.com/theloadedwhispers

CATEGORIES:INTERVIEWS, QUIXODELIC RECORDS, SYD LANE