Story by Matt Dixon, December '10

Above Photo by Aimee Power | Drive to the Coast

Sam aka Story is an inspiration. She lives and makes music in the wilds of rural Prince Edward Island. I'm thrilled to be interviewing her for this little webzine. Story will be playing at Muse Artspace in Charlottetown, PEI on January the 2nd, 2011 (and hopefully many more times to come). --CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE SHOW INFO--.

Snowbanks by Story
 

1. First of all, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview. One of the things that strikes me about you is your passion about your music and how you go about making it and putting yourself out there as it were. Could you talk a little about your influences and what DIY punk culture means to you?
Hmm. Influences. Well, for me my biggest influences are my friends. Other kids in the DIY folk community. It's such an honest culture full of truly unique expressionism and passion. You really get to know a person on a different level when you hear the music they've written when they're wearing their heart on their sleeve. It's such a different community to crust punk and hardcore in a lot of ways. Same DIY ethics, but there's a tenderness to it. Everyone truly loves and cares for eachother. We've created a really tight-knit community here in Canada and the eastern US. If I had to name a few? Cud e. (PE), Mallory (Mass.), Mogli (HFX), Ursula (BC), Squinch Owl (Boston), Adam Matlock (CT), The Rough Sea (Ottawa), The Official Suckers (HFX). I love them all to death. They're music is amazing, and I'd do anything for any of those kids.

2. On the topic of this really tight-knit community you mentioned, I'd like to talk to you about the very ambitious Folk Routes collective which you're apart of. Could you tell us a little about Folk Routes? In this age of myspace pages, booking agents and bands with countless t-shirt designs how important are grassroots efforts such as these for the community?
Well, Folk Routes is essentially a small group of DIY folk kids from the north-east of Canada and the US who have the similar views on what playing music should be all about and how it should be distributed (free of advertising, free of charge, and just plain free). The kids who put it all together live in Leverett, Mass. I think the main idea is to give people a place free of corporations and advertisements for musicians to network, share ideas, music, artwork, and have a sense of community online. Right now it's pretty much just our own little network of people, but there are big plans to expand the webiste to everyone.

I think the concept is amazing. A lot of more left wing artists have been looking for an alternative to myspace for a long time, and I'm really hoping that folkroutes.org will fill that void. There needs to be a place for musicians online who don't want to sell out, who don't want to buy in to the corporate aspect of sharing music. I can't wait to see where it goes from here...

3. You've been living on Prince Edward Island for a couple of years now and you've been pretty heavily involved in the music scene here (playing in Skurm, continuing your solo music with Story, working at Ampersand (RIP), etc). What is your take on the current state of things these days?
I think the music scene here in PEI is actually pretty amazing right now. It's had a lot of ups and downs since I was a teenager living here, but the attitude behind it has always stayed the same. It's not like larger cities where everyone can be really uptight and pretentious about what kinds of music they support. The beauty of a small scene is that everyone respects, appreciates and supports all of the musicians here on the Island, local or touring. And groups of friends consist of kids with interests all over the place. But everyone gets along. No one judges. I'd like to see more of an all-ages scene here though. And more younger kids coming out to shows. I think it's really important to make music accessible to everyone. Kids, moms, whoever.

4. You're certainly no stranger to touring. I have no doubt you've racked up a lot of kilometers with both Story and your other projects throughout the years. Would you mind sharing an interesting tour story from the road?
Oh my goodness. There are really so many stories.. Countless breakdowns, crazy adventures, interesting people.. TJ, when we were in Cross, peeing out the car window while driving 40 through construction and all the workers watching him. missed life playing a show with Inepsy in the forest outside Ottawa on a Maple Farm.

Touring solo and dumpstering in cities I've never been to. Drinking out of a can of Sparks and realizing seconds later that someone had rubbed a hot pepper all over it. Drinking Four-Loco in Georgia in a crazy punk house with like, ten dogs and getting silly silly drunk. Late-night singalongs where no one really knows eachother, but everyone knows the words. Having a day off and going to see my best friend's band play in Albany. Having a day off and driving 6 hours out of the way to South Carolina just to go to a CiCi's Pizza. Seeing so many amazing legally squatted punk houses; the Landslide Urban Farm space in Pittsburgh (two houses joined with a big hold cut through the wall, at the foot of the most historic landslide site probably ever), The Wingnut in Richmond Virginia (where I learned that the word ornery is apparently pronounced "on-ree"), The BIRDHOUSE in Buffalo NY (where i listened to Girl Talk for the first time, drinkin 40s on the stoop... soo epic), Heaven and Hell in Albequerque NM, The Spotted Dick House in Austin Texas... Touring is surreal...

5. Thanks again! Okay, final question. Looking forward... the end of civilization will be caused by:
A string of natural disasters eventually leading to an apocalyptic climax wiping out the entire population. Definitely.

Thanks so much Matt! This was super fun!

Stay Connected with Story:
http://myspace.com/storysong

And Keep an Eye on Folk Routes:
http://folkroutes.org

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