Dean Murdoch: Hey man, who’s this?
Stylus: Sheldon from Winnipeg.
DM: Oh fuck, how you doing Sheldon?
Stylus: Great, yourself?
DM: Oh fuckin just tickety boo, man. Tickety boo.
Stylus: How was your weekend?
DM: Ah, it was pretty deadly. I kind of got in some trouble. Buddy of mine sent me some granulated weed, so you can’t really smoke it. So I took this recipe off the Internet and I made some hash-brownies. You know, pot-brownies.
Stylus: How’d that work out for ya?
DM: It was pretty good at first. But I didn’t really have dinner, so I was super hungry. So I kinda ate the whole pan basically, even the crumbs. So I got way up there you know, high wise. Like I was watching that guy who jumped from space there, and I was like, “Whatever, man.” I felt I was like higher than him. It took me 12 hours to get back to Earth. It only took him like what, a couple minutes?
Stylus: Yeah he had a pretty quick fall. Dean, your band Nightseeker is coming to town next week. When’s the last time you came through Winnipeg?
DM: Oh fuck, that’s a good question. I don’t even remember. Sometimes you just blow past Winnipeg. You might even stay a week, but you don’t remember, you know?
Stylus: It does have that effect…
DM: Yeah, fuck. I honestly can’t recall the last time. I have, like, my memory’s… After like one year it just kinda goes back to zero. I can tell you for sure it’s been more than one year.
Stylus: Well, Nightseeker’s come a long way since your first gig there at Peelers’ in Fort McMurray. Can you tell me a bit about Nightseeker’s epic journey from then until now?
DM: Well, that’s exactly what I got to talk about. People are like, “Oh, oh we’re going to go see Nightseeker,” and they think it’s going to be like a joke. Like at Peelers’ we didn’t exactly sound so hot. But two things have happened. First of all I learned that you gotta practice more than like, once a month or whatever. But now that we’re practicing once or twice a week, it’s starting to get good. Also [spoiler alert!], I can sing a lot better cuz of that whole castrati thing. That was a major help.
Stylus: What can we expect from your set? Do you do all originals, or do you have some covers in there?
DM: Yeah, I mean there’s enough covers in there, just sorta sprinkled in there like salt and pepper, a little bit of hot sauce on your potatoes. So you’ll be like, “Oh fuck, I know that song!” But most of our songs are originals. But you’ll definitely hear like the influence. Some songs are a little more AC/DC, some songs are a little more early Sabbath. That’s kind of like our comfort zone.
Stylus: Do you guys have a tour van or a bus, with like some cool airbrushed shit on the side? What do you guys roll in?
DM: We had a pretty deadly van, but it got stolen. We’re kinda between vans actually. We’re actually flying to Winnipeg. We’re going to fly in and fly out. Hopefully the guy at the rental place will rent us a really deadly van with something really cool spray-painted on the side. Something like a dragon holding a globe with like a wizard in it.
Stylus: I would hope so! Hey, do you ever see Terry [Cahill] anymore? How’s he doing these days?
DM: Oh yeah, I see Terry all the time. He’s all like geared into his family world. Once you got a kid you sort of like centralize your partying into your own basement. He can play like road hockey in his basement like year round. He’s got nets and shit. He’s got this like crazy sound system that basically like massages your liver and insides. That’s how powerful the sound system is. It’s pretty deadly.
Stylus: Sounds deadly! What about Tron, do you ever cross paths with that guy these days?
DM: Yeah, no, he’s pretty like, what’s the word? He’s pretty out of this world. [laughing] Like sometimes he won’t see me, and sometimes vice versa, like he’ll see me and I won’t see him. You know, it’s like we’re on sort of different party planes. But he’s still out there givin’r. He spends a lot of time up in the Mac, you know. Still working pretty hard in the pipe-line world.
Stylus: Cool. Switching gears here a bit Deaner, I wanted to know what you think of the NHL lockout right now?
DM: Oh yeah, it’s a pretty harsh pill to swallow. I don’t know, like. I kind of feel like I’m like everybody else. I don’t know who to blame. It just sucks. Like, ahhh, you know at a certain point you’re just like, “Oh, it’s Saturday night. What am I doing? Oh, I’m watching hockey.” Like, when it gets cold outside, that’s what you do. Instead of getting sloshed in some park, you get sloshed on someone’s couch. When that’s taken away from you, it’s like, “Oh yeah, as if I’m gonna watch a bunch of Russians play, you know, like, in some other league.” Or, “Oh, I’m gonna watch a bunch of teenagers play.” It’s not the same thing, you know. It’s like playing soccer with a football, you know. Either you’re watching the real deal, or you aint.
Stylus: Who do you think would win in a fist-fight: Donald Fehr [executive director of the NHLPA] or Gary Bettman [NHL Commissioner]?
DM: Well, I don’t know man. That’s a hard one. Bettman, he seems like the kinda guy who gives you like a bunch of little rabbit punches. But he just never goes down. He’s got that kinda meat-head kinda deal where his head’s full of raw meat. You can’t knock any sense into it, you can’t knock anything into it. It’s just like, I’d say probably Bettman would win. Fehr would just get like tired you know. And then he’d just, that’s it. Bettman would just land one of them little punches, and that would do it.
Stylus: I hear ya there. Now Dean, you’re kind of known as a bit of a ladies man. Do you have any advice for the single dudes out there in the dating world?
DM: Oh yeah. Like, even if you ain’t good at stuff like cooking, or cleaning, or anything domestic like, even the littlest thing counts. Like, you know, if a chick’s like, “Oh, let’s go out!” And you’re like, “Sure, why don’t you come over and maybe I’ll make some dinner and then we’ll go?” It don’t matter what you make. Like you could open up a can of soup and put some crackers on the table and be like, “Hey man, have at ‘er. I got more crackers in the cupboard. It’s all you can eat.” That kinda stuff leaves an impression, you know. Like, “Oh, dinner!” That’s big.
Or like, say you go over to her place, and you notice that there’s like piss all over the toilet seat, you can maybe just like take a little dab of toilet paper and maybe clean it up a little bit. Next time she walks in she’s like, “Oh the Deaner, or whatever your name is, you know, cleaned up my toilet seat!” That stuff sinks in, and they remember. Even if you don’t clean your own, if you clean your woman’s, she’ll be like, “He’s like doing extra stuff,” you know?
Stylus: I hear you there, Deaner…
DM: But that’s like extra level shit right there, you know. Like, that’s when you really want to like, basically go all the way.
Stylus: Great advice, man. Thanks. I guess to turn it around back to the band stuff a little here, if you could play bass for any band, active or inactive, what band would that be?
DM: Ohh, yeah… You know, I’d say, it would probably be… Yeah, I’d have to say it would probably be Sabbath. You know, just cuz of the era that they were living in. I’d say AC/DC because it’s just like my favourite kind of music. But at the same time, the era that Sabbath was going through, there was nobody doing really what they were doing. Everywhere they went, people just couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was like a magic show, you know. Every time Sabbath came into town, whether it was in England, or anywhere in Europe or North America, people were just like, you know, like the wizards were coming into town to cast like magical spells on the audience. I think that kinda thing, you know, like going on tour’s kind of a grind you know. But when you feel like this magic sort of presence coming into the city you’re going into, that’s what it’s all about, you know. Plus the music is deadly too and all that stuff.
Stylus: Totally. Similar question here Deaner: If you could shotgun a tall can of Pilsner with anybody, living or dead, who would you shotgun that tall can with?
DM: Ohh, that’s a good… Tall can too eh? Fuck. I’d have to say Lemmy. I think Lemmy’s pretty much the coolest guy ever. And it’s pretty cool that he’s still alive. Like, you got all these guys like throughout like the rock n roll history who are like, there’s no way you can discuss if they’re cool or not. You know like Hendrix and guys like that. Like all the guys in AC/DC and shit. But for like how lucky we are that we still have this totally awesome rock n roll guy with us? Like, I seen his documentary [Lemmy] a couple year’s back, and he’s like me, you know! He goes to the bar and like parties and like lives like the simple life. He’s not like Mick Jagger or some sort of rock star who’s like “Oh, I own an island, but I’m also like picking up pennies for the poor.” You know what I mean? Like, whatever, that’s not what rock n roll is all about. That’s not what rock n roll is.
Stylus: So what’s like your special technique for shotgunning a tall can?
DM: I like to make the hole not too big. About as big as your thumb, or maybe like your fingerbanging finger. Anything bigger and it’s gonna spill. If you’re asking me, the most important thing isn’t to win; to drink the beer faster or beat the other guy. The most important thing is not to spill any. Like, “Oh, I love shotgunning beers!” But like half the people, they love spilling their beers, and that ain’t cool. Like, “Oh let’s shotgun,” and they crack it, and even as they’re cracking the hole they’re losing like a quarter of their beer right there. Like no wonder they beat you, half their beer is all over their shirt, you know? Yeah, so you carve a smaller type hole, and you can still crusher back pretty quick. I like, just as, and you can feel it, just as the can’s getting light you can crush it, and squeeze that last little bit in your mouth. That half second is sometimes all you need to become a champ.
Stylus: Fuckin’ rights! Coming into Manitoba, Nightseeker’s playing both Winnipeg and Brandon. Both towns like to party pretty hard. Who do you think will Giv’r harder: Winnipeg or Brandon?
DM: That’s a good question. When we were touring Alberta there, it was like the small towns totally partied like as hard if not harder than the large towns. Yeah, geez, eh? You know, I’m gonna have to get back to you on that. I’m gonna tell ya, because, I have a feeling it’s gonna be Brandon. But only because it’s on a Friday, and Winnipeg’s on a Thursday. But maybe Winnipeg’s gonna surprise me and they’re gonna party even harder on a week day.
Stylus: It is possible. Brandon is a pretty hard partying town, you might be right there. I’m hoping Wininpeg will, but Brandon’s pretty good at givin’r… Anyway, last question here Deaner. What’s the deadliest thing you’ve ever done?
DM: Oh, the deadliest thing I ever done? Fuck, that’s a good question, cuz I don’t even know. Frankly, like, I don’t think I’ve done the deadliest thing. Like, when I die and somebody writes my autobiography [sic], they’ll probably have something in it. But I don’t know. This one time, I rode with no hands on my ten-speed blindfolded down like this huge hill. Like buddy, buddy and I were talking about like the Force. I was like, “I bet I have the Force. I bet I can ride down this hill like no hands, blindfolded.” He’s like, “Yeah right.” I’m like, “I can!” So I shotgun a beer. And it was like a big hill, like we’re talking almost a mountain here. And I did it. And I just knew when the sidewalk was coming. I just kinda put my hands down on the handlebars just, like just at the second the sidewalk was coming and it was like, boom, I made it. Buddy was at the top of the hill going like, “No way!” He couldn’t believe it. People talked about that for months, man.
People are gonna be talking about Nightseeker and #DEANERTOBA2012 for months, too. So don’t fucking miss out. Deaner and Nightseeker play the Pyramid in Winnipeg Thursday October 25, and in Brandon at the Trails West Inn Friday October 26. Giv’r!