by Sheldon Birnie
Thirty years of hard living, countless miles in the back of filthy vans, thousands upon thousands of shows across the world, and now eight full length, studio albums later and still legendary Canadian punk rockers SNFU keep rolling.
SNFU pioneered punk rock on the prairies at a time when it was still dangerous to be punk. They crossed the country, and the oceans in turn, on a shoestring budget, inspiring countless punks in the pit to pick up guitars themselves along the way.
With the release of their first album in ten years, the sagely titled Never Trouble Trouble Until Trouble Troubles You, SNFU are back on the road, with a stop in Winnipeg tonight at the Zoo. After rolling into town this morning, the enigmatic lead singer Mr Chi Pig took the time to chat with Stylus.
Stylus: Hey Chi, really excited about tonight’s gig over here…
Mr. Chi Pig: I haven’t seen anything about promotion here! No posters at the record shop, no posters on the streets. I guess the Internet has really changed everything. Then again, the lifetime of a poster of downtown in Vancouver is five minutes. They have no regard for posters. Doesn’t matter the date, or when it went up. They’re just getting paid by the poster…
But we always have a pretty strong following in Winnipeg. We have alot of friends here, and their networks and it’s on the Internet. I’m not too concerned about the show. Should be a good one.
Stylus: How’s the tour going?
Mr. Chi Pig: Great. We were in Japan. It was or first time, we were excited. They were really good to us, very accommodating. We’d just gotten copies of our new CD, which was the first time we actually saw it and had it in our hands. I mean, I knew what I sang like. But to have it in your hands, it’s always like an achievement award, you know?
Stylus: About the new album, you recorded it in Edmonton, is that correct?
Mr. Chi Pig: Just the vocals. The bed tracks were recorded in Vancouver. I chose to record in Emdonton because my friends and family were there and kept me away from the bullshit that was going on in Vancouver. I chose to do that, to go to Edmonton, so I could focus.
Stylus: What about the songwriting itself? How did that go?
Mr. Chi Pig: It took a long time on the music, well they took a long time to come up with the music. I already had half the words down. In Edmonton, there was a low period there for me to write the vocals, so I wrote 40 songs in 30 days. So I had a lot of wordage to choose from, a lot of ideas.
Stylus: What are the songs about, lyrically or thematically? Can you talk about that?
Mr. Chi Pig: There’s a couple songs about two special friends of mine in Vancouver, and there’s imaginary friends. And just kind of like, kind of kinectic kind of stuff going on. We’re going to post all the lyrics on the website, so people can get a better perspective. But we kind of left them oblique like that on the album, so you had to really listen to the songs.
Stylus: The last time you played in Winnipeg, you played a couple of the new songs live. How have the crowds been reacting to the new tunes live?
Mr. Chi Pig: Oh they’re into it. We’ve been selling a fair amount on the road, and people have pre-ordered it. The vinyl version is coming out soon, with two different covers. They [the LPs] are coming out on October 22. By the time we hit Edmonton, we’ll have the LPs in our hands. We do three or four songs from the new record every night, plus a smattering of old favourites.
Stylus: You’ve been doing this for thirty years or more…
Mr. Chi Pig: Since I was a kid.
Stylus: Yeah, and I mean you’ve been all over the place, had ups and downs. What keeps you inspired to keep rocking, year after year?
Mr. Chi Pig: It’s something I enjoy doing. If it makes someone happy, that drives me to do it even more. I played with some of my favourite bands [over the years]: the Buzzcocs, The Damned, The Dickies, Nirvana, on and on and on. When you get to play with them, it’s like a stamp of approval. It’s pretty cool. They’re just regular people who like to play music. It’s the same connection that you have, so you dont have to speak about it. They hang out, they smoke cigarettes, maybe they may do other things. Who cares? They get drunk if they like to get drunk. Whatever. Nobody judges. What the fuck is that noise? That fucking hammering? Sounds like a fucking dog humping a radiator?
SNFU will be performing at the Zoo tonight, Friday October 18, along with Trouser Mouth and 1971. Doors are at 9pm, party starts at 10.