{"id":3126,"date":"2011-11-12T11:16:41","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T17:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=3126"},"modified":"2011-11-12T11:16:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T17:16:41","slug":"interview-camp-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2011\/11\/12\/interview-camp-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview :: Camp Radio"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\nBy Patrick Michalishyn<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had Chris Page singing to me for the last ten years, solo and with Glengarry-legends The Stand GT. I\u2019ve scoured the \u2019net for those rare tapes and 7\u201ds just so I could hear everything he\u2019s released. So a few years back, when Kelp Records announced that Chris was in a new band called Camp Radio, I went a little mental with happy (just a li\u2019l!). So with the flurry of activity surrounding their just-released second album <\/em>Campista Socialista, Chris was kind enough to grant<\/em> Stylus this interview.<\/em>
\n
\nStylus: Hey Chris! You\u2019ve been wearing the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll pants for a while now. How long have you been \u201ckeeping it real?\u201d
\nChris Page:<\/strong> That\u2019s a tough one. I\u2019ve been writing songs for as long as I can remember. The early days were spent collaborating with Doug and Wally from The Stand GT. Our early songs were pretty rough around the edges both in lyrical content and recording. But that\u2019s part of the growing process. Some milestones for me include writing \u201cI\u2019d Tell You\u201d and \u201cAs Cool As Me\u201d with those guys. The latter ended up on It Came From Canada Vol. 5 <\/em>on OG records… which totally blew my mind and I still consider to be a very proud moment along this crazy path. I remember sitting outside Cheap Thrills in Montreal holding a copy that I had just bought and feeling like I was on top of the world. There have been so many moments like that I feel lucky to have experienced…and I\u2019d say that was when I started to \u201ckeep it real.\u201d<\/div>\n

\nStylus: Could you give everybody a brief rundown of Camp Radio from inception to now.
\nCP:<\/strong> Camp Radio exists because of Scott Terry. He\u2019s the catalyst behind the entire thing, which is remarkable considering how many varied bands he plays in. After playing solo with my electric guitar for a few years, I started to miss the rocking fun of being in a power pop band. I started to get comments after shows that went something like \u201cI really dig your stuff…it would be so cool to hear it with drums and bass.\u201d It was kind of annoying, really. [laughs]<\/em>
\nScott started to pester me in the same way but for some reason his approach was much less flippant. After discussing it a few times in bars we decided to test the waters. I brought some new songs to his rehearsal space and it went from there. We started writing the first album. Our pal Dave [Draves] heard about this going on and said that he would be interested in playing bass. Dave is owner of famed Ottawa music studio Little Bullhorn Prods and has played in many bands… but bass wasn\u2019t his first instrument.<\/div>\n
When it came time to record the songs, we discovered a real amazing chemistry that has been flourishing ever since.
\nWe all have other priorities, though. Camp Radio is a great passion that we all share and we feel we\u2019ve created something pretty special. But it\u2019s not something we live and die by. We have lives. We have families. We have other bands and music projects that keep us crazy busy. And I think that part-time approach is what keeps Camp Radio special and what keeps our energy and enthusiasm cranked up for when it comes time for the next Campista Socialista!<\/em><\/div>\n
\nStylus: How do you decide what\u2019s a \u201cCamp Radio\u201d song and what you\u2019re gonna keep for yourself as a \u201cChris Page\u201d song?
\nCP:<\/strong> It\u2019s both timing and gut feeling. The last few years have been going in cycles where I would be writing for one project while recording and releasing another. As this Camp Radio record is being released, I\u2019m working away on the next solo record stuff. That said, sometimes Scott will intercept a song and change my mind into doing a tune destined for my solo record and make it full on Camp Radio. I also have songs that are left over from The Stand GT days as well… \u201cReinventing the Laugh Track\u201d<\/a> is one of them.
\nWho knows though… maybe the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll planets will line up and I\u2019ll be forced to get going on the third Camp Radio record right away.<\/div>\n
\nStylus: You recently played Sled Island in Calgary and released an interesting item when you got there. Who in their right mind would think of doing a flexi-disc in 2011?
\nCP:<\/strong> I am ALWAYS wanting to do something different, something that true music fans will enjoy. I got super disillusioned in recent years with how easy it became to put out CDs. Everyone and their mutt-dogs were putting out crappy looking CDs with even crappier artwork. It depressed me. When we started down the path of the first Camp Radio record I wanted to be sure we took our time with the overall package… and spared no costs. Hence the heavy vinyl, heavy card stock gatefold vinyl release with a CD inside.
\nWhen Dawn from Saved by Vinyl <\/a>approached us about a flexi, we jumped at the idea. We also took it a step further to ensure it had wicked-cool artwork. The new Camp Radio logo, with skull and burning crossed marshmallows, is the handy work of our talented artistic director, Leila Younis.<\/div>\n
\nStylus: Alright… fair enough. Now, one thing I can\u2019t forgive: I bug you that you miss Winnipeg (you play west and east of us all the time). What\u2019s your beef with Winnipeg?
\nCP:<\/strong> I\u2019ve played Winnipeg more than 10 times, so you have to go easy on me. There\u2019s no beef. Honestly. It\u2019s all about logistics, I\u2019m afraid. Would Camp Radio come to Winnipeg and play this coming weekend? YOU BET! Would we love to fly out and play an area festival sometime in the future? FOR SURE. So, someone, please: help hook us up and we\u2019ll be on the next flight out.<\/p>\n

Camp Radio\u2019s second album was released on Kelp\/Saved By Vinyl in mid-September, and it\u2019s a scorcher! If you hit them up now, you might even get some bonus goodies. And the more you buy, the more likely Camp Radio will come to Winnipeg and sign your flexi.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Michalishyn I\u2019ve had Chris Page singing to me for the last ten years, solo and with Glengarry-legends The Stand GT. I\u2019ve scoured the \u2019net for those rare tapes and 7\u201ds just so I could hear everything he\u2019s released. So a few years back, when Kelp Records announced that Chris was in a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[158,752],"class_list":["post-3126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-camp-radio","tag-pop-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}