BeatRoute Magazine AB print e-edition - March 2017
BeatRoute Magazine: Western Canada’s Indie Arts & Entertainment Monthly BeatRoute (AB) Mission PO 23045 Calgary, AB T2S 3A8 E. editor@beatroute.ca BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics. Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore.
BeatRoute Magazine: Western Canada’s Indie Arts & Entertainment Monthly
BeatRoute (AB)
Mission PO 23045
Calgary, AB
T2S 3A8
E. editor@beatroute.ca
BeatRoute Magazine is a monthly arts and entertainment paper with a predominant focus on music – local, independent or otherwise. The paper started in June 2004 and continues to provide a healthy dose of perversity while exercising rock ‘n’ roll ethics.
Currently BeatRoute’s AB edition is distributed in Calgary, Edmonton (by S*A*R*G*E), Banff and Canmore.
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STRFKR<br />
from disillusionment to thriving<br />
There are some simple traits that a good person should practice<br />
throughout life. One is when you drop off someone at<br />
their home, you should wait until they are safe inside before<br />
you drive away. Two, if your friend is scared of flying, you better<br />
hold their goddamn sweaty hand during the bumps. Three, the<br />
most important of them, is to always greet dogs. It’s safe to assume<br />
that if you do one of them, you probably do them all.<br />
When STRFKR’s brainchild Joshua Hodges greets three dogs<br />
in his passing during our phone interview, we’re fairly confident<br />
you’re in good company. This year will mark a decade since the<br />
then-26 year old started making music in his basement as a<br />
personal outlet, the vessel he named Starfucker, later toning it<br />
down to STRFKR.<br />
STRFKR is a Portland-based band who walk the line between<br />
indie pop and dance music. They have a knack for bass lines,<br />
shiny synth, and hooky vocalisations by Hodges. This is well-evidenced<br />
in the band’s hit-making history, and most recently<br />
with single “In The End,” taken from their Polyvinyl release Being<br />
No One, Going Nowhere. But it wasn’t all sexy good times and<br />
free-wheeling for Hodges.<br />
“The [way that the] whole project came about was out of<br />
frustration, naming it Starfucker was a ‘fuck you’ to the music<br />
industry that I had experienced,” Hodges remembers. To his surprise,<br />
he has been able make a career out of doing what he wants<br />
creatively and personally. “I didn’t think it would be something<br />
that lasted ten months, let alone ten years,” he says.<br />
Hodges knew at a young age he was a creative type. His<br />
mother taught him a couple simple chords on the guitar, and he<br />
learned a little piano. “When this project started I was working<br />
really shitty jobs. All I ever wanted to do was music. I didn’t go to<br />
school after high school, I just moved to New York. I was in a couple<br />
bands and got hired to do, like, a hired guy to be in a band,<br />
be a guitarist and tour for a little bit. But it wasn’t really my own<br />
thing and it wasn’t really that great. This project was basically my<br />
giving up point, the ‘fuck this.’”<br />
That’s not the end of his story. “I remember when I was able to<br />
quit working, and we could actually make money just touring.”<br />
Hodges was astounded that he could get by on his creative vehicle,<br />
even if wasn’t exactly a plush way to live.<br />
The interesting thing is, we tend to forget how lucky we can<br />
be in our own heads when we miss the simplest part of life, like<br />
alone time, or waking up in your only bed, or being able to meet<br />
a good friend for a random beer at a drop of a dime.<br />
“I still can take it for granted, you know, but [it’s] just like any<br />
job when it becomes normal. Touring is kind of fucking hard. I<br />
like alone time and there is not much of that on tour. I definitely<br />
have to remind myself to appreciate it, still. The brain is naturally<br />
narcissistic, the mind is not grateful, so I think you have to trick it<br />
to be that way.”<br />
Hodges is fairly modest about the success and growth of<br />
STRFKR. “When we first started it was about what I wanted to do<br />
live, but after a while, playing the same songs over and over gets<br />
kind of repetitive. So it’s changed to be more interactive and fun,<br />
to have a good time with our audience.”<br />
With astronaut costumes and band members crowdsurfing on<br />
an inflatable flamingo, it’s not a stretch to imagine yourself having<br />
a good time at a STRFKR show. Good thing you have the chance<br />
to find out for yourself.<br />
STRFKR play the Pyramid Cabaret in Winnipeg on <strong>March</strong> 17th, Louis’<br />
Pub in Sasktoon on <strong>March</strong> 18th, The Needle Vinyl Tavern in Edmonton<br />
on <strong>March</strong> 19th, Commonwealth in Calgary on <strong>March</strong> 20th and<br />
The Imperial in Vancouver on <strong>March</strong> 22nd. Psychic Twin join them for<br />
all dates.<br />
by Danni Bauer<br />
Portland’s STRFKR and Psychic Twin hit Western Canada this month.<br />
ROCKPILE<br />
BEATROUTE • MARCH <strong>2017</strong> | 23