Music : The music makers just want to have fun

By Maegan Thomas, Associate Staff Contributor
thepeak.ca

Vancouver-based
band ok Vancouver ok performs in a Go Your Own Waste show on June 8,
part of the independent music festival Music Waste.

This series of interviews I’ve done for The Peak to hype the Music
Waste festival has been quite the experience. I’m not going to say that
all the interviewees have been great (though I could — how would you
know?) but they have all been unique and interesting. More than this,
they have been representative of a musical scene that is dynamic, self
reliant, and a breeding ground for national and international sensation.

credits: martha essak



The final interviewee in this series is Jeff J., creator of the
appropriately named ok Vancouver ok. The ambiguity of the band name (an
exclamation somewhere between affirmation and resignation) pretty much
sums up the attitude of the majority of Vancouver music makers, lovers,
and humble reviewers. Ironically, the artist most admittedly and
strongly influenced by the little coastal town is the artist has the
least to say about it (at least to me).

I didn’t take it personally though. Jeff J. is reserved to the point
of comatose while I’m conspicuously writing in my slab of a notebook,
but once the notebook is closed (and we’ve hit margarita number two) he
more animatedly talks about ok Vancouver ok and his participation in
the greenbelt collective, both of which “sound like a bunch of people
singing together who love each other.” More of a project than a band,
he started ok Vancouver ok as a response to his moving here after
traveling across Canada and throughout the world. It also sums his
attitude to life and music: “It is what it is,” he repeats often to my
probes about his sound, other people’s sound, the Vancouver scene, et
cetera.

In fact, “It is what it is” and, “I see when I get there” (to a gig,
a recording session, et cetera) is both the most frustrating and most
accurate thing that Jeff can say about his band. His style is
improvised and free form, with contributions from musicians, friends,
housemates, and strangers. But don’t mistake this for relinquishing
creative control. He enjoys contributors spicing his dishes, but he is
the recipe, the cook, and the most important consumer of what he
creates.

Actually, what he really wants is for people to have fun, first and
foremost himself. The title track to his fourth and most recent album
“i get so drunk about songs about love” was recorded impromptu with
friends after an afternoon of red wine. His friends began playing and
he shouted “don’t stop!” and hit record, the lyrics crooned in ‘60s
style falsetto and bass.

Ok Vancouver ok has four albums, the balcony (2005), ok jeff ok
(2006), 28–29 (2007), i get so drunk about songs about love (2007) and
has two in the works this summer (both untitled). His fifth is being
mastered and the sixth is being recorded live off the floor — with only
one track, no cuts. His description of this as “challenging” makes me
laugh when he offers it. The albums are about each song, almost like
mixed tapes, rather than any overarching theme, and are packed with
every instrument you could think of (22 on one album alone); “i get so
drunk” features a glockenspiel, while Jeff J. rocks out a trumpet at
many of his shows, as well as all types of pianos from the Casio to the
upright.

Well, “rock out” may be a stretch. If you’ve noticed I haven’t said
anything about Jeff J.’s sound. It’s almost impossible, but it’s fun to
try. It’s playful, in that play can be both joyous and deadly serious.
It’s plunky and atmospheric, sophisticated and childlike, pop and folk
. . . um . . . avant-garde . . . um, good? Yeah, I’m going to go with
the genre of good.