7" Survey: VCR

Every edition of this season’s Long Winter, we’re releasing a free split seven-inch, each side featuring a song from one of the night’s featured artists. To compliment the releases, we’ve issued a seven-part questionnaire to each of the artists involved, giving the subjects an inch (about 85 words) of space to answer each of our questions.

The first instalment of this year’s Split 7” Series features a track each from VCR and Lee Paradise. In this deeply insightful questionnaire with VCR’s Scott Jenner, we learn that Long Winter co-organizer and Fucked Up drummer Jonah Falco recently committed a crime we previously imagined only the most volatile Scooby-Doo villains were capable of. Read between the lines below.

Long Winter: Who are you and how did VCR come together?

Scott Jenner: The VCR lineup consists of one beautiful Princess Lia, the talented Poolboy Appledick, Sportdog as always, and of course a great pair of Erica Eyebrows!

It's a funny story really! We are all actually psychic mediums and were hired together by Fucked Up's bumbling manager to de-ghost the Great Hall for last year's Long Winter event series. It was our toughest mystery yet, but eventually we discovered that it was Jonah Falco who was living in the rafters and terrorizing the guests! It turns out the whole thing was part of a failed publicity stunt for this year's event.

LW: How about “Life Feels Better With a Knife In My Hand/Scream (reprise)” – what inspired that?

SJ: The reprised Scream theme (Scream and Scream again) is a call back to VCR's October 2013 single “Scream” from the limited edition VCR self-titled cassette tape. So we are solely inspired by our own craft!

LW: For lots of listeners, this will be their first point of access to your music. Where does this song fit into the rest of your catalog?

SJ: “VCR” fits tight in the V's! right between “Vagina” and “Velcro.” You're listening to an unreleased sneak peek track hand selected from the VCR demo archives by hardcore punk celebrity Jonah Falco, who happened to curate this split seven-inch from jail where he resides for Great Hall ghost hoax felonies.

LW: Once they’re turned on to this, what releases (songs, EPs, albums, or otherwise) should people pursue as logical next steps to getting to know your music?

SJ: Feel free to approach us and we'll hand autograph your copy of VCR's Greatest Hits seven-inch. Obviously, your next purchase is one of the limited edition "Spooky House" haunted house beat cassettes from VCR percussion talent Poolboy Math Apple-dick!

LW: When you think of winter, what’s a memory that stands out for you?

SJ: Before Poolboy and I cleaned pools for a living, we actually maintained backyard ice skating rinks. Anyways this one time we were cleaning up the hockey rink at Guy Fieri's winter home, and he storms outside in a bowling shirt and his infant son is crying inside and he challenges us to take shots on him. I couldn't resist taking a slap shot on Guy Fieri's ice, so Poolboy and I tore up that rink with Guy even right after we cleaned it. Best memory.

LW: How do you survive winters in Toronto? 

SJ: Usually around January or February it starts to get too cold for me to sleep in my actual bed, so I've gotten used to going to sleep inside the hollowed out corpses of fat policemen.

LW: What are you most looking forward to for the November 14 edition of Long Winter?

SJ: I haven't shared this with everybody, but November 14 is actually my 18th birthday. The legend goes that on a full moon, when the boy turns 18, the curse shall be lifted. He shall assume his original form! BARK! BARK!

Listen to VCR at http://vcr-toronto.bandcamp.com

Interview by Tom Beedham
@Tom_Beedham