Early conversations with Caroline Polachek, Sia, Brandi Carlile and others, from more than 15 years of The Snipe interviews.
There are a few advantages to having a website that’s been around forever. One is occasionally stumbling across an interview with someone who was considerably less famous when we talked to them.
Over the years, The Snipe interviewed hundreds of musicians, actors, filmmakers and writers, usually because they had a new record, movie or book to promote or were coming through Vancouver. Some went on to much bigger things.
Here are 10 conversations from the archives with artists whose careers were still very much in progress.
Caroline Polachek with Chairlift at Electric Owl in Vancouver.
Years before her solo career, Caroline Polachek came through Vancouver with Chairlift, touring behind the duo’s second album, Something. Before the show at the Electric Owl, Polachek and Patrick Wimberly talked haunted houses, Carrie, the lost ritual of listening to an album from beginning to end and their unusual creative relationship: “We’re not a couple, we’re not best bros, we’re lab partners.”
Sia at the Commodore Ballroom, April 10 2010. Robyn Hanson photo.
Before the wigs, arena-sized pop songs and global fame, Sia was already an acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter with several albums behind her. The Snipe caught up with her during an earlier and very different stage of her career.
Brandi Carlile.
Brandi Carlile was touring behind Give Up the Ghost when she told The Snipe about getting an unexpected morning phone call from one of her heroes, Elton John. He wound up playing and singing on her song “Caroline” — and later sent her a mountain of CDs after discovering she wasn’t familiar with Leon Russell. Carlile also talked about songs inspired by dreams, her Twilight obsession and a bandmate’s fascination with alien abduction.
Foster the People with interviewer Rachel Fox. Ryan West photo
As “Pumped Up Kicks” was turning Foster the People into one of the year’s breakout bands, Rachel Fox sat down with Mark Foster, Cubbie Fink and Mark Pontius to talk about their unexpected hit, Torches, life on tour and musical favourites from Ace of Base to Barry Manilow.
Cage the Elephant open for the Black Keys on their current tour.
As Thank You Happy Birthday was pushing Cage the Elephant into bigger rooms, guitarist Brad Schultz talked to The Snipe about scrapping dozens of songs, refusing to be boxed in by genre, Kurt Cobain, and the bizarre sight of his brother Matt rolling in leaves and beating trees with sticks in search of inspiration. He also recalled the moment Dave Grohl invited the band to join Foo Fighters on tour.
Rachel Kushner.
Rachel Kushner spoke with The Snipe about The Flamethrowers, her 2013 novel about art, motorcycles, politics and 1970s New York and Italy. The novel would become a National Book Award finalist and help establish Kushner as one of the major American novelists of her generation.
Insidious.
This one has aged particularly well. The Australian filmmaking team behind Saw spoke with The Snipe before their careers went in several extremely lucrative directions. Wan would go on to direct The Conjuring, Furious 7 and Aquaman, while Whannell became a director himself with movies including Upgrade and The Invisible Man.
Read: Leigh Whannell and James Wan interview
Mike Mills on the set of Beginners (2011).
With Beginners in theatres, director Mike Mills spoke with The Snipe about turning his father’s late-in-life coming out into a film, working with Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor, and how his background in graphic design shaped his filmmaking. “I love being a writer-director,” he said. “It’s the coolest job in the universe.”
The Veronicas at Venue, Vancouver, June 27 2009. Photo by Siobhan Kelly.
While touring behind Hook Me Up, Lisa Origliasso talked to The Snipe about life on the road, writing with her twin sister Jessica and the music that pushed The Veronicas toward a more electronic sound. Among the key influences: CSS, Shiny Toy Guns and Peaches, whose example helped convince the duo that dance music could take them somewhere new.
Jennifer Egan.
Shortly after the publication of A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan talked to The Snipe about writing fiction in longhand, her refusal to read books on screens, why she still carried an old address book and the difficulty of describing music without sounding like a wine critic. She also explained why one of her characters drinks Jägermeister: “It seemed like an idiosyncratic drink for an idiosyncratic guy.”
