Who is Mister Heavenly

By Emily Nichol     4/14/11 7:00pm

We at the Rice Thresher love KTRU's yearly Outdoor Show: Not only is there free beer, tasty food and mind blowing music, but it gives us the chance to interview killer bands. After several hours of hyperventilation and a minor drooling incident, the Thresher got to hang out with Mister Heavenly, one of the Outdoor Show's headliners. We chatted about many profound topics, like music licensing, Abbie Hoffman, rural western Canada and shooting rats.

Rice Thresher: So Mister Heavenly, the band, how did you guys meet?

Nicholas Thorburn: You said Mister Heavenly, which one is it, the person or the band?

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RT: The band.

NT: How we always meet? I've been asked that question too many times today.

Honus Honus: No no no, we answered one of those tear ads in a coffee shop.

NT: It was terrible.

Michael Cera: They were tear-orrists.

Joe Plummer: They answered a tear ad, I knew Ryan because I've known his sister, I went to high school with his sister.

NT: He dated my ex-girlfriend.

HH: I dated his ex-girlfriend so we didn't like each other.

NT: Who was, not to get weird, Joe's sister.

HH: I didn't want to drop that nugget.

MC: And your sister's my current girlfriend.

HH: Yeah and three-fourths of us are Canadian.

RT: I'm Canadian!

HH: Oh yeah, where are you from?

RT: I'm from Ontario.

HH: Oh that sucks.

MC: Where in Ontario?

RT: Like an hour west of Montreal, a small mill town. It's called Cornwall.

NT: I SAID Cornwall did you not hear that? We have documentation. I said that twice but it's OK, you were in a weird trance.

RT: What is your spirit animal?

HH: Mine is a —

NT: Don't say it.

HH: Drunk lima bean.

RT: Can you tell us why?

HH: No.

JP: Mine's a domesticated dog.

NT: Mine's the organ player from the Animals.

MC: You mean Alan Price?

NT: Yeah!

HH: And what's yours, Rudy (to MC)?

MC: Mine's a domesticated Alan Price.

NT: That's the Alan Price you pay.

RT: Who is your greatest influence as a band?

NT: Roy Orbison.

JP: I concur.

NT: Sam Cooke.

HH: And Glen Danzig.

NT: And Glen Gould.

MC: Eric Burton.

HH: And Elliot Gould. Have you seen The Long Goodbye? The opening scene.

MC: The catfood scene?

HH: That's probably the biggest influence.

JP: What a great apartment.

NT: And Cats the musical, and "Dr. Cats" the cartoon.

HH: Dr. Zhivago, not "Dr. Who", that confuses me.

NT: And not the Who.

RT: Studio performance vs. performing live? What's the difference?

HH: Clothing and happies.

NT: Temperature and applause.

RT: Speaking of temperature how do you like Houston/Texas/Rice?

JP: It's very humid here.

HH: I wanna go to the death museum.

NT: It is hot here. Two-fourths of us were in Toronto, or four-eighths of us were in Toronto, I should say.

MC: Or ... one-half of us.

HH: Oh. Einstein. Break it down. Super simple.

NT: He has a beautiful mind, we don't want to get into it.

HH: Yes it might crack.

NT and HH: Might crack. Mike Crack, that's his name. Mike Crack.

RT: I'm not going to ask questions about the "Arrested Development" movie that is supposedly coming out soon.

MC: Well you don't need to, I'll just talk about my career. All the various facets ...

HH: You know this is our last show with Michael right? He's quitting.

RT: Why are you quitting?

NT: We firing him let's be real.

MC: I don't like these types of interviews, I don't like this vibe.

HH: You guys got the last taste.

MC: Personality clash, I have to hide behind eyeglasses.

NT: You guys should check out Steal This Movie.

MC: Steal This Movie ... does that answer your question? They just asked my to play with them because the three of them recorded without a bass player so they someone to play bass when they played live.

RT: You guys all have other projects and bands you worked on before this, can you talk about ...

NT: Cornwall? Just giving a shout out.

JP: I sometimes play for Modest Mouse, and I have a band called Robot Horse, and that's it. Mister Heavenly. I think that's it for now. On paper.

NT: But in the cloud, you're big on the cloud computing.

JP: I do work with the Silver Wizard.

RT: What is the Silver Wizard?

JP: This guy named John Goff? Who plays with neurosis and he's a synth weirdo. And we play together.

RT: And how does it relate to cloud computing?

JP: He just sent me something to listen to this morning.

NT: I'm playing with the Philosopher Kings, doing an upcoming tour in May. And then in April, I've got an Our Lady Peace mini tour, we're just doing the east coast of the Mediterranean. And then in June, I'm going to be doing a Tragically Hip kind of opening slot.

MC: It's been so long since you've done that.

HH: I was a big WWI fan, just like historian style. That's how I first came across Joseph, because he kind of reminded me of a WWI trench hero.

MC: You were googling WWI lookalikes.

HH: Yeah yeah yeah, and I saw a photograph of Joseph.

NT: And we met actually at the Rotorouter convention, who are number one in the number two business, that's our slogan.

MC: The brown sound.

HH: Rudy —

NT: Can't fail.

MC: Well I just love having a good time.

NT: Which is a lie. He's miserable.

MC: And Rice College, is where I was going if I was at the right age.

NT: We're playing the Rice bowl tomorrow I think, am I right?

MC: No, we're eating a bowl of rice tomorrow.

NT: Oh I always get that confused, on the call sheet.

RT: Out of all of your other projects, which is your favorite, collectively?

NT: Mine. My personal projects. I always keep a special spot reserved for my own projects where I favor them over the others.

JP: Alright, my favorite project is Man Man. I did the strings and stuff for Man Man.

NT: I think mine is Steal This Movie. Abbie Hoffman, Gaby Hoffman, his daughter.

HH: Gaby Hoffman's awesome.

RT: Do you know her?

HH: Yeah, no, I wish I did.

MC: Is that the actress from Uncle Buck?

HH: Yeah she was very small in that movie. She was also in Now and Then.

MC: I actually worked with Gaby Hoffman.

NT: Did you see her naked?

MC: I didn't see her fully naked.

HH: She seems very free.

MC: She is very free, that's a good way to put it. She's a great actress.

HH: Yeah Gaby Hoffman, I like her. We all like her, Mister Heavenly consensus.

NT: We had to find a common meeting place. We couldn't decide on Abbie Hoffman so we settled on Gaby Hoffman. Some of the aspects of the Democratic Convention in 1968 in Chicago with Gaby Hoffman and the Yippies, we couldn't really come to a full agreement ...

HH: Uncle Buck, that was our common ground.

RT: How much do you think the direction of music with respect to movie soundtracks interacts these days? Daft Punk, for instance, got a lot of hype about their Tron: Legacy sound track, but they were snubbed in the Oscars.

HH: To cut you off, I mean the greatest thing about this record is that every song could be licensed to like ...

JP: A major motion picture.

MC: Or a minor motion picture.

NT: I want to get back to the idea of licensing songs. I mean Will Oldham had an interview where he said he really hates the movies of Wes Anderson, because he said it's almost like a crutch to go to like the Kinks, like really good songs of the '60s, but just kind of smearing them over montages or scenes. Will Oldham had grief with that. And I kind of agree, that it has kind of gotten out of hand, the constant licensing and syncing of prerecorded songs. I like the idea of scoring specifically for a movie.

HH: I disagree. I don't know who this Will Oldham person is and I don't know who this Wes Anderson person is, but I like the Kinks. And it's cool if he's carving out memories.

MC: I like Will Oldham and Wes Anderson, I don't know about these Kinks that you're talking about.

HH: We'll sort them out.

MC: We'll educate each other.

HH: What happened with the Tron?

RT: They didn't even get nominated for the Oscars.

MC: Was that an amazing score for Tron?

HH: Hustle and Flow, that was amazing. Three 6 Mafia? That was a real stride for the Oscars.

RT: What do you guys think about the tension between corporate profitability and indie rock?

NT: We're not going to do your thesis for you.

HH: But the crazy thing is, you can pay a fortune to go see Woody Allen play the clarinet.

MC: Woody Allen plays the clarinet. To answer your question.

NT: The answer actually is that no one cares more than the artist when it comes to licensing music or "selling out," and if you cease to care and realize that there were patrons throughout musical history --

HH: Or actually any sort of endeavor really.

NT: But there were always kings financing composers, and there's no difference, nothing's changed, and if it affords us the opportunity to keep playing music and come and play at the Rice University ...

HH: And also perception is a mofo.

NT: General Electric IS evil.

JP: Except their solar work.

HH: Like, some kid may see some band licensed something to something, but it's just not the same anymore, you know? But basically it's like, you know, we're just scraping by.

Dave Rosales contributed to this article.

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