Interviews

The following is an interview by "Dr. Weasel" (Alan Wright, who also happened to be a sometime drummer for the band), that was printed in the Fall 1990 issue of the local Kingston fanzine Cryptic Times, page 26, from issue #1.

Misc. "S" are Kingston's best-kept secret, having been around for almost 3 years. In that time they've released 3 cassette releases on their own "Unfiled" label, all filled with their eclectic and humorous songs, an intoxicating mixture of folk, country, blues, punk, garage and avant-garde minimalism. I finally managed to pin down one of their members, "Sinister" Pete Vamos for an interview.

C.T.: So how did you guys get together.

P.V.: Um, there was a thanksgiving dinner at Toby Steel's place. Toby's our guitarist and one of our lyricists, after the dinner we all were sort of realizing that we all had instruments that we had but didn’t know how to play.

C.T.: What year was this?

P.V.: Oh, wow, that would've been '88. Anyway, Keith Roberts and I were toying around with the idea of doing a band thing because he was the music director at the radio station which we both worked at, and we realized that whatever we put out we could convince our friend to play so it would chart, So, Thanksgiving we akk went down to the station and tried recording stuff.

C.T.: So this was the beginning. Who was in the band right at the first?

P.V.: We've had a number of changes since that night. Back then there was Toby and Keith, myself and Bryce McBride with a special guest, my friend Richard from Toronto and Jennifer Noseworthy.

C.T.: And you guys all sort of switched around on instruments, right?

P.V.: Yeah, the rule is that if you are too good on something, you switch. Fortunately, nobody gets really good on anything.

C.T.: But you mostly play drums, right?

P.V.: Yeah, well, I did play drums mostly when Keith was in Toronto for a year. Now I do… I fill gaps, and do lead vocals and production work.

C.T.: Well, your "drums" used to be just cardboard boxes and garbage cans, but Keith tells me he bought one of those electronic drum pad things, so is this going to change your sound?

P.V.: I don't think so, because Keith has no sense of rhythm and that sort of takes away from any advantage you would get from a drum machine.

C.T.: Now, you mentioned you've had a lot of line-up changes, maybe you could briefly run through them.

P.V.: Well, first Keith left and I took over the drumming, and we brought Pierre on keyboards into the fold, and then Bryce took on the bass…

C.T.: What did he play before?

P.V.: Keyboards - one of those horrible Casio kind. That was the line-up for a long time -- me, Toby, Pierre, Bryce -- and then Bryce moved to Montreal and used to come back to Kingston for sessions, then Keith came back to Kingston and Bryce moved to Singapore.

C.T.: Wow, that's really complicated!

P.V.: Yeah, man.

C.T.: But even through all that chaos you guys put out cassettes!

P.V.: Yeah, we have three out, not including the bootleg.

C.T.: A bootleg! Gosh, who would put out something like that out?

P.V.: Gee, I don't know! I figure somebody snuck into the station and stole some songs we weren't going to release off a master reel.

C.T.: Right, because you record all your stuff at CFRC (Queen's University radio) right?

P.V.: Yeah, we do and we do chart at that station, honestly.

C.T.: So why the name Misc. "S"?

P.V.: It basically ensures that we get our own spot at the record store, because you can't put us under "Miscellaneous M", because that's not our name, you can't put us under "Miscellaneous S" because our name begins with "M". Basically it's just a way to fuck up record store owners and anyone else who wants to be fucked up.

C.T.: So what does the future hold for Misc. "S"?

P.V.: We're working on our fourth release which should be really good, or really horrible depending on your perspective, but it looks like this will probably be the last year we'll be in existence, because everybody is leaving Kingston and not going to the same place, so to all the people to listen to our music: "Thanks".

C.T.: Thank you Peter!