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Peak Performance Project - interview with Said The Whale

The top 5 artists in the Peak Performance Project for 2010 were ANNOUNCED recently and the top three will be playing a show together tomorrow, November 18th, 2010, when the final announcement will be made as to who wins the $100,500! Leading up to th

The top 5 artists in the Peak Performance Project for 2010 were ANNOUNCED recently and the top three will be playing a show together tomorrow, November 18th, 2010, when the final announcement will be made as to who wins the $100,500!

Leading up to the showcase at the Commodore we're bringing you interviews with each of the top 5 about the project and Vancouver, and today Tyler Bancroft from Said The Whale took some time to answer some questions for us!

What's your favourite thing about Vancouver?

The obvious answer is the fact that we've got beaches, an ocean, forests, mountains and a buzzing metropolis all within 20 minutes of each other. But after having visited a lot of other cities in Canada over the past few years, I can add a few things to that list: our weather is great (by which I mean, it never gets THAT cold). Our city is fairly progressive. The ratio of friendly people to total assholes is quite good. The cuisine available to us is excellent (see question 3). The music scene is amazing. The art scene is amazing. I could probably go on and on, but I'll save it for later...

What's your favourite venue in the city?

The Commodore is an obvious choice, but I should say that Jericho Beach park is my favourite place I've ever played. I don't know if that counts as a venue. A seasonal venue, I guess?

Favourite restaurant in the city?

Vancouver has such incredible food, really. We take it for granted, but compared to some other cities, Vancouver is a restaurant Mecca. Our Thai food is unreal. Ben, Spencer and I all used to work at Thai Away Home which is great and cheap too. Sawasdee on Main Street and Sala Thai on Cambie are a little pricier but amazing and worth every penny. Las Tortas is a great new mexican restaurant that everyone should check out. Liberty Bakery on Main Street has the best Paninis and black bean soup. Burgoo has a grilled cheese sandwich that I would happily suffer a heart attack for. Also, if you wanna be fancy, Le Cobre in gastown is incredible.

Your favourite musician in the PEAK Performance Project?

This question is beyond unfair, but you know that already, so I'll man-up here and answer it for you, okay? Aidan Knight. The guy is incredible. Yeah we're great friends, and yeah I helped him put out his record, but that has nothing to do with why I'm picking him here. I am just absolutely the hugest fan of his music. Everything he touches turns to pure gold. Anyone who has ever spent more than 10 minutes with him and heard him sing knows that he is the real deal, and he is going to be so successful one day very soon, mark my words!

Your favourite musician NOT in the PEAK Performance Project?

Also unfair, but I'm going to use this question to plug a band I've been listening to non-stop for the past month or so. Boxer The Horse from PEI. Another animal name, and doing us proud. We played with them in PEI in April I think, and I wish we had made better friends with them, but we were on a tight schedule and couldn't hang out too much. Their record was produced by Alec from Two Hours Traffic, and its amazing. Everyone should check them out.

Best memory from the PEAK Performance Project?

Bootcamp was full of so many great memories. Just getting to spend that much time with all the other bands and the faculty was amazing. One night in particular though... I think it was after Yes Nice played (which was a jaw-dropping, incredible show), we were all hanging out in the common area of one of the lodges. There were maybe 15 or so people there, just shooting the shit and having a nice little time, when all of a sudden Kuba Oms pops out of the woodworks and starts leading everyone in a singalong of one of his songs. At first everyone was sorta like "What the hell is happening here?", but within about 5 minutes he had us all singing and harmonizing. Before we even knew it, he was gone, but he had planted this song firmly in our brains. Over the next few days, there were probably 4-5 totally spontaneous repeat singalongs of that song, it was hilarious. (Admittedly, Ben was responsible for most of them).

Learn more at PeakPerformanceProject.com, ThePeak.fm and Musicbc.org.