Bif Naked Interview

Tom: You are straightedge now. What lead to that decision?
Bif: I was, uh…ultimately, ya know, my friend best friend Gail Greenwood, who's from Belly, and later played in L7… Gail Greenwood's been an inspiration to me most of my adult life. She's been straightedge all her life. And, you know, like any other Canadian girl, I drank beer, I drank my first beer at twelve yada, yada, yada… and it just seemed like it wasn't making any good decisions when I was drinking. I wasn't very good at it and getting sick all the time… And you know, I'm a real obsessive/compulsive person and when I do something it's very extreme. I had to quit cold turkey, so I just quit everything. It just seemed at that time…I was twenty-five…and it was really important to me to make it a socio-political statement rather than just avoiding drinking, you know what I mean? I mean, technically, Shania Twain, for example, doesn't drink or smoke, do drugs or eat meat. I was like, "Damn, that girl's straightedge and she doesn't even know it!" But, uh, most people who abstain from poisoning their body, or whatever, are straightedge and they don't know it. I chose to adopt that term and I was eager to let people know that I thought it was a really cool scene and I found that as I traveled and toured in the world it means different things in different countries. In Germany it means you don't have sex either. And in Utah it means you don't have sex either. This whole thing, this whole scene was thrust upon me. There were people who walked up to me and said, "You don't represent my scene, you dumb bitch" from the straightedge hardcore guys and there were these other people that said "I felt like a conformist after several years" and so, uh, I have exactly the same behavior I always had, I just don't "X" my hands anymore. I just, I don't know…I felt like I was being a conformist and part of a movement that I didn't really mean to be a part of. It was me making my individual choice for my own life at that time. As soon as you get known, people tend to blow things all out of proportion and it's not in your control anymore and it's kind of daunting.
Tom: You are huge in Canada. You even got nominated for best album of the year there, yet have only received a small amount of recognition in the US. Why do you think that is?
Bif: I haven't toured here enough! Yeah, I gotta come down here man, we've been trying to tour here for a while…We were lucky for a while there. We toured in Europe long before we ever toured in the US. And, uh, back in the day when I was in my, you know, garage band and that, we toured up and down the west coast in California, but as far as anything with me goes, we did the Warped tour, we did Lilith Faire, we toured with the Cult, toured with Fuel, Days of the New, a couple of things like that but, not anything that substantial. I've been kinda fulfilling my touring duties everywhere else that the record was doing very well. So with touring Europe and touring Canada, this is my first chance to get down here. We've been waiting for the record to come out here for a long time. Eventually we just kinda got tired of waiting and I decided to put it out myself. We put the record out on my label in September and now we are finally able to come down here and tour to support it.
Tom: Tell me about your latest album, Purge.
Bif: Purge is my blue period…I was very sad when we made this record and, I don't know, some of it to me…I can hear it in a song or when we were recording it. I was going through a real time of strife in my personal life and, uh, to me, because it's personal, it comes across. I don't know. I Try to make every record, uh, have different kinds of songs on it because I listen to so much different shit all the time. I think everybody is kinda the same way. Who knows…You might listen to Handel at Christmas, Sinead O'Connor on Sunday morning when you're just waking up, or C.O.C (editor's note: Corrosion of Conformity) on Friday night. I really think that everyone has that eclectic of a taste in music and so I have never found it a struggle or difficult to put different styles of songs on one CD. Yeah, there are some people that go, "Come on girl, make up your mind!' but I always say, "Why?" Look at your record collection, you know…so it's all good.
Tom: The album was released in the States nearly a year after it's Canadian release. Why the wait?
Bif: I was waiting for the US label to put it out; technically, we had deal with Lava, which is distributed by Atlantic. And I've had my own record company since 1994, and like many bands, we license it to different labels in different countries, and the timing just never worked out, and this and that. That was fine for me, because if I release a record somewhere, I get to go to that territory and tour it and then it will come out somewhere else, and by that time, hopefully, I am done with my touring here and we're off to there. That's the kind of thing that keeps you touring for three years in a row. And then you're like, "Oh shit! I gotta get back in the studio." But, I don't know, I am Glad it came out a year later. It really allowed us to be able to get all our other touring over with. Now we can come down here to the US and tour the shit out of the place.
Tom: On this record you worked with legendary rock producing god Desmond Child. (He's worked with KISS among others.) What was that like? I read that when you were in the studio, recording the Joan Jett-style "I Love Myself Today," that he actually called her up and got her to bless the recording session. What was that like? Was she at all an influence on you?
Bif: Yeah!!! It was fun man! He was great! And I jumped at the chance when the opportunity came up to write with him. I had never been to Miami before and that's where I got to go to do it. That's where he lives and where the studio is. He has two bulldogs and another dog and I have two fluffy dogs. So it was a really great experience for me. It was very fun. There was just not one bad thing about that experience. And I find that any experience I can get in the studio with different people, I wanna get. Like the "Josie" soundtrack, working in the studio with BabyFace, you know? A girl like me, who's like, say, some fucking squeaky kid should not be in the studio with BabyFace, you know, and it's like…you pinch yourself. It's just a life experience I can look back on and go "Fuck Yeah! That was just so fun!"
Tom: What bands or artists would you list as influences?
Bif: Well, I didn't really have a lot of female influences growing up as a kid. I was going to High School and Junior High School in Manitoba, Canada we listened to Iron Maiden, AC/DC, there was a little bit of Black Flag, you'd hear a little GBH as well. But ultimately we were Metal kids, ya know?
Tom: I just interviewed Colin from GBH at the Inland Invasion II concert with the Sex Pistols in California.
Bif: You did? What a bunch of history that guy has under his belt. Yeah, I liked a lot of Rock & Roll stuff. The only girl I ever liked was Madonna. I had her first couple of records. And I bought Janet Jackson's Control record on vinyl and I still have that. And Sheila E. That was one of my favorite records. Then the 80' kinda fell by the wayside as I got a little older and my first year of college I was in a band. We went to Vancouver. And all over and there were a lot of Bay area bands I liked. And I got mostly into that seem because of gigs.
Tom: There is a song called "Regular Guy" on the album. What do you really look for in a guy?
Bif: I look for a guy who's nice, someone who likes my dogs, and uh, someone who's funny. That's it. There are no other criteria.
Tom: I'm nice, I like dogs, and I'm funny. I'm a normal guy…you seeing anyone special now? (Laughter)
Bif: (Laughing) Well, there ya go!
Tom: Do you think the fact that the song "I Love Myself Today" is being used for a GM trucks commercial so close to the American release date will have more fickle listeners screaming "Sellout"?
Bif: Oh, I don't give a fuck man! I sold out the day I made my first CD on 1994. That was the day I sold out. And that caused me a lot of stress and anxiety when I was 22 years old, a lot of anxiety I was going through. I felt I was raping my scene in my hometown and that they were all turning their backs on me. I felt that there was a lot of worry and hand wringing... You know, bad feelings and I felt ostracized by my scene at that time. It faded over the years as I toured with Life of agony in Europe, and all these things that I worked tirelessly on. Then I go sick and got through it and then recorded another record. You just get through it and move on, and eventually you kinda look back on it and go, "Ya know what, I'm able to eat and travel." That's all my goals really are: to eat and travel. And be able to play a gig every night… and so if GM comes to me and asks to use my song in a TV commercial, I 'm like, "Fuck Yeah! Damn right they can! Yeah, I don't give a fuck, man! I could care less. So yeah, if they wanna call me a sellout, I'll go "Yeah sure, almost ten years ago, yeah. Cool."
Tom: You appeared on "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" Tell me what it was like working with the cast.
Bif: We didn't get to really work with the cast; we were only in one scene. But Sarah Michelle Geller was really polite. Very polite to us. It was really fun!
Tom: Tonight is the opening night of the new tour. The other tours have done well from what I understand? What is the largest crowd that you have ever played in front of?
Bif: Nuremberg, Germany. There were about fifty-five thousand people.
Tom: What are your fans like? Do you meet with fans after the shows and sign autographs?
Bif: I try to if I have time but in some cities, I can't because it is just not possible anymore. I had some stalkers in Canada, which is kind of a shame in a way…I always really enjoyed meeting the kids. I have a really young audience in Canada and a lot of them are girls. And you know what, it's so funny, when you're standing in front of them talking to them and asking them, "What school do you go to?" and all you really have to do is ask them one question and these kids open up to you. They go "Hey! Ya know what"… "I did this thing"… and "What do you think of this?" and you go "Fuck that guy. Don't call him back!" Because no one's gonna tell them that if they are putting up with some guy calling her a bitch, or something like that, whatever it is…I wish I had someone when I was that age to tell me the fuckin' straight truth. So, anyway, I like meeting my fans.
Tom: So, in addition to touring with the band, you run your own record company, do movies, modeling, inline skating, BMX riding, and martial arts. How do you manage all of it and still find time to catch some sleep and spend time with your two dogs, Nick and Anna?
Bif: Well, I was just home for two weeks and I spent the whole time with those two dogs and they make me laugh more than anything. I get about four and a half hours of sleep a night.
Tom: That's about what I get, too.
Bif: Today I got like three because we flew.
Tom: Considering what you do for a living is so fun-oriented, what do you do for leisure activities?
Bif: Hang out with my dogs. I'm such a fucking square. I just hang out with my dogs. They're so cute.
Tom: After the American tour, any plans to record again soon?
Bif: Yeah, we're writing right now. I'm hoping that we put a new record out by next summer.

At this point, the tour manager came and got Bif to do her sound check. I thanked her for the interview. She gave me a big hug, a peck on the cheek and thanked me as well. Then she was gone…

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