For the Culture Canada

“Kelowna had a lot of energy, it was crazy, the support was real, moved a lot of CDs and rage bro it was fun as hell.” iLL Chris is a very hard hitting rapper with a distinctive bite to his vocal delivery and choice of beats. He headlined a show at the Black Box Theatre in Kelowna, BC on October 29th, 2018 and I managed to capture an interview with him after the show. I’m incredibly thankful and a...

“Once people enjoy you for you rather than just the content you make you can do whatever you want. People are coming for us rather than the content to see what we’re doing. Now we do that to relate to the weird ideas we have because not all of our ideas are analysis videos.” TMS Productions is a trio of film makers comprised of longtime friends Tommy Dewitt, Mitchell Kucher and Stephen Kucher. Wha...

“I wanted to step out of my comfort zone, push myself and learn about something that I am interested in and do a good job of.” What Jeff says here doesn’t just ring true for his run at becoming a part of Kelowna’s City Council. It also attributes to the challenge of being a well known and established musician in the Okanagan Valley. In this very honest and candid interview Jeff provided a very gen...

“I remember I was in class and I wrote on a napkin a full song and I met him out back and spat it to him. It was crazy man.” - Kenny “I used to call him Einstein all the time back in grade 8. I was in art class and there was a picture of Einstein, I just gave it to Kenne and I’m like you’re Einstein.” - Cheen Obviously these guys are hilarious together. Kenne is a producer/rapper with a heartbroke...

“Everyone who has supported us since day one they come to all our shows, they’re always there and that really made our EP really special for us.” I had the pleasure of interviewing the band Where We Wander which comprised of Jesse Jacobson (you may remember him from episode 4 of the podcast), Nicholas Waterman, Biz Antonishka, & Kodi Lee. These guys came from backgrounds of EDM, metal, and all sor...

“I love country music because it’s about storytelling. It’s about real life, people, how you go through things and it’s about super small towns and that simple kind of life. It’s what I group up doing. That’s what I love.”  I was first introduced to Melissa Livingstone’s music through asking my own personal facebook feed about local female musicians I should look out for and the outpouring support...

“I don’t wanna just put stuff out to put stuff out. I wanna be proud of it. That’s what’s important to me. Staying authentic. People are always gonna gravitate to what they feel are authentic and genuine.”  Tommy Newgin founded and now runs a very clean streetwear fashion company called Bynoma. It’s predicated on being greater than the average and forming a platform for influencers and creators. Y...

“Dead Rose. I like the symbolism of that just because getting too close to the flower it’ll cut you. If you don’t let anybody get close to you to water the flower then it dies. It shows the struggle that I have in my life of not letting people get close to me and it shows in my music.”  What I really liked about what he said here is it totally fits with the puzzle of him and his music. Dead Rose i...

“I took band in middle school and I was signed up to play the trumpet because my dad had an old trumpet. There was an open spot for bass guitar and I was like “that sounds a lot cooler” so why don’t I switch to that? Well my parents would kill me because they’d have to buy me another guitar. And teacher’s like does anyone wanna take bass guitar? I’m just like “yeah fuck it”  I put up my hand and t...

“The reason why I do one of one is because you are one of one. I really like doing custom stuff because people can come to me and choose what they like. Once that comes to life they have that personal connection to the clothing then they’re on the next planet. They’re really feeling themselves. It’s not coming from some random factory in China, I did it with my hands for you.”  Julian runs a cloth...

“I bet my friend that I could become sponsored skateboarding within a year and I couldn’t ollie at the time. I started practicing in my backyard and nine months later I picked up my first sponsor.”

 Now Nate is a rapper, not a skateboarder anymore but the reason why I chose this quote for him is because he had SO MANY insane stories just like this one told in this interview. Nate is truly a genui...

“Words that are punctuated with so much power that enable you or pose with a kind of vibe that you’re feeling. Be it faith, unapologetic, focused or whatever it is, it is a stand-alone word that’s only on a black shirt just to create emphasis.”  Deidrean here is talking about the statement she’s trying to make with her ‘Blackout Collection’. The thing is what she’s saying here isn’t just reflectiv...

“I think we write of experiences. Especially for me, if I’m not emotionally in tune with it then it’s not possible and the best way for me to get emotionally in tune with it is by experiencing it myself. So yeah it definitely is cathartic.”  What I love about Post-Modern Connection is they’re a band members come from all over the world (Nigeria, Lebanon, Taiwan and Winfield) and they’ve totally ma...

“That’s what photography is all about you know? Telling an entire story in one frame.”  That quote from Alex I think sums up what he tries to do in a very simple way. The beauty of a great artist is they’re able to sum up an entire story, all the words, actions and emotion into a simple digestible way. He does this with the way he composes and colours his photographs and honestly I wish I could ju...

“The reason I started KayKamz was because people see you, they ask you where you’re from and they already have a general idea without getting to know you or your culture. They only language we can speak is love, dance and people appreciate fashion. It’s a safe space place where you come, you’re being accepted for who you are.”  This episode really felt special to me because I saw the struggle my p...

“Kelowna saved my song enough times and replayed my songs enough times that Spotify Canada was like “somethings happening here, lets just give it a shot.” I’ve been on Northern Bars for almost three months. Because they took a little notice of me Vancouver knows me a lot more, Toronto noticed me a lot more.”  What I love about what Teon said here was he made me realize artists from our city can ma...

“Theres so much talent in Kelowna. I wanna be able to help someone else get to the point where their favourite artist is.”  If Matt had a mission statement for what he does this quote would be it. He’s a versatile videographer, photographer, musician etc… who’s interest solely lies in documenting hardcore punk and electronic music. He really believes in the talent in Kelowna and I believe it’s imp...

“It’s why a lot of people do keep full time jobs. it takes the pressure off of doing gigs you don’t wanna do.”  By the time my interview with photographer David Vassiliev was over it honestly felt like we were good friends already. It really demonstrated how friendly he was and captivating his story-telling was. INSTAGRAM @FortheCultureCanada @davidvassiliev

Jaide Bateman is a visual artist who specializes in alcohol ink and beautifully tranquil pieces of art. She was sincere and so fun to speak to. You’ll find her personality was just as inviting as her art! Please check out the interview! INSTAGRAM @FortheCultureCanada @jaidefoxpaintings

“I’m a big believer in you turn one hard turn a million. You just have to make an impact in your community of what you’re doing. I feel like we’re doing that. We get recognized at festivals. We’ve made that impact.”  I’m just gonna be blunt here, this interview with Ben was amazing! From Sam Roberts DMing him about a remix Ben made for one of his songs, to being recognized at festivals I just had...

“We’re really trying to push this culture. Our entire thing is to build this culture. I think there is the climate (for house music) to pop off. We’ve done a lot of shows and people honestly are surprised at how much they enjoy themselves.”  One major thing I learned about Broken Future in this interview is they know they’re sitting on top of something major right now. Almost like an untapped gold...

“I don’t view either one of them (Wedding Photography & DJing) as work. I’d probably just do both for fun.”  The beauty of what Nikita said right here is he managed to find a way to get paid good money to do what he loves. He’s been revered by many couples across the Okanagan for his wonderfully expressive photography & contributed to the legendary atmosphere of downtown Kelowna Cactus Club for ma...

“My whole goal with this is to constantly be improving... and an artist that stagnates doesn’t stay an artist very long.” Graham is a wonderfully quirky visual artist who graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Visual Arts degree. He practices pointillism with a really strong sense of depth and character. Meaning have you ever seen an octopus tentacle come out of a banana peel? I haven’t eit...

“My dad brought me into it. He was a wedding photographer back in the 70’s, 80’s.”  If you’ve ever seen pictures taken in Sapphire or Level of your friends or famous artists in Kelowna in the last 5 years you’ve definitely seen the prolific work of Justin Hill. He’s captured photos of Ghostface Killah, 88GLAM, ScHoolboy Q and tens of thousands of other people. He’s got the hours in to make it coun...

"I can see lots of different people's tastes on things and what they like. You can adapt and learn. I learn from every client, I use that to go forward." Cameron Kipp is the founder of CKGraphX which is a logo design/graphics design agency. He's done work with a wide variety of clients ranging from a sushi house, to cafe's and even root beer labels! This man's understated personality displays a ve...