Teen Daze is a mysterious musician who has recently emerged out of the Lower Mainland of B.C. In the past couple of months, his dreamy electro music has been taking the Internet by storm. Actually, he has appeared in Pitchfork's forkcast 5 times now -- that's how I discovered his music. Bloggers all over the net are writing about his stuff with lots to say about the music but not much to say about the man behind the project. Luckily, Teen Daze was nice enough to let me do an interview before his performance at Goodie Warehouse on Friday. We chatted about his music and of course, Vancouver.

So you're from Abbotsford?
Yes.

Did you grow up there?
No, I grew up in Chilliwack actually, which is pretty much the same thing. But I moved out to the prairies for a little bit (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) and went to university out there for a couple of years. Then, I moved back out here when I was 20. Now, I'm going to school in Abbotsford.

And you do this (Teen Daze) all on your own?
Yeah, it's just me and my laptop in my bedroom. I use a couple of different programs. I use one called Reason, which is all the electronics, all the beats, all the synthesized stuff. And for the vocals, I use Garage Band. I've been working with it for the last 4 years. I've taken classes in recording and know how to use other programs but I just don't have the money to buy them so I've learned how to get the sound I want with a limited program.

What do you like about Vancouver?
I really love the fact that there's so many different sides to Vancouver. The fact that you can drive across the city and experience so much culture. For example, last summer I was helping run an arts camp in the Dunbar area and we took a bunch of grade 9 or 10 kids to come help us. As a leader, I was helping give tours and show Vancouver to these kids from the valley. Just to drive from East Van to downtown, down Davie, through Kits and to Dunbar, you could really see the diversity in this city. I love the fact that it really embraces this diversity too...or it seems so.

When did you start Teen Daze?
Incredibly recent. I had been working on some music as a year-end gift to give to some of my friends that was full of references that would remind us of the year. I had probably 3 or 4 of those types of songs. I had no idea that it would become what it has become. I posted the first two songs and within two weeks, I had like 3 or 4 different labels that had emailed me. This is all just from me basically making a gift for my friends. It's been a humbling experience. I feel really thankful for everything that's happening for sure. In another interview, I talked about how crazy it is that this thing for me and my friends gets to be shared with all these different people now.

Why that name?
This is a great story. So my friend Joel just had his 20th birthday in April, I was at work this day which I was bummed about, but a couple of my friends took him out on a "teen day" because it was the last day of him being 19. They did things that stereotypically teens did so they trespassed somewhere, loitered, bought a bunch of candy, drank slurpees and watched a scary movie. Apparently, the whole time they were screaming "Teen Day!" I was working on this collection of tracks for my friends and I had written a song called "Teen Daze", which was going to be the song that was all about Joel turning from a teen to a man, somewhat jokingly. I was working on the stuff I'm doing now and I hadn't picked a name yet. I kind of thought it was sort of cool so I nabbed it and now that song is sitting somewhere on my hard drive with the same name.

So you're on a label?
Yeah, I'm going to be releasing the EP [Four More Years] through two different labels [on July 23rd]. One's called Arcade Sound Limited that's based out of Tennessee. They're going to be putting out the record on vinyl and digitally. And a smaller label called Wonder Beard Tapes is going to be releasing it on cassette. They're going to do a run of 100 cassettes. For me, one of the reasons I'm doing this [i.e. Teen Daze] is to bring some sort of positivity and optimism into a scene that can be pretty self-conscious. I've found that I've brought that into the business side of it already. I'm just trying to get all of these people in a community together; it's been really cool in that aspect. To get to have two different labels that I really love and respect to put out the record has been pretty awesome.

I stumbled across your stuff while searching Pitchfork for Vancouver music. There were about 5 articles on there about Teen Daze. How did it feel to have Pitchfork accept and love your stuff enough to write about it that many times?
I mean, this whole time, even just starting off and seeing one or two blogs posting it, I was like "wow!" But some of my older projects, I would do a remix for a band and I would do a media blast and send it out to all these blogs that I liked. The ones that I really liked wouldn't post them though. But with Teen Daze, all of this happened in the last month and a half I would say, and to go from thinking it'd be so crazy to get some of my stuff on Pitchfork and now I've been mentioned on there four or fives times, I don't even know how to react to that.

Do you draw any inspiration from Vancouver itself?
Oh, wow totally. Yeah, so much. This record really is a summer record. It had been how many months of winter -- again, I've spent enough time in the prairies that I know winter is incredibly chill here. But I think there were enough gray clouds around. During the wintertime, I discovered this whole genre (like Washed Out and Toro y Moi) that I'm in the same musical line of so a lot of the music has come out of me wanting more of Vancouver's summers. We have the best summers possible here. Summer in the prairies is just way too hot and here, it's just perfect.

I love your video for "Shine On, You Crazy White Cap", where are all those images and clips from?
To be totally honest with you, that was just a guy that put the whole thing together on his own time. He posted it on my facebook one day and when I clicked on it, I was just blown away. For one, just the idea of someone taking the time to create this beautiful, beautiful video was amazing. And then, the video just in itself completely suits the song. It fits the mood so well. I emailed him instantly after I saw it telling him how amazing it was! So now we're really loosely talking about him putting together some visuals for the show (video below).

Do you think you'll have another video soon?
We've been talking to a bunch of different people. The guys at Arcade Sound have a whole bunch of contacts. I think we're going to try to get a video made before the record is put out so we can use it for hype. Hopefully, we can get something done. I think the visual aspect of music - especially this kind of music - is really important. And actually, another guy made a video for another track of mine called "Hard Time/Good Times", which is all vintage skateboarding footage (embedded below). It's something that's not related to the song at all but so much of the music is really like "feel" music. You may not be able to tell what is being said exactly but it's a feeling and a vibe that you get from the music. That's why I think the visual aspect is so important because it's another sense you can utilize.

Are you going to have an album release party in Vancouver?
Hopefully, I was just going to talk to the Winnie Cooper guys about that tonight. It would definitely be a Vancouver show. As much as I love Abbotsford, it's not necessarily the capital of arts and culture. It has like one venue and no touring acts really play it. And if you want to start gaining some kind of serious notoriety, you need to make some sort of jump in Vancouver or at least play a fair amount here.

Last question, what's your favourite venue in Vancouver?
If you'd asked me this a year ago, I would've said Richard's on Richards. *Sigh* But other than Richards, which still has a great place in my heart, I really love the Biltmore for certain shows. I saw the Album Leaf there though and it wasn't a very good experience. That being said, I saw Futurecop! there and it was so much fun. I mean the Orpheum - I think that's on a whole other level - but I saw Phoenix there and it was an amazing and positive concert. The Orpheum just had a good vibe. I have a folkier side project (Two Bicycles) and I played at the Venue a couple of weeks ago. Playing an acoustic show there was amazing. It's just a big open, very spacious and cool sounding room. But I'm in a position right now where I'm into any venue in town and I'm good to go.