Originally published in Excommunication issue #1

Long story short: Sewing With Nancie are a pop-punk group from Windsor, Ontario, Canada, who formed nearly six long years ago. After a while, the local kids learned that they were pretty good, and as time went on, more and more kids in Canada realized this, too. In March, 2001, a man named Neal Ganslaw, who runs the Connecticut-based Fastmusic Label, picked up a copy of SWN’s debut CD and immediately contacted the boys about releasing a full-length in the USA. You can probably guess that they answered with an emphatic and enthusiastic “yes.” Now, this summer, 2002, Sewing With Nancie are preparing to take over the punk world with a full summer tour all across North America. This interview was conducted between singer/guitarist Adam White and yodeler/zinester guy Jackson Ellis in early May.

Give me a SWN history lesson. Who makes up the band Sewing With Nancie, and how long have you been together?
Sewing With Nancie began in 1996 as a fun thing to do during the early years of high school. Ronson Armstrong (bass) and myself (Adam, guitar/vox) started the band for the mere purpose of playing some really bad songs in a battle of the bands that year, hence the crappy band name, which for one reason or another we never changed. Two drummers later, in 2001, we added Juice (drums) to the band, and then recently this January, we went back to being a four-piece, with the addition of James Nelan to the outfit.

Where the heck did the name “Sewing With Nancie” come from anyway? Is there any special significance to it, or to why “Nancie” is spelled with an “ie?” Is that some weird Canadian
thing?
The only funny thing about our name is that every time that we say our name to someone knew who hasn’t heard of us before we always, without a shadow of a doubt, have to repeat it. It actually came from a PBS show that I believe is still on the air, called — you guessed it — “Sewing With Nancy.” Ronson and I used to have to watch the show while we were in grade seven “home ec” class, so we just kinda used the name. It’s bad, we know. The reason it’s spelled with an “ie” is cause we thought that the TV show might sue us (for the loose change we have) for using the name, so we changed it. People always spell it wrong, anyways.

Please dispel of or verify some Canadian myths:
1) Does everyone say “eh?” all the time?
Most people in Canada do use the expression “eh” a lot (I do, anyways). It’s more of a subconscious force of habit, we don’t really think about it when we say it. Equate it to the American “y’know” or “huh.” It’s always good entertainment when we tour in the US and people actually make the biggest deal about the “eh,” like we’re aliens or something. Recently, especially during the popularity of “South Park,” the big thing was when we say “about,” but now that South Park has went the way of ska (eh?), it’s back to the “eh.”

2) Does it snow “up there” from September through May?
Where we live — Windsor, Ontario — is actually further south than many of your states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Northern California, and even most of Michigan. The weather we get is the same weather you get. In March, however, we decided for some reason to tour cross-Canada, through the prairies out to BC. There was snow literally everywhere, no joke. They actually closed the highway (yes, the one highway) way up in Northern Ontario many times due to too much snow. During one such occurrence, while waiting for the road to be open at a truck stop, I was chatting it up with the locals, when I was asked where I was from. I replied “Windsor,” and they laughed and said, “Welcome to real Canada!”

3) “HOCKEY!” Are you excited?
Personally, I’m not excited, as the majority of SWN are basketball boys — you have to choose your sport come the playoffs, which occur simultaneously. The majority of Canadians, however, do go nuts for hockey, especially when we beat the USA on their ice in the gold medal game (ouch!). What’s even more funny is how some Michiganders pronounce hockey: “haackie.”

4) Is standardized health care as great as it sounds?
It is pretty decent, and it ends up working out better overall in this society. The only bad parts are sometimes long waits at hospitals and for surgery, as well as people going into see the doctor for little things like common colds. I used to have dental care in the US, and the care was superior, but I can’t imagine how it would be for someone who needed to have their wisdom teeth out but couldn’t afford it. That shit hurts like hell.

5) Is everyone as funny as Jim Carrey and Mike Myers?
Not really, but I do agree that those two are arguably the funniest white guys out there.

Now, tell me about how you came to work with Fastmusic. How have your experiences been?
In 2000, we all took out bank loans and recorded a full-length called The Same Three Chords. About 2,000 were made — we still have a few left — and I sent a bunch out to labels and zines for feedback. I heard almost nothing back until about seven months later in March of 2001 when Neal from Fastmusic contacted me about releasing the album in the US. It would have been weird for us, as most of the songs on that were pretty old, and the fact that it had been out for so long already, so we mutually agreed to record four new songs to replace older ones on the CD, remaster the whole thing, and put it out as a whole new album. It has worked out pretty good; distro is happening slowly but surely, and this summer we’re doing a bunch of dates with Travoltas, the latest band on the label. There’s nothing better than having someone behind you 100 percent who totally supports and believes in you.

How do you guys, as a whole, feel about the possibility of someday making a jump to a major label? Is it a goal of yours, something you would immediately reject, or something that you don’t really concern yourself with?
I think we all would agree that we would make the jump, as long as it maintained our integrity and creative control. We are fully content doing what we are doing right now, and its not a fantasy of ours to be famous or anything like that, but if it meant that we could tour like we do right now, pay the bills, put out albums, and not have to work crappy jobs (Ronson rakes leaves and dirt and sand 12 hours a day) then it could be beneficial. I think the perfect situation is the Beastie Boys. They are signed to a major, but still put out stuff through their own label. I admire how much creative control they have with their situation. Just listen to their anthology, as it opens with a badly recorded mess of an old hardcore song of theirs, and then and only then into the hip-hop they are known for today. If the creative control was there, and if the situation called for it, then I think a major would be something worth consideration.

I have some questions about your newest album, Take a Look at Yourself. Who is the chick on the cover?
The girl on the cover is our good friend, Teri, who agreed for one reason or another to dress up like that and pose for the cover the day before we shot the photos. She took a train to Windsor on about 10 hours notice from about four hours away. Now that’s a good friend.

Who handles most of the songwriting and lyrics?
I do most of the songwriting and arranging, but everyone contributes equally into what they play. I have no idea what Ronson is playing on bass, but it sounds good and it fits. I’ve always written all the lyrics, but with some new songs Ron has contributed a bit as well. We’re trying to make the next record as collaborative as possible.

Are you guys poking fun at yourselves in the opening track, “Sorry In Advance,” or is this retaliation at kids who come to your shows and talk shit behind your backs?
See, that song was written quite a while ago, back in 1999 where all we would play is local shows. I’m not sure if we were really any good back then, and there wasn’t much of a punk scene here then either. We’d put on these shows at high schools and halls and quite a few people would come out, mosh, and buy our merch. Then we’d see the same kids on the Internet a week later ripping us apart. The song is a little of both, but more of a question of why are you here if you don’t like it so much? Also its kind of an advance apology at shows or when people listen to the record if they don’t like it. Kind of an advance warning so people aren’t mad. Having people mad at you sucks.

The song about Dave Steib is great. Have you actually met Dave Steib? Is he even aware of the fact that some rabid fans wrote a punk rock song about him?
Never met him. The whole song is a lie! I don’t think he has any idea, and one of our goals has always been to find a way to get him to hear the song, just to see his reaction. He was a great player, that’s for sure, and I hope he would like the song.

Do you have any plans to write a song about Tom Henke or George Bell? You know, Kelly Gruber was pretty underrated, too.
We actually do. It’s a very old song, circa 1997, called “Boyz in Blue.” You can probably find it online somewhere. The lines for those players are: “Here comes the pitch from Mr. Tom Henke,” “George Bell is gone and so is Lloyd Moseby,” and “Kelly Gruber got a triple play.” About 13 or 14 former Blue Jays in all are mentioned. Its not a very good song though, and don’t expect us to ever play it at a show.

How is the songwriting process going these days? Are you guys preparing to record a new album?
Slowly but surely we are. A few songs for a new full-length have been written, but the majority of the writing will be done in the summer and the fall, while we are and when we are done touring. Hopefully this will put us into the studio next winter, with a new record out in a year from now, by next May. That’s the current plan.

Recently, I heard a couple brand new unreleased tracks recently on Neal’s computer. It seems like you fellas are starting to expand your songwriting into different realms, especially leaning towards hardcore punk. Eh?
You are always influenced by what you are listening to, and lately we’ve all been listening to a bit of hardcore here and there. I can say for sure that our new stuff is definitely leaning away from three-chord, poppy punk. The new stuff is more mature, with punk and hardcore influences. It’s also more melodically and lyrically abstract. It’ll always be the token SWN sound, this stuff’s just a little heavier.

Lastly, what’s this I hear about some crazy SWN show where someone had a finger severed?
This story has been blown way out of proportion. At a show in December that we played in Oakville, Ontario, during the second song of our set Ronson and I ran into each other onstage, causing a chunk of my finger on my picking hand to come off. Blood pretty much poured out for the rest of the set (that we finished) and I was rushed to the hospital afterwards. The piece of finger was reattached and to this day there is only a scar. We did, however, finish the set, mainly because I am more punk than you.