4TheRcrd Mag.

In this climate of cynical performances and scientifically produced pop-music, Rob Fillo is a rare musical creature. The heartfelt music of this folk-rock underdog cuts through the fog of the typical boy-meets-girl song to the true complexities of love and living in the real world.

While possessing all the experience one would expect in a brash, balls-out rocker, Fillo prefers to infuse his music with equal parts mystery, passion, and wit. The raw acoustic arrangement of his songs highlights both the depth of the songs (and the lived experience behind them) but also the fervor with which he sings them. From the break-out “Not Ready to Leave Yet” to his Stimulants & Depressants song-cycle (including “Rainy Day Coffee”, “Cocaine took her, Blues”, and “Cigarette Woman”), Fillo’s songs slip past the listener’s defenses, touching the heart before becoming the mind’s soundtrack. In this interview we’re going to try to touch your heart…

We fired off notes to each other back and forth and, in the mids of these notes, we gathered some great material for what you might call a delightful issue of “Cityphile” — Beyond Robson’s showcase of spectacular folk in this gorgeous city. Mostly through cyberspace, here are our ramblings. But first, a disclaimer, the views in this interview (as well as the swearing) don’t represent those of Beyond Robson:

So, Rob, tell the others what you do, exactly?
I’m a musician and music producer in Vancouver Canada. I record, print, and publish music of my own, as well as many other musicians around town. You could make work like this sound fluffy and colorful but at the heart and soul of it that’s basically what we do.

Rob, I’ve known you for a few years now — but I never asked when you actually started to play?
In 1996, at age 14, I began playing my mothers old guitar that I found in my basement crawlspace. She taught me my first song (and the only song she ever learned) “House of the Rising Sun”. I then began organizing concerts in a heritage boathouse building called Britannia shipyards. The same location has since been used for movie filming. Blade 3 and X-men are the only ones I remember that were filmed there. So you could say, they bathed in my sloppy seconds when they filmed these spectacular little films.

Please continue, how… did you spend your teens?

From age 14 to 21 I lived in a desert with a weird naked man from India. I’m not kidding. He taught me everything I know about weird naked men in deserts and music. These years are a bit foggy due to the peyote and other various hallucinogens taken during the time… in this desert. However, after being picked up by Tom Waits on the side of the highway and taken to the south of France, the desert fog cleared and I began developing a unique and introspective outlook on life. My music is directly influenced by my life and the many experience there… in the desert… with Tom Waits… and with myself.

Tell me about your inspiration, and or the reasons why you play?
I play music to vent. I play music to remember. I am inspired by both momentous events and small. The twisted aspects of sixties culture have always fascinated me. Drug cultures and the way human beings seem to love using both drugs (pharmaceutical and illegal) and Media (TV is so fucking annoying) to dull the pains of this modern ‘easier’ life. Like most of us, I have a strong bond to the tortured soul musicians that life painful depressing lives and make great music. I however don’t intend to be one…. a tortured soul that is. Life is actually pretty damn good.

What do you enjoy, and what does that make you want to be…
I enjoy the little things… sun reflecting on a lake… you know… those cutesy pig fucker type things (lol, i just wanted to say pig fucker lol… I’m sure you cant publish that. I got “pig-fucker” from Hunter S Thompson, I’m reading a book about his life right now. He is definitely an odd tortured soul artist type. But in short, while I am inspired by geniuses like H.S.T., I think it’s possible to embrace the light and figure our solutions to our depressed human condition(s).

What is your favorite thing about the “music scene” in Vancouver?

Not too much. It’s the hardest city in Canada to squeeze a living with music.

Tell me more…
Let me give you an example. I was in a town of maybe 400 people in the mountains called Fairmont Hotsprings. I played at the Farside Pub (the only pub in town) and had a great time and was paid well and fed. In Vancouver many of the live music venues pay nothing at all. They make you feel like you’re nothing and should feel priviledged for playing in their venue for free. On the flipside, however, Main St., Commercial Drive, and some great areas hiding downtown, do have fantastic restaurants, cafes and pubs that house great live music and treat the musicians very well. Thank you to all those places. Shout outs include: The Anza Club, The Cottage Bistro, Nayala Restaurant, Zigz, Lugz Coffee Lounge, Cafe Du Soleils, the Wired Monk and more.

What are your dreams for Vancouver?
I sincerely hope that we find help for our homeless. I would love to see more social housing and a stronger base of employment centers helping people achieve and maintain employment that pays a decent living wage (not 8$ and hour thanks). I dream of a day when our government puts more emphasis on affordable post secondary education, including student subsidized housing. Students of the lower mainland that have to live off of student loans are living below the Canadian poverty line! That’s outrageous. These are the leaders of tomorrow, these are the people that will make Canada a better place to live, if they have the means to do so. These are the people that could cure disease, help teach children to grow up healthy and happy, plan for better environmentally sustainable strategies for tomorrow. Yet so many Vancouver residents are forced to flip burgers that they can’t afford to buy while trying to study. In my case I had to drop out of college (temporarily) to work and pay off my first chunk of student loans and the many other forms of student debt. OK… that was quite a rant. Hopefully Jark, I tell, you will edit this down a bit.

Well, Rob, I might. But you never know… this is an interview. Please continue…

Olympics appear “neatoh”, but too bad they have been the best and worst of what had and is going happen in Vancouver. On the one side, it’s an honor to have the Olympics. On the other, we cant afford it — socially, culturally, or sustainably. We’ve got so many problems our (very lovable) mayor and our council members are more than willing to sweep under the carpet while we’re on the worlds stage in 2010 — and I find that to be absurd. I’m not alone, so many people are upset — I think Beyond Robson is a great indicator of the disillusionment so many have with the onset of the Olympics. I wash my hands of the whole Olympics thing. In fact this part should probably be edited out because I’ll get shot by protesters or shot by municipal governors just for expressing an “opinion”.

So you read Beyond Robson, what do you think about it?
I think Beyond Robson is a sexy gal on her way to being a chair-woman of the board… lol… or whatever that means… Anything that can raise awareness to the “better” parts of Vancouver — those who actually read independent media — is a good thing. I dig the name, cuz I tell ya, I’m not a huge fan of Robson street. It’s got lots of pretty lights and shiny glass housing with overmarked items made by “lil children” in foreign countries. (This is a huge generalization… there are actually some very good and conscientious shops on Robson as well. Isn’t PUFF on Robson? PUFF is cool!)

I can’t believe you would ever go to Robson St.!
OK, I have to come clean. I’m going on another rant due to the fact that very few items on Robson fit me. I’m a big guy. So yah Olympics and Yah Robson… May the corporate gods feed us garbage for the rest of humanities pity-full ends…

What do you do besides rant obscenely about well… everything?
I like canoing when I get a chance. I like helping people. I smile at people whenever I see them staring at me (and make funny faces.) I love making people laugh. Bike riding is a new habit of mine. You’d be surprised how fast you can get around on that two-wheeled-no-fuel-pedal-creation from the 1800’s. I love nature. The city makes me rant because I don’t yet understand the mob mentality of true city folk. I enjoy good conversations about real stuff. Not Paris Hilton crap (props to Paris for making a good living off of idiot celebs.)

Rob, one last question: Does God exist?
Hmmmm… I don’t care to answer that. what is god? an omnipresent being? An old dood with a white beard? Alanis Morrissette from the movie dogma would be interesting. I do like the idea of a female god, men seem to kill people a little more than women… I may be wrong. I haven’t decided on my specific religious views at this point. I know that I dislike when people push their views on others.

Any last words?
I was playing music in Hamilton Ontario once……(flashback sequence). There was a middle aged man with a public announcement system telling a large group (in the public city center) about how Christianity is the only way. Then he went so far as to say that gays are evil and god is punishing us with AIDS due to the gay people. Oh yes! he also had a large flip chart depicting this chain of events throughout history (so ridiculous!). I went up to him politely and unplugged his amplifier. I told him to please not blast that trash in my ears, then I proceeded to save his life. It turns out, he was speaking in front of a support center for people with drug-addiction-related Aids. A group of very angry (topless…it was very hot out) men from the center were about to beat this man senseless. I then turned around and talked to them (with the preacher of “weird and oh so wrong” cowering behind me.) I told the angry mob that this man has overstepped his boundaries. He has a right to believe what he believes no mater how fucking ludicrous, but (in my not so humble Opinion) he has no right to blast his opinion out on a public street in front of impressionable children and more impressionable foolish adults. So it seemed at the time that I saved the ignorant asshole preacher guy… but I did in fact… I calmed down the mob just enough to let him gather his stuff and run for his rusty mini van. They chased him, but he got away, hopefully learning his lesson. In honesty, I had no right to do what I did. Freedom of speech is very important. But preaching ignorance makes me very angry and I choose to do whatever the fuck I have to to stop it. Preaching insanity, however, in a happy-fun non-offensive way, is my job!

CONTACT: To get in touch with Rob, just email him and he’ll get back to you within minutes, like any other Gmail guru does. His addy is: robfillomusic@gmail.com

PHOTO CREDIT: Rob Fillo’s Facebook. Add him as a friend…