An Interview with grunge, Moccasingaze band Status/Non-Status: Big Changes on the Horizon
Étienne Lavallée documents London’s current art scene with The Honey Dip Archives, a series of interviews with bands that performed at Honey Dip’s one year anniversary celebration. Here, he meets Adam Sturgeon, Matt Wewell, and Derek Durant of Status/ Non-Status.
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Status/ Non-Status audio interview:
Étienne Lavallée: How would you folks describe your sound? South Ontario Grunge? Deadly Grunge? Sludge?
Sturge: I usually say we’re like a grunge band these days, but we dabble in Moccassingaze, some of the cultural work that lives in two worlds.
Étienne Lavallée: You’re all real fearless about wading into tough conversations about settler colonialism. How would you describe the audience response to this so far?
Sturge: I think it’s pretty great. Everywhere we go – we just got back from the UK – it was very interesting because in many ways, they had no idea. Much like when we just listen to podcasts, and step into the idea of what is appropriate or inappropriate for how we live, the farther away you are, the easier it is for you to understand, but when you step inside the zone of oppressive tactics, once you know, you can’t unknow. You can’t cucumber a pickle. I think that people are responsive. That’s just one ripple, and it spreads out. It doesn’t feel like we’re saying anything new now. I think we have to do more.
Derek: I think a lot of the stuff we’re saying, people have known about it, but some people are just hearing it now. They’re just coming to grips with reality and their place in the world. For the most part, it’s a positive reaction. People see what we’re doing and they’re inspired by it. I’m proud to be playing in this.
Étienne Lavallée: Your last album drop was Big Changes, and we’re living in a time of big changes; we’re talking Eighth Fire times. What big changes do you want to see in your lifetime?
Sturge: I’m wondering right now. There’s a precipice of confusion and scarcity, and I’m really scared about the future. I was very scared about the future as a young person, of whatever will I do, and now it feels we’ve almost tipped the scale to the point of ‘what more could we possibly do’, or what’s left of what we were supposed to do. Finding new ways is going to be really challenging – and the collective version of that. We’re being challenged right now. Hopefully we’re at that moment of change.
Derek: I think all the same things Sturge is feeling. I have hope. We have to find the path we want to live, and live it to the truest and the fullest. Also we have to role model for young folks – it’s their fire to keep as well – showing each other the way and working together.
Étienne Lavallée: Do you guys have touring plans going forward?
Sturge: We have a nice busy summer, with festivals and the fun that comes with that. In the fall we have a Canadian tour, and maybe a live record!
Étienne Lavallée: When can we expect another album?
Sturge: I think we’re going to follow up with some live stuff, and with an album like Big Changes, we made a lot of music; so there is still a lot there. Along the way, there were things that were going to be a part of the reckoning that Big Changes was, they were moments of grace or change or relief and so there’s like kind of a little body of work that exists outside of it, music that was here along with it– so lots of music now.
Étienne Lavallée: What do you want people to take away from your music the most?
Sturge: I don’t know! I’m really happy to see a new wave of folks coming through in London that are as beautiful as ever, perhaps more so. I’m really happy to witness and participate in that! It’s great when we can succeed with our individual projects in music. The best moments are these moments, so it’s actually the community and the growth.
Étienne Lavallée: What are the three of you listening to right now?
Sturge: Weezer.
Matt: There’s a jazz record, Matthew Stevens.
Derek: I don’t listen to a lot of new stuff, but a lot of old stuff, Motown, I am listening to Otis Redding right now.
Étienne Lavallée: Tell me a little bit about the individual projects the three of you are working on right now.
Derek: Yeah, I’ve been working on a lot of stuff with my brother Shawn, who plays guitar in Status/Non-status. We’re in a band called SD Headlock. I also play with him on a solo project, Shawn Durant. We also make ambient music together under the name Havalon, and I play in a punk band called Sub Drop.
Matt: I have a recording studio. I’m playing mostly just pedal steel or bass, Playing in Status with Somersets, Mistaken for Wayne, with three other people from Sudbury.
Sturge: Mainly Status/Non-Status right now, and we’re going to cycle through the changes.
Étienne Lavallée: To close it out for the three of you: is there anybody locally musically, artistically, or even in grassroots organizing, that you want to shout out to, or put on people’s radar?
Sturge: Nonormal, Susans, Film Critics, always weird and awesome, so always that.
Derek: Not really music related but I want to give a shout out to Food Not Bombs, we are a collective tackling food insecurity, have food services once a month, focused on mutual aid. We’re showing each other how to take care of each other, and learn along the way.
Matt: There’s a conference in Sudbury, the Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards. Melanie Saint-Pierre of Casper Skulls is running that, so I want to shout her out!
