BOYHOOD

Boyhood is the alias of Caylie Runciman (CR), an Ottawa ex-pat who now calls the woods north of Kingston her home. 2018 will be ramping up fast, with her next full-length, Bad Mantras, coming out in June, followed by festival appearances in Calgary and Sudbury later in the summer. Check out her Bandcamp page for her latest releases and read on to learn about her favourite shows and dream tour-mate.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boyh00d/

Web: http://www.boyhood.ca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/b_oyhood

Latest Release:  Luvbomb (Single, February 2018)

Upcoming shows: June 20 - 24 - Sled Island Music Festival, Calgary AB. August 17 - 20 - Up Here Festival, Sudbury, ON.

SA: How did you first get your start in music? CR: My family is pretty dorkily musical & my siblings and I grew up with instruments around the house, our parents' record collection. We inherited their enthusiasm and interest. I played with my sister and brother growing up started playing in bands in highschool. Then I started calling myself Boyhood when I was 18 or 19.

SA: What bands, musicians or artists would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? CR: I'm not sure how/who I'd relate as an influence on the sound of Boyhood, but as far as influencing me and I suppose most likely in turn, my music, my biggest influences, generally, in life, as a person and someone who makes things, would be The Beatles. I'll just leave it at that because I could go on forever. There are a lot of people making things in the world.

SA: At this point in your musical career, what would you consider to be your biggest success? CR: My biggest success at this point in my musical career would probably be getting out of bed this morning, cleaning my fridge and taking my garbage and recycling to the dump. Now my brain feels clean and I can play the bass this afternoon.

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? CR:  My biggest challenge is probably, most consistently, finances. I just spent all my money having my record (Bad Mantras - out June 22nd!) made. Now I have no money to put gas in my car to tour it. But I'll figure it out! Onward!

SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? CR: I'm always scribbling spewings down in a notebook. When I sit down to play music, I create the tune musically, and then I'll figure out where my feelings are at and write down some words as well as pull other pieces from my notes. This usually happens as I'm recording demos.

SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? CR: When I was living there, it was cool! Lots of people making things happened. I'm pretty out of touch now, but from what I can tell via internet, it seems like there are lots of cool femme-run events happening, lots more femme-dj's, lots of underdogs coming up and taking over which is quite frankly great.

SA: A question for fun: if you could tour with any musical act, active or not, who would it be and why?  CR: Cardi B. She seems funny. And maybe she'd let me be her mid-wife. Not qualified but this is a fictional scenario.

SA: You recently announced an upcoming gig at Sled Island this year. What are you looking forward to most about the festival, and have you played shows out West before? CR: Haven't been out West! Which is wacky. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of the other performers. Super cool that Deerhoof are curating a bunch of it. Can't wait to see them; looking forward to seeing John Maus.

SA: You’ve played a ton of shows, including some high-profile Ottawa ones such as Megaphono and Arboretum. Over your career, if one show stands out to you as being an all-time favourite, which one would it be, and why? CR: You know, right now I can't choose one. All shows are anxiety-inducing. Any show that I've felt somewhat good for has been an all-time favourite.

Another Story About the Bears of Actinolite

I am a little older than most of the folks who have commented about the Actinolite Bears. In the summer of 1936 and 1937 I lived with my grandparents- Joseph and Beatrice Yanch in the Stewart House in Flinton. The owner of the service station at Actinolite had a bear that we stopped in to see when we went into Tweed for shopping. However, the real adventure was when the bear owner took his bear…