Weekend Sun shines on Mariah Phillips

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/03/2013 (4779 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How long has Misty Street been around?

We probably started playing music in 2007. We started out calling ourselves ‘Misty.’ And then we kind of evolved and we called ourselves ‘Misty Street.’

My first name, legally, is Misty — my second name is Mariah — so we actually just put Misty in a band-name generator on the internet, so there were some very funny titles. And ‘Misty Street’ just sounded cool, so we decided to go with it.

I know you sing. You don’t play an instrument, do you?

Not in public. I do when I want to write a song. I’ll play very bad chords on a piano, enough to be able to write a song, and then I’ll go consult with Greg, and he will put in the real chords that are required.

Now this is your sidekick, Greg Gibson. You were just a duo when you started, though, but judging from the posters, now you’re a quartet?

Yeah. We’ve had lot of different members along the way. How Greg and I started singing with each other we started out in a band called ‘Guns on Fire’ so that was where we met each other. It was just a cover band, and then we started writing together, because he wrote songs and I wrote songs, so we started collaborating. So we submitted one of the songs we’d written to FACTOR, and we got a grant for our first CD. FACTOR is a funding agency through the government.

So that’s how we got started, and we’ve just kind of been evolving and changing since then.

And you do all original material?

Yes. When we play out, we’ll play covers, too, because we do different types of events in town. But yeah — we have a lot of original music.

How would you describe your sound or your genre?

Now? It’s evolved. We started out where it sounded like pop — pop or folk. Kind of a cross between the two. And as band members have evolved — our band members Matt Cory and Cody Williamson also write — our sound has gotten more on the rock side. It’s kind of cool pop-rock, but it’s more rock, I would say.

Now your second CD and video are being released next Saturday, March 16, at 9 p.m. at The 40, right?

We’re releasing just a three-song EP. We had thought about releasing a full album. But the way things go these days, that’s not really what you’re supposed to do now. It’s very expensive, and our society is very weird with music — they don’t want a whole CD of music, it seems.

They don’t want a whole CD of all yours, you mean — they want one or two songs of yours and one or two of somebody else’s…?

Yeah — it was recommended that we do it that way, just a three-song, and then as we go along, release more stuff. We have a lot of material, but it’s hard to know what we should release and what we shouldn’t.

And do you hope for airplay or internet play or — heck, I don’t even know what the pathway is anymore!

I don’t know that anyone really does, to be honest. You read a lot of stuff on the internet — a lot of different people say different things — and it just depends. I think it’s all very individual, what works for different groups.

So I really, at this point, have no idea. We love to make music, we love to create it, we love to play out, and we love it if people love it. So basically, that’s all we’re doing. And if people love it, great. But as far as anything further than that, I have no idea what.

If fame fell into your laps, you’d welcome it, I’m sure. But no delusions either — it’s a hard nut to crack and you have a life, right?

Absolutely. We’re all very realistic in how we view it. We do it because we love it and you have to love it to continue to do it. You deal with a lot of criticism, and some things will throw roadblocks in your day. So you have to do it because you love it — otherwise you’ll quit very quickly, because it can be very discouraging at times.

To change course a bit, I know you took the Police Studies program at Assiniboine Community College…

I did. And it was great. I would say, out of my whole life, it was the best eight months of my life.

Really! Why?

I think, as far as character development more than anything, it was a fantastic program. (Instructor) Marc Savy was excellent. Everyone’s experience is different, but from my own personal experience, I found that it really helped me to grow as a person. It helped me to not take things so personally. And Savy provided a really good balance between the physical part of it and learning about emotional intelligence and just having them stretch you. It stretched me and helped me grow. It gave me a lot of confidence.

So did you hope to get a job as a full-fledged police officer after that program? Is probation a good compromise?

I just applied for a bunch of jobs when I was close to being done. And probation was the first job I was hired for. It’s a difficult process to get into the Brandon Police Service, and so I thought, ‘What do I want to do?’ And if I had been successful and had gotten into BPS, you’re doing a lot of shiftwork and all that kind of stuff. And I really wanted a balance between — I’m not ready to stop doing music right now, and I’m not ready to be in a job where that’s going to control a lot of my life.

So I just decided probation was a good fit for me. I’m doing a program that’s called ISSP Intensive Support Supervision Program — so I work with mostly high-risk youth and some high-risk adults.

So this is a branch of probation services?

Yup. It’s in the same office as probation, and we monitor a caseload of high-risk offenders, so we’re on call all the time — we’re doing curfew checks and all that kind of stuff and we’re reporting it back to their probation officers. So we’re connected in that way.

And I like that, with that program, there’s more flexibility, so it works very well for my lifestyle.

What is it that you like about what you do? You feel like you’re making a difference in people’s lives?

Yes. Just working with youth. And it’s nice because you’re working intensively with them. You have contact with them every single day — they have to report to you every day, and you’re talking to them on the phone, so it can be very rewarding when you see people changing or making better choices in their lives and trying to get them on the right track. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes it does.

Is it a tough gig for a female at all?

No. It’s fine. We very rarely have to deal with aggression or anything like that. It’s all based on respect. You give respect, you get respect.

So what’s next for you?

Once we release the recording, we’ll just see what happens. We’ve actually got some other stuff in the works that’s pretty cool. We’re going to be releasing some other stuff after this — music for sure, and we’re already in the works to do another video in June.

So our EP has three songs on it — one of them is ‘Untouchable’ and that’s the second video that we’ve done with (local producer) Graham Street — he’s great. People have been really helpful. And we’ve had Trish from Bodicures who was like the stylist for the video. And Will Moes — he was my actor boyfriend for the video. And Warner Buck, from Warner Buck Accounting, owns the building where we wanted to film, and he just let use it. Everybody just seems to want to help!

Are you willing to give us a little hint about what the content of the ‘Untouchable’ video — and song for that matter — is?

‘Untouchable’ is about… I guess I don’t have the greatest track record as far as relationships go, so it’s more like how I feel in my own head sometimes. I want all the things that a relationship would provide but I always manage to mess it up somehow, or I sabotage myself, I guess. So it’s kind of a song about that.

Well, don’t take all the blame. Remember that it takes two to tango. Anything else you want to tell me about the CD and video premiere?

We’re going to be starting the release with the video. We’re going to show the video, we’re going to play a set of our original music, and then we’re going to be the bar band for the rest of the night, so we’re just going to do covers for the rest of the night at The 40. We’ll have CDs for sale, and hopefully people will just come out and have a lot of fun!