By Jess Wind
Ever wonder what it looks like to get inked? Memento Mori Studios Inc. will be on site with their mobile tattoo shop on the final night of Jam in Jubilee, giving guests a glimpse of the ins and outs of tattoo artistry with a live tattoo demonstration. Studio president Chris Gauthier chatted about the tattoo demonstration and the ongoing commitment to the Fraser Valley arts community.
What will this tattoo set-up look like?
Chris Gauthier: Basically, there’ll be a recreational vehicle there to account for the sinks and the things that are required to be able to do it. The tattooing is going to take place outside with a canopy over the top. It’s not like walk-up tattoos, where people are there for the concert and come to get tattooed. It’s preplanned — more of a demonstration of tattooing, so that people can walk by and see someone getting tattooed.
Tell us about your connection to the arts and culture scene in the Fraser Valley.
Gauthier: I just kind of liked the idea of having a hometown. When I was in my late teens I was really big into music, and I played in a local band scene, and I started thinking I was going to be a musician. So back then, even when I was 16, there was a lot of pushing hard to have venues for local shows and events, kind of like the new generation is doing now, which I enjoy watching. And so it’s my pride for my hometown paired with how much I love music and supporting the scene. And how cool it is that Abbotsford is having events like this?
Memento Mori will be present at the last night of the festival. Gauthier expects each tattoo to take close to an hour including setup and teardown — time enough for three to four tattoos in the evening. Rather than holding the tattoo demonstration every night of the festival, they’re pulling out all the stops for the final concert on July 27.
“When we do an event, I want to make it the best
we can,” he says. “And if we spread ourselves over four Thursdays, it’s just really hard. So we’re going to go all in on the one night and make a full showing.”

By Mel Spady
The Whiskeyjays are a genre-defying band with a long family history, comprised of Luc Josef, Stephan Legal, Vincent Coulombe, Thomas Perry, and Curtis Heimburger. Stephan Legal (guitar, vocals) and I caught up over e-mail to chat about the process of balancing influences, different ways to gain traction in a new era of music production, and what makes this project different from the many iterations that came before.
Your sound is a little folk, a little rock, a little indie, and a little punk — but they mesh together well. Does this come from each respective band member having their own influences and you all coming together, or do you find you’re all influenced by similar things?
Stephan Legal: Luc and I have an understanding when it comes to our work that anything really goes, as long as we can pull it off without sounding like we’re forcing it. When a song is in its infancy, it already has a sound and a vibe that we try to embrace right away. As we workshop, we allow each individual to add their style, and this helps define and elevate it. I would say is our biggest influence for this project is Wilco, and they pull this sound off very well. We both [Stephan and Luc] grew up listening to and loving our parents’ music as well: Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac… Wells that we drink from on a daily basis include Ryan Adams, The National, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Waylon Jennings, and on and on and on.
You offer your music up for free, to stream and to download, and the book online option for covers, original sets, and songwriting/recording. Was it a conscious decision to open yourselves up to new revenue streams as musicians, or more of a “this could be fun” decision?
We feel that in order for us to gain any kind of traction in this industry, we have to develop a reputation and a brand. When we play live cover shows and weddings, it gets our name out there. The more people that know about us, the more we book. It opens many doors for us to play our original music. This is the same reason that we offer our music for free. We would rather entice someone who is on the fence about us to download our music and listen to it a few more times. Having said all of that, a by-product of the cover gigs is that we do make money, 100 percent of which goes to our band fund.
On that note, did you record and produce Clickbait entirely yourself?
We recorded this project with our friend and former drummer, Kenneth Kraylie. He recorded and produced it for us. We wish we could have given him more moolah, but he’s a real sweetie and gave a lot of his time for this project. We spent countless hours getting these fully arranged and defined before recording them. We wanted to be able to recreate everything on the EP in a live show, so there was little overdubbing and essentially nothing added that we don’t do live.
What can the audience expect from your live shows?
When you come see us, you’ll see a bunch of guys playing their asses off, drinking beer, and having a fudging blast while we do it. Oh, and a guy with a curly mustache playing a stand-up bass.
Read the full Jam in Jubilee zine here.