Junos: Neverending White Lights Intend To Party With Massari

It's about time that somebody brought death and drama — not to mention some rad guyliner — to the Canadian music scene. The stylish Daniel Victor worked for five years on his ambitious Act 1: Goodbye Friends Of The Heavenly Bodies, roping in a number of special musical guests to help him create an impressive debut rock album. As Neverending White Lights, Victor's been nominated for a new artist of the year Juno Award.

ChartAttack chatted with him at Tuesday's Juno nominees' media conference in Toronto:

ChartAttack: We're sick of the whole Canadian modesty thing. Can you give us some blatant self-promotion to justify your nomination?
Daniel Victor: The nomination is absolutely justified because I did something completely different. Everybody knows that it's different, and nobody's done something quite like that, so it's important that it gets some recognition. It's just obvious. If we didn't have anything to do with the Junos, I'd have been a little bit surprised.

If you win, where will you keep your Juno?
I guess in my studio, because I have a home studio in my basement and that's where I made the first record, so it'll sort of be there as a testament that you can make records in a cellar and still go to the Junos.

If you win, what are you gonna do to celebrate?
I'll probably go away somewhere. I'm thinking maybe Vegas for a weekend, forget about music for a while and just go gambling.

Who's the first person you'd call if you won?
Probably my dad, because he's an old rocker at heart and we actually sort of partnered up together to build the studio for the music. So he'll totally be getting a phone call.

Are you going to prepare a list in case you win?
No. I'm gonna be like Massari and just bring up my cell phone. No, if I win, I'm winging it. I'll thank Massari. Maybe I'll even pop a bottle with Massari.

Nelly Furtado is hosting. Do you think she's actually evil enough to eat a man if she had the opportunity?
How about I let you know?

Do you watch the Junos when you're not nominated?
I do. Last year was alright for the alternative side of things, like, Broken Social Scene was there. But it is what it is. I mean, you saw the nominations. It's a lot of Billy Talent, it's a lot of... well, even with album of the year, it's no surprise who they were looking at. But that's OK because it's all Canadian and any support for our music is important.

If you win, is there someone in your life who will stop nagging you about your career choice?
Probably my mother, because she still thinks I should get a job at Tim Horton's. I think she put my resume in the other day, actually.