We sit down with Dusty Exner, Canadian native, front-person of punk rockers Kill Matilda, and founding partner in North American tour booking company SIN agency. She’s toured Columbus numerous times with her band, and she’s sent numerous Canadian bands to Columbus via her booking company.

TUNED UP: How long have you been with Kill Matilda?

Dusty Exner: 7 years

TUNED UP: I know you guys have toured extensively, whats a brief sense of where you’ve gone?

Dusty Exner: Big question! Basically coast to coast in Canada, the US and we’ve played 1 date so far in Mexico. This year we’ll be hitting up several countries in Europe, pushing further into Mexico and doing more Canada and US dates!

TUNED UP: Sin Agency has been really active in Columbus Ohio this year, can you briefly explain what it is for those who aren’t aware, and how you got involved with them?

Dusty Exner: SIN Agency is the booking agency I co-own/work with. We book tours for indie artists to help them get exposure in new markets. Most of our clients are Canadian but we’ve worked with some really awesome US bands too!

TUNED UP: I’m sure you guys have some crazy stories from the road, share three anecdotes with us!

Dusty Exner: While on the last leg of our US tour, we parked overnight at a rest stop in North Carolina. In the morning Dusty noticed a pick up truck parked next to ours and the box of the pickup truck was all bloody. Some of the blood was so fresh it was dripping out of the truck! Next thing we knew a bunch of police showed up and started asking questions – and we were parked right next to it! Either someone murdered someone and took the body into the woods and ditched the truck there…or I guess maybe killed a deer, dropped the deer carcass off at home and then drove to a rest stop in the middle of nowhere fast enough that the blood still dripped out of their truck (without taking the time to clean the truck while at home or wherever they left the deer?), parked, and then took like a 5 hour walk out into the woods… right? That could be plausible? Right?

While playing at a venue in San Antonio dusty walked outside to a woman and a man rolling around on the ground in front of the doors. The woman started screaming for help and the man, who was very drunk, wouldn’t stop pulling her by the scarf/ wouldn’t let go of her. Dusty yelled for help, we separated the two. Basically it was a really REALLY drunk dude and some girl, who had previously been dating. The girl was crying and really upset so all the ladies took her inside while the dudes tried to calm this super drunk angry guy down. It seemed like a pretty clear cut case of angry dude getting physical with his ex girlfriend…until she started saying things like “I should go check on him… I want to make sure he’s OK…”. We told her “no, don’t worry about him”, but she insisted on going outside and they basically ended up making out. Then within 5 minutes, physically fighting again. We separate them again. The girl’s current boyfriend comes up and knocks HER to the ground and then starts fighting the drunk dude. We separate them ALL. Then the two of them start making out again. Then fighting again. Then we got really bored and annoyed, yelled at them to get the fuck away from our van, and drove away.

On one of our first tours in Winnipeg, MB we really had the crowd going, it was exciting because it was our furthest date east and it was our best date so far on the tour. It was all good fun until this HUGE muscular dude in the audience who had been moshing got so excited that he smashed a beer bottle over his own head and started bleeding profusely. I (Dusty) took him into the bathroom and calmed him down and picked pieces of glass out of his head – and he was so tall that even kneeling he came up to my chest! Then he started getting worked up again and rattling the bathroom stalls and freaking out in the bathroom – so then we peaced out.

TUNED UP: Having spent much time in both Canada and the U.S. as a performer, how would you compare / contrast the two?

Dusty Exner: You cant compare the two. Canada is amazing and beautiful but its a lot like North Dakota – hours of driving between small towns. We don’t have anything like Ohio, which has a bunch of big cities all in the same state and like so many major sports teams – most of our major cities arent even big enough to sustain a single sports franchise. The vastness and the hugeness of America means that anything is possible for any band!

At least from a band perspective. Culturally, I always thought that Canadians were nicer than Americans but actually we’re more ‘polite’ – which isn’t the same as being friendly. We may sometimes interpret Americans’ behaviours as rude only because they’re more forward than we’re used to – like strangers feeling comfortable just coming up to you and talking to you, that kind of thing. In Canada people generally mind their own business and don’t talk to each other on the bus as much, that kind of thing. But at the same time, we are similiar in that both cultures like to be hospitable. We’ve been welcomed at people’s homes across all of North America.

Its hard to describe the differences between America and Canada without falling into either nationalistic pride or American fetishization. But the truth is that Canada and America are both really cool, and different.

The biggest differences in culture, in my opinion, occur at a governmental level. I was so shocked at the number of people who thought that public/free health care was a bad idea, and the number of people who were so staunchly pro-gun. In Canada gun ownership has just never been a thing outside of hunters living in rural communities so to me it’s weird that people think its so necessary for your safety; there’s so little violence in Canada compared to America, and so fewer guns! We obviously also love our health care and its hard to understand why people wouldn’t want that. But on the other hand, I think a lot of Canadians don’t understand just how much more cultural integration there is in America, so many more people from so many more backgrounds, and just so much more of everything! Opinions, attitudes, lifestyles, everything! We are very homogenous compared to the US.

TUNED UP: Whats next for Dusty Exner?

Dusty Exner: Eating breakfast. And then watching Rick and Morty.

Relevant Links:
Kill Matilda
https://www.facebook.com/killmatilda
SIN Agency
https://www.facebook.com/SINAgency

Written by Sandeep Sehbi