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Arts & Entertainment, Music

Artist Profile: Is it People releases first EP ‘Living Inside’

by Kevin Vogel on

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On Oct. 5, Is it People, the indie rock duo comprised of vocalist-guitarist-bassist Antoine Gallois, BCom ’18, and drummer Romain Peynichou, U3 Arts, released their first EP, Living Inside. Although it only features four tracks, Living Inside has been an ongoing project for the two musicians since October 2017, when they began casually playing together  on the weekends.

“When we started jamming, there was no decision that […] we were going to make an EP out of this,” Gallois said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “When we took the Christmas break we were like, ‘These [sessions were] pretty cool. Let’s think about them and see if we can do something with them when we come back.’”

And so, Gallois and Peynichou recorded most of the EP over the Winter 2018 reading week, adding the finishing touches over the summer. All the recording took place in Peynichou’s bedroom.

“It was very DIY,” Gallois said. “Romain didn’t have that many microphones […] so we just borrowed some mics from McGill [and] from Romain’s friends.”

Peynichou attributes the success of this impromptu setup to the resources available at the McGill library as well as support from the tight-knit local music community.

Beyond the makeshift recording setup, the two took an experimental approach to producing the project. While artists typically go into recording with some plan of what they hope to create, Is it People improvised much of Living Inside’s instrumentals.

“We had these jams, we recorded them, and it’s after we recorded that we really made these decisions and really tortured ourselves with what we were going to do with them,” Gallois said. “It made it super hard, but fun and a good experiment.”

Owing to their lack of musicians, Is it People makes many of their stylistic decisions based on their status as a duo. Whereas a standard four-piece band involves a singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer, Gallois and Peynichou needed to record each of these instrumentals separately, and then layer them on top of each other in the editing process. According to Peynichou, this allowed them to build a fuller sound, and creates a unique aesthetic.

“On the record [there are] two guitars playing, a bass, keys, drums, and vocals, so we’d need other people if we want to perform it, so the music kind of lives only on the software,” Gallois said.

Much like Living Inside, Is it People had a spontaneous beginning. Gallois and Peynichou met during their first year at McGill and quickly figured out that they shared similar musical tastes. By their second year, they started playing together in Montreal jam crowds and, eventually, tried to form a band with others. While that band never got off the ground, Gallois and Peynichou found that they enjoyed working with each other and decided to continue playing together.

The duo drew inspiration for Living Inside from one of their favourite bands, Tame Impala, as well as their own experiences as students. Their lyrics discuss themes of loneliness and longing, and they frequently reference people they met during their university careers.

“The EP actually talks a lot about being inside your own head and dealing with those lonely hours that we can have as McGill students,” Peynichou said.

While both Gallois and Peynichou currently have their hands full with their academic careers, they are eager to continue experimenting and producing music as members of Is it People.

“I think right when we released [Living Inside…] I was like ‘oh, I can’t wait to make another one,’” Gallois said.

Living Inside is available on Spotify, YouTube, Bandcamp, and Deezer.

failure
Commentary, Opinion

Recognizing the successes that come from failure

by Mo Rajji on

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I almost dropped out of high school in my sophomore year. I was failing three classes, and my already unstable mental health was suffering under the weight of academic pressure. However, I knew that these academic shortcomings, as awful as they felt, would not define my whole life. My boss at the comic book store where I used to work had dropped out of high school, gotten a GED, and gone to New York University. My own father had dropped out of high school and never gotten an equivalent diploma, but I watched him walk across the stage to receive his master’s degree when I was eight. Other students at my school were transferring to other institutions, repeating grades, and considering alternatives to post-secondary education. I wasn’t alone.

Thinking back to the lowest points I had in high school makes me feel like more of an outsider at McGill. This isn’t the kind of institution that’s supposed to accept students like me—students who didn’t see an academic future for themselves—but I got in anyway. This is a university that emphasizes its rankings and proudly touts its successful alumni. Despite McGill’s reputation for academic success, a school-wide email two weeks ago included a note from the Dean of Students, Christopher Buddle, titled “Learning to Fail,” encouraging students to learn from their failures and pursue counselling services if needed. 150 words did not suddenly fix McGill’s high-stakes environment or make support resources more accessible, but at least someone finally said the word ‘failure’ out loud.

The summer after my second year of high school, my mental health reached an all-time low. I didn’t have a stable home, and my self-destructive tendencies were reaching dangerous levels. I was completing an intensive feminist computer science program that I loved, but that was incredibly taxing. This wasn’t an environment in which I felt like I could fail. Being in a program for women and femme-aligned people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) came with a pressure to succeed against all odds. I was not just representing myself: The program was meant to motivate young girls and femme-aligned people to go into computer science and related fields, defeat the patriarchy, and become inspiring figures for future generations.

I applied to McGill thinking I wouldn’t make it through a process that looked only at the numbers on my transcript, but I did. I entered university with a computer science major in the Faculty of Arts. Two weeks into my first semester, I changed my major to political science and turned computer science into a minor. By the end of the semester, I had withdrawn from a math class, nearly failed a computer science class, and dropped computer science from my degree. I had not defeated the patriarchy; instead, I felt like I had succumbed to it.

I’m still in a field dominated by men, but if the 2015 intensive program taught me anything, it was that academic successes and failures, whatever form they may take, do not define one’s worth. Success can simply mean getting up in the morning or handing in an assignment, and these acts should be recognized for the victories that they are. McGill takes a lot of pride in numbers and grades, but the classes that you fail can be just as valuable learning experiences as a perfect GPA. As Buddle emphasized, it is important to know how to fail and learn from failure, but, more importantly, it is essential to recognize personal successes, even when it seems like no one else will. I hope that’s something that McGill starts to promote, beyond their emails.

Know Your Athlete, Sports

Know Your Athlete: Tomas Jirousek

by Abeer Almahdi on

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Tomas Jirousek is an indigenous athlete from the Kainai First Nation, a nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy. He is leading the #ChangeTheName campaign and demonstration on Oct. 31 at McGill that call for the university to change the varsity men’s sports teams’ ‘Redmen’ name. When he’s not making waves on campus, Jirousek makes waves on the water as a member of the McGill rowing team.

Once an avid hockey player, Jirousek was forced to quit due to knee problems. He knew he wanted to stay active, though, so he picked up rowing when he came to McGill two years ago.

“I really did want to be in a sport,” Jirousek said. “My parents were both varsity athletes in university, so I’d always wanted to follow that, so I’m glad I could find [rowing].”

Jirousek’s rowing career has enjoyed plenty of highlights so far.

“In my first year, I was able to make Team Quebec and represent the province at the Canada Games,” Jirousek said. “We had a fourth place finish in the Mens 8 [….] To also be the stroke seat of the Mens Heavy 8 in my first year was really an honour.”

Like any invested athlete, Jirousek has his fair share of pre-game rituals, which start with a song.  

“A little embarrassingly, I do love ‘Toxic‘ by Britney Spears before going on the water,” Jirousek said.

Aside from his athletic endeavours, Jirousek is the chairman of Indigenous Affairs Committee, the indigenous affairs commissioner at the Student’s Society of McGill University, and the special advisor on indigenous education to the director at the Social Equity Diversity Education Office. He also works at the First People’s House. Being involved with indigenous projects around campus is important to Jirousek, so he actively seeks them out.

“Basically anything indigenous, I typically like to get involved in,” Jirousek said. “I’m quite passionate about supporting the rights of my people.”

For Jirousek, the #ChangeTheName campaign is all about opening dialogue.

“Part of the reason why we’re launching this campaign and the demonstration is to first show our discontent,” Jirousek said. “[I want to start] an honest discussion where indigenous people can present their views because […] we’ve been cut out of the debate on the Redmen name [many times]. This is an opportunity for both sides of the debate to come together in a collaborative fashion.”

McGill men’s sports teams have used the name since the 1920s. Men’s sports teams picked up the nickname ‘Indians’, while ‘Squaws’ referred to the women’s teams. Up until 1992, the team logo was a stereotypical silhouette of a native person wearing a headdress.

Jirousek is adamant that the name, no matter its origins, is undeniably offensive.

“Denying the actual history of the Redmen name, regardless of whether the university is correct in its argument that the Redmen name comes from the school’s red colours or celtic origins, it doesn’t deny the fact that the Redmen name [has] become connected to indigenous people,” Jirousek said. “The fact [is] that we were known as the McGill ‘Indians’ and the McGill ‘Squaws,’ and the university willingly allowed this. That is difficult to reconcile as an athlete, and it’s difficult to reconcile as a student at the university.”

For many indigenous students like him, the name makes their experience as varsity athletes uncomfortable, and the indifference on campus leaves them feeling isolated and ignored.

“The first thing to understand is that indigenous people […] are the ones who are affected by this name,” Jirousek said. “Unless you are an indigenous student, you can’t really understand the pain and how isolated you feel because of the Redmen name. You can’t understand the pain [and] the history [that] the Redmen name continues to admit.”

Science & Technology

The psychology of fear

by Emma Gillies on

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For some, Halloween means curling up on the couch and watching a favourite horror movie. The resulting jump scares, hellish demons, and bloody deaths provoke an emotion we are all too familiar with: Fear.

“Fear is an emotional state—the unpleasant feeling of being afraid—that emerges when we perceive an imminent threat to our safety,” Josué Haubrich, a postdoctoral researcher in McGill’s Department of Psychology, wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

The stimulus that invokes a fear response is often a physical threat, such as heights or spiders. However, it can also be psychological, as is the case with a fear of midterms or social rejection. When a person encounters a particularly-frightening stimulus, the brain reacts and sends signals to the rest of their body, which can result in a faster heart rate, shortness of breath, muscle tension, shaking, and feelings of panic and uneasiness.

Despite the sweaty palms and occasional screams conjured up by horror movies, many of us intentionally subject ourselves to situations that make us feel scared. Interestingly, this morbid attraction to fear is a product of evolution for humans and other mammals, honed by a long-time association between fear and survival.

“Fear is a natural and beneficial emotion that actually helps to keep us safe,” Haubrich wrote.

In fact, research suggests that humans have even evolved to enjoy experiencing fear in safe contexts. Like riding rollercoasters or playing hide and seek, watching horror movies enables us to trigger the instinctual thrill of adrenaline rushes while avoiding the costs of any actual danger. Developing a familiarity with fear even lets us establish coping strategies for dealing with real scares later in life.

“For most people, I think this is related [to] an avidity we have in experiencing different emotions,” Haubrich wrote. “Real-life threatening experiences trigger a number of biological responses aimed to prepare our [….bodies] for fight-or-flight responses. Part of these responses are triggered by horror films, and some people enjoy experiencing it in a safe environment.”

Humans like to experience emotions, especially the kinds that linger after the fact. This phenomenon is known as the ‘excitation transfer process,’ in which the physical reactions that accompany fear during the movie are later replaced with relief and intense positive feelings.

On the other hand, uncontrollable fear—the main cause of many anxiety-related disorders—is problematic and can even be incapacitating.

The continuum of mild to severe fear is a result of the interaction of different factors, including genetic variability—which gives individuals a predisposition to be fearful of something—as well as developmental factors such as childhood neglect or traumatic experiences. These factors influence why some people despise horror movies and why others can’t seem to get enough of them.

Another, gentler, factor may also be at work. Horror movies tend to evoke fear because they toy with empathy. They often involve characters that are not so different from us, arousing our ability to share others’ feelings. The fear is much more real when we can relate to the characters, which is why more empathetic viewers, who react very negatively to human suffering, tend to dislike horror movies.

Hollywood understands the psychology behind fear and uses it to enhance the effect of horror movies. These films play into common human fears such as the dark, the unusual, and death. Cinematically, they use techniques such as excessive use of negative space, spooky music, and prolonged scenes to make the audience tense and uncomfortable.

Still, our reactions to scary movies are not simply a product of the film industry’s clever techniques; they’re the result of life experience, personality, and human evolution. Similarly, Halloween is not simply a celebration of fear. As a day now known for its consumerism, costumes, and candy, Halloween’s more basic foundation is a celebration of the creativity of the human mind.

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

Letter to the Editor: Clarifying McGill’s treatment of LGTBQ+ students

by Will Aitken on

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I suppose I should be delighted at the salute to LGBTQ alumni in The McGill Tribune‘s recent article “LGBTQ+ McGillians making history,” but it hardly makes up for the homophobic treatment I endured while at McGill in the early 70s. As a queer man writing a thesis about the queer Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood, I identified as queer in the preface to the thesis. This set off a year-long battle, during which the English department was fully committed to failing my thesis for that very reason. They only backed down after I hired a lawyer and with the help of many friends made their bigoted behavior an issue in the media.

I did finally receive my MA—I believe it was the first openly queer thesis written in Canada (but would certainly welcome evidence to the contrary). I never received an apology from the McGill English department or from the university itself.

Creative

Student Services’ changes to the mental health system

by Sofia Mikton & Tristan Surman on

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“There are studies out there that show that people actually get worse when they are waiting in line for a professional.”

We asked McGill Student Services about what changes they are making to McGill’s mental health system. Here is what they had to say.

Filmed by Tristan Surman. Edited by Sofia Mikton

Commentary, Opinion

It’s 2018, and STEM is still an uneven playing-field for women of colour

by Amrita Sandhu on

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Concordia’s new Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science is the first engineering faculty in Canada to bear a woman’s name. The faculty’s renaming stems from Cody’s $15 million donation, the largest individual donation given in Concordia’s history. While it’s refreshing to see a woman of colour earn such an outstanding honour in a traditionally male-dominated faculty, the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remain an uneven playing-field for men and women.

Over the past summer, I received an internship placement with a surgical unit at a prominent Toronto hospital. Before starting, I was excited to work with surgeons and observe firsthand the nature of the profession. After my first few weeks, however, I was disappointed when I observed the lack of female surgeons in my unit, and that of the few present, even fewer were women of colour.  I didn’t expect there to be such a noticeable gender and diversity gap, especially in a city like Toronto that prides itself on multiculturalism and inclusivity. My summer experience served as a reminder that even though medicine, like other STEM disciplines, is trending towards becoming more accessible to women, careers like surgery still lag behind.

Although female representation in STEM is growing, women of colour often find themselves excluded from this trend. Racial prejudice continues to hinder progress: Women of colour often feel the need to censor themselves and behave in ways that ‘suppress’ the perceived stereotypes of their ethnic groups. Women of colour have to avoid saying too much or too little to avoid being stereotyped as too angry or too submissive in their workplace settings. The first time someone at the hospital asked me if I wanted to pursue a career in nursing, I brushed it off. But, after being asked the same question repeatedly by male hospital personnel whom I encountered, and continuing to get looks of surprise when I specified that my interest lay in orthopedic surgery—a speciality in which 87.6 percent of practicing physicians in Canada are males—my patience waned. My male coworkers never received the same prejudicial line of questioning. As a woman of colour, I constantly found myself having to justify my right to be at the hospital.

Patronizing attitudes remain all too common in STEM, even in fields where the numbers of professional men and women are more equal, such as public safety and agriculture. Moreover, women of colour face greater incidences of sexual and racial harassment in the workplace, and STEM is no exception. When one of my fellow interns told me about the sexual and racially demeaning comments made to her by a patient, it was frustrating to realize that discrimination on the basis of sex and race is still such a common occurrence. The harsh reality is that workplace harassment is ingrained in the medical world. A third of female physicians report enduring some form of workplace harassment over the course of their career. One female surgeon told me that she has experienced racial and sexist prejudice throughout her career, even as she has ascended professionally. Even elite  professional status—like that of a surgeon—fails to shield women of colour from microaggressions and sexism.  

This is why the renaming of Concordia’s engineering faculty is monumental: Associating a woman of colour’s name and face with an engineering faculty normalizes their involvement in STEM fields. It is validating to see progress toward the inclusion of women in STEM, but, it is also crucial to continue recognizing women of colour’s contributions to break down lingering barriers to gender equality.

Features

Beyond the answer sheet

by Miya Keilin on

More in Features:

“Math is everywhere. To varying degrees, of course, but math is just something that’s everywhere,” Professor Limin Jao, assistant professor and assistant graduate program director in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

She’s right, of course. There’s math in our kitchens, on our walks to school, and in the way the clouds move. It’s everywhere, and though many of us try our best to live in denial, it will always be everywhere.

Student Life

Dean Buddle talks Reddit, podcasting, and student outreach

by Mary Keith on

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As part of his duties as Dean of Students, Christopher Buddle shares weekly wisdom with McGillians through his Dean’s Corner newsletter. The column has garnered attention across campus, even leading to the new #buddlehuddle moniker for his student outreach efforts. Buddle sat down with The McGill Tribune to discuss the #buddlehuddle and his greater role as Dean of Students.

McGill Tribune (MT): What inspires the advice you give to students?

Christopher Buddle (CB): “[Dean’s Corner] serves a number of purposes [….] In many cases, it’s just kind of what I see as issues with students or in academia that maybe I can offer some advice or opinions [on], or highlight services [for….] I have a long […] list of different ideas, and I basically think about what’s going on around campus and what might be good advice or things to talk about at that time.  I always try to time some around midterms to [recommend] resources [….] Sometimes I just give advice from experience. I did that a couple weeks ago with a post called ‘Learning to Fail.’ I failed courses in my undergraduate [career], and it’s okay to fail. In fact, it’s normal for students to struggle academically now and then, and that doesn’t define you. That’s part of what it is to be a student and go through a transformation.”

MT: Do you have a favourite Dean’s Corner installment?

CB: “I made this [post], ‘Hey Prof Dude: How do we help students write effective emails,’ and I actually got pushback from students saying, ‘Well what about profs? Because they write horrible emails’ [….] We all have to be respectful and think about how we communicate with people all the time, so I loved that one [….] People still write me [emails addressed], ‘Hey, Prof Dude’ on purpose.”

MT: How did you find out about the Buddle Huddle?

CB: “I think it was embedded in the comments on Reddit. After I wrote the ‘Learning to Fail’ [post], some people questioned why the Dean of Students wrote them an email about failing. One of the comments was something around [joining the] #buddlehuddle, and I read it and thought, ‘well, that is outstanding,’ because that’s actually what I want to do. I want to find a way to connect with students. I think I can own that hashtag, [and it will] be beneficial in connecting with students.”

MT: Are there any plans to use a #buddlehuddle in the future to better connect with students?

CB: “Yes, I think [there are….] I’m constantly looking for ways to engage and to be accessible, and so, the ‘Buddle Huddle’ idea is one step in that journey. I’m thinking of starting a podcast in January [….] My goal […] is to answer questions that people have about the university [and] about the Dean’s office. I know students listen to podcasts, so I’ve got to go to where students are [….] I think I’m going to pursue a lot of those things. I think it’s great, and I’m not sure it’ll succeed. Some things work [and] some things don’t, but, who knows? I’ll try.”

MT: If you could only give one piece of advice to McGill students, what would it be?

CB: “[I would like students to know that] thinking and doing beyond the classroom is important [….] I don’t mean to not concentrate on academics, but, beyond the classroom [this might mean] finding your community. We all need friends [….] Loneliness and isolation are huge concerns for me among our students, so [a main focus is] how […] we facilitate getting beyond the classroom and developing that community, whether it’s support, whether it’s a club or activity, or whether it’s finding out what resources are available.”

Men's Varsity, Sports

Stingers snap Redmen rugby’s undefeated record

by Chiso Ufondu on

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On Oct. 19, the McGill Redmen (4-1) faced off against the Concordia Stingers (5-0) at Molson Stadium. Both teams entered the arena undefeated: Deadlocked in a tie for first place in the RSEQ and playing for sole possession of the top slot in the conference. McGill was slow to start, and their valiant second half effort was ultimately insufficient, falling to Concordia by a score of 22-15.

The Stingers opened up the game with a quick 12-0 lead. However, McGill battled back: Third-year hooker Alex Pantis wrangled a try for the Redmen, ending their dry spell. Throughout the half, tensions spilled out onto the field, resulting in penalties for both sides. Ultimately, the penalties cost McGill points, which came back to haunt the Redmen later in the game. The Stingers closed out the first half with a comfortable 19-5 lead.

After halftime, a determined McGill team took the field. First-year fly-half Owen Cumming and third-year flanker Pierre Grison helped drive McGill’s offence, each picking up a try in the half. The Redmen played phenomenal defence, too, giving up only six points to the Stingers in the final half. Despite their efforts, the Redmen couldn’t take advantage of the offensive and defensive surge, and the Stingers took home the victory by a 22-15 score.

“I thought we played very well in the second half,” Redmen Head Coach Ian Baillie said. “[We] took too many penalties. That cost us the game, but we moved the ball. We scored some really nice tries, and we looked good out there.”

McGill will be looking to bounce back from their loss in their upcoming game against the Sherbrooke Vert et Or (3-2) at Stade de L’Université in Sherbrooke on Oct. 28. This will be their last game of the season before the playoffs begin in November.

“We can use this game [against Sherbrooke] as a really good opportunity to come back from this game [against Concordia],” Pantis said.

Overall, the Redmen remain positive and are focused on their upcoming match and the playoffs.

“I think we’re going to go far,” Grison said. “We’re going to put in the work to achieve what we want to achieve, which is to win.”

Moment of the game

In the closing minutes of the game, the Redmen secured possession and Grison barrelled past defenders to ring in one last try for McGill.

Stat corner

McGill held Concordia to 22 points, Concordia’s lowest offensive total this season.

Quotable

“When we play our game, like we saw in the second half, it’s something else. We’ve just got to stick to our game.” – Fly-half Owen Cumming

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