Fort Smith (Feb 24/03) - Gene Seymour has had many different careers and experiences.

The young 74-year-old calls them his lifetimes. He's been the leader of marching bands, an air force sergeant, a carpenter, a worker with young offenders, an amateur astrologer, and co-owner of PopnJ Creative Services Ltd. with his wife Jenny Belyea.

XXXX -

In Fort Smith, Seymour is known as a conga player and percussionist with The Electric Chair Skeletons and a photographer.

News/North: How do you break your life up into lifetimes?

Gene Seymour: They are different eras when you do certain things. It was a lifetime when I was in the air force. It was a lifetime when I worked with marching bands. It was a lifetime when I was a student and went to school near the end of the war. When I went into the real world, that was a lifetime.

N/N: What is the key to your active life?

GS: What I would tell people is always be learning something new. Always be looking around to see what there is to learn. Because that's what excitement is, that's what enthusiasm is.... I'm always trying different things.

N/N: How would you describe yourself?

GS: If I looked at myself, I'd say I'm a problem solver. It may be just getting a picture for somebody. I also used to design things. I worked in systems and procedures. I loved that job because I was looking for problems and solving them. And solutions for problems are all around.

N/N: What makes you such a positive person?

GS: You think differently when you get older. You realize that life is not infinite. It's finite. I don't know how long I've got. As I get older, all the days become even more precious, even more valuable. I don't like wasting time.

N/N: Where are you from originally?

GS: I was born in Toronto. I went to school in Toronto.

N/N: Did you learn drumming in school?

GS: I didn't. During the war, they used to have cadet camps. At the high school I went to, the principal was an ex First World War colonel, so the whole school was a cadet corps. We used to have a cadet camp in the summer. This was during the war. I remember my brother and I -- I have an identical twin brother -- we went to camp. We had a chance to be in the band, so they gave us drumsticks and a couple of drums and we became drummers. We were kind of self-taught at the beginning. That kind of turned me on to the joy of bashing, I suppose.

N/N: How did you come to join the armed forces?

GS: In the air force, each station, not all of them but an awful lot of the stations, had what they called volunteer marching bands. The ones in Ontario used to go to music festivals. They needed people on the stations to organize and teach the bands. So they offered me the job.

N/N: How did you come to Fort Smith?

GS: I got to know a fellow in Abbotsford named Pat Buckna. He was a musician ... Pat was on the road and he was doing a gig in Pine Point. He came down to Fort Smith to see Wood Buffalo National Park and thought it was a nice little town. He must have clicked with a couple of people and phoned his agent and said, "Take me off the list. I'm going to be here for a while."

In a very short time, he had a job with the local paper. Then he called me and said, "What a neat place. Come on up here." That was 1981. I was on loose ends and didn't have anything to do.... So I came up.

N/N: When did you get into music in Fort Smith?

GS: I arrived on June 18, 1981, and Pat met me and introduced me to people. The first thing I did when I got here, I put my stuff in his house and went down to the Wine Rack. That's where everybody went. Pat still played his guitar and he still sang. I didn't have any congas, but I did have a little pair of bongos. I just sat down beside him and played bongos from the day I came here.

N/N: What kept you in Fort Smith?

GS: I've been a lot of places. I've lived in Vancouver, big cities. I've lived in Europe. So I know the feeling of being in big places where you're a fly on the wall. I liked Smith first because it wasn't too long before you look around and you know all the faces. When you know all the faces and the faces smile back, you feel safe. You can relax and you don't have to use your self-energy to guide yourself, but you can use it to be yourself. When I first came here, I felt at home....

Another thing that is significant of my stay here is that the second year I was here, 1982, my son Gord came up to visit and is still here. So I have family here. I couldn't be anywhere else. This is my home. I've been here longer than any other place I've ever been.

N/N: Does it give you a lot of satisfaction to still be performing at your age?

GS: It does, but I don't find that unusual. My playing just says who I am, where I come from and where I've been. I guess the comforting reminder of people who play on into their life was Ry Cooder's work with the folks from Cuba. You can imagine how much I love that, because it's Latin and they're old dudes, and there's some older than me.

N/N: What do you get from music?

GS: Sometimes it all comes together and you're transported. Any musician who's good and knows a technique and plays with other people who listen, then you can be transported together.

It's a wonderful thing.... It's a very strong emotional sense. It's a sense of rightness. It's like being in the zone. I've found that when you're in there, you become better than you ever thought you could be. All your senses are available, and your ideas, your skill and your technique all come together.

N/N: What satisfaction do you get from playing on stage?

GS: That's sharing, because your energy and the energy of the group, you can see it coming back to you in the people who are responding to it by dancing, or by smiling or waving, or whatever. That's the energy coming back at you because it's your energy.

N/N: How did you get into photography?

GS: When I was in the air force overseas, I bought a camera and I took lots of pictures. I always got a certain amount of satisfaction out of taking a good picture. Part of the appeal for me is it's a kind of creative act.

N/N: What do you like about photography?

GS: For me, it's a split second decision to be made. And it's sometimes like music. Sometimes you can be playing and you feel a little break coming, it's a split second decision. And I like making those kind of decisions. Taking pictures is part of who I am. Making that little decision. I can see the picture.

N/N: Why did you embrace digital photography right from its beginnings?

GS: It might sound funny, but I've never grown up. I still like playing. I like playing with toys. They're like toys, like playing. And I like experimenting. Experimenting is playing.

N/N: What's in the future for you?

GS: I know there are some more creative things happening. But you don't plan on being creative. You let it happen. You let yourself go down whatever road looks the most interesting and the most fulfilling. God knows where it will take you.