Press

North Shore Outlook
Friday Sept. 29 - Oct. 5, 2000
By Don Fiorvento

Andréa Hector insists she's not pouting these days despite narrowly missing an opportunity to become a member of Courtney Love's band Hole.  The North Van native was one of four women short-listed for a spot with the band but found out through the media a few weeks back that she didn't make the cut after Corey Parks of Nashville Pussy decided to jump to Hole.

"She's already well known and harder edge looking," Hector says of Parks.  "She's got the full sleeves tattoos.  She's got the image right down.  I would have taken her too."

Hector says she never talked to Love personally but did get a voice mail from her once after Love had seen videos of her performing.
"It was really nice to have Courtney Love call and say 'I really like what you're doing,' because musicians are insecure and always asking themselves 'Am I good enough?'"

Hector, a bass guitarist and singer, said the most disappointing thing about not landing a spot with Hole is that her desire to move to the warmer climate in California has been delayed.  She wanted to move so badly that she tracked Love's manager down at home.  "She said 'Would you mind calling me at work?'"

Hector admits that she thought she would be devastated if she didn't land the gig, but instead of turning to the bottle to wash her sorrows away she takes a "But that's okay," attitude and heads to Spartacus Gym near her home off Commercial Drive to practice boxing. Hector hasn't touched alcohol or drugs for 16 months and says she has a much better quality of life as a result.  She says she can converse with the audiences that come to hear her Sabbath-meets-Bjork musical stylings and actually notices they're there.

"When I was drinking I'd say stupid things on stage," she admits.  "I'm really happy to be sober.  I think the best thing is to be able to get up in the mornings and not have that type of garbage in my system."
Four mornings a week she heads to the gym at 7 a.m. "I do pliometrics, I jump over things and it's fun.  It's like when you were a kid."

A tall glass of cranberry juice is the nastiest drink she'll order when out at a bar or club, and her diet is loaded with healthy and organic foods and vitamins.  There's usually a container of spirulina at hand for her shakes.
Dressed in Save-On-Foods sneakers she bought for $16, skater jeans, a long-sleeved cotton shirt primarily blue with black trim that she picked up for $5 at a Boxing Day sale, and curly hair that's pink at the roots but swirls out into jet black, Hector admits she has picked up one addiction - coffee.  She can't live without her morning dose.
 
"I can't be a saint.  It would be really boring to be Mother Theresa.  That's her thing,"  the bubbly Hector blurts out.

Her appearance would lead few to believe that she is approaching sainthood.  The tattoos of flowers on her upper right arm and the goddess Isis on her left, when visible, reinforce that doubt. It appears, though, that she would rather have people believe she is working on sainthood than a free pass for the highway to hell.

"You don't need drugs or alcohol.  You can be extravagant without it," she notes.  "You don't have to have bad press and you don't have to be a bad girl to get your name out there."

That doesn't mean the former Parkgate Shoppers Drug Mart employee isn't working towards a greater level of success in the music industry, "But I don't want to be like Britney - fabricated."

Hector said she thinks that it's important for a musician to know who they are before they try to live up to some image created for them, despite the fact they become famous and wealthy as a result.

"I feel for (Britney).  She won't have much of a learning experience.  She's got money but is she happy?"  Hector asks rhetorically.  "I'm happy and I don't have anything.  I've got a computer and a dog."

She says she stays happy by not taking things too seriously.  "As long as I'm not hurting anyone, including myself, I'm doing okay."

Hector plays loud music and then she'll sit down and meditate.  "I shut out the voices that told me I was too fat or I need more makeup."

Receiving recognition from Hole has helped quash any doubts about her musical abilities. She'll spend the next two months writing music for a new CD and website (www.hector.ca) in between teaching piano to 40 students, 36 of whom are on the North Shore.

And she's still California dreaming.

"I just know I'm going to get down there.  I know I'm going.  That's where the work is and the people I need to meet.  It's just a matter of luck and meeting people at the right time."

She realizes that she's in an industry where youth is highly prized, but that doesn't concern her at the moment.  And when it gets to the point where it does, she'll be prepared.

"When I have too many wrinkles to suit the public, then I'll write children's music.  I can be 80 years old and write kids' tunes because kids aren't ageist and I know that I'll still be goofy when I'm 80.