What’s in Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz Ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6 cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Matt Rogers

Who are you

I spend the majority of my life sitting in a recording studio pressing Record and asking people to sing or play better. I’ve produced albums for Vancouver bands that I think are the shit, like Ben Rogers (my younger and better-looking brother), Miss Quincy, Savvie, the Reckoners, and my own band, the Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer, with which I play guitar, bass, and drums at the same time (you have to come to a show to see how it works).

I also write music for film and television shows. Probably the only show anyone has heard of is the Discovery channel showHow Do They Do It?, which goes into great detail about things like how pencils are made, or how Internet gets across the Atlantic Ocean.

I often get called a workaholic, but it’s really just that I love my job and am fine doing it 16 hours a day, seven days a week (though my wife and kid might not share the same affinity for long studio days). Oh yeah, I’m also a dad, and usually a pretty good one. I believe that doing what you love and loving what you do is the best example to set for children. So I refuse to get a real job.

First concert

I wish I had something horribly embarrassing for this, but my first concert was actually one of my all-time favourites: Pink Floyd: The Division Bell tour. Complete with flying pigs and all. Missing was Roger Waters, but I didn’t care—my teenage self was in heaven watching David Gilmour take 10-minute-long guitar solos. I swear that the dudes sitting next to us were Cheech and Chong. And yeah, it was also my first time smoking pot. Maybe it was no coincidence that I thought it was so great.

Life-changing concert

Other than Pink Floyd, I’d have to say Peter Gabriel around 2002-2003. I mean, the guy sang a whole song upside down, while riding a bike, and inside a giant bubble. It wasn’t just fireworks and screen-savers on a giant screen, it was like Cirque du Soleil with 90 percent less cheese factor.

Top three records

Neil Young Harvest It’s hard to forgive Neil Young for "A Man Needs a Maid", but if you just fast-forward that tune, this record has more vibe than Sue Johanson’s vibrator.

Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball Previous to hearing this album I thought that country music was Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. And I HATED it. Emmylou with Daniel Lanois helped convert me within the first few tracks. I recently got to meet Lanois, and I felt like a 10-year-old girl meeting the Backstreet Boys in 1999.

Led Zeppelin IV I don’t care how overplayed this record is on classic rock radio—it’s still the benchmark of heavy rock 'n' roll. The drum groove on "When the Levee Breaks" is often imitated, never replicated. As long as you can put Elijah Wood out of your mind during "The Battle of Evermore", this album is the culmination of plagiarized blues riffs and early '70s rock production.

All-time favourite video

I have to say, I only watched music videos in the '90s when MuchMusic actually played music videos. So most of what I watched at that time isn't exactly timeless, like Tea Party’s "The River" or Moist’s "Silver". Thinking back, the only video that is still relevant to me is Neil Young’s "Piece of Crap", which is basically just a bad camcorder recording Neil Young drinking a beer backstage.

What’s in your fridge

Nespresso coffee and Dairyland cream. –It's how I get by. Without it, I think I’d just pull a Brian Wilson and sleep for years. And it has to be Nespresso because it’s fast and strong. With every second that passes in the morning without caffeine there is potential for me to turn from a nice dad into Jack Torrance in The Shining.

Driftwood Farmhand beer. What is life without beer? Not worthwhile. And life is too short to drink shitty beer. Driftwood’s Farmhand tastes like it was made in your own back yard. Maybe even from your actual yard trimmings.

Spinach, broccoli, and carrots. This is mostly so my son doesn’t get scurvy. I don’t touch the stuff myself.

The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer's latest album is called A Real Fine Mess.