Bassist and singer Ellis Sam is one of the fertile minds behind Flash Palace. The band—which also features MacRae Lawrie, Samuel Dzierzawa, and Jonathan Scherk—recently put out a double-cassette release, some Misinterpreted sunsets, a collection of postrock soundscapes that are expansive and mind-altering but still oddly accessible.

Best local release besides yours:

“My Friend Wallis, When the Blue Turned Yellow. She [Crystal Dorval] moved here from Victoria. You can download it on-line for free. It’s got this really awesome tropical-beach vibe, but it doesn’t feel like she’s trying to jump on that really cool vibe right now. All the sounds are really baked in her head, and really close to her heart, so it comes across as really honest, and a really warm, awesome EP.”

The year’s best gig:

“I saw this band Cloaks, from Portland, at Solder and Sons bookstore [247 Main Street]. They host really small DIY shows and ambient shows, and this really awesome band from Portland, Cloaks, came up [on September 25]. It’s a two-piece with a Steve Reich influence, and they did the most minimal—but maximal-sounding—ambient music I’ve ever heard.”

With apologies to Ke$ha, who would turn you on if they took it off?

“If I was to wake up in a bedroom with someone, I would wake up with Sarah McLachlan next to me, and I would rope her into a boyfriend-girlfriend band called Sarah McShaman. And it’s going to be an epic drone band with lots of grand piano, long-form drone pieces. I think once the magic got cooking, we could really tap into some intense improvised zones together.”

Michael Buble donated the profits from tonight’s show to you. Where’s the party?

“I think we would all like to go to Mongolie Grill [467 West Broadway], as usual. It never gets old. So many different sauce combinations. We definitely all hang out there a lot. We always try to decide to go somewhere else but then end up at Mongolie Grill.”

What classic album needs a 180-gram-vinyl rerelease?

“Azeda Booth’s In Flesh Tones album. They’re this band from Calgary who put out that record about four years ago. Not that many people have heard it. When we were in high school we would always put on this record when people would be blasting Black Eyed Peas, and it would be really awkward most of the time, but it made so much sense to us. It’s ambient electronic pop, but it’s got this really weird quality to it that’s not like anything else.”

Your Lotto Max numbers came up. Where are you opening a venue?

“Bloedel Conservatory. I always call it ”˜the dome’. There’s always that fear that Little Mountain Gallery will have to shut down, but if I won the lottery I would give all the money to Little Mountain so they could make a real little mountain in Queen Elizabeth Park and take over the dome and put on shows there, and sell the plants for crazy PA gear.”