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

Haley Blais

Who are you

My EP Let Yourself Go is out now, and I'm currently on tour singing it into the void every night. Right now, I'm writing this from my mom's bed in my hometown, Kelowna. Hands down best bed. 10/10

First concert

It was Toby Keith and I'm sorry but I still know every word to his songs because my dad blasted that shit in my formative years. To be honest, "Should've Been a Cowboy" bangs, but extreme white man patriotism isn't exactly my thing. My dad drove us down from Kelowna to Vancouver for the show, and I remember just a sea of cowboy hats and denim. Might've been where I had my first sip of beer. Yeehaw.

LIfe-changing concert

I saw Angel Olsen at one of her first big festival performances at Sasquatch years ago. There was maybe 50 people there and it was cold and raining. She sang "unfucktheworld" with her hair blowing in the wind, cascaded in this blue light, and no one even cared that we were wet with a possibility of hyperthermia. I loved that she'd written these songs that people would risk such discomfort for just to hear, because they loved them so much. I wanted to do that. Actually, now I'm not sure it was even raining, maybe I was just crying.

Top three records

Andy Shauf The Bearer of Bad News Other than the fact this album is just breathtaking and moody and "sonic winter", Andy was the first modern artist I really related to on a songwriting level. A lot of his songs are stories not necessarily based on himself, but rather fictional stories, which was something I really admired. It had always been hard for me to write songs stemming from personal emotions or events, so Andy was a big inspiration for me when I first started writing music. He still is.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah On the complete opposite side of the spectrum this is "sonic summer". The eclectic assortment of instruments scattered throughout the album, the fact you can hardly ever understand what Alec Ounsworth is saying, the pure juvenile joy of it all, reminds me of a drunken summer night set to music.

Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas I feel like I don't need to explain myself on this one. It's an '80s nostalgist's wet dream.

All-time favourite video

Alex Cameron "Stranger's Kiss" Jemima Kirke stars in it, and cosplays as Cameron, playing an obsessed, but earnest, fan. It's the perfect amount of denim and desire.

What's in your fridge

Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce. Listen, I do NOT handle spice well, but I have six bottles of this hot sauce in my fridge and I'm still going strong. Maybe it's the packaging, maybe there's a secret addictive ingredient, but I eat this sauce with every meal. I once put it on a mandarin orange.

Two jars of homemade pickles. For Christmas, my mom gave my brother and a bunch of pickles. That's the story. I got pickles for Christmas. They're good as hell. 

Vegan cheese. If there's anything I ball out at the grocery store for, it's $15 vegan cheddar baby. I have sliced, shredded, creamed, you name it. Cheese is the biggest thing I miss as a vegan, but after 3 years of it you start to forget what dairy cheese was really like, and the vegan versions become more and more delicious (and expensive). Hot sauce, pickles and cheese. The essentials.

You can check out Haley Blais's Let Yourself Go here.