Welcome back everybody - back to another West Vancouver podcast. I am so honoured and privileged to have this amazing artist, singer and musician with us here today. She calls herself the ‘Super Beautiful Monster’. I prefer to call her a friend - but she is so much more than that. Please welcome the spectacular Bif Naked.

BIF: We are friends. And we go back. We go way back. That is so fun. I love it. And I love the magazine, obviously - and of course, now the podcast. What you guys have always done with the community has just been incredible. It’s always fun to keep up with what’s going on here. I’m just thrilled to be on your show.

CAT: Well we love you too. And you’re always looking good - and you’re always up to something fun. You were just back here in Vancouver recently to help support the Canadian Cancer Society’s Daffodil Ball gala event. And whenever we manage to get you on stage, we get way more than just a music performance. We get ‘you’ the real person - the person who talks about her life and her philosophies and your positivity. You share so much more than music. And you’re also a cancer survivor and can speak to that experience as well. You have that connection. 

BIF: It was amazing to be there. The gala was virtual for the past two years, so it was an honour to be asked this year. They do so much and raise wonderful amounts of money for cancer research. There’s the new lodge, which I toured the day before, so it was a real full-circle moment for me. 

CAT: Now, some people are lucky to get to know this side of you, but most people know you as Bif Naked music star. How did you ‘assemble’ Bif the character? How did you grow up to become this famous person? Tell us where it all began?

BIF: Well, you know, I am a performing arts kid. My parents were just regular academics who put their three daughters in ballet and dance, theatre and spoken poetry, and art festivals - like a lot of art festivals across Canada. And I just really loved it.

So I think it’s always been in my blood. And then, in university, I fell into being in a punk rock band as a vocalist. And I had no plans at all, no training, no plan at all. I always say you didn’t require a lot of talent to be in a punk rock band - you just needed to have a whole lot of heart. And it just kind of kept happening.

And eventually, I became a solo artist. Bif Naked was already a nickname that I had from the early days. It was a punk rock stage name that I kind of donned because all the guys had, you know, provocative stage names - so that set me apart. I love what I do. I’m very, very lucky.

CAT: You mentioned university - but you were also given a great honour recently. And you’ve also got an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University (SFU) as well. Tell us about that.

BIF: That was just such a joy. My dad was still alive in 2013 when the University of the Fraser Valley gave me an honourary degree in letters. So he was very proud. We lost him to prostate cancer shortly after. But my parents were both academics. They both had Master’s degrees. 

So in 2020, I was lucky enough to get an honorary degree from SFU in Fine Arts. We’ll finally be able to celebrate that convocation ceremony in person at the beginning of May (as it was delayed due to Covid). 

Being able to have these accolades like this - it just makes my mother so proud, and for me, I could die happy. 

CAT: You are also an actor. How do you like acting compared to music? Do they play an equally important role in your life?

BIF: I would say it was the early 2000s. I was in a couple of feature films, and I enjoyed it immensely. Nicholas Lea was my co-star along with Ching Wan Lau in Lunch With Charles. And then another film I was able to do was Crossing with Crystal Buble. And it was just, you know, it was just fun. I think that my first love will always be performing live [on stage] and being in a band.

CAT: The album SuperBeautifulMonster.