The other night I had a dream. I was walking up Lansdowne Ave. on my way home when I saw a shiny green F-18 jet fighter taxi out onto the street and speed away to take off. It achieved lift before stalling a hundred feet in the air, flipping upside down and horribly crashing. Then I looked to the east and see the front end of a 747 spinning in the air, launching passengers from its broken end. With odd sounds, atonal melodies and complex time signatures, DD/MM/YYYY could very well have been the soundtrack to that dream.

HOW DOES DD/MM/YYYY FIT INTO TORONTO'S CURRENTLY BURGEONING NOISE SCENE?

DD/MM/YYY is not entirely noise-oriented. In our live performance we are very much a rock band playing traditional rock instruments. We can find similarities to noise music in our treatment of structure and sense of space, which is apparent in some songs more than others, but essentially, many of our performances would probably be classified under experimental rock.

DO YOU FEEL THAT TORONTO'S 'œINDIE SCENE'? IS PERHAPS A BIT TOO SEGREGATED FOR A BAND LIKE YOURS TO GAIN A GOOD CROSS-GENRE FOLLOWING?

I would say our music is usually appreciated by other musicians and pseudo-intellectuals. It is music that we created entirely from our influences and experiments. We have changed a lot in songwriting style, but always collectively felt the urge to make the music we play. We will have to see if the music we are currently writing can "fill" this conceivable gap.

YOU GUYS MAKE YOUR OWN ART AS WELL. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THE ARTISTS TO HAVE SOME CONTROL OVER THE VISUAL WORKS THAT GET PLACED TOGETHER WITH THEIR MUSIC?

We come with a strong DIY attitude. From our earliest experiences with music, we would generally release our music entirely ourselves. This would leave us responsible for making the CD packaging, flyers, websites and merchandise. If we didn't know how to get something done, we'd research it and do it ourselves. The importance a band puts on the visuals is entirely their decision. We just happen to come from a musical/visual background and are constantly experimenting with integrating the two.

HOW DOES A DD/MM/YYYY SONG GET BORN? EXPLAIN THE PROCESS, FROM CONCEPTION TO DELIVERY.

We are all instruments. Some sounds we choose to repeat and document, some are for the ages. Tomas produces a lot of stinkers, but some real gems too, depending on which side of the body the sound emanates. Matt rat a tat tats, Jordan organs, Mike mixes and we all dance. Whoa, its 3:22 in the morning and are we making sense! We be makin' cents! But now you all are reading our incoherent babble. Man, that is interesting!

WHAT WAS THE ATTITUDE BEHIND CHOOSING AN UNSPEAKABLE BAND NAME? WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BEST OR FUNNIEST VERBALIZATIONS OF THE NAME THAT YOU'VE HEARD SO FAR?

The attitude was, and is, every day is a new experience (if you want it to be). The name is a means of documenting the performance and allows us to avoid having to epitomize a funny-sounding band name, like Better Than Everyone. Overall, confusing the audience and promoters with an esoteric band name is worth enough. All pronunciations are correct. You can call us 'œDaymonthyear,'? 'œ11/12/2005,'? 'œInfinity Dance Party,'? 'œDecember Eleventh, Two Thousand and Five,'? 'œHaxor Dudez 4ever!!1!,'? or 'œDD/MM/YYYY,'? all are acceptable. Eugene from Lenin I Shumov verbalized it as a word and it sounded like "dehdeh-mmoie." That's kind of funny.

DO YOU FEEL THAT PEOPLE IN TORONTO MIGHT JUST WANT TO KEEP YOU ALL TO THEMSELVES, OR IS THERE A LOT OF SUPPORT FROM YOUR PEERS AND YOUR FOLLOWING TO TOUR AND EXPAND INTO OTHER REGIONS OF CANADA?

Our Wavelength performance will be the last of four successive shows in cities including Waterloo, Ottawa, and Montreal. So far in this band, we have traveled as far as Sudbury and Ottawa, and are interested in playing in as many places as we can. We love that Toronto is our home, but we want to continue to grow naturally, and let the music take us where ever it does -- *fingers crossed* Japan!

by Mike Perreault