Man With Target's music is a mess of bloodshot eyes and flailing limbs, a massive sound that somehow always targets and finds the weak links in your psychological armour. One song, 'œPhantom Creek'?, sounds like Tom Waits in the throes of a horrible PCP adventure, where the devil appears unto him in the form of an emo band, and they get into an existential argument. The emo band gets slaughtered. Demian Carynnyk talked to Graham, the singer, an awfully nice guy to be making such awfully heavy music.

HEY, WHAT'S UP? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOUR MILD-MANNERED DAYTIME ALTER EGOS?

Well, some of us have cooler alter-egos than others. Evan (bassist) works at a record store and also teaches bass and guitar to kids. Dave (guitarist) works part time at a studio and is currently trying to get the money together to build his own studio. Paul (drummer) does irrigation, installing watering systems for office buildings and houses. As for me I work at some boring financial place in downtown Toronto that is so mind-numbingly drab you'd fall asleep if I described it to you in any more detail.

AJAX, ONTARIO, CANADA. WHAT'S GOOD? WHAT'S BAD? WHAT'S IT LIKE LIVING THERE?

There isn't really much of a scene here like there is in other towns. The good thing about being in Ajax, however, is that we have a small but fierce group of friends and fans here that have rallied behind us a lot and that's been really fantastic. We don't get to play in Ajax a lot, but when we do it's always a great time because of those people.

WHAT'S IT LIKE PLAYING ACROSS THE PROVINCE, MAKING FANS AND FRIENDS, AND THEN HAVING TO GET BACK HOME TO YOUR DAY JOBS?

Everywhere we go we seem to be playing better shows, making more friends and winning more people over, which is great. You wish you could not have to work some shitty job you hate just for the money to fund everything. It's a necessary evil, though. As tiring and disheartening and financially stressful as the tug of war between the two can be, you just suck it up and deal with it.

ARE YOU SPONTANEOUSLY MAKING CHAOS AND NOISE IN ALL DIRECTIONS? ARE YOU CONSCIOUS AND DELIBERATE ABOUT THE KINDS OF HEAVINESS YOU WANT IN YOUR MUSIC? A LITTLE OF BOTH?

I think a big misconception people have about bands like us is that we just get into a room and make this big, improvised cacophony of noise that doesn't really have any direction or point. A lot of what we come up with definitely gets birthed from jam sessions, but we all put a lot of forethought and planning into our attack, and the choices we make as songwriters are definitely deliberate ones.

WHAT WOULD YOUR MUSIC LOOK LIKE IF IT WERE A LOW-BUDGET HORROR MOVIE?

It would probably be somewhere between the original Dawn of the Dead and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. An undead Leatherface who has risen from the grave to slaughter a shopping mall full of vacationing teenagers.

ANY MAN WITH TARGET TOUR STORIES OR ROCK-RELATED MISHAPS?

[At one show] I hit myself in the mouth with the mic so hard I chipped a large part of my tooth off and opened up a huge cut in my mouth, and started bleeding profusely all over my face and my shirt. I didn't even realize I was bleeding until I noticed all the people who were up front start to slowly migrate backwards as I came closer to them. Ha ha. I actually had a great time with it... I climbed on all fours across the bar and knocked over some drinks.

ARE YOU GOING TO MUSICALLY BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF ALL OF US WAVELENGTH INDIE NERDS?

Well, even though I play in a heavy band, I'm a pretty big indie nerd too, so I have a soft spot in my heart for you guys. We're going to bring it as hard as we always do, but if it's your first time, we promise we'll be gentle.

- Demian Carynnyk