It would seem easy to define Toca Loca as avant garde/new music nerds of the highest order, but it wouldn't be fair. First, they do cool stuff with comic book artists, filmmakers, and various youth and students. And they play cool pieces with titles like 'œHalf-Remembered City'?, 'œDiabolical Birds'?, and 'œL'Oubli et la Mort'?. And they cite influences with names like the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Essentially Toca Loca are so post-rock that they make Godspeed! look like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Demian exchanged e-mail with pianist/conductor Gregory Oh.

What human beings make up Toca Loca? What evolutionary path has the band followed?

When we started Toca Loca in 2001, we were just looking for a way to explore music and ideas that were a little bit outside of the traditional box. First I called up my good friend, Aiyun Huang [percussionist]. Simon Docking [keyboardist] was next on the list. Sometimes it'll just be one of us, or two, and we usually add other friends -- musicians, poets, artists, creators, whoever happens to fit.

What is '˜new music'? How is the Toronto '˜scene'?

New music is like pornography -- I can recognize it but not define it. Also, it corrupts the youth and I only read it for the articles. If there is anyone out there who can define pop music for me, I'd be mighty impressed... I like what happens in Toronto, and I like being in this community. I think that anyone who is interested in expanding their brain can't help but like both indie rock and new music, because ultimately they're about the same thing.

I'm curious about the ideas within your mostly instrumental music. What would you encourage audiences to imagine, listen for, or think about?

I'd just suggest being open and not worrying about experiencing anything in particular. I think that the music we play sometimes requires a slightly more active listening role for the listener, but generally, good music is good music whether it be techno, Scandinavian death metal or Darmstadt-certified.

What is this soundaXis festival you're involved in this summer?

The soundaXis festival is dedicated to exploring the music and ideas of Iannis Xenakis. This guy was sentenced to death as a revolutionary in his native Greece, and he had to flee to Paris as a refugee, having been left for dead after shrapnel from a mortar round destroyed his face. He went on to become a civil engineer, a brilliant architect, and then he set the music world on its head.

You curated a show called Use Your Pocky. The name is really cute. What does it mean?

I started thinking about the weird juxtaposition of Asian culture and North America, and the whole project began to take shape. We ended up involving various graftings from Asian pop culture, music by Asian composers living in the western world, and the crowning moment, free Pocky straight from Glico. I can't go into an Asian grocery without at least thinking about buying Pocky, and I thought it suited our theme perfectly. And I really liked the nature of the command -- here is your box, now go forth and be fruitful.

And you've held lectures and young composer workshops, and toured high schools with the Toca Loca EDU program. And you're commissioning works by Canadian comic-book artists and professional and student filmmakers, all part of your 2006 Music Gallery residency. What kind of interdisciplinary mess are you making?

Interdisciplinary is one of those words that is ugly and doesn't need to be used as much as it is. I'm trying to work with other artists and creators to make something good. Communicate or stimulate or fail miserably.

What are you going to bring to your Wavelength performance? What is the "101-hit combo" which you describe as the trademark of your shows?

I'm hoping to bring in monster clarinet player Lori Freedman, [sax player] Wallace Halladay from New York/Toronto and [percussionists] Ryan Scott and Trevor Tureski. We're not sure exactly what we're doing, except that it will be loud, hard, fast, fierce and sensitive. As far as our "101-hit combo", I'm not at liberty to say much except that it starts with Hadoken and ends with U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-B-A.

By Demian Carynnyk