Current Wavelength programmer Kevin Parnell sat down with Heavy Water, aka Wolfgang (Goin' Steady, Bummer In The Summer), in his living room for a gin and tonic and some pleasant conversation.

So what exactly is Heavy Water?

I've performed twice. Once at the Bummer In The Summer Festival fundraiser, which was solo jaw harp with visuals by Vic, a local filmmaker. I had never played jaw harp on a huge system so you could really hear it, for about nine minutes.

So this is what you'll be doing at Wavelength?

No, because the second time I played, I used a drone that Matt Dunn made at Poor Pilgrim. I played jaw harp and he played sitar. But since then I've lost one jaw harp and I've broken one, and I can't afford to buy a new one, and now living with Matt we have a room full of instruments and I've been playing around with them and using a looper. So I'll be making a big sort of loop drone that will progress and digress.

With vocals?

No. There's voice, but not actual words, no songs, it's just feeling. I can't write songs.

Kind of along the line of N!fty?

In a way. To be honest, N!fty is one of the biggest influences. It's influenced by everybody because for years I've just been watching people play without doing something myself, and now finally I feel comfortable performing on my own. I may never perform this way again. This show might be a one-off thing, which is something I've liked about Wavelength shows. There're a lot of one-off unique performances from bands you know and love.

You've performed with Ninja High School, but this is essentially your Wavelength debut.

Yeah, I've DJ'ed numerous times and I've done some work for the zine, but never my own performance.

You've been around since close to the beginning right?

Not the very beginning. I got into the scene through a lot of Guelph bands. I remember going to my first Wavelength show with 25 cents and Matt Collins was working the door and he asked me to DJ and it just snowballed from there.

When I met you, you were into dance/techno, and then psych folk. What are you listening to these days?

Every day it changes really. A lot of reggae. Richard Youngs. I've been downloading a million albums and they're all amazing.

Do you go back and listen to techno or folk ever?

No. I'm sick of dance music, but in a way I'm still intrigued in making my own sort of dance music and weird folk stuff. I have this idea for making psych trance with the jaw harp.

All that music is more of just an influence now rather than something you listen to.

Yeah, it sort of just led me to different places I can draw from to make my own music. A more noisy drone freak-out sort of style. I have another band, Blood Honey with Marco, Matt, and Kevin Hainey and we do a cappella doom, just voice and delay boxes. I'm also in Brujo, which is Matt's project and he's gathering a million people to be in that. It's like a caveman freak-out. So Heavy Water sort of draws from all that. It's very primal.

You've been involved in the Toronto music scene longer than I have. What's your current take on it?

There's a lot happening at one time. Almost any kind of music you want to hear, you can go out and hear it, which is amazing.

Do you go out to a lot of shows still?

Now that I'm playing more myself, I've realized that I'm not as interested in going out to a lot of shows. I'm more into performing and putting on shows. I started getting frustrated that I wasn't hearing what I wanted to hear and I guess that's when you have to start making music. I'm not a musician but I've been involved so much in it, that's it's just a natural progression that I would make something.

You took your time. You see a lot of people start solo projects or a bunch of bands, a month after getting involved in the music scene.

I had thought of a million projects, it's just not until now that I've needed to follow through with them. Maybe they'll all happen one day.

Tell us about the Bummer In The Summer Festival. What're the future plans for it?

We've got big plans for next August. We're gonna bring in more minds to help run it, people like Matt Cully of Poor Pilgrim, Tad, who's been putting on a lot of good shows, maybe Jonny from the Music Gallery. We want to have a week of shows and not as many bands.

This was the first big festival you've put on, right?

Yeah, and it went smoothly. We were able to get press for a lot of artists that wouldn't normally get any, locally, in the U.S. and even in the U.K. So I think the festival is just going to build. It's influenced by the No Music festival, Victoriaville, and Terrastock.

Have you guys considered doing a zine or guide along with your festival?

We want to. At least a pamphlet or program guide. We'd like to start a zine, but we'll see.

And you're still involved with Goin' Steady.

Yeah, every month. We have the Monster Mash coming up October 27. We might have a band play at it. And another band playing in December, tentatively called the Deep Kisses, which might be Lullabye Arkestra featuring Anne from Jon-Rae's band singing. We might have more cover bands as we go on to change it up. It's still really exciting for us as we keep finding new 50's tunes that we've never heard, and people are still interested. Once people stop coming, we'll stop doing it.

So you're busy these days.

Yeah, it's funny juggling old 50s tunes, dancing with Ninja High School, putting on shows, and then making strange music. Strange to most at least, we'll see if people care for it at Wavelength. It'll be fun regardless.

By Kevin Parnell