photo courtesy of The Torrent

“If we suddenly found out we were a hip hop band we’d be relieved, because describing the kind of music we play is always a struggle.”

The Torrent should always be photographed in black and white. It suits their no-wave synth songs about desperate love and Catherine Deneuve. It’s amazing the trio find time for music, considering they boast talents like, writing, illustration, acting, and filmmaking between them. Evan Dickson asked Tara Azzopardi, Cameron Groves, and ex-Hidden Camera member Mike Berry about art and ancient Egypt.

What do The Torrent’s members do besides make music?

Tara Azzopardi: I guess I'm an artist of sorts – I draw and sew strange things. I design posters and install window displays. I write. I pay bills by running an independent video store.

Mike Berry: I act as menacing characters in independent Canadian films. I play in local psych rock outfit lsdoubledcup, and am a part-time 2nd-year Literary Studies major at U of T.

Cameron Groves: I make short films, although I’m pretty wrapped up in the band right now. There may be a Super 8 video in the cards.

I’ve noticed that there doesn’t seem to be much overlap between Toronto’s art communities. Music, at least, seldom seems to be accompanied by visual art, film or what have you. But you in the torrent all make art besides your music. Care to comment?

Tara: I think music and art overlap quite a lot in Toronto. Kids On TV, Bob Wiseman, Shary Boyle and Doug Paisley's "Darkhand and Lamplight" project. These aren't your typical indie-rocker-starin'-at-his-shoes shows.

Cameron: We’d love our shows to be multimedia extravaganzas, but it’s enough of a challenge finding time to learn the songs.

Mike: Yeah, songs are a definite priority in this band - over showmanship or staging. We did play in the back of a cube van at the Queen West Art Crawl, and that was fun.

Your website says you have a “sumptuously bleak worldview.” Uh... what does that mean?

Tara: We're depressed romantics. I like to describe the project as Giorgio Moroder producing Suicide.

Cameron: Sumptuously bleak is an oxymoron; that kind of incongruous thinking inspires us. We combine things that don’t go together. We still want people to dance, though.

Mike: Well said, guys.

Your song “ep07” is number nine on the CHRY radio play chart. Somebody at York must really like you. This is especially surprising to me because when I was at York it seemed like the radio station was a steady flow of hip hop and world music, alternating. This isn’t really a question, but please attempt some form of response.

Tara: Wait till it hits Northern Ontario campus stations...

Cameron: If we suddenly found out we were a hip hop band we’d be relieved, because describing the kind of music we play is always a struggle.

Mike: Kim Gordon went to York and I'm sure other cool people do, too. I am pleased that anyone digs our music. By the by, we don’t have a song called “ep07”, but we do have a limited edition disc called that.

Why is Michael ex-Hidden Cameras as opposed to current Hidden Cameras?

Mike: Because that band was becoming more of a job, and I always wanted to remember it as the magic it was at the beginning. I learned a lot from playing in The Hidden Cameras and had loads of fun, but Joel Gibb writes all the music and lyrics, so there is only so much room for creativity. In The Torrent we all write lyrics, choose synth or drum sounds and teach each other melodies and drones.

What place and time in history do you most idealize, wishing you could have been there?

Tara: This is a hard one. I idealize most of the past, and tend to forget about things like segregation and influenza. I guess I think about the '20s a lot. Women stopped wearing corsets, cut their hair, made a lot of art, drank and smoked publicly. Blues and country music were spreading.

Mike: Southern California in the late ‘70s. Gay clubs and beaches pre-AIDS / bands like Germs, Adolescents and Angry Samoans / Stevie Nicks running around with a black afghan on her head...

Cameron: Ancient Egypt under the androgynous pharaoh Akhenaten, King Tut’s father, who threw out the old religion and got everyone making innovative art. Something tells me they had amazing parties.

By Evan Dickson