Friends of Wavelength know Slim Twig from the diverse music he creates under his own name or in the wicked duo Tropics. With a good stack of EPs and LPs on vinyl, tape and old fashioned CD, Slim has a ton of great material you should check out if you want to hear one of Toronto's most distinct artists. You can find his solo releases here. But when he isn't busy writing another record or out on tour Slim can be found in front of the camera in a different kind of performance. As Billy Zero in Bruce McDonald's Tracey Fragments, Slim Twig played a small but important role in the development of Ellen Page's lead character. Slim Twig now takes center focus as Kitz Harrington in the upcoming Canadian indie feature film Sight Unseen, produced by Jennifer Hazel and Ross Turnbull and written, edited and directed by Ross Turnball (who some may know from Charles St. Video). From playing the real life role of 'son' to his parents to now the lead actor in their newest feature, Sight Unseen is truly a family affair, one which finds Slim coming full circle, going from music to acting and back to music as he composes brand new pieces to score the film. Read on as Slim discusses acting verses music making, working with your parents and film scoring verses songwriting and get a preview of three pieces of the film score composed by the man himself.

Sight Unseen synopsis: Kitz Harrington lives a quiet life with his clingy, sick mom, Demona. He works for Larry Lamont's low-rent surveillance company and dreams of becoming a secret-service agent. One of the few people Kitz chats with, the landlord's odd daughter, Connie Dace, may have a bit of a thing for him. Kitz is a watcher and when he learns of eye chips, a wearable technology designed to take still images and capture video, unseen, he determines to have one. At first innocently and then with more serious consequences, Kitz sets about taking pictures. When video appears on his chip that he can't remember shooting, Kitz desperately attempts to uncover the mystery behind the disturbing footage.

Sight Unseen - Slim Twig by wavelengthtoronto

Songs like "Tormen" and "Brothl Hunting" tell stories from the perspective of questionable characters and invite the listener into sordid worlds. How much is Kitz Harrington like one of your lyrical protagonists?

I often justify my dark lyrical obsessions as akin to an actor really wanting to play a juicy villain, but Kitz is definitely not that. Many of my lyrics while often opaque, are fairly dramatic - they exaggerate preoccupations I have, whereas the film has a much more naturalist take on more cerebral dilemmas than those that I explore in my own works (not to say there isn't drama!). A song is so short that to create some kind of excitement I often resort to embellishments to get the proper mood across whereas a film affords it's characters more time to acquaint themselves and so as a result those with unhealthy preoccupations seem more complexly human than simply villainous! Kitz is a young innocent who somewhat tragically leads his life astray, but not a bad guy at heart.

The synopsis for Sight Unseen almost reads like a darker William Gibson cyberpunk filtered through a David Lynch lens and I know your a fan of Lynch. Do you draw from the actors' performances in his films or the films of other directors?

Certainly, in both my acting and musical endeavours. My parents and I recognize Lynch's influence on the film, with some passages exploring parallel themes to those of Blue Velvet. Kyle MacLachlan's performance in that film was also a great reference point for me, the idea of reconciling voyeuristic tendencies and dark obsessions with an otherwise virtuous life was central to Kitz's makeup. I've always relied upon cinematic imagery to inform my lyrics, often even going so far as to 'quote' certain images from films that I like, perhaps that has something to do with being brought up in a very film conscious household. In any case, it was a neat experience to try and translate that influence I'm so attuned to with my music back into the original source!

How related do you find acting for the camera and acting for a live music show? How similar is creating a character as an actor to creating a character as a songwriter? How involved were you in the creation of Kitz Harrington in terms of his story arc?

While both are performance based, I find my interpretation of each medium almost at odds with each other. When it comes to performing in a film my method is to try and stay out of the way of the creative team's vision, my style is very understated, I try to perform as close to how I think I might respond in the situation were it actually to happen to me personally - there is very little re-interpretation. My style of writing and performing in music is very much the opposite. The characters I explore in my songwriting do not represent me, but are things that I am interested in or that provoke me. In concert, and when I sing on recordings I am trying to provoke something out of myself that doesn't naturally exist there, which is kind of the opposite to what I hope to achieve on screen. As the sole creator in my musical project, my shows and my albums have to stand alone whereas as an actor you have to be discreet and hope that what you are doing compliments the package as a whole.

The set of a film production is a very intimate and intense environment. Creativity and community when done wrong can be insanely stressful but when done right can lead to the most amazing art. How was it working professionally with family members? How similar or different do you find it to working in a studio with other musicians and friends?

Making Sight Unseen was a remarkable experience that definitely serves as an important milestone in my life. My parents have worked tirelessly for almost 3 decades on their film and art projects, for no other reason than the final artifacts and the experience of having created them. This has left a very serious impression on my work ethic and my motivations behind wanting to be an artist. It's impossible to forget any of this when collaborating with my parents, which applies a kind of pressure I am not used when collaborating with my friends on music. I think ultimately this was a good pressure. I've had the feeling throughout the whole process of producing the film - from performing in it, to scoring it – that everything had to be as convincing as possible, nothing extraneous. I afford myself more room to fuck around when I work on my own, sometimes the result is some kind of interaction I would never have achieved consciously, other times it's shit... I had to streamline things a lot on Sight Unseen to ensure that my contributions would feel essential. I think both methods of working are interesting to attempt.

Do you see your identity as Slim Twig as a kind of transmedia personality or brand? There's Slim Twig the musician, Slim Twig the actor. Could there be a Slim Twig comic book character or novel protagonist?

Haha... I don't really think of it that way, (although it sounds lucrative!!). I don't even really consider myself an actor to be honest. Acting kind of bankrolls my musical ambitions, although Sight Unseen of course had much more meaning to me beyond that! Slim Twig is just who I am as a creative dude. Music happens to stimulate me most, there's an exciting urgency about making it that I don't get with other endeavours... I expect to spend most of my creative life pursuing that stuff.

How do you approach scoring a film as opposed to writing your own songs? Do you approach the score from a place of story and character or one more of scenic mood and tone? Is writing a film score something you've enjoyed?

Yes, ultimately I've come to enjoy it. Certainly I'm very happy that I have all this music that I never would have considered composing which is very nice. At first it seemed like a mammoth challenge, you have to learn to use a different musical vocabulary than that of a songwriter. My friend Ela Orleans really helped to communicate that to me, I wouldn't have been able to compose the score without her. In terms of approach I think the only logical one to have is what the images are calling for. This was hard for me to wrap my head around, I'm used to making music free and clear of whatever anyone else is interested in. With films you have to concentrate not on conjuring a mood, but on complimenting or embellishing one that already exists. When you can accommodate little things like certain character traits into the score the film becomes much richer... I understand all of this in theory, so hopefully it translates in my soundtrack! I'm very grateful to my folks for handing me an opportunity like this, having done it once I'm really looking forward to trying it again in the future!

Hopefully we'll see Sight Unseen in a theatre this fall or winter, but check out the website for behind the scenes photos, the upcoming trailer and other info.

www.sightunseenthefilm.com