If you mention the words “Guelph” and “festival” to most Toronto people, the common response is “Hillside?” – but more and more, the response may well be “Kazoo!” Launched in 2008 as a “downtown” alternative to the more established campground music festival, Kazoo! Fest takes over venues across Guelph’s charming city centre for five days every April. The affordable, accessible festival grew out of the monthly Kazoo! fest and zine, founded in ‘06 by a scrappy crew of indie musicians and artists. Wavelength has been collaborating with them since 2010, both to co-present shows, and also with their own multimedia music project, Polydactyl Hearts Collective. Our co-presentation with them this year takes place this Saturday (April 6) at Guelph’s Green Party HQ, featuring WL13 all-stars Doldrums and Live Action Fezz, along with Arbutus Records up-and-comer Sean Nicholas Savage and Silent Shout’s own Digits, and the festival proper launches today. Wavelength’s Adam Bradley spoke to Kazoo! mastermind, Brad McInerney.

The line-up this year is as awesome and eclectic as always, boasting a crazy array of vibes and styles. How did you end up piecing it together?

Thanks! Every year we focus on mixing it up and making sure the festival has a bit of everything. We’re also working with a bunch of amazing co-presenters including you fine folks at Wavelength, plus Electric Eclectics, an amazing summer festival in Meaford, Ontario and Silence, a Guelph-based experimental music series and alternative show space that just opened in an old garage in downtown Guelph. We try our best to cover a bit of everything and this year we’ve really concentrated on integrating our music programming with our visual art and multimedia stuff by working closely with Ed Video Media Arts Centre.

Who are you most excited about seeing?

Of course I’m excited to see everything but here are a few things stand out for me… I’m looking forward to seeing Scattered Clouds from Hull, Quebec, who I saw a few months ago and I was absolutely blown away by. Some other highlights include sets from Dusted, Absolutely Free, Jennifer Castle, Sean Nicholas Savage, The Highest Order and locals like Legato Vipers, Esther Grey, Gregory Pepper and more. I’m also looking forward to seeing Gordon Monahan’s Sauerkraut Synthesizer which should be pretty wild.

What venues are you taking over this time around? Anywhere new you haven't been in past years?

We’re using 10 different venues across the city for shows, art exhibitions and more. This year we’re running our own pop-up venue at the Green Party Office, which has a big open space that used to be an auto garage. The venue will feature a projection-mapped sculpture installation entitled “Toy Factory” by Live Action Fezz, who is also playing on Saturday at the Wavelength co-presentation. Toronto audiences may have seen Fezz’s work at the Doldrums album release during the Wavelength 13 festival, or at the Foundry Series hosted by Mansion.

How would you say Kazoo! has grown this year?

Each year we try out some new things, this year we’ve expanded our zine fair into the Kazoo! Print Expo, which is a much larger event with a broader focus that includes zines, comics, art prints and more. We’re featuring over 40 tables with a healthy mix of local stuff plus a lot of people from Toronto and a few people from as far as Montreal. We also have more performers than ever, but ultimately we’ve kept the festival to a reasonable size. We’re focused on having a five-day city wide festival that’s still in small-to-medium sized spaces, to encourage interaction and community.

I love the idea of the pancake breakfast show you're doing on the Sunday. Will you be strapping on an apron for that one?

Of course! The pancake breakfast is the oldest Kazoo! Fest tradition. We used to host it at my house, but for the past few years it’s been way too big… having 100+ people over for pancakes is way too much! This year, we’re using a bigger space which is accessible and family-friendly, so parents can bring their kids.

It's really cool that you guys seem to make a point of collaborating with so many other arts organizations to make the fest a reality, including Toronto's humble Wavelength concert series. What are your thoughts on community in that regard?

Collaboration is really at the heart of Kazoo! Fest. Every year since we’ve started, we’ve focused on bringing together different promoters and arts organizations in Guelph and beyond to spice things up. For us, these collaborations are about keeping things fresh, acknowledging the great work that other groups are doing and contributing to building a larger community based on collaboration. It’s also way more fun when all your friends are in on something!

Any sweet after-parties going down this week that no one should know about yet? We won't tell.

Haha! To be honest this year we don’t have anything crazy planned yet but I expect there will be some “unofficial” late-night stuff happening. Last year we had a surprise set by the Mutations, a cover band with Bry Webb and others doing classic rock covers including a rendition of “Low Rider” with Motëm. You never know what’s going to happen!

How do you find time to sleep? Do you cart around some sort of hyperbolic stasis pod with you from venue to venue for hyper-naps?

Of course we’ve scheduled time for cat naps, but really we’ve got a pretty amazing crew of 25+ volunteers helping out this year… without their help there’s no way we could pull this off.

Kazoo! Fest launches tonight (April 3) and runs through Sunday (April 7). A “Crony Pass” gets you into everything for $30, though all shows are $10 admission or under and many are free or PWYC as well as all ages. And just in case Guelph seems “too far," the GO Train now goes to Guelph, in addition to the Greyhound.