Purveyors of: Trippy, dippy, lippy stuff
File next to: Washed Out, Kate Bush, drugs
Playing #WL14 Thursday, February 13 @ The Silver Dollar Room

Daniel Lee and April Aliermo have roots that run deep into the annals of Wavelength. Those roots were cast via their beloved indie outfit Hooded Fang and have extended in style with their buzzy side project (of sorts), Phèdre. An approach more than a band, Phèdre borrow from a wide range of genres to create music that deliriously sounds like both everything and nothing. Their sophomore full-length Golden Age was recorded in Berlin and released in the fall of 2013. Cam Gordon recently caught up with April for a chit-chat that covered anatomy, both in terms of a band and a body.

Based on your Hooded Fang experience and now through Phèdre and other project, how has Wavelength helped shape your "big picture" Toronto music experience?

This might be a better question for Daniel since he grew up in the city, but the Sunday Wavelength shows at Sneaky Dee's were definitely kind of our church when things were coming together. When we put out the first Hooded Fang EP, Wavelength was the first high profile show that we played. Strangely, it coincided with some kind of international bike courier convention that happened to be in Toronto that weekend. The last of their competitions got rained out, so that Sunday at Sneaky Dee's became a bit of an impromptu after-party for those guys and we ended up playing for a fairly massive crowd of bike couriers.

Nice! How were the outfits that night? Any spandex or severe haircuts?

A bit of spandex. Quite a few cycling hats as well. There was actually some nudity in the crowd by the end of our set. I autographed my first boob that night.

I hope you were able to parlay that into "signings" at future gigs?

Oh, totally. Tons of boobs, butts, penises.... it's great!

It's been noted that Phèdre is something of a departure from the kind of music you make with Hooded Fang. And more so, it is really hard to categorize Phèdre's music in any one genre. Assume that's by design?

One thing we really like about this band is that it wouldn't be that strange if we decided to record a punk or a hip-hop song. We love working with various people and collaborating with video and art and other disciplines besides music. The band allows us to explore wherever we're at during that moment. On our last recording, we had our friend Ken Park playing keyboards and we had an opera singer appear and a little kid record an intro. People seem programmed to file all music into genres. I'm not saying that is even necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think it should be surprising or a big deal if a band wants to totally change its sound song-to-song.

Your last album Golden Age was recorded in Berlin. What are your ties to the city and how did that experience come together?

Daniel's sister lives in Berlin, so it's a bit of a home away from home for us. We wrote and recorded the album during the month and a half we stayed at the city. I wouldn't say the music was all that influenced by our surroundings, since we didn't fully immerse ourselves in much beyond the creation of the album and a few bars and places right around the apartment where we were staying. It was just a really creative time overall and it was hard to pull ourselves away from the art. We actually have been feeling really nostalgic lately given the time of year — it's been reminding us very much of our winter in Berlin.

Could you see yourselves recording in that model again: heading to another city and not returning until you have another full album completed?

Maybe. It's actually one of the great things about being a musician — the fact you can travel and make real connections in different cities. Especially once you've completed a few tours, you can really start to get a feel of what's happening in other areas and find friends and collaborators that will always welcome you. We've played shows with bands like Pangea out of Los Angeles and Howler from Minneapolis. It's always a slightly different experience and it's amazing to have this network where you know you're going to have a couch to sleep on in a bunch of different cities around the world.

It seems like it could be a challenge to replicate the Phèdre album experience live, although I can only assume that that's low priority for you, given that your eclectic music is constantly evolving. What can fans expect for your upcoming Wavelength set?

We've been lucky to have played and collaborated with so many amazing musicians and artists on-stage. At the moment, our friend Mike from Beta Frontiers is DJing for us and Daniel and I are planning on just jumping around stage like rappers. Really, a lot of jumping. Should be good.

Phèdre plays night one of Wavelength FOURTEEN, Thursday February 13 @ The Silver Dollar Room (486 Spadina Ave.).

Photo credit: Dimitri Karakostas

- Interview by Cam Gordon (Completely Ignored)