Purveyors of: Experimental noise/psych/dance pop
File Next To: M.I.A., Lido Pimienta, Mas Aya
Playing: #WL14 Saturday, February 15 @ Polish Combatants Hall

Some things I know about her: She covers her gear, furniture, and face in sparkly decals. Sticking rhinestones on things relaxes her. Her outfits are full of colour and texture and turn the heads of adults and children alike (it's pretty cute the way little girls look at her in grocery store lineups). She is super hard working and her enthusiastic energy, her style and her down-with-the-Earth righteousness make her a magnetic artist and performer. She screenprints, she draws, she has a longboard, she has an elderly cat named ZC... She had a big year last year with the release of her solo cassette Of This Land on Healing Power, a pile of magical and invigorating jams that people have been freaking about. This past year she played a ton of shows and even organized a few and even decorated a few and even attended a few...

Victoria Cheong speaks with Petra Glynt a.k.a. Alexandra MacKenzie...

Any cool highlights from last year that you wanna reminisce about?

Oh yes oh yes, many things went down that stick out in my brain...
- The Megabonus dance party and compilation release at Double Double Land
- Against Life: Dumb Look Back on the DVP
- The Healing Power FRUITS release and show at the Tranzac
- Performing w/ Steve Reaume’s projections every time
- Ghost Hole Halloween extravaganza on the island until the wee hours of the morning
- Performing at the Line 9 protest
- Visiting Christiania in Copenhagen and discovering an flushed outdoor weed marketplace
- Playing Electric Eclectics and dancing my face off in the forest with friends
- Filming the “Sour Paradise” video with Blake MacFarlane and friends
... 2013 was beeeautiiiful.

Petra Glynt- Sour Paradise from Petra Glynt on Vimeo.

How did you get started in music? I know you have been in a few projects and bands and sang in choir... Any early musical memories or influences that you wanna share?

When I was a kid I went to see community musicals in Ottawa. I'm not saying that they influenced me that hugely, but by the time I was seven, I had seen a few of the big ones and knew a lot of the songs by heart and would sing them OFTEN. My parents noticed that a lot of the cast were thanking a particular lady named Yoriko in their bios. She turned out to be their vocal coach so we looked to see if she was taking in any new students. I auditioned for her with a song meant to be sung by a baritone man… I guess she liked it or found it hilarious and she started coaching me. Singing was my life until I moved to Toronto when I was 18. When I was with her, much of my focus was on classical and operatic voice, though in the later years things got a bit looser and I explored jazz standards and improvisation. I truly miss having a teacher in my life; she 's a magical woman… I sort of sang in a choir, but I never really dug it. I lip-synced more often than not.

After a couple years living in Toronto, I missed being involved in music and met Alanna DeVito (BB Guns) and we went on a mission to start a band…and then the Machetes happened, which included Norelle French on bass and Jen Simpson as the lead singer. This was my first band and we grew a lot together. Romo Roto was another music project that came later between myself and Tomas Del Balso, my partner at the time. It was all about drums and voice and a tape player with weird noise we made together that Tomas cued live. It was super high energy and a lot of fun, and we played a lot of really awesome shows and played with some real inspired peeps like AIDS Wolf, Japanther, Video Hippos, Future Islands, Chairlift, Indian Jewelry, Not the Wind Not the Flag…

After Machetes split there was a period where I was happy to be without a band. I felt that maybe I could focus on visual work, but I found that I missed playing drums with a full kit and needed it back! It feels good to get sweaty all over, like everywhere, and release everything. Dentata was in need of a drummer and they were great peeps, so we gelled and it was great for a while. We recorded with Rick White and Brian Taylor at their home situated in the forest of a town called Mono, which was the best. In the end I left for the sake of paring down my commitments and focusing on my visual work, which somehow spawned a solo music project. HA. Whaddayaknooowww.

Other musicals adventures happened, collabs and jams between friends, a regular one was Wet Nurse with fellow Toronto artist, Rebecca Fin, and for the last couple years Pachamama, a percussion duo with my <3 Brandon Valdivia, which is still alive but not as active at the moment. Long answer, big question, who's gonna read that? LOL.

What are you working on right now?

I'm putting together a full-length album for Petra Glynt… It's going well… so far I have nine tracks in the works and I've started to work out lyrics and drumming parts. I hope to release it in the summer… maybe for July? It's a lot of work but I think anything is possible.

I am also putting together work for a couple solo exhibitions, a multi-media solo exhibition at Ed Video in Guelph for the month of April coinciding with Kazoo! Festival — an awesome music fest for all us weirdos — and a solo drawing exhibition at Magic Pony/Narwhal. The date is yet to be determined. Then TOUR like a maniac on acid. Just end everything with "on acid," even though I've never tried it.

I couldn't help but mention your style and fashion in my little intro about you and I'm wondering how you feel about all that? How does it function in your life or in your music/ performance?

Everyday always feels so different from one to the next, so I can't really do things too samey. I feel different all the time so my style changes. I don't identify was a particular style either… other than that, I like to be comfortable. I don't identify with many categories. Keeps things fresh. I don’t buy things really. If I could afford to buy local, independent designers, I would. I very much dislike malls and shopping in general. I get everything pre-loved, or I find it, or maybe it comes to me. I don’t think style can be bought.

Performance gives me the chance to wear all the ridiculous stuff I collect that I wouldn’t necessarily wear on a regular basis. Sometimes being the only one rocking a one-piece unitard isn’t exactly the attention one needs…but on stage, anything goes.

What are you looking forward to in 2014? Dreams, aspirations… jam space, studio space, collabs, shows, ideas, videos?

More videos for sure and video collabs — the world of video just opened up to me and it’s like closing your eyes before you go to bed when all the colour and weird space visions start racing around… there's just so much possibility. Man, I’d love a home jam space. Can someone sponsor us all? We all need some serious sugar mama/daddy love here in Toronto. Lots of dreams for art projects, but I'm really looking forward to releasing my first full-length and organizing some proper tours. I need to travel — I'm really jonesing OK, hi.

How was your recent trip to Denmark?

Really great. Brandon and I met up over there and did a residency at a space called Mayhem in Copenhagen. It’s a venue/jam space outside the center of the city in this walled-in graffiti haven for alternative culture. It’s a beautiful place and of course everyone speaks English so well, we had no chance of learning any Danish. Ha.

How did it compare / what are your feelings about Toronto as a city to live and create in?

Copenhagen is one of the wealthier places in the world, so there’s more money for the arts. Musicians get paid, and if you wanted I’m sure you could make a living from gigging — granted, life is more expensive there. We were so lucky to get funding, I don’t know if one could get funding for visiting artists quite as easily here. In Copenhagen, there was a stronger sense of the collective, people organize together and work together, whereas here there seems to be less focus on collective strength and more on the individual. Mayhem was an inspiring place to be, it was a bit of trek to get to, but people went there regularly, there was no “it’s too far” attitude. The biking system is also great, with real lanes and traffic lights; I wish biking was more a legit way to get around here.

What music are you listening to right now?

Lately I’ve been getting into the stuff on this African label called Sahel Sounds, specifically their Music from Saharan Cellphones volumes, music traded via cellphones throughout the Saharan desert. It’s contemporary African music and it’s sick. I’ve also been getting into some of the electro-cumbia stuff from Buenos Aires off of the label ZZK, really good stuff.

Petra Glynt plays night three of Wavelength FOURTEEN, Saturday February 15 @ Polish Combatants Hall (206 Beverley St.)