Ask most Canadian indie rock darlings who they’d like to collaborate with if they could pick anyone and the stock answer is usually someone from The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, or that dude from the Black Keys. (I could just barf all over their hipster clothes.) But ask John O’Regan, better known as Diamond Rings, that same question and his answer is rather refreshing, really.
“Kylie Minogue,” says O’Regan, without a moment’s hesitation. “She’s got amazing style and a great body of work. I really take inspiration from those artists who have managed to sustain lasting careers without compromising their own aesthetic integrity.”
On his second album, Free Dimensional, the Toronto songwriter delves even further into his electro-pop ’80s inspiration, sounding like a cross between David Bowie and Midge Ure (Ultravox). It’s high praise for a former punk kid who still writes songs in his cozy bedroom, although this time his recording studio time included the guiding hands of hotshot producer Damian Taylor (Bjšrk, Austra, The Prodigy).
“He’s a real pro and has amazing ears,” says O’Regan. “He really pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and take risks. He’s also got an incredibly warm, calming personality.”
The result is an album that could catapult Diamond Rings into a spotlight to accentuate his impeccable fashion sense and daring sense of humour. And while some might try to take the piss out of him for being too flamboyant, like other great musicians before him he understands the importance of image in pop music.
“Music and fashion are inextricably linked. People listen with their eyes as much as their ears. Fashion just gives me another avenue to further my creative vision,” he says, adding, “I don’t really think of myself as having a sense of humour. Lyrically, I like to play around and reference other artists and songs within my own work. Stuff like that is funny to me, but I don’t know if it’s funny to anyone else.”
The Diamond Rings character that O’Regan created after tooling around in the Toronto-area post-punk scene was meant to be a springboard for the kind of music he was aching to create. Free Dimensional is the batch of songs that could elevate him to Kylie Minogue-like status. Heck, with appearances on both Letterman and Leno in recent weeks, perhaps that high-profile collab with the Aussie songstress isn’t so far offŃjust the next accomplishment for O’Regan’s alter-ego persona.
“Diamond Rings is not a persona,” he’s quick to point out, “but rather an amplified version of my own self. It’s about celebrating my own idiosyncrasies and living out the internal contradictions that make me unique.”