Toronto’s Holy Fuck have more than just a very unconventional name: the band uses highly unconventional instruments to create their unique alternative sound.
Brian Borcherdt, who plays the guitar and multiple keyboard instruments, says the band quickly went from messing around with music in their free time to performing shows all across the world.
“We created Holy fuck, and in the beginning it was just us noodling around with toy keyboards that we found at Value Village and stuff like that,” says Borcherdt. “But pretty quickly we turned into a band, and pretty quickly that band got to go out and start touring, and only then was I kinda like, ‘Oh, shit; what have we done?’”
In 2008, the Harper administration issued a memo detailing the cancellation of the PromArt program, which was in place to help fund international promotional tours by Canadian musicians. The memo said that the government’s reasoning for cancelling the program was that it helped fund, among others, “a rock band that uses an expletive as part of its name,” which one can’t help but think was Holy Fuck (although Canada is also home to Ontario shit-disturbers Fucked Up).
“Harper’s administration said it was ‘un-Canadian,’ and it worked, because a lot of people found it enraging that that their tax dollars would go towards a band called Holy Fuck. Yes, they thought the band name was ‘un-Canadian,’ but, of course, that’s not knowing the bigger picture. It was really their tax dollars going towards symphonies and national ballet,” says Borcherdt. “People that don’t agree that any tax dollars should be used to fund art probably wouldn’t need much of an argument anyways.”
Controversial name aside, another reason that Holy Fuck stands out is the way they actually create their music. They use unconventional items and methods to make sound, including toy laser guns, rewired sound mixers, and even a 35-millimetre film synchronizer.
“Sometimes we take something quite conventional and use it in an incorrect way,” he says. “For instance, just taking standard mixers that you buy at Long and McQuade, and taking a line out and re-routing it back into itself, so that it creates a really bad feedback,” says Borcherdt. “There is a 35-millimetre film synchronizer that I use on stage; you can run discarded bits of movies and stuff through it, so I have some Denzel Washington dialogue and stuff that ends up being manipulated and cut up during our shows.”
Holy Fuck
Wednesday, January 18
$20, Sugar
sugarnightclub.ca