TORONTO BICYCLE MUSIC FESTIVAL with Jason Collett, Lido Pimienta, Yuka, Nhapitapi, Annabelle Chvostek, Heavyweights Brass Band and more at Evergreen Brick Works (550 Bayview), Saturday (September 10), 11 am, and moves to Prairie Drive Park (70 Prairie Drive) at 1:30 pm. FREE.
September is here, but it’s still summery outside and cyclists are still on the move, as is the always roving Toronto Bicycle Music Festival – Canada’s only mobile bike-powered music festival.
Each year, organizers of the free event spend a chilled-out day travelling between city park stages that are powered by stationary bikes pedalled by the audience. This year’s mobile performance segment (at noon) is also bike-powered and features songwriter Annabelle Chvostek. While previous years have seen TBMF visit central and west-end parks, the seventh edition is pedalling eastward, starting at Evergreen Brick Works and following the Lower Don Trail to Prairie Drive Park near Victoria Park station.
The move farther afield stemmed from a partnership with new initiative Arts in the Parks, which brings free arts events to city parks, prioritizing neighbourhoods beyond the downtown core.
“Jason Collett playing in front of a Christie Pits crowd obviously would be great, but playing in front of a Scarborough crowd? That’s pretty cool,” says music fest co-artistic director Charlotte Cornfield. The suburban location also informed her and co-artistic director Don Kerr’s programming approach.
“We wanted to have a lineup that would appeal to a wide array of music listeners, not just indie rock,” she says. In addition to Collett, this year’s acts include Zimbabwean mbira band Nhapitapi, multi-instrumentalist Lido Pimienta, Girls Rock Camp, a break-dance battle and a kickoff by Yuka vs. Heavyweights Brass Band.
Being a cyclist is hardly a requirement to play – or attend – TBMF, but a lot of the musicians involved are avid cyclists. We asked few of them about biking in Toronto and bike-related tunes.
JASON COLLETT
What’s your relationship to biking in Toronto?
I love biking in Toronto, particularly now that it is impossible to get around any other way. I live in a neighbourhood where most things are either walkable or bikeable. I have a car but I avoid it as much as possible. It’s a frustrating time for both drivers and cyclists because of the historical transition we are going through – we are changing it over to safer biking lanes – but everybody of course needs to grow the fuck up and understand that it’s better for all involved.
My elder son [he’s studying law at U of T] is doing a semester in Amsterdam and I just got an email from him this morning. He’s just amazed. He’s grown up cycling in downtown Toronto as well but he’s writing about how he’s seeing businessmen double each other on bicycles in suits and women in long flowing dresses and eight kids in a bucket on a bike. But the thing he’s most impressed about is [that] nobody wears helmets and everybody’s on their phones while cycling – I just love the imagery. That’s a culture that’s way ahead of the curve in that way.
Does biking inspire your music?
[Laughing] I can’t think of a particular instance. Whereas driving definitely does. We all sort of relate to driving tunes and it’s interesting, you know. I was reading this article about the rise of Drake and the influence he’s had on the Toronto scene. The article was about the Toronto sound that has come out of that, which is related to weather but also references driving, like going on the 401 or the DVP. Driving at night and listening to the mixes they are working on. That time spent driving in the cityscape is part of that new sound that is emerging.
Springsteen, who’s been a big influence on me, was reflecting on his body of work and realizing ‘My god, the number of references I have to driving is outrageous.’ You spend a lot of time driving as a touring musician. There is something about being in motion that is conducive to writing and reflection. I think bicycles could do that as well. [Toronto Bicycle Music Festival alum] Jeremy Fisher has done entire tours on a bike. He’s gone across the country a couple of times.
I never spend that much time on a bicycle for it to affect my writing, but if I were trekking across the country, I think it would certainly become that. I think it relates to creativity in general the way that walking does. A lot of songwriters write while walking.
What’s your favourite bike song?
I’m almost embarrassed to admit it but a big hit at the cottage this year – the kids are getting to an age where they’re commandeering the stereo and they’re really into Queen, so you know where I’m going. Bicycle Race. I’m blaming it on the kids.
MOYO RAINOS MUTAMBA (NHAPITAPI)
What is your relationship to biking in Toronto?
I commute in Toronto by bike year-round and I have participated in many of the Bike Lanes On Bloor rallies. Bikes are the way of the present and the future.
Does biking inspire your music?
I hail from deep rural Zimbabwe and there, bikes are one of the most prized possessions. I had to learn to bike because it was what we used to fetch water, do groceries, go to the grinding mill, carry the sick to a clinic (which at the time was 20 kilometres away, via dust road). In 2006, I started fundraising for Canada Africa Partnership on AIDs, where we raised funds to buy bikes that were used by health workers in rural communities. With these bikes the workers reached villages far and wide and were able to support more people who were in need of HIV medication and other supports.
The music inspires and actually powers my biking. I pedal and breathe along to mental beats, loops and rhythms. Our music is definitely “on my playlist.”
What’s your favourite bike song?
We have a beat that we play as a band called Jiti, and one of our favourite songs from this genre is called KaBhasikoro (Little Bicycle). The lyrics of the song go: “KaBhasikoro, bata mwana madonha” (“on the bicycle, hold on to the little child, they might fall”). It’s about riding safely. It’s also a celebration of the bicycle. We are going to play this song at the festival.
What’s the coolest thing about Toronto Bicycle Music Festival?
I love the idea of a bike-powered show and so do many of my bike and non-bike friends.
ANNABELLE CHVOSTEK
What’s your relationship to biking in Toronto?
I bike around as much as possible. I have a two-year-old daughter and we have a cargo bike with the front end so that was a big, exciting decision for us to invest in a cargo bike. It seems like a safer way to take a tiny little person around than with a trailer so that’s been a really fun way to get around the city, and it’s also really handy for groceries.
Does biking inspire your music?
I grabbed a song the other day that I had started writing about bike power that had never made it to anybody’s ears or past me and a little room with my guitar, but I’m looking at it again cause I think it’s worth singing out there. I’m hoping it will be ready for the ride.
What’s special about the Toronto Bicycle Music Festival?
I guess the joy of participating in [generating] electrical power. You know, you can go up and ride a bike, on the spot. And you’re powering the stage. It’s just such a joyful way to manifest something that needs to be manifested. It’s not preaching, it’s just happening, it’s being done and there it is, you can do it. It’s a super-relaxed atmosphere, the music is always good, and the element of the critical-mass like bike parade, the ride itself, is such a great idea. The Tune Your Ride guys have created this lovely infrastructure that is just really fun and unique.
music@nowtoronto.com | @sarahegreene