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Toronto’s Century Palm talk music as hobbyism ahead of their record release show

CENTURY PALM with VALLENS and MOON EYED at Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton), Thursday (March 2). And with FAMINES, SWEET DAVE, THE SHALLOW GRAVES and DEATHSTICKS at the Monarch Tavern (12 Clinton), Friday (March 31), 8 pm. $10. See listing. 


“A big inspiration is just biking during rush hour,” laughs Andrew Payne, Century Palm’s chief songwriter and spokesperson. “You feel insignificant. Everyone’s trying to take your space. They want to get to work faster, so they cut you off. And you form your own fake personality in response to that: ‘Oh, I need to turn into this mean hard person today.’” 

If you’ve ever met anyone from Century Palm, an unfailingly kind and polite crew, the image of one of them hulking out in a bike lane is pretty hilarious. That said, there’s no tripping the band up onstage. Payne’s guitar chugs along with the unstoppable momentum of Jesse Locke and Paul Lawton’s locked-in rhythm chassis, while Penny Clark’s flux-capacitor synth hooks hurl the songs deep into retro-futurist territory. 

Their brand new record, Meet You (Deranged), is a set of modern meditations on being anxious, broke or otherwise fucked with a series of urban koans about the masks we wear every day to compose ourselves, the psychic armour we don for protection. It’s far from being a bummer trip, though. In fact, Meet You is downright defiant, with spirited and propulsive performances that ring with I’m-okay-you’re-okay affirmation.

“There’s pressure between the kind of person you want to be and the kind of person you’re allowed to be,” explains Payne. “It’s hard for me to grow up, to choose which parts of being an adult I need to act out, and it feels important to remain creative and impulsive.” 

Striking this kind of balance not only comprises Meet You’s thematic core, it also defines the band members’ relationship to work, life and art. They’ve built a formidable reputation nationwide and logged time in outfits like Tough Age, the Ketamines and Dirty Beaches. 

Despite such lineages, Century Palm is a mostly self-financed project, which allows for total creative freedom. “We want to do this and we like doing this, and we don’t want to have to consider things like whether people will buy it or will the tour make a profit” says Payne.  

On the surface, it might seem frivolous to make music for its own sake in lean times like these, but Payne is quick to point out that it actually involves a lot of personal risk and conviction. 

“Sometimes I’ll quit a job to make an album. I’ve turned down decent work to do freelance just so I can have time to write and tour. It’s a weird hobby because you have to take it more seriously than something like golf. You make choices to keep your life open, be unmarried, with no kids, no house.” 

Meet You is already charting on campus radio, and the hardened hobbyists are about to embark on a cross-Canada tour, bookended by shows at the Monarch Tavern on March 2 and 31. You could do worse than to steep yourself in its new wave mindfulness. If nothing else, at least work on your Dutch reach

music@nowtoronto.com | @streetsbag 

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