ROBERT DELONG at Wrongbar (1279 Queen West), Saturday (August 31), 10 pm. $12. TW. See listing.
The electronically assisted one-man-band format used to be a tough sell, but Robert DeLong seems especially suited to crossing over commercially.
Originally a drummer, the Los Angeles-based performer loops a grab bag of live instruments in real time, coaxes hypnotic melodies out of hot-wired video game controllers and also sings a maddeningly catchy pop song.
Waving a Wii remote around onstage and fiddling with old joysticks might have helped get him some early attention, but they aren’t just visual gimmicks.
“I’ve been to so many electronic shows by artists that I like and still not had any idea what’s actually going on up there,” DeLong admits, still groggy from a week of gigs in Europe and South Africa.
“But I will only use a tool when it makes sense: I’m not that great a keyboardist, and I’m probably more familiar with the controllers on a flight simulator game. It’s kind of taking advantage of the muscle memory you already have, but for music.”
It’s a natural progression from DeLong’s more traditional music chops.
“I’d always played drums – initially in jazz and later in indie rock and folk bands – but this was a new palette for me. I was always a computer nerd and already messing around with electronic production in various ways.”
Despite the joysticks, his work has little in common with the retro lo-fi 8-bit sound associated with the chiptune scene’s rewired antique electronics. DeLong’s music is more like what the Postal Service might sound like after encountering contemporary EDM DJs at a rave.
Turns out, that’s not far from the truth.
“My girlfriend brought me to a ravey event in Los Angeles about four years ago,” recalls DeLong.
“I’d always dismissed a lot of dance music as repetitive, but once you see it in a live setting you understand it a lot more.”
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles
