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Music

Dusted

DUSTED with BRUCE PENINSULA and the SKELETONES FOUR at the Great Hall (1087 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, May 24), doors 8 pm. $12-$15. RT, SS. See listing.


After five solo albums, Holy Fuck’s Brian Borcherdt finally feels confident with full musical self-expression – and he’s abandoning his given name to do it.

Borcherdt’s new project, Dusted, finds him teaming up with acclaimed producer Leon Taheny (also a member of Rituals and Bruce Peninsula) to make hazy, psychedelic fuzz-pop. Where his previous albums were “quick, honest offerings” of whatever he was writing at the time, the songs on Total Dust (out July 10 on Polyvinyl/Hand Drawn Dracula) were crafted and sequenced as a proper album.

Borcherdt made Total Dust in Taheny’s garage studio/”idea tank” during a tour hiatus from Holy Fuck, a period in which everyone in the band but him had a baby.

“That had something to do with [starting Dusted], but I think it was more of a life choice,” says the Toronto-based musician over pints on the Rivoli patio. “It’s a realization that I have to do what I want to do now or I’ll always regret it. I feel like I’m beyond the period of discovery. After all these years I finally know what I want to do, and that’s Dusted.”

The music isn’t a drastic departure from the fragile, falsetto-delivered indie folk of his previous solo work, but where his earlier songs sounded a bit sparse and underwritten, Dusted moves beyond song sketches to employ crunchy guitar feedback, string arrangements, synths and percussion.

“I don’t see myself as a typical solo-named singer/songwriter,” says Borcherdt, munching on a sweet potato fry. “I feel like the name was dictating a genre but that the genre wasn’t accurate.

“But singing through a little blown-out practice amp and a reverb pedal, now I feel like there’s an aesthetic behind it. It’s not just a guy in his bedroom with a guitar.”

Dusted will still be a shock to anyone who only knows Borcherdt as the knob-twiddler in experimental electro band Holy Fuck, but there are similarities. Just as HF works within self-imposed limitations (no computers, no looping, no MIDI programming, only live instruments), Dusted’s live show is dictated by however much Borcherdt and Taheny can play as a two-piece.

“When things are too finessed and methodical, too easy and colourful and sweet and accurate and perfect, it leaves a less lasting impression,” he says. “I think compromise is one of the most underrated things in art.”

Interview Clips

Despite his haunting, moody solo sound and electronic Holy Fuck work, Borcherdt says his favourite type of music is heavy, unconventional, Sonic Youth-style rock and roll. Here, he explains how that itch is finally being scratched, not just by Dusted but also by his other new band, LIDS.

Download associated audio clip.

Borcherdt explains how Dusted started as a solo project, but morphed into something of a traditional band, and how abandoning his own name gives him more freedom to break out of his usual bubble.

Download associated audio clip.

Borcherdt elaborates on the choices and limitations he and Leon Taheny had to make in translating Dusted to the live stage as a two-piece.

Download associated audio clip.

music@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/nowtorontomusic

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