Toque (Sydney) – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Toque (Sydney) – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: We have to play somewhere, and sometimes those places have more going for them than a stage and a power outlet. What is a memorable place you played, and bonus points if it’s not a well-known place.

JD: I imagine my references to locations will be potentially too specific to Sydney, Australia however I’ve managed to perform in a bike shop, church, warehouse and on a truck for a street festival in extreme summer heat. All of these have been DIY shows where the PA and gear have been dragged into each place, some with no official sound person and everyone has just made it work despite all odds.

RRX: In the universe of music, anything can happen. Bizarro doppelgangers can walk down the street in feather boas. Who would be your musical opposite and why? What do you think the “anti-you” band would sound like?

JD: I think the musical opposite to Toque would be an indie rock/shoegaze band where everyone looks at the floor, plays the same slow four chords and avoids eye contact with the audience. They would also not have keys, it would be up to three slow rhythm guitars only.

RRX: Tell me about your most recent song, album, or video (you pick.) Tell me a story about what went into making it. Not a process, but a cool story that took place within the process.

JD: I recently released a song called Hollow Man – the lyrics were written in a by-donation community hippy-style restaurant called Lentils in Sydney. I was inspired by someone who I’d hung out with the night before who classically fit the bill of an emotionally unavailable person. I thought it’d be great to capture this person in a song as a case study for all the emotionally unavailable people I’d attracted over the years and the unsettling urge to gain their approval for some reason.

RRX: I know when pitching it helps to tell someone it’s “this meets that.” So let’s try that with you. If you had to give me two bands that meet each other in your sound, what are those bands? More than two bands?

JD: I used to say Kate Bush meets Death Grips as the two most known artist references but now after discovering Black Midi, I reckon that Black Midi is the closest genre mix to Toque. However, Toque has its own more musical theatre/piano-centric flavour.

RRX: Music genres are difficult for some artists. Some strictly adhere; others not so much. What is your perspective on the genre you play, or the genres you hover around?

JD: I think that genres are convenient boxes to identify music but sadly you can’t fully convey with genres whether people will really connect with what music you’re making. I describe my music as theatrical jazz punk but realistically it does deviate pretty strongly into singer-songwriter territory that just won’t speak to the punk fans out there. I’m trying to accept that whatever I’m writing doesn’t fit neatly into any genre and because of that, won’t reach a conveniently homogeneous group of people.

RRX: What would you like fans to know before they come to see you play? (No basic stuff; get specific.)

JD: Prepare for lots of intense eye contact. Also be open to being confused at when to dance and during the rare moments when it gets danceable, for the beat to drastically disappear into free time noise.