Doomsquad interview: Obscure audio samples and a suckling piglet corpse

Image: Doomsquad

Toronto based collective Doomsquad recently released their second record Total Time - a sonically intriguing work that blurred boundaries between experimental rock and electronic music. 

Written and recorded in the New Mexico desert, the album is the artistic expression of three siblings who formed the band in 2012 through a shared interest in electronic beat-making. 

Their debut cut Kalaboogie made a significant impression on the experimental community with its exploration of tribal rhythms against apocalyptic drones. On last year's Pageantry Suite EP they realigned with their groovier side, before making for the desert armed with a heap of samples. 

The result, Total Time, produced by Holy Fuck's Graeme Walsh, extends their allure further, scoping the surroundings of the environment it was recorded in through glaring and doom impending textures.

As the band explain in this interview, its meaning is completely open for interpretation, but it didn't stop us digging further ahead of their date at Manchester's Night and Day Cafe on Wednesday 25th May.  

We hear this album was written and recorded in the New Mexico Desert, could you describe the location and why did you choose to make the album there?

We had driven through New Mexico on previous tours and immediately felt some cosmic magnetism to its immensely creative environment. Josh and Jesse Hasko (our two new band members) lived in Albuquerque for 11 years and became part of an amazing community.

Desert folk and the lands they inhabit are seriously the most far-out types you’ll ever encounter. We knew we had to be around that desert energy as we conceived and wrote our new album. 

This comes across as your most dance informed and expansive record (listen to it below), does the vastness of the desert inform that?

Yes. Most definitely. That was a massive part of it for sure. That, and I think being cooped up in an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere can spark some seriously displaced energy which was channelled into grooves. Osmosis is a hell of a thing. 

(Photo: Doomsquad)

What equipment did you set out with to make this record?

One corpse of a pickled suckling piglet. Two contact mics applied to its cute tiny skull and a USB key loaded with some obscure audio samples culled from Mike Patton’s back catalogue. 

There is something quite mysterious and spiritual about this album, could you expand on some of the themes behind it?

Well, it's all existential, that's for sure. We’d prefer to keep this kinda vague so as not to inform or re-direct whatever meaning anyone else receives from the songs. But ya, mostly, in a general sense, it's kind of a protest album, in a very positive and affirming sense: a re-gaining of control - over our bodies, over Time, over established ideologies and systems of control. 

Why did you enlist Graham Walsh of Holy Fuck to mixed and produce the album and what did he bring to the table?

We knew Graham from the Toronto scene. His other project Etiquette with his partner Julie is on the same label as us in Canada (Hand Drawn Dracula) and we just straight up vibed over similar interests and approaches.

Graham brought a big juicy feast to the creative table, loaded to the brim with rare seasoned analogue gear and an expert palate for tasty tones.  

Mary Margaret O’Hara features on the album, which seems a pretty big privilege. How did that come to light and what did you take from working with her?  

It totally is a massive privilege. We’ve been fans of hers ever since we encountered her Miss America album. She lives around Kensington Market in Toronto and tends to frequent the same haunts as we do.

One day, we just bravely approached her and ended up building a solid friendship. In fact, she was one of the first (and only) people to have heard our very first folk recordings, and one of our first live shows was at Mary’s annual St. Patricks Day charity concert five years ago. 

We hear Josh and Jesse Hasko of NORTH AMERICA have joined your live set up, how do they fit in?

They fit in perfectly! Like a fried twin egg on a bibimbap, which is the best part of the dish, flavouring all that plain rice, and bringing something unique and solid to the table. Seriously, NORTH AMERICA has always inspired us. We love the music they make. 

Your record was recently featured as 6music’s record of the day, which is a pretty big deal. Does experimental music receive the same kind of exposure across the Atlantic?

Yes and No. I mean, Tanya Tagaq recently won the Polaris Music Prize (which is the highest critical honour in Canadian music, our version of the Mercury Prize), and she is a bold-as-fuck avant-garde Inuk throat singer.

So, her win was a huge celebration on many fronts. But mostly, experimental music exists as a small, but strong sub-culture in Canada, an inspiring one that we are proud to be a part of. However, some types of experimental music are starting to get radio play and recognition from outside the DIY scene. 

We hear you’ll be bringing some “mad funk” to Manchester’s Night and Day Cafe, what else can we expect from your live show?  

A human sacrifice.

Thanks guys. 

Doomsquad play at Night and Day Cafe on Wednesday 25th May - tickets via the box below.

Like this? check out our Band of the week: Homeshake 

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