Adrien Potvin: So, how did you guys meet and start doing what you do?
Michael Claxton: I met Matt through a friend, and we started a band together called DD/MM/YYYY. And then I met Moshe when I recorded Matt and Moshe’s band, Newfound Interest in Connecticut, at my house in Toronto.
Matt King: But technically, the first time we met was when his [Mike’s] band, Plant the Bomb, played in my parent’s basement in Richmond Hill.
Michael: Oh yeah! What’s the year on that?
Matt: About 2002.
Moshe Rozenberg: Good year for basement shows.
Matt: So, they played with Moshe and I’s old band, called Newfound Interest in Connecticut. I remember they were sitting in my backyard with a bunch of my friends. They were sitting by themselves, and they looked like rejects from a toy factory [laughs]. You know, like from a Tim Burton movie or something? Like, kinda dirty and kinda dark, like one guy’s got an arm missing, one guy’s got an eye missing and a shaved head or something? So I’m like “Woah, who the f**k are these guys?” I never heard the band before. […] They played in my basement and I had never heard music like it before. So I was very taken, right off the bat.
Michael: And then our bands released a split [album], we hung out a bit, and then we started DD/MM/YYYY. And then Moshe joined shortly after.
Matt: Fast-forward nine years, and Absolutely Free started with the three of us!
Moshe: Yeah. Basically, the music is new, but the dynamic and the relationship between us is pretty historic, to say the least.
Adrien: Yeah, that definitely comes across in what I’ve heard. I’ve listened to some of DD/MM/YYYY, not as much as Absolutely Free –
Matt: Good! That’s a good ratio! [laughs]
Adrien: [Laughs] Yeah. So I was just talking to Mike about the Norman McLaren [Canadian animator] screening you did for TIFF. Anything you’d like to add about that?
Matt: Yeah, it was really an honour to be asked to do something for TIFF. [The special events coordinator] said, “I have this idea. I want you guys to make original music for Norman McLaren’s animations,” and he wanted us to do an hour-long program. Which was insane. He gave us a month to do it – it ended up being seven animations, so about 45 minutes of original content, in a month, tracked to this very historically significant animation, this oeuvre of a Canadian legend.
Adrien: Yeah, he was certainly foundational.
Matt: Yeah, he started the NFB, basically! And, you know, if you think about how famous animation is now, a lot of that has to do with people like Norman McLaren in the 30s and the 40s and 50s, pushing the envelope and experimenting with film. So, to be asked to do that, we felt really honoured to be amongst people like that, and the people who did music for their original scores – musicians like Glenn Gould, Ravi Shanker, and Oscar Peterson. So yeah, we’re humbled by it and worked our asses off for it. Four days a week for a month, you know, outside of our day jobs! The NFB was happy, TIFF was happy, and we were happy. Hopefully gonna do it again sometime.
Adrien: I’ve noticed you guys really wear your influences on your sleeve, but the end product is really distinctive. What do you guys like to listen to generally?
Moshe: We all have our own – we have common ground and what not, but I think we all kinda have our own distinctions and aesthetics. Personally, me, I’ve been listening to a lot of Persian psychedelic music. I really like the Pharaway Records compliations like Zendooni and Goush Bedey, that kind of stuff. We do get a bit of the Krautrock label, which I can’t say I can agree with wholeheartedly.
Adrien: I was going to point that out, what you thought of that. Because I see it tossed around consistently and I don’t know if I agree with it either.
Moshe: I think it’s cool, but people use it very loosely. Like, I hear people referring to post-rock bands as Krautrock.
Adrien: Yeah. Anything remotely “spacey” is labeled Krautrock.
Moshe: Yeah, it’s just like lazy shorthand. I listen to Krautrock – I love Neu!, I like Cluster, Cluster and Eno stuff, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, yeah, we love all of that s**t. Personally, I think that it’s something we can’t hide, but I don’t perceive our music as Krautrock. But I’ll take it, because that was a wonderful movement and a wonderful time for music.