by JACK OATMON

The fleeting, transient moods evoked by the music of the Junior Boys—Toronto’s Jeremy Greenspan and Matthew Didemus—are apparent right in the titles, from their debut album Last Exit to their latest, So This Is Goodbye.

“I think it’s my obsession with closure—not closure—quietness,” says Greenspan. “I’m trying to present a whole different kind of emotional resonance, a quiet, little goodbye rather than a big-portrait goodbye. When it comes to sadness or melancholy in music, we’re supposed to identify with this over-the-top emotion, like when you’re leaving someone forever or someone’s dying. Whereas I’m more interested in the subtle emotions, like those moments in your life when you realize something is drifting away slowly, when you’re not exactly sure what you’re supposed to feel.”

That subdued feeling works its way into Greenspan’s wistful, evocative vocals, particularly on the tracks that are laced with percussive a cappella.

“I’m a big fan of subtlety in vocals,” he says. “I like people with more relaxed voices, and that’s part of why I did a Frank Sinatra cover (“When No One Cares”). In the crooner era of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin, relaxation was what people came to expect in good voices—whereas now the mass culture idea of a good voice is someone that can hit a blistering amount of notes. It’s kind of a post-Aretha Franklin thing that happened in music, where people try to take screaming, loud, verbose singing to more and more extremes.”

But don’t get the idea that the Junior Boys’ music is in any way fragile. In fact, the reflective vocals are steeped in a robust mix of contemporary electro that’s been tweaked in such a way as to render it remarkably fresh. And the modern edge of their sound reflects the way this project came about in the first place.

“We were invented on the Internet in a weird kind of way,” says Greenspan. “I didn’t have any plans [for the music] to be released. All the songs were just disseminated through various people’s blogs, through MP3 posts, that kind of stuff. You know, we try to be as forward-looking as possible.”

For Greenspan, looking forward isn’t only a creative choice, but a cultural imperative—and sometimes choice has nothing to do with it.

“I strongly believe that trends in music are dictated by shifts in technology. Technology changes the way music is made, the ways the sound is conveyed and the ways it’s distributed, along with all kind of other changes in our culture. People who were alive before airplanes would have had a different idea of how big the world is, and what’s possible. I have a little nephew and niece, and the other day I had a little video conference call with them. They’ll never remember a time when they weren’t able to make video conference calls. It’s pretty weird to me. The future is now. Some people find it terrifying, some people find it exciting. I find it to be both.”

With the Unireverse and Feuermusik at la Sala Rossa on Friday, Aug. 25, 9 p.m., $12

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