Outsider pop

>> Montreal’s Mixylodian expands and
explores to feed your fantasies

NEVER TOO COOL: Mixylodian

by JACK OATMON

When you think of the kinds of music and art that spring from marginal communities of urban youth, the image conjured up is often of rejectionist flights from the mundane trappings of the mainstream. But the modus operandi of this city’s loft-dwelling eccentrics is just as often encroachment upon, rather than backlash against, the norms of pop culture. That makes much of what’s being produced by local bands like Mixylodian sound more like a wide-eyed tourist dreamily weekending in the department stores of pop than an iconoclastic detractor, the likes of which is frequently associated with underground art movements.

“In terms of pop culture, I feel like I’m an outsider trying to perceive what it is as a more universal experience,” says Michael Wray, founder of Mixylodian. “For me, it’s very child-like. Everything that I make that is trying to fit into pop is tied into being a kid, approaching it in an innocent way. Like when I see a band with a frontman that’s so cool that he’s almost like, mean, I don’t understand how they do that and I don’t understand how someone like that can command power over an audience.”

Twinkling synth hooks and catchy choruses punctuate the group’s tunes and lend them a degree of accessibility, but the arrangements remain indulgent and enough to belie the quirks of the musicians.

“I feel like I don’t really understand people at all,” states Wray. “So I do what I do in a sincere way, although I won’t make it so selfish that no one could like it. But in the music that I make, there are certain idiosyncrasies that mean it will never appeal to everyone on a mass scale.”

Originally Wray’s own solo project, over the past year Mixylodian has grown to a group of five people, and Wray says the inclusion of outside influences in songwriting and performance is also inspiring a lot of change in the music on their upcoming album.

“The new album makes a lot of musical jokes, genre jokes, and it’s a lot more complex than before. The songs are more fantastical, but I wanted to get a body of work that would reference the pop music that I like.”

The album, produced by kindred spirit Graham Van Pelt, is a further elaboration of the themes represented by the fictional character after which the band is named, continuing a mythical dialogue that also includes related band Dorian Hatchet.

“I feel like the point of music is to make something that’s above all this shit. Creating a fantasy for people to look up to so that they don’t have to pay attention to all the stuff that goes into making art. Like today I had to push a van out of the snow and get lost getting this key because I was locked out of the space. All that kind of shit people never really think about.”

As well as looking outward to the audience, the unabashed, fragile quality of the music highlights an element that is introspective and moody, giving the listener the feeling they’re reading someone’s diary.

“You want to let people have an experience that takes them outside themselves, whether it’s the music itself or the social interaction of the shows or whatever. You’re making a soundtrack to someone’s emotional experience.”

With the Winks at Divan Orange tonight,
Thursday, Feb. 21, 9:30 p.m., $6,
and with Telefauna, the World Provider and
Fort Miracle at Friendship Cove on
Friday, Feb. 22, 9 p.m., $7