by RAF KATIGBAK

A member of the Toronto-based Future Rhetoric collective of forward-thinking audionauts, Guelph, Ontario's Justin Armstrong (aka Kimonophonic) makes music from a processed combination of field recordings, analog synths and good ol' bass, drums and guitar, resulting in what he calls "organic sound farming." While his recorded output may be on the warm, gentle and organic IDM tip, his live sets are another story - copious amounts of booty bass, homemade pop music bootlegs and (get this!) actual singing. The Mirror recently caught up with Armstrong to talk insurance claims and buffalo suits.

Mirror: So I hear you're doing music, finishing your masters and you've got three jobs?

Kimonophonic: Yup. I work at HMV, as a TA at school and, at night, I collate insurance documents. It's basically hell on earth. I just sit in a giant room with all these other crazy people and shuffle through insurance claims of dead people.

M: Awww man.

K: That's where the wildlife helps me.

M: Wildlife?

K: Yeah, I think about them when I'm shuffling.

M: Huh?

K: I think about bears doing stuff like fighting each other and stuff, like, maybe wearing T-shirts.

M: You ever see a bear catch a salmon jumping upstream?

K: Oh man, that's gold! And they like, club them - have you seen when they hit them and they go into a pile?!

M: You mean they catch them and put 'em in a pile?

K: No, man, the fish jumps and they just hit it into a pile. They just bat them like a tennis racquet!

M: Whoa.

K: I'm all about crazy wild animals. I've been hand-drawing a lot of stickers and been doing a lot of bears and eagles and stuff.

M: You ever think of incorporating a stuffed bobcat into your live set-up?

K: Well, I do want to get a bobcat or an elk or a buffalo costume of some type. Or maybe even put a stuffed wildcat up there with a speaker in its mouth.

M: Man, you got some serious Lorne Greene's New Wilderness type shit right there.

K: Exactly. I'm gonna bring some wildlife rock to the urban wasteland.

With Yara at Rad'a on Saturday, May 3, 9pm, $5

>> Music Listings