by LORRAINE CARPENTER

Looking forward to the launch of his first proper album, Enabler (out now on Ta-Da), the World Provider has taken a moment to look back at his life - way back, before his peeps Peaches and Chilly Gonzales made a name for "Canadian jackass," before he brought his inspirational rock show to Montreal. Born in Toronto, the Provider first burst onto the Quebec scene at the age of nine, via a Q-City Catholic choir school.

"I'm not Catholic, but I ended up there somehow. I guess it was for the music," he says. "I was a full-time choirboy. We'd sing at church and with orchestras and we'd go on tour, the whole bit. But even before that, I remember wearing a top hat and putting on little shows for my parents where I'd dance around, and nothing has changed, basically, just the costumes and some of the repertoire."

At 13, the Provider left la belle province for Ottawa and immediately formed the Permanent Stains, an ongoing (if sporadic) rock band whose members include Peaches, Ad-Hawk (another Berlin-dwelling expatriate) and respected jazz musician Nick Fraser.

During a film school layover in T.O., the Provider attempted to get his musical journey back on track with Rock 'n' Roll Bad Boy XXXpress, "a salute to hard rock" that was then too uncool to stay stoked.

"It's very hip now, but that was during the heyday of indie rock and post-rock and everyone just thought we were idiots," he says. "We would tell people that we sang songs about chicks and beer and rock 'n' roll, but we weren't joking - we loved chicks, beer and rock 'n' roll."

People's attitudes towards '80s appreciation, no-fi musicians and boldly bizarre entertainers have softened since the likes of Peaches broke wide, but the Provider's tinned beats, crude electronics, squealing riffs and melodramatic croon still amount to an acquired taste. In response to one writer's description of his show as "cutesy ironic cover hell," this so-called karaoke cowboy says he would never waste his time covering a song he didn't like, and his own songs are genuinely uplifting.

"I'm not joking, but there's a sense of humour and a sense of fun to what I do, and I'm never gonna say I wanna be taken seriously as an artist. To me, that's the ultimate sin," he says, chastizing the type of musician who lords over and looks down at their audiences.

However, as a Provider (and not a Receiver, Limiter or Thief), he doesn't expect other performers to scrap their method for his, nor does he want to overanalyze that method for fear of actually figuring it out. To this end, he always bears two wise sayings in mind: "Thinking about the audience when you're writing is like thinking about how deep the lake is when you're swimming" (his dad) and, "If you think, you stink" (Skid Row's Sebastian Bach). In other words, there's no true formula for art, except, perhaps, for this one:

"When people come out to see you, you've gotta give it your all. If someone's doing really mellow music and they're not interested in performing, that's their business, but for me, I don't see any other way to do it than to just go out there and give 'er, as it were."

CD launch with Echo Kitty, Nanobot Auxiliary Ballet We Are Molecules DJ Team and DJ Justin Hinterland at La Sala Rossa on Thursday, May 20, 9pm, $7

>> Music Listings