All aboard for funcore

How Rich Aucoin makes records and tours for charity across Canada

What if Terry Fox had been a member of Black Flag? Would his ambition, benevolence and, uh, love of the outdoors have merged with the ethos of the DIY musician?

Top that fusion with modern recording technology, massive songwriting skills, Canadian chamber-pop excess, an interactive, multimedia party-show and a philosophy degree, and you may begin to understand Rich Aucoin.

“I’d already gone across the country with my brother’s band, the Hylozoists,” Aucoin says. “But the whole way, I was just looking at these places that we were rushing by and I thought it would be nice to tour slower. I was like, ‘What’s slower? A bicycle.’”

In 2007, the classically trained pianist, also a deft percussionist and trumpet player, gathered as many instruments as possible, taught himself to record and produced the Personal Publi­cation EP, syncing it to Chuck Jones’s animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He then flew to B.C., bought a bike, packed a small trailer with keyboards, a projector, a laptop, two changes of clothes and a Grinch costume, and headed east. As a casual cyclist who’d only ever biked short distances on city streets, the first mountain nearly did him in. But he persisted, played and raised money for the Childhood Cancer Foundation.

In contrast to that entirely solo experience, Public Publication—an EP that’s soon to be expanded into an LP and synced to a montage of 40 movies—was made with roughly 500 musicians.

“That was a really fun way to meet a lot of new people and learn from working in other people’s studios.”

The EP was recorded across Canada, but this time Aucoin left his bicycle at home, taking planes, trains, buses and other bands’ vans. He also ran part of the way, this time fundraising for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “I did three half-marathons. I was planning on doing more but I wasn’t a runner either, so my knee eventually gave way.”

Aucoin will soon embark on a three-part bike tour of the U.S., tentatively titled Fuck You, Depression (for the benefit of mental health organizations), and give Americans a taste of “funcore.”

“I try to think of all the things I’d like to see in a show, and just go for it.” ■

WITH HEY ROSETTA! AND HOT HOT HEAT AT LE BELMONT ON SATURDAY, OCT. 16, 8 P.M., $15

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