Double rainbow

Toronto’s Diamond Rings celebrates diversity of all stripes

“I was changing into my tights in the back of a cab,” says Diamond Rings (John O’Regan), fresh from the stage at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory, the fourth of six shows he played during last week’s CMJ Music Marathon in NYC.

“It was a bit hectic, but the show itself was awesome—people were psyched! It was one for the books.”

So, perhaps, is the ascension of Diamond Rings. Born in Oshawa, based in Toronto, O’Regan is also the singer for the d’Urbervilles, but it’s this project, the one-man pop/rock/dance party in rainbow eye make-up, that seems to be catching on. His debut album, Special Affections, was released this week on Montreal’s Secret City Records, but Diamond Rings has already been written about in NME, Pitchfork, The New York Times and Xtra (a Canadian gay and lesbian news site—he’s officially bisexual, if you’re inter­ested), with YouTube views averaging 100,000.

Last time locals caught a glimpse of Diamond Rings in the flesh was during Pop Montreal, when he announced from Divan Orange’s stage that he’d be back for Halloween. “It’s one of my favourite holidays,” he says, “one of the rare occasions when people are given full licence to go there and try something new.” Given O’Regan’s two very different music projects, and the easy comparison between the aesthetic of Diamond Rings and that of legendary rock chameleon David Bowie, there have been sug­gestions that O’Regan sports a costume every time he climbs on stage. “It’s not a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing,” he explains. “It allows people to see more of who I am inside. It’s not something that leaves when I leave the stage. It’s real, and I’m just having fun with it.”

Likewise, his mish-mash of musical styles, from early-’90s rap to indie rock to vintage synth-pop to ’70s glam, is an accurate reflection of his and most of his generation’s musical awakening.

“We’re in an exciting time right now where people are feeling more freedom to explore themselves as individuals and the world of music in general. It’s not uncommon to hear an iPod playlist with a bunch of completely random shit side by side, and that’s really what I’m drawing from. I’m trying to take that energy and spit it out in a way that’s new and excit­ing.” ■

WITH PS I LOVE YOU AND TECHNICAL KIDMAN AT IL MOTORE ON SUNDAY, OCT. 31, 9:30 P.M., $10

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